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Final Paper

The document discusses disability representation in the television show American Horror Story: Freak Show. It provides background on how disability has historically been portrayed in harmful ways in literature and media. It discusses scholar G. Thomas Couser's argument that autobiographies by people with disabilities can help counter stereotypical portrayals. The document then analyzes how several characters in Freak Show, including Jimmy Darling, Desiree Dupree, Dandy Mott, and Twisty, represent different understandings of disability and help bring more positive representation.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
228 views18 pages

Final Paper

The document discusses disability representation in the television show American Horror Story: Freak Show. It provides background on how disability has historically been portrayed in harmful ways in literature and media. It discusses scholar G. Thomas Couser's argument that autobiographies by people with disabilities can help counter stereotypical portrayals. The document then analyzes how several characters in Freak Show, including Jimmy Darling, Desiree Dupree, Dandy Mott, and Twisty, represent different understandings of disability and help bring more positive representation.

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api-340731072
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
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Turner 1

Allie Turner

English 698D

Dr. Clark

14 May 2018

“You May Look like a Motion Picture Dreamboat, but You Are the Biggest Freak of Them All”:
Understanding Disability in American Horror Story

G. Thomas Couser discusses disability memoir and argues that for marginalized groups

to receive more attention in the general discourse, self-representation is the best hope for them.

He asserts, “most literary scholars would agree that autobiography has served historically as a

sort of threshold genre for marginalized populations” (31). These marginalized populations that

most literary scholars discuss have been African Americans, Native Americans, and women, but

for Couser, he feels that adding people with disabilities to this tradition would be helpful as well.

Autobiography has “potential to counter [stigmatize] patronizing portrayals” because it gives

people a chance with disability to have “control over their own images.”

The “rhetoric of emancipation” is autobiographical stories that do not erase disability or

“correct impairments” or even overcome them, but simply gets the world around these characters

to “accommodate them” (44). In other words, people with disabilities are not changing for

hegemonic culture, but hegemonic culture is changing for them. If this use of rhetoric is

continuously given more attention and employed in discourse, it has the potential to dismantle

the master and slave narrative. This paper adds to Couser’s argument and suggests that this use

of rhetoric needs to not only be employed within literary work, but visual media as well, and

particularly, within media entertainment such as movies and television shows. I would also like

to argue that although the show American Horror Story: Freak Show perpetuates problems for
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the disability community, it still utilizes this rhetoric of emancipation, with the assistance of the

rhetoric of horror, which helps bring positive representation for the disability community.

The season Freak Show brings many possibilities to the disability community. Through

literary works and common media representations, it is safe to say that a common rhetoric that

has been employed is representing people with disabilities as evil characters. Within Freak

Show, the characters deconstruct the term “freak” to mean something positive and recognize that

they are a different part of society, but this does not have to be an evil idea. Evil becomes more

of a grey area with these characters, and if the characters with a disability are acting in evil ways,

it is because hegemonic culture is marginalizing them in some way. The season also sheds light

on power through privilege, and how this can be the most evil act of all when it is taken

advantage of. There are some problematic tropes that continue to perpetuate stereotypes within

this season, but it still leads to different and more positive possibilities for the disability

community to continue their discussion.

In order to fully understand how evil is being used throughout the season, it is important

to explore the characters and how they are represented. All of the characters are worthy of

discussion, but for this paper, I only want to focus on Jimmy Darling, Desiree Dupree, Dandy

Mott, and Twisty. Before I discuss these characters, I will first give more context background on

the harmful rhetorics of disability through literary works and images that Couser and Rosemarie

Garland Thomson discuss, then I will give background on the questionable history of Freak

Shows. These two historical backgrounds are important in understanding the season Freak Show

because a discussion on Couser and Thomson can help intersect how people with disability are

seen and written, and the history of Freak Shows can help us understand why a contemporary
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show would continue this story. After I discuss the characters and how the season defines

disability, I will then conclude with how this season helps us understand disability today.

