{"id":2571,"date":"2014-05-01T11:00:54","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T05:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak?p=2571"},"modified":"2020-12-09T16:15:10","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T10:45:10","slug":"review-freak-shows-looking-at-human-bodies-on-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/review-freak-shows-looking-at-human-bodies-on-exhibit\/","title":{"rendered":"Freak Shows: Looking at Human Bodies on Exhibit"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the early 19th century, a woman known as th<\/span><\/span>e <\/span>Hottentot Venus<\/a> was displayed in England and France as an object of curiosity. A black woman from the <\/span>Khoikhoi tribe<\/a> of South Africa, she had voluptuous breasts, buttocks and labia that drew large crowds at the many freak shows where she was an exhibit. Now known as Sara Baartman, she was sold into slavery around the age of 20 years, and died before she turned 40 from ill health caused by overwork and abject poverty. Until recently, her dissected and carefully preserved body was displayed at the <\/span>Mus\u00e9e de l\u2019Homme<\/a> in Paris for its unusual anatomy. In the mid-1990s, debates on Western representations of black female sexuality led to an eight-year political row between France and South Africa, before her body was returned to her people.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sara Baartman is perhaps one of the most famous human exhibits of Freak Shows that evolved as popular forms of entertainment for the growing metropolises in imperialist Europe, England, and the Americas between the 17th<\/sup> and 20th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 Freaks were people with exaggerated secondary sexual characteristics, uncommon anatomies, \u2018deformities\u2019 and disabilities displayed to the public in these shows as ‘odd human exhibits’. Popular shows boasted of bearded women, women with large breasts, giants, midgets, conjoint twins, people from colonies in South America, Asia and Africa, and people with multiple \u2018deformities\u2019.<\/p>\n

No two human bodies are alike, and our different bodies arouse curiosity. But our fascination for the aesthetics of the perfect human body has historically created a space within art, science and religion for the examination of the ‘abnormal’ and the ‘imperfect’.\u00a0 As a result, some bodies are normalised while others become oddities. Freak Shows, and to a large extent, circuses and even exhibits in medical or anthropological museums particularly stand out for dehumanising and objectifying these different anatomies, and oftentimes subjecting these bodies to violence and discrimination. Some historic accounts talk of people who exhibited their bodies out of their own will, and in unabashedly displaying features of which they were taught to be ashamed, they found empowerment and pride. But freak shows were also grounds for exploitation because of the association of \u2018abnormality\u2019 with \u2018evil\u2019 and the gross insensitivity towards cultural, sexual and racial differences between human bodies.<\/p>\n

Some of the oddities were medical conditions then unidentified, and several ‘freaks’ became object of scientific curiosity. Famously, there was Joseph Merrick<\/a>, who was posthumously diagnosed with two illnesses: neurofibromatosis<\/a> and Proteus syndrome<\/a>, both of which caused severe deformities, leading to his show name the \u2018Elephant Man\u2019. Although Merrick was a white man and a citizen of England, he was exploited much like Sara Baartman; during his lifetime and after his death his body became an object of interest for the general populace and the medical community.<\/p>\n

In the post-colonial era, Freak Shows have themselves turned into \u2018objects of curiosity,\u2019 for scholars, writers and filmmakers, who have reversed the gaze to study the people who enjoyed this form of entertainment. In an essay on the Hottentot Venus<\/a>, Sadiah Qureshi\u00a0points out that the practice of collecting and displaying humans from the colonies was no different for the Imperialists than displaying native flora and fauna. While the forms of entertainment in England and France varied from theaters, operas, zoos and public gardens to circuses, freak shows and fairs, she points out that all of these were essentially collectibles on display.<\/p>\n

Books and movies have also examined the impact this gaze might have had on the \u2018human objects.\u2019\u00a0 Gaston Leroux<\/a> explores this theme in his masterpiece, the Phantom Of The Opera<\/i><\/a>, where Erik, a disfigured boy disowned by his parents and cruelly tortured at a French freak show, recedes into the catacombs of the Paris opera house, coming out only to gaze<\/i> at a beautiful female singer whose voice entices the very people that rejected him. When she rejects his love, he channels his anger into creating an underground chamber where he hopes to hold her captive as his own prized possession.<\/p>\n

\"RK<\/a>
Image copyright: RK Films<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Indian cinema explores acceptance and rejection of \u2018oddness\u2019 through films on circuses, which offer a unique entertainment in the form of the circus clown, whose unfortunate predicament becomes comic relief only because of his odd appearance. Very often the clown is a midget. In the 1972 film, Mera Naam Joker<\/i><\/a> (I am called the Joker)<\/i>, Raj Kapoor challenges the notion of \u2018entertainment\u2019 as he traces the struggles and losses of a man who wants to make other people laugh. In the 1989 Tamil Movie, Apoorava Sagotharargal<\/i><\/a> (Wonder Brothers),<\/i> Kamal Hassan plays twins of whom, the older one, born a dwarf, works in a circus and finds acceptance and power within his circle of friends only to be rejected later by his paramour because of his abnormal height.<\/p>\n

