The Freak Culture In The 19th Century

Freak shows, also known as sideshows, were a form of entertainment as early as the 16th century, but did not become commonplace until the late 18th century and early 19th century. As places in England and the United States became more industrialized, the popularity of the display of human oddities and curiosities increased. As sideshows died down in the late 19th century due to ethical issues, many believed that they were a thing of the past. While people no longer go see freaks within the confined boundaries of the freak show, the discourse surrounding ‘freaks’ and ‘freak culture’ still exists. We still continue to have the same fascination with those with bodily differences. The structure of the freak show has carried on to the 21st century in the form of reality television and other forms of entertainment. The separation of normative and non-normative bodies, and the notion of

‘us versus them’ continues to be reinforced and generated.
Most research done for this paper has been focused on the analysis of certain forms of popular culture, such as reality television shows on The Learning Channel, as well as modern-day sideshows. First, it is crucial to understand the meaning of the word ‘freak,’ and the context in which it is being used in this paper.
Historically, the definition of the freak has been used in the context of freak shows to define someone who is not capable of completely fitting into society. The definition of freak is nothing but a cultural construction. The definition can vary across multiple disciplines; however, it is generally described as someone who has an apparent physical or mental difference. Freaks gained their label from a dominant group (the able-bodied) based on how well they could align with society’s norms. In most cases, many of these freaks had deformities that were too apparent to allow to function as a ‘normal’ member of society. The definition of a freak during the 19th century is determined by societal standards. The freak is placed in a category that separates them from the majority population, aka those who have ‘normal’ bodies.
Freak shows became popular after P.T. Barnum, an entrepreneur and businessman from New York City, realized that he could profit off of this form of entertainment at another individual’s expense. Barnum was the pioneer for the “modern exhibition of physically anomalous individuals at his American Museum . . . the freak show remained a widely proliferated, popular, and highly conventionalized form of amusement in both Europe and North America” . After the success of his museum, he decided to shift into the traveling freak show business, where he could continue to make a profit off of these human oddities. This form of institutionalized entertainment would not have been so marketable if it were not for Barnum, for he was the main driver mass-marketing of freaks—he found out what “intrigued, amused, titillated, and outraged many ordinary Americans” .
The epoch of the 18th and 19th century was defined by the beginning of consumer capitalism and rationalized labor. As American and European cities began to rapidly industrialize, more people moved from smaller towns to large cities in search for more urban jobs. Cottage industries were replaced with mechanical production, and skilled labor turned into divided labor & private ownership. The work weeks became shorter and less demanding, so finding different forms of leisure became more commonplace. The rise of capitalist ideologies encouraged the mass production of goods, services and cultural artifacts, as well as the mass consumption of goods and services. The general public was willing to pay to look at the displays of ‘exotic’ and abnormal people. The promoters and those that run freak shows could easily make a substantial amount of money off of the display of these oddities. Once people paid a small price to get into the freak show, they could look at individuals that are the opposite of themselves.
The freak shows that appeared in the Victoria era is the beginning of where individuals “recognized only differences in freak body, and assume a moral high ground via our own contemporary attitudes to bodily abnormality.” Freak shows served as geographical spaces that created discourse about the corporeal ‘Other.’ Freak shows were one of numerous examples of confined areas in which we create discourse. This confined space allowed for the preservation of the status quo, because it reinforced the obvious differences between the freak show performers and the audience—an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ concept. Due to the popularity of the freak show in the 19th century, this hegemonic structure was easily reinforced.
After issues surrounding human rights and medical advancements emerged in the 20th century, freak shows began to slowly lose their popularity. This decline began with Joseph Merrick, aka the Elephant Man. Merrick was a ‘performer’ in freak shows, that was “exhibited as ‘half-man, half-elephant’” in London. Merrick attracted a large audience for his physical abnormality, but then people began to show more concern for the man. During one of his freak show tours in Europe, “he was robbed, beaten and abandoned.” He was not able to communicate from this incident, and he ended up passing away later. The police had to shut down The Elephant Man attraction and freak shows were beginning to lose their popularity and entertainment-value. Additionally, improvements in medicine and medical technology deciphered the mystery of why freaks are the way they are. Body abnormalities now had names and descriptions which fully explained their conditions. Sideshows and corporeal displays in museums have sparked “a great deal of friction between the medical construction of bodily difference and its public exhibition in spaces of entertainment” . Following the ethical issues around anatomical displays, freak shows slowly lost their appeal due to the “banning of disabled bodies” and “the changes in treatment of physically and mentally disabled subjects.”
Modernization transformed the way in which we looked at the human body, and how we categorized people as ‘the Other.’ According to Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, the way we perceive unusual bodies “not only shifted toward the secular and the rational, but it flourished as never before within the expanded marketplace, institutionalized under the banner of the freak show.” The occurrence of ‘freaks’ and freak shows caused the rationalization of viewing people with non-normative bodies to be inherently inferior and detached from society.

Once discussed as objects of exoticism, empathy, and fear, the discourse about freaks in contemporary society remains the same, but we now have different spaces in which freak culture is discussed in.

Examples of this include the Jim Rose Circus Sideshows. The Jim Rose Sideshows involved daring stunts that commends freakishness for being fascinating and unique. Contemporary forms of freak discourse also include various forms of popular culture, such as the television shows on The Learning Channel and shows focusing on body modifications and

abnormalities.
Robert Bogdan’s Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit, explores the area of disability studies and how American society has changed in terms of its viewpoint on social norms and bodily differences. Going to freak shows were common among spectators of all social classes, and the display of freaks sparked curiosity in people that also showed fear and perplexity towards the bodily ‘Other’. The way in which freaks were presented at freak shows, including their costumes, background stories, and ‘performances,’ added to the dramatization of their freakishness. Freaks generally displayed their talent, or performed certain tasks that someone with the same physical or mental capacity would not be able to accomplish. The audience, as well as the individuals promoting freak shows, helped shape how freaks were presented to the rest of the world, the ones that were considered ‘normal.’ As Bodgan states, freaks are “something that we created: a perspective, a set of practices—a social construction” . During a time when Americans had little exposure to cultures other than Western ones, so it was easy to create a representation of those with physical and mental differences. Since some performers were overdramatized, the audience would usually have a false impression of certain races, cultures or disabilities. Freak shows were able to make more of a profit based on the audiences’ curiosity with other cultures. Putting foreigners and individuals with deformities on display created discourse among those who saw them as different and unusual. The freak show promoters “exploited and reproduced existing derogatory stereotypes of race and class, blatantly suggesting that abnormality was a product of the inferior genes of non-British nations.” This stigma associated with cultures (other than their own) is reinforced with every freak show that occurred. The emergence of freak shows justified the exploitation of the non-Western world, as well as those with physical and mental abnormalities, by the Western world. The increase of Western imperialism created false impressions of the unknown parts of the world—or the “Orient” .