Historical Rhetoric of Disability Through Writing and Images

In disability studies, many scholars have already recognized the setbacks that people have

faced with having a disability. Couser asserts that people with disabilities offer a different

challenge in the discussion of positive representation of minority groups. Since this community

can often struggle with “having a life, writing a life, and publishing a life”, it becomes difficult

for memoir to happen. Since disability has often been ignored from “educational institutions and

thus from economic opportunity” this proposes problems because if they have not had a chance

at a life, then they cannot write about one. There is also the factor that some people literally have

the inability to compose their own story due to their disability: “people who are blind, Deaf,

paralyzed, or cognitively impaired are disadvantaged with regard to the conventional

technologies of writing, which take for granted visual acuity, literacy in English as a first

language, manual dexterity, and unimpaired intellect and memory” (32). Finally, Couser makes

the connection between the history of disability and rhetoric to conclude that publishing works

proposes another challenge. Due to the problematic rhetoric that has been employed and used to

represent disability, the general public aims to continue and see these representations because it

makes them feel the most comfortable. These “preferred rhetorics…rarely challenge stigma and

marginalization directly or effectively” (33). These “preferred rhetorics then have the potential to

continue perpetuating how the general population views disability, and consequently, could

continue how they are treated.


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Roemarie Garland Thomson asserts that through images, disability has a long,

unfortunate history of eliciting harmful stereotypes. Some of these pieces of visual rhetoric are:

the wondrous, which tends to evoke “awe and terror”; the sentimental, which shows people with

disabilities as victims; the exotic, which emphasizes the “otherness”; and the realistic, which

tends to “normalize” and often times “minimize” disability (340-344). It is important to focus on

these pieces of visual rhetoric, Thomson asserts, because society learns about the world through

images, and this can determine how we react to them.

Like Thomson, Couser also discusses common tropes of rhetoric that is deployed

throughout writing disability. He too, points out the problematic nature of these pieces of

rhetoric, in particular for people with disability. Couser discusses that although these pieces of

rhetoric sell, it still preys victim to the hegemonic culture of how consumers are perceiving these

groups of people. They often have to conform to these pieces of rhetoric through their writing in

order to appeal to the audience. Couser suggests then that memoirs are most important for

marginalized groups to take part in because it “involves self-representation” (31). Some of these

forms of rhetoric are “rhetorics of triumph, horror, spiritual compensation, and nostalgia” (33).

In the rhetoric of triumph, this “outcome is considered inspiring” where the character

“overcomes” a disability rather than learning to deal with it; “think blind runner, amputee

mountain climber, deaf musician, and so on.” This form of rhetoric can be harmful if it

constantly represented, because it does not leave room for the people with disabilities to live with

their disability. If stories are constantly retold with people “overcoming” their disabilities, it has

the potential to set the belief in place that having a disability is inherently wrong, and people

with disability must seek to overcome it; however, this is not ideal for many due to a lack of
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money, (if they cannot afford prosthetic legs, a cochlear implant, etc.) or their disability will not

allow them to overcome it, and they must try to survive with it.

With the rhetoric of horror, or gothic horror, it often “features disfigured, deformed, or

mained characters. Here, disability is characterized as a literally dreadful condition, to be

shunned or avoided” (34). In these cases, disability is seen as something that should be “shunned

or avoided.” This is often seen in a lot of literary work throughout time such as the evil pirate

with one leg. However, there are some ways this form of rhetoric could be mended if “the source

of horror is not the condition itself but the treatment of the condition.” In the series, Freak Show

there are these moments of “counterhegemonic potential” that I will later discuss.

There is also the rhetoric of spiritual compensation. This proposes a problem because

there is a “deeply ingrained sense of inferiority with [disability]” (36). In these stories, people

with disability will often spend time asking why God allowed them to have this disability, and

this creates the idea that it is a sin to have a disability, or God was purposely trying to punish this

person with this disability.

Finally, Couser points out the rhetoric of nostalgia. In these instances, stories are centered

around a person “offer[ing] poignant accounts of pleasures and pastimes no longer available to

[them]” (41). The person then focuses on past times when they did not have the disability rather

than dealing with their new experience. Again, this has the potential to focus on what is wrong

with this person, and again, giving power to the hegemonic, able bodied culture.

