Josephine Joseph

Josephine-Joseph (c. 1896/1897) was an American performer who was prominent in circus sideshows and the carnival circuits during the early 20th century.
She is best known for her only film role in the Tod Browning, pre-code production Freaks in 1932. Her body was supposedly split down the middle, one side female and the other male. She claimed to be an intersex person (“true hermaphrodite” as it was called in her times), but there is no evidence to confirm whether this was the case; she may have just been a very skilled impersonator, in the style of Albert-Alberta Karas.
Like many sideshow “hermaphrodites” of the early 20th century, she presented a “half and half” trick: woman on the left and man on the right. One side of the body would be exercised, have hair trimmed, and tanned; the other side would be covered and unexercised, making it pale and flabby, so the chest resembled a woman’s breast while the hair was grown out. The performer would then wear a split costume: a low-cut, tight top and hotpants on the “female” side and on the “male” side a Tarzan-style loincloth.