The Bearded Lady Project
The UC Berkeley Bearded Ladies,
photographed in front of the UC
Museum of Paleontology—capturing most of the women in
our UC Berkeley paleosciences
community in the late
winter of 2015. © photograph Lexi Jamieson Marsh
In February 2015, a film and photography team boarded a plane and flew to San Francisco. They were carrying a peculiar cargo: 30 beards and mustaches that they picked up at their regional theater prop shop. During their three days on the UC Berkeley campus at the UC Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), they interviewed and photographed about 30 of our paleontologists wearing beards. The one thing these graduate students, faculty members and museum scientists all had one thing in common was that they were all women. This was the start of Berkeley’s involvement in the Bearded Lady Project, which culminated in a traveling photo portrait exhibit of women doing field-going research, and a feature-length documentary film that premiered in Berkeley in August 2019. A festive event for scientists and the general public around the documentary premiere (co-organized by the UCMP and the Lawrence Hall of Science) attracted quite a bit of publicity. Unfortunately, some media outlets missed what the Bearded Lady Project exactly entails and reported that at UC Berkeley, female scientists started to wear beards to work in protest of the existing gender biases in the sciences. This is at best partly true, but then what is the Bearded Lady Project or BLP exactly?
The bearded brainchild of paleobotanist Ellen Currano and filmmaker Lexi Jamieson Marsh aims to challenge tenacious gender biases in the geosciences, specifically paleontology. It started one night when Ellen was complaining to Lexi how she, being the only young and female faculty member in the department where she was working at the time, was not taken seriously by her colleagues. Ellen lamented that if she had the right amount of facial hair, perhaps her colleagues would appreciate her opinion? When Ellen woke up the next morning she saw that Lexi had sent her a message saying: let’s do this. Let’s get beards. Thus was the inception of the Bearded Lady Project.
In 2014, Ellen and Lexi teamed up with fine arts photographer Kelsey Vance and director of photography Draper White, and began traveling all over the country (and abroad) to photograph, film and interview paleoscientists in the field and in their labs, to highlight the work they do, and to tell their stories of how they got where they are now. As mentioned, the project consists of two parts: (1) a feature film celebrating the unsung achievements of the many paleontologists who happen to be women and revealing the obstacles they faced because of their gender; and (2) a photography exhibit that — with a positive dose of wit — makes short work of the burly bearded male stereotype that has dominated the professional landscape of field-going scientists for far too long. A total of 15 of the bearded UC Berkeley paleontologists are featured in nine of the 39 black-and-white portraits in the touring exhibit. The beautiful photographs — many of them out in the field: deserts, mountains, badlands and mudflats; all shot with vintage large-format cameras — intentionally take us back to the early days of photography and paleontological field expeditions, more than a century ago. The historic photographs (almost without exception) depict rough-looking, old, long-bearded white men, wielding pickaxes and shovels, loading fossils on mule trains — a stereotype that persists today, even though this is not at all what the field (and our field) looks like nowadays.
The exhibit makes fun of the muscular male paleontology stereotype, but without explicitly stating so. It proves to evoke many questions in the beholders. Is it strange to glue beards on paleontologists in the field and photograph them? — Perhaps. Is it silly? — Probably, yes. So gender bias is not a serious issue? — Why would it not be? Many serious matters are more efficiently tackled with a heaped spoonful of humor. Does it suggest gender should be a strictly binary matter? — No, why would it? Women wearing beards; what does it mean exactly? — Why would it have to represent one single thing? It is thought provoking, a great conversation starter, and fun to look at. People can make up their own minds, and if not, it is perfectly fine to remain slightly confused!