It is crucial to point out the rhetorics through images and writing, because this is what

popular culture receives when they watch film media such as movies or television shows. Not

only is the writing crucial in helping dismantle how the general public perceives disability, but

the images are as well. In exploring these problematic uses of rhetoric that have been popularly
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used through literary works and images, it will help come to a better understanding of how the

series Freak Show starts to deconstruct these images.

The Freak Show

A freak show is a display of biological rarities, referred to as "freaks of nature.” These

“freaks of nature” could have anything from a physical disability, or rebelling against a social

construct that has been put in place, such as the bearded lady. They also featured heavily tattooed

and pierced people as well as sword-swallowing acts. However, the history of the freak show can

be very complex:

The first human ‘oddity’ that the showman P.T. Barnum ever exhibited, Joice Heath, was 80-
years old in 1835, but Barnum promoted her as the 161-year-old nurse of President George
Washington (who died in 1799). The man with poorly formed arms became ‘Seal Man’; the
man with poorly formed legs, ‘Frog Man.’ The man whose entire face was covered with hair
was Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy….[s]ometimes the ordinary was billed as the exotic. An
African-American dressed in a grass skirt and given a spear was sold as a Zulu tribesman
(Gaffney).

This brought about many different types evils: a lot of greed and power followed these freak

shows. These people were gawked at, put on display, and exploited for money. Anyone who was

othered in any sort of way could be put on display as a “freak;” this includes the African-

American woman or man. So, in remembering the brutal history of the freak show, it is

important to also remember it from an intersectional standpoint.

In the mid-16th century, freak shows became popular pastimes in England. In the 19th

century in England and the United Stated, these freak shows became commercialized, but in the

20th century they hit their prime. Some of these “abnormalities” were not real, but this

exploitation was accepted in American culture regardless. These fake abnormalities were

referred to as "gaffed freaks" and became popular because many promoters were trying to
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compete with other promoters because of how popular these freak shows became. With all of this

being said, although many people today believe this exploitation of disability was wrong, others

argue that they were better off than being institutionalized. There were no other opportunities for

these people, so this was a chance for them to make money.

Before discussing some of the characters in the season, Freak Show it is important to note

that many of these actors and actresses do have disabilities of their own, which circles back to

Couser’s point of the importance of self-representation. Although I will not be discussing these

characters in great detail, I feel it is worth noting that Ben Woolf, (Meep) has Pituitary

Dwarfism; Jyoti Amge, (Ma Petite) has achondroplasia, a common cause of dwarfism; Mat

Fraser, (Paul aka “Seal boy”) has malformations of the arms and legs; Erika Ervin (Amazon Eve)

is a transwoman; Rose Siggins (Legless Suzi) has sacral agenesis. Throughout film media, many

actors and actresses often put on costumes of disability as opposed to people with disabilities

playing themselves. However, Couser does note that it is important for people with disability to

write their own stories, and in this case, the actors and actresses are not, but this can be a step in

the right direction. It is also important to note how Freak Show defines disability. As mentioned

above, it is important to remain intersectional when we talk about the history of the freak show,

and Freak Show carries on this point. Characters like Amazon Eve do not have a physical

abnormality, but they are othered from hegemonic society in some way for just being different.

So, Freak Show defines disability as anything or anyone that is ostracized from hegemonic

society during this time. They also use the term “freak” as a deconstructed term to mean

something positive, so for the remainder of this essay, I will be using the term freak to refer to

the characters with disability.


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Dandy Mott vs. Twisty

Unlike the history of most stories of disability, the evil does not lie with the freaks, but

with the people in power of this series. Before the deconstruction of harmful disability rhetoric

can be mentioned, it is important to understand where the evil lies within this series. One

example of this evil is with the character, Dandy Mott. He is rich, powerful, white, and fits into

the mold of what society often considers handsome. Dandy’s first moments of evil are seen when

he joins a psychopathic killer on the loose, a man dressed in a clown suit that used to be part of

the freak show named Twisty. Just like some of the other freaks, Twisty is not horrific because

of his disability, but because of the “treatment of [his] condition” (Couser 34). He was dropped

on his head as a baby, which left him with a minor mental disability. As a result of this, before

the viewers meet him as a killer, he was a lovable clown that loved to entertain children. His

fellow freaks and outside society start to bully him because of this, and even suggest that he is

molesting children even though he is not. The teasing gets so bad for Twisty, and he slowly

becomes more ostracized from society, so he attempts to take his own life but fails because

according to him, “[he] is so dumb, [he] cannot even kill [him]self” (“Edward Mordrake: Part 2”

00:30:42-00:30:49). He is left with his lower jaw blown off as a result, and decides to become

the evil person that everyone else is making him out to be, because according to standards of

society, now he looks the part too.