Carnivale<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>an HBO drama (2003- 2005) that tells the story of a travelling Freak Show driving through the Southern American states in the 1930s finds unique ways of subverting the gaze. During show time, Carnivale<\/i>, follows in the cruel tradition of its historic counterparts and deliberately objectifies the \u2018odd human bodies\u2019. There is Lila, the bearded woman; Alexandra and Caledonia, conjoint twins whose loosely tied skirt displays their joint hip; Rita Sue, the nude dancer with huge breasts; Lodz the blind mentalist; Gecko, the lizard man with a deforming skin disease; Ruth, the snake charmer; Samson, the midget; Apollonia, the catatonic fortune teller and several others. But then the camera reverses the gaze and peers as curiously at the village folk who watch these different bodies with such shock and revulsion that it instantly turns them<\/i> into \u2018freaks\u2019 for the modern viewer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Image source: HBO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Carnivale<\/i> triumphs on another front as well. In spite of the ‘deformities’ and painful disfigurations, the members of the travelling freak show display their bodies out of their own free will, and, through their common pride, find a home and a family with each other. They also find complete acceptance, love and sexual satisfaction. In a scene where Lila the bearded woman shares a sensuous kiss with Lodz the mentalist, he seems to admire the growth on her chin rather than seem inured to it. Its shortcoming is its all-White cast, and its failure to challenge racial exploitation within travelling freak shows.<\/p>\n

The characters of the Carnivale <\/i>are in a sense comparable to the subjects of Diane Arbus<\/a> photographic work on \u2018freaks.\u2019 Arbus exhibited pictures of people who were pariahs from society, because they did not conform to the 70s\u2019 definition of \u2018beauty\u2019 or \u2018normal\u2019, or were isolated for features that caused revulsion and shock. Arbus takes a very different path from that of the freak shows: she does not seek to display their \u2018oddity\u2019 or capture their isolation; she only tries to acknowledge their existence. As Susan Sontag, writes in her essay America, Seen Through Photographs, Darkly<\/a><\/i>, Arbus\u2019 work shows that \u2018humanity is not one,\u2019 and that human bodies come in all shapes and sizes. Through her unbiased and non-objectifying gaze, she acknowledges difference rather than oddity, allowing her subjects to feel empowered and in control of their bodies.<\/p>\n

Freak Shows still continue to exist. There are people like the American entertainers, The Enigma, The Scorpion and Marcus \u2018The Creature\u2019 who voluntarily display their congenital deformities, or have modified their bodies through tattoos, piercing and even surgery in order to be part of such shows. The audience hasn\u2019t disappeared either. Videos about people like ‘The Human Barbie<\/a>\u2019\u00a0<\/span>still go viral around the globe. And if you look for the world\u2019s 10 weirdest\u00a0<\/span>people on Google, you will find You-Tube videos and photographs of \u2018odd\u2019 bodies painstakingly put together. Many modern day freak shows continue in the tradition of the old by objectifying human bodies, and inviting people to gaze in a manner that deepens the fissures between ‘normal, and ‘abnormal.’<\/p>\n

Over time, freak shows have also morphed. Cinema around the globe borrows from the tradition of the theater and the circus by introducing the \u2018comedian,\u2019 who not unlike the clown or the jester is the \u2018odd\u2019 counterpart to the \u2018hero.\u2019 His \u2018oddity\u2019 makes the protagonist seem more \u2018normal,\u2019 and unless carefully played, the \u2018oddness\u2019 exaggerates racial, sexist and cultural stereotypes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Joseph Merrick (The Elephant Man)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And once again that is where Carnivale<\/i> scores. In the very first episode, the \u2018normal\u2019 protagonist Ben, who earns his wages by pitching tents, runs into Gecko, the lizard man, for the first time. Gecko, suffers from a medical condition that causes his skin to form thick, diamond-shaped, discolored plaques all over his body. Additionally, he has a stubby tail. When Ben seems partly surprised and partly repulsed, Gecko asks him, \u2018What are you? Some kind of freak?\u2019 Looking around him Ben sees the differently shaped bodies that place his own in a peculiar space: he isn’t \u2018normal\u2019 anymore; only as different as any of the others. And right then, he learns to see differently, as do the viewers.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u0907\u0938 \u0932\u0947\u0916 \u0915\u094b \u0939\u093f\u0902\u0926\u0940 \u092e\u0947\u0902 \u092a\u0922\u093c\u0928\u0947 \u0915\u0947 \u0932\u093f\u090f \u092f\u0939\u093e\u0901<\/a> \u0915\u094d\u0932\u093f\u0915 \u0915\u0930\u0947\u0902<\/span>\u0964<\/span><\/div>\n
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Cover image source: Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No two human bodies are alike, and our different bodies arouse curiosity. But our fascination for the aesthetics of the perfect human body has historically created a space within art, science and religion for the examination of the ‘abnormal’ and the ‘imperfect’. As a result, some bodies are normalised while others become oddities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,1,3],"tags":[189,22,503,178,187,188],"class_list":{"0":"post-2571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-body-image","8":"category-categories","9":"category-review","10":"tag-anthropology","11":"tag-body","12":"tag-body-image","13":"tag-carnivale","14":"tag-freak-shows","15":"tag-sara-baartman"},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2571"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20495,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571\/revisions\/20495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}