A birthday card making fun of “the world’s ugliest woman” will no longer be distributed to card shops after a doctor complained that the woman on the card was disfigured because of illness.
The card, sold in shops throughout the United Kingdom and produced by Hallmark Cards, shows close up photographs of Mary Ann Bevan, who, in the 1920s, appeared in circuses as “the world’s ugliest woman.” But a Dutch doctor, who saw the card in a UK shop, complained that it was inappropriate to make fun of the woman, who was ugly because she had acromegaly, a disfiguring disorder.
The message on the card refers to Cilla Black’s Blind Date television programme, in which contestants have to pick a partner for a date whom they cannot see, choosing solely on the basis of what the potential dates say. The card bears the words, “When the screen went back, he was to always regret the words . . . ‘I’ll go for number three, Cilla.’”
Hallmark agreed to stop distribution of the card but said it would not recall existing stock. Lisa Palillo, communications manager for Hallmark, said, “Once we found that this lady was ill, rather than simply being ugly, then the card was . . . withdrawn immediately, as it would breach anything we would do in terms of taking the mick out of anyone who was poorly.”
Wouter de Herder, a consultant endocrinologist at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, said he was horrified when he saw the card on sale while on holiday in the UK. “I immediately recognised the photo as I had just written an article about Mary Ann Bevan,” he said. “She had been an attractive young London nurse but then suffered from a painful disease called acromegaly.
“This caused bone and facial disfigurement, which in those days could not be properly treated. As her husband had died, the only way she could find to make a living to support her four children was to be in a freak show and be called the world’s ugliest woman.
“She was in several shows in England and then later in the United States, but she led a miserable, painful life. I simply don’t think its right in 2006 to use her image to create a sick birthday card. I feel that this card is insulting to all patients who suffer from the same condition.”
Mary Ann Bevan became a patient of the famous neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing, who, in 1927, wrote a letter of complaint to Time magazine about the way it had made fun of the ugliness of his patient. “This unfortunate woman who sits in the sideshow of Ringling Brothers ‘between Fat Lady and Armless Wonder’ and ‘affects white lace hats, woollen mittens and high laced shoes’ has a story which is far from mirth-provoking,” wrote Dr Cushing.
“She, previously a vigorous and good looking young woman, has become the victim of a disease known as acromegaly . . . Being a physician, I do not like to feel that Time can be frivolous over the tragedies of disease.”
Commenting on Hallmark selling the birthday card that “still makes fun” of Mary Ann Bevan , Robert Knutzen, chief executive officer of the Pituitary Network Association, an international support group for people with acromegaly, said, “To make money from the misery and misfortune of others is shameful. This is corporate greed taken to its lowest level.”
Mary Ann Bevan worked as a side show attraction until her death in 1933, aged 59. She was buried at Brockley cemetery in London.
See www.pituitary.org.