Freak_Show

Rachael Abraham 12/12/09 U.S. History Period 2 Freak Show Imagine standing on stage and having a crowd of hundreds of people stare and taunt at your deformities. Now imagine that being the least of your problems. Freak show performers in early 20th century had an abusive and hard life behind the curtain that is rarely acknowledged. The term freak usually refers to individuals with physical or mental abnormalities or a person who can perform acts that seem gruesome, painful or impossible to onlookers. Freaks became a popular sideshow attraction for many traveling circuses and encompassed a great variety of people. These performers, however, had a life that was far from ideal. Many were sold into the circus business by ashamed parents when they were very young or had neglected mental disabilities that kept them from comprehending how horrendous their situations were. The abnormalities of the freaks were exploited beyond belief for the capitalistic goal of creating a fortune for their masters. Freaks in general were treated as subhuman by those who paid to see them and also by those who put them on stage. Treatment of freak show performers in the circus business was inhumane and morally wrong as a result of the daily abuse and the exploitation that accompanied their competitive business. Freaks came in many different forms, each more taboo than the last. Some came with birth abnormalities, growths, and deformities; others worked to build up special skills that would seem impossible or “freaky” to the average person. Freaks have always generated a great deal of interest, but it was not until the late 1800’s and early 1900’s that they became a popular public spectacle of entertainment. A wide variety of people emerged from a life of hiding to be displayed as an opener to the main acts of circuses, and “are most commonly cited as. . .cyclopes, giants, dwarves, joined twins, hermaphrodites, hirsuits and bearded women, individuals with severe skin disorders, living skeletons, the obese, and animals and humans born either without arms or legs or with extra pairs” (McHold 1). This is just a short list of some of the unusual people who stood on stage and performed. Many had special conditions that set them apart from the average performer and were usually considered extremely valuable. Also, “novelty performers” as they were called, performed unnatural tricks that average people would have never even thought possible, let alone consider attempting. These tricks would often involved mutilation, many acts would be painful or even deadly to an untrained individual. These performers consisted of many different types of freaks, such as, “contortionists, sword-swallowers, glass-eaters, human-pincushions, geeks (those who eat live animals and raw meat), fully-tattooed men and women, and others who can safely hammer nails up their noses…” (McHold 1). Novelty act performers, like the ones just listed, were generally not as popular as natural born freaks but were expected to risk their lives for their performance. Out of all the different types of freaks, natural born freaks were considered the most valuable, and it was they who suffered the most abuse. Many natural born freaks were forced to work their entire life after being sold by their parents to perform at the circus. Freaks that were signed away by their guardians usually had developed their abnormalities by a young age and sold within the first years of their life. One prime example is the dwarf, Sherwood Edward Stratton, also known as General Tom Thumb. Born 9 pounds 8 ounces, Stratton grew to 25 inches in his first six months after birth. However, by the time of his first birthday, his parents had noticed that he had not grown since. When a blossoming freak show producer, P.T. Barnum, asked Stratton’s parents to sign over his custody in a contract, they did so for a sum of $10,000. Abnormal children became profitable to their parents who were willing to sign them away. Another textbook example of this horrendous maltreatment occurred in Siam, now known as Thailand, with the Siamese twins Chang and Eng. From his diary, Scottish merchant Robert Hunter explained in detail his purchase of the two conjoined boys, “My associate, Mr. Coffin and I…offered money to the boys' mother for permission to take them abroad…this time we succeeded and started off for Boston” (Hunter 119-120). The teenagers Chang and Eng, not knowing a word of English, were taken away to America to be displayed as freaks of nature for large audiences. Chang and Eng’s mother showed absolutely no compassion for her children’s disabilities. Instead of caring for them, she decided to sell them for her own personal profit. This behavior showed no respect for human life. Children, no matter how abnormal, should be taken care of in the traditional sense, not sold to become public spectacles of humiliation. Freaks, like Stratton and the twins, never got and opportunity to live a normal life, outside of the freak show business and ended up not knowing how to live any other way. They lived a life where no opportunities were available. They never got the chance to go to school, choose their career, travel, or even attain enough privacy to avoid constant ridicule. It is, in every way, morally wrong for parents to subject their children to a lifestyle of exploitation and deprive them of opportunities that should be available to all children in order to make a quick profit. Many freaks that were incorporated into the freak show were also mentally retarded, and could not comprehend the abuse afflicted upon them by their managers. Most freaks with mental disabilities were stripped of their dignity and liberty by being forced to say and do certain things that the average person would have found publicly humiliating. One such victim was named Simon Metz, often known as Schlitzie the Pinhead. According to his autopsy, Schlitzie was born with a condition called microcephaly. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders, microcephaly is defined as, “a medical condition in which the circumference of the head is smaller than normal because the brain has not developed properly or has stopped growing. . . Depending on the severity of the accompanying syndrome, children with microcephaly may have mental retardation, delayed motor functions and speech, facial distortions, dwarfism or short stature, hyperactivity, seizures, difficulties with coordination and balance, and other brain or neurological abnormalities” (Howard 1). Metz needed medical attention but instead was given an act in the freak show. Many mentally handicapped like Metz were treated as not human. Many were advertised as part of a different species or race which was extremely degrading, “In the 1800’s pinheads [mentally handicapped performers] were often exhibited as a species apart from man, as the last members of an ancient race – usually Aztecs – and on occasion they were billed as being from another planet. During his lifetime, Schlitzie [Metz] was exhibited as all of these things” (Jacobs 1). Advertising the mentally handicapped as not human is disrespectful and insensitive to their syndromes and today seems shocking. Many mentally handicapped freak show performers were also abused in other ways. Many had no medical care and were at the mercy of their producers. A great deal of mentally retarded freak show performers died young as a result of insufficient care and medicine. Also, in their acts, they were forced to do degrading thing like stripping to entertain their audience. Metz was forced to do many of these performances throughout his career. One of the most degrading things he had to deal with every day was dressing like a woman. Metz, being male, was forced by his producer to dress in female attire for his shows to be more “appealing” to his crowd. This is a perfect example of abuse of the mentally handicapped. Metz was not conscious of the degrading acts he was forced to carry out by his producer and there was no one with the power to intervene. This neglect was inhumane and showed a lack of care and respect for those with neurological problems. Not only were the mentally impaired abused by their managers, but freak show performers in general were exploited for the personal profit of their superiors. Each manager wanted to have the most exotic and unbelievable show he could produce. This meant that they needed the weirdest natural born freaks as well as the best novelty act performances. With all this competition and lust for capital gain, freaks were pushed past their limits to increase the amount of skill and danger required to perform their acts. When freak shows first began, novelty acts were far from dangerous. They included magic tricks, fortune telling and mind reading. However, as competition increased, the caliber of the acts skyrocketed. Some of the new acts created included sword swallowing, fire eating, knife throwing, glass eating, extreme body piercing, electrocution and other forms of self mutilation. Many of these acts ended in disaster and left the performers either dead or with severe injuries. Performers were treated as property when it came to what acts they were expected to perform. If they failed, their managers could easily find another freak to replace them. One of the worst freak show accidents happened to a fire eater named Earnald Gerald. Gerald, in a competitive rivalry with a fellow performer, felt the pressure to improve his act. His plan was to create an act where he swallowed a liter of gasoline and blew it out onto a torch. The inferno was supposed to light a candle 25 ft up in the air. However, everything went horribly wrong. On the night of his first public performance a huge crowd came out to see his brilliant new act. Gerald accidentally choked on some of the gasoline and ended up lighting himself on fire. He was able to survive but spent the rest of his life completely covered in third degree burn. From his autobiography, Gerald recalls his incident, “Once I had swallowed the gasoline, I knew something was wrong. . .I woke up two months later in a hospital in Miami. The show had left me behind and the new contract I had so desperately wanted went along with them” (Gerald 201). This shows the lack of care managers had for the health of their performers and how their lust for the most profitably show affected those who worked for them. Performers in the freak show, like Gerald, were treated very inhumanly in this regard. Once they were injured, they were dumped from the show and left with nothing. All the managers cared about was making money. They pushed their workers to the extremes with no regard for short or long term health effect. Injuries that went along with these acts were just viewed as collateral damage and were often ignored or not even acknowledged. Is this any way to treat a human being' This exploitation and disregard to the health and safety of performers was disgraceful and should not have been tolerated. Freak show workers in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s suffered a great deal of abuse and exploitation from their managers. Many were abandoned by their families and forced to live a life of servitude with no other opportunities available. Performers with mental disabilities were taken advantage of and stripped of their dignity with no one to protect their rights. Finally, all freak show workers were forced to participate in a competitive battle for capital gain, which many times compromised their safety and health. Treatment of these freak show workers was therefore, inhumane and morally wrong and should not have been tolerated. Work Cited 1. Gerald, Earnald . My Freak Show. Madison, WS: Madison Publishing, 1932. 201. Print. 2. Howard , Andrew. "NINDS Microcephaly Information Page." National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. 10/29/08. National Institute of Health, Web. 13 Dec 2009. . 3. Hunter, Robert. "The Twins." My Journey. (1928): 119-120. Print. 4. Jacobs, Maxwell. "Schlitzie the Pinhead." Schlitzie the Pinhead. The Human Marvels, Web. 13 Dec 2009. . 5. McHold, Heather. "Freaks." Reference Answers. Answers.com, Web. 13 Dec 2009. .