Twisty does not target children, however, but only adults. Every child he encounters he

does not harm, but only kills authority figures. Twisty’s reasoning for the killing of the adults are

this: “I had to get [the children] back. I made a funny show for them. Their parents were mean,

so I gave them candy. I didn’t make them do any chores…..I’m a good clown (00:32:25-

00:32:50). As he says this, a series of scenes flash on the screen of the various adults that he
Turner 9

murdered. While it is impossible to argue this is not evil, Freak Show shows the potential of

what could happen if hegemonic society, or even anyone, pushes someone far enough. Twisty

already had a minor mental disability to begin with, but when he tried to assimilate into his own

society, he was laughed at, gawked at, and even accused of doing a horrible act that he did not

do. Audre Lorde paints this out when she says how dominant society responds to difference:

Institutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy


which needs outsiders as surplus people. As members of such an economy, we
have all been programmed to respond to the human difference between us with fear and
loathing and to handle that difference in one of three ways: ignore it, and if that is not
possible, copy it if we think it is dominant, or destroy it if we think it is subordinate. But
we have no patterns for relating across our human differences as equals. As a result, those
differences have been misnamed and misused in the service of separation and confusion.

In these instances, this series highlights how other people have responded to Twisty by “fear and

loathing” and because they cannot handle this difference they choose to “ignore it” and even

“destroy it” by labelling him as something that he is not. In the end, Twisty is murdered because

he is unable to see why these evil acts are wrong. However, the evil never came within Twisty,

but from how outside society treated him. The series also highlights that people treated him in

evil ways due to his disability, not because he was evil to begin with.

It is impossible to talk about Twisty and not discuss Dandy. He comes into contact with

the rich and powerful Dandy, who finds out about Twisty’s killings, and desires to join him.

After Twisty is murdered, Dandy decides to continue Twisty’s legacy, and dresses up as a clown

just as Twisty was. It is important to discuss Twisty and Dandy together, because they serve as

foils for each other in many ways. They both commit the same, evil acts to others, but are treated

very differently.

When Dandy decides to carry out Twisty’s legacy after he is murdered, he remembers

how his mother would not let him be an actor, but he says, “[s]he can’t keep my greatness in the
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slips. One door closes, another opens” (00:00:27-00:00:31). Dandy’s “greatness” comes from his

immense amount of privilege: his wealth, looks, race, and how people respond to him. He

understands that just because his mother would not allow him to do something, he will still be

able to find a way to do what he wants because of his “greatness.” This highlights his misuse of

power on an individual level, but even furthering this, on a systematic level as well.

Dandy continues, “[a]nd this body is America. Strong, violent, and full of limitless

potential. My arms will hold them down when they struggle. My legs will run them down when

they flee. I will be the US steel of murder” (00:00:33-00:00:47). The wording of this monologue

complicates the meaning even further. Dandy makes the suggestion that his body is America, or

in other words, a metaphor for America; however, having qualities such as violence is not a good

suggestion for what America may represent. Even furthering this notion, the fact that Dandy’s

body, to be more specific, his strong and in shape body, is America, gives another suggestion

that anything that is not emblematic of his body is not America. Twisty would not be America

according to Dandy’s definition. So, if others do not fit this tight mold of what America

represents, perhaps they will not be valued in society as such.