In 2014, Ellen and Lexi teamed up with fine arts photographer Kelsey Vance and director of photography Draper White, and began traveling all over the country (and abroad) to photograph, film and interview paleoscientists in the field and in their labs, to highlight the work they do, and to tell their stories of how they got where they are now. As mentioned, the project consists of two parts: (1) a feature film celebrating the unsung achievements of the many paleontologists who happen to be women and revealing the obstacles they faced because of their gender; and (2) a photography exhibit that — with a positive dose of wit — makes short work of the burly bearded male stereotype that has dominated the professional landscape of field-going scientists for far too long. A total of 15 of the bearded UC Berkeley paleontologists are featured in nine of the 39 black-and-white portraits in the touring exhibit. The beautiful photographs — many of them out in the field: deserts, mountains, badlands and mudflats; all shot with vintage large-format cameras — intentionally take us back to the early days of photography and paleontological field expeditions, more than a century ago. The historic photographs (almost without exception) depict rough-looking, old, long-bearded white men, wielding pickaxes and shovels, loading fossils on mule trains — a stereotype that persists today, even though this is not at all what the field (and our field) looks like nowadays.
The exhibit makes fun of the muscular male paleontology stereotype, but without explicitly stating so. It proves to evoke many questions in the beholders. Is it strange to glue beards on paleontologists in the field and photograph them? — Perhaps. Is it silly? — Probably, yes. So gender bias is not a serious issue? — Why would it not be? Many serious matters are more efficiently tackled with a heaped spoonful of humor. Does it suggest gender should be a strictly binary matter? — No, why would it? Women wearing beards; what does it mean exactly? — Why would it have to represent one single thing? It is thought provoking, a great conversation starter, and fun to look at. People can make up their own minds, and if not, it is perfectly fine to remain slightly confused!
Cindy flaunts her own beard during her introduction of the Bearded Lady Project feature film world premiere event at the Lawrence Berkeley Hall of Science in August, 2019. Photograph Jaemin Lee.
On August 22, 2019, in conjunction with the bearded photo portrait exhibit, Berkeley had the honor of hosting the world premiere of the full-length BLP feature film at the Lawrence Hall of Science. The 100 people in the audience got to see how the film prominently features our very own Dr. Carole Hickman and Dr. Lisa White. It was impressive to see how moved many in the audience were by all the deeply personal stories that the portrayed paleoscientists in the film shared. Everyone has their own private story to tell.
The documentary was followed by a lively panel discussion, led by Dr Leslea Hlusko with the Bearded Lady founders (see her BLP blogpost here), UCMP senior museum scientists Drs Pat Holroyd and Ashley Dineen, and UC Davis paleoscientist, geochemist, and former President of the Geological Society of America Dr Isabel Montañez. A memorable moment was the discussion of Imposter Syndrome: “a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a ‘fraud’ ” (Wikipedia, 09/06/2019) — an unjustified, but debilitating condition much more common than most of us may realize, which only becomes too obvious when people get together and share their stories. To us, the response of the participants in the event laid bare the two most valuable aspects of the BLP that surpass its entertainment and artistic value: (1) for the first time ever simply providing a platform for women in the paleosciences to share their stories — many of which very relatable, as they contain elements from our own past experiences that we may or may not have shared with others. And (2) forging a strong sense of community. As such, Ellen and Lexi have presented our community with such a wonderful gift, and we feel deeply grateful.
The documentary was followed by a lively panel discussion, led by Dr Leslea Hlusko with the Bearded Lady founders (see her BLP blogpost here), UCMP senior museum scientists Drs Pat Holroyd and Ashley Dineen, and UC Davis paleoscientist, geochemist, and former President of the Geological Society of America Dr Isabel Montañez. A memorable moment was the discussion of Imposter Syndrome: “a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a ‘fraud’ ” (Wikipedia, 09/06/2019) — an unjustified, but debilitating condition much more common than most of us may realize, which only becomes too obvious when people get together and share their stories. To us, the response of the participants in the event laid bare the two most valuable aspects of the BLP that surpass its entertainment and artistic value: (1) for the first time ever simply providing a platform for women in the paleosciences to share their stories — many of which very relatable, as they contain elements from our own past experiences that we may or may not have shared with others. And (2) forging a strong sense of community. As such, Ellen and Lexi have presented our community with such a wonderful gift, and we feel deeply grateful.
Bearded LooyLab Ladies, 2015. From left to right: Winnie, Susan, Cindy, Dori & Renske, plus bonusbeard Jeff in the back (#BeardsforBeardedLadies). © The Bearded Lady Project; photograph Kelsey Vance.
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