Welcome to the Freakshow

AMERICA'S COMPLICATED FASCINATION WITH SIDESHOWS Written by Maya Greenberg, New Members Director Illustrated by Riley August, Staff Graphic Artist

The circus has been a staple of American entertainment for over two centuries. From state fairs to huge international phenomenons, they attract families with their rides, magic shows, games and food. However, they also boast a much darker attraction: Freak shows.

Freak shows, often called sideshows, display human anomalies. These exhibits of human rarities surged across America in the late 19th century, “capitalizing on a new fascination with science and the inhabitants of foreign lands.”1 Famous “freaks” such as Lobster Boy, the Bearded Lady and Siamese twins Chang and Eng would travel around and perform tricks for audiences, amazing them with both their skills and their appearance. While some view these performers as having been granted unique opportunities, history suggests that many of them were exploited and subjected to humiliation and bigotry. For a long time, medicine was not advanced enough to properly diagnose many of these “freaks.” The majority of people would not have access to learn about the diagnoses even if they were possible, and many viewers truly believed that the shows they were going to see contained performers that were something different than human. The 1800s were a cruel century for anyone who was seen as “different” in the gaze of privileged white America. For individuals who were forced to the fringes of society, freak shows created a community where they were heralded as stars. Further, sideshows provided jobs to individuals who may have otherwise been excluded from the workforce. If put on in the right way, the shows may also have had the power to “encourage productive discussion about physical difference.”2 Like anything else, these performances were a form of art. Some of the most famous performers profited greatly off of the American public’s fascination with human oddities. By the time that Siamese twins Chang and Eng retired at only 29, they were millionaires.3 William Henry Johnson performed under the name “Zip the Pinhead,” and although he spent his career playing the fool, he was a millionaire by his retirement.4 Both his employers and his audience always believed he had a mental disability, but on his deathbed, Johnson turned to his sister and said, “well, we fooled ‘em for a long time.” Unfortunately, freak shows also have a darker history of exploitation with roots in racism. The basis of much of the racism in American freak shows can be boiled down as a response to one man: Charles Darwin. “On the Origin of Species,” Darwin’s revolutionary work on evolution, came out in 1859 and P.T. Barnum, America’s beloved showman, wasted no time riding on the coattails of its success. Barnum relied on American society’s fascination

³ Zachary, Crockett, “The Rise and Fall of Circus Freakshows”, Priceonomics, April 30, 2014. ⁴ Ibid.

with Darwin’s work, their continued love for the abnormal and their general ignorance of the rest of the world to put together exhibits that did nothing less than exploit minorities and forward racial stereotypes. In a New York museum, Barnum touted his new exhibit titled “What is It?”5 Using William Henry Johnson, or “Zip the Pinhead,” once again as an attraction, Barnum told his audience that he had discovered the “missing link” between man and ape. In a show of absolute dehumanization, Johnson was put in a cage and ordered to do nothing but grunt.6 Shown just months before the 1860 presidential election, “What is It?” was used as anti-Republican fuel to argue that Black Americans didn’t deserve the same status as White Americans and in turn should not be given the citizenship for which abolitionists were campaigning. Furthermore, as Barnum’s goal was to truly make his audience believe whatever story he was telling them, exhibits like “What is It?” combatted actual science and furthered the stereotypes of scientific racism, a form of racism that seeks to justify racial hierarchies by claiming that minorities are genetically inferior. Another individual who was exploited to promote scientific racism was Krao Farini, a Southeast Asian woman who experienced hypertrichosis.7 Displayed in an exhibit called “Krao the Missing Link,” Farini’s rare condition that produced excessive hair on her body was portrayed as evidence that she was a step below humans in evolution. Her dying wish was to have her body cremated so as to avoid being gawked at even in death.8 These attitudes were accepted and widely portrayed in Antebellum America, and P.T. Barnum profited off of the times.

⁵ John, West, “What is it?” Human Zoos. ⁶ Zachary, Crockett, “The Rise and Fall of Circus Freakshows”, Priceonomics, April 30, 2014. ⁷ Ibid. ⁸ Just, Annet, “Gawked, Tortured and Mocked”, History of Yesterday, Jun 17, 2021.

Freak shows began to decline in the 1930s following an increase in awareness about issues of exploitation, the rise of disability rights and a more widespread understanding of medical diagnoses.

However, attitudes change as society progresses. Freak shows began to decline in the 1930s following an increase in awareness about issues of exploitation, the rise of disability rights and a more widespread understanding of medical diagnoses.9 The public could now better understand the performers, and this made it far less socially acceptable to ogle at them and equally less intriguing. Aside from this social progress, freak shows died out because of television: people would rather stay home or go to a theater, and circuses and sideshows waned in popularity as a result.10 The increased accessibility of media also allowed for people to easily discredit the sensational and falsified backstories of the performers. The fascination with the strange and marvelous can be chalked up to human nature. We stare as “American Horror Story” dresses Evan Peters up as Lob-

⁹ Laurie L, Dove, “Why did circuses have freak shows?”, howstuffworks ¹⁰Zachary, Crockett, “The Rise and Fall of Circus Freakshows”, Priceonomics, April 30, 2014 ster Boy, and we flock to theaters to see Hugh Jackman play P.T. Barnum— albeit a far more moral one. Even as children, we were amazed and disgusted by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum. But, as is the case with many other things that we attribute to human nature, our fascination comes at a cost. Whether you choose to delve into the darkest exploits of freakshows or not, it is impossible to overlook that at their core, these shows were a chance for physically and socially privileged people to gawk at those different from them in a socially accepted way. Although this divide may not exist in as obvious of a way as it did in the freak shows, entertainment and media will always work to ostracize and sensationalize those with different appearances and experiences. It is still as important today to balance innate human nature and fascination with respect and empathy. ■