Although Twisty is seen as the most evil part of society, Dandy instills even more fear

into the audience. He shows that because of his immense privilege, he is able to get away with

the murders he has committed. When he informs Regina, his old childhood friend, and the

daughter of his maid, Dora, that he killed Dora, Regina instantly goes to the police. Detective

Colquitt comes knocking on Dandy’s door in order to question him. As Detective Colquitt enters,

Dandy tells him, “my mother taught me the importance of decorum; offering an aperitif is the

first duty of a gracious host” (“Tupperware Party Massacre” 00:33:37-00:33:45). Dandy has got

the outside appearances mastered as someone in society. Although he has murdered a bunch of
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people, he still explains to the officer that decorum is something he was raised with. Dandy

knows how to act the part of a “gracious host” even though he commits evil acts.

Dandy continues to admit his crimes to Detective Colquitt:

Believe it or not, Regina and I grew up together. We were childhood best friends,
inseparable, until the summer I turned nine and became aware of the difference in our
stations. But even though we’ve grown apart, I’ve never known Regina to lie, so if she
says I killed them, then they must be dead (00:34:02-00:34:25).

Dandy highlights the difference in him and Regina’s “stations” and how important class is in this

society. As childhood friends, they were very close, but as he got older, he knew they came from

very different backgrounds. This shows the power that money and greed have over people in this

society, and how that power can dictate how they treat others who do not have it. Dandy feels

comfortable enough to admit he did this act, because he knows he will be able to get away with it

when he highlights his next point:

But what [Regina] didn't tell you, Detective Colquitt, is the absolute conviction that I'm
going to get away with it. The Mott family owns the biggest brands of frozen foods
across America. You'd be surprised how much money can be made one block of spinach
at a time. So, including this estate and the house in Montauk and the stocks and bonds
held in trust from my grandfather, the fortune left to me could easily sustain a small
country (00:34:32-00:35:02).

After Dandy tells Detective Colquitt this, he tells him that he will give him $1 million if he kills

Regina and buries her body. Detective Colquitt quickly shoots Regina and asks Dandy where a

shovel is.

This further complicates the corruption of power within the series; not only is Dandy

representing power and greed, and what he can get away with due to his wealth, but now other

people in power, people that are supposed to be seen as trustworthy and to protect the innocent

like Detective Colquitt, are influenced by this power and greed as well. Dandy remains as a foil

to Twisty because he is everything in appearance that Twisty is not, and what is socially
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constructed in this society to be “normal” which is why Dandy can get away with it. He commits

the same evil acts as Twisty, but will continue to get away with it. After all, Dandy informs the

audience, “But I am no clown. I am perfection. I am greatness” (00:01:07-00:01:13).

Jimmy Darling

It is true that throughout this series, the freaks are exploited, ostracized, put on display,

and treated in inhumane ways. With this being said, it is important to highlight that people like

the character of Dandy, who is seen as handsome and powerful in society, are the ones doing it to

the freaks. As mentioned previously, when the freaks act in ways that are evil, it is due to the fact

that society has pushed them to be this way. Jimmy Darling is one of these characters who often

switches back and forth between playing the evil and good guy.

Jimmy Darling, played by the actor Evan Peters, has the condition ectrodactyly, or

commonly known as cleft hands. The actor Evan Peters does not have this condition, however,

so this does perpetuate actors and actresses putting on costumes of disability. Although this is a

problem, there is a lot of potential to explore how this character is written. When a detective

comes to the freak show to try to pin a murder on another freak, Jimmy defends his fellow freak

by killing the detective out of a crime of passion. Before the freaks bury the detective, Jimmy

says,

this law man was supposed to protect and serve the innocent, but instead, he judged us
guilty before he even set foot into our camp. All we ever wanted was a place that we
could feel safe and be just the way we are, but no one is going to hand it to us. We’re
going to have to rise up and take it…..when bad things happen to good people you start to
question what is right and what is wrong. Well I say it is time we make our own right and
our own wrong….they want to call us monsters, fine, we’ll act like monsters (00:03:12-
00:04:04).
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This has potential to follow the “rhetoric of emancipation” that Couser discusses. Jimmy and his

fellow freaks are tired of being taken advantage of by people of power, and even though he

murdered someone and did something evil, the real question lies with why law men are not

protecting and serving everyone, including freaks. Jimmy cries to his fellow freaks that they

must “rise up and take” safety if outside society cannot give it to them. Here, Jimmy is arguing

that the world must accommodate them, and that the freaks should not have to. Jimmy’s

monologue also highlights the real area of horror: not with the freaks, but how they are treated.

Hearing Jimmy’s side of the story, and how defeated he feels could show the audience that this

too, happens in outside society.

Finally, after Jimmy eventually goes to jail, a man convinces Jimmy that it would be a

good idea for him to cut off his cleft hands for money, so they could be put on display in a freak

museum. Jimmy would be able to use this money to get out of jail. He complies, and ends up

being left with no hands. However, when he attempts to purchase prosthetic hands, he rejects a

“normal” looking hand, and instead, purchases prosthetic hands that look like his cleft hands.

Rather than “overcoming” his cleft hands, or even seeing them as horrific, he decides to keep

encouraging hegemonic culture to accommodate him and his differences by embracing his own

differences.

Desiree Dupree

Another freak that is unapologetic about her disability is Desiree Dupree. She is

confident, quick witted, and not afraid to shut someone down if they act in a problematic way.

She was born with “ambiguous genitalia” and was often mistaken for a little boy growing up.

However, when she goes to the doctor to figure out why she is bleeding, he informs her it was
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due to a miscarriage and she is “full woman.” Her ambiguous genitalia is just an enlarged

clitoris, and she also has three breasts.

This “disability” that she has only makes her stronger. Her husband, who also is a

freak, is unfaithful to her and does not treat her very well. She finds the courage to leave him

after this news, and only becomes more willing to fight off men that do not treat her right. Her

entire existence is devoted to embracing her femininity, and not being apologetic about it: she

wears tight dresses that show off her curves, and never appears to hide the fact that she has three

breasts. As her new identity is discovered, she continues to grow the courage to fight off anyone

who mistreats her. Instead of femininity being seen as subordinate, weak, and less than

masculinity, here it is seen as strong, empowered, and even dominant. In many ways, Desiree’s

disability of being “overly feminine” is seen as freakish to the world, but Desiree uses it to

empower her, make her stronger, and it gives her the courage to stand up for herself.

By the end of the series, Desiree, Jimmy, and another freak team up to murder Dandy,

who has managed to kill the rest of their freak friends. Desiree looks at Dandy before they

murder him and says,

Man came through here and started putting our kind in class jars and filled up a museum
with our kind….that’s where you think freaks belong: powerless, behind glass; a human
car crash to stare at to remind you how lucky you are. Well, maybe that’s true. Maybe
that’s all we are, but let me tell you this: you may look like a motion picture dreamboat,
but you are the biggest freak of them all (00:01:52-00:02:28).

As Desiree tells Dandy this, he is in a glass box, and the freaks are ready to drown him to death.

As he drowns, Desiree, Jimmy, and their other freak friend watch him in this glass box. This then

flips the master/slave narrative on its head: now the freaks are watching “the biggest freak of

them all” while he is “powerless [and] behind glass.”


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This complicates the master/slave narrative; in order to deconstruct anything, it is

important to challenge current ideologies that society holds. I do not think the suggestion here is

to murder powerful people in society, but to get audiences to see what it feels like to be a freak.

Dandy is put on display for the freaks entertainment, and while it could be argued this is barbaric

and evil to do, it is interesting to consider that people with disability are put on display all the

time for entertainment. Desiree reminds the audience that evil people like Dandy are hurting

minority groups in society, and even in death, Dandy tries to remind Desiree that he has a lot of

money he can give to them if they set him free.

Conclusion

After all is said, it is important to consider why something like Freak Show would take

place in the year of 1952, even though this show came out just a few years ago, and if the legacy

of freak shows have died out, or are even illegal, it is important to question why this show would

return to it. Couser and Thomson remind us that freak shows still very much exist today, and if

we are not careful, we will miss them. In mainstream media we still see “rhetorics of triumph,

horror, spiritual compensation, and nostalgia” (Couser 33). From the dancer with prosthetic legs

in Dancing With the Stars, who manages to “transcend dance” according to the judges, to the

countless horror movies that use mental disability as a source of horror to be feared, like Black

Swan, or Shutter Island, it appears that there still needs to be a lot of work done for people with

disability. Even though people with disabilities are not put in glass boxes, they are still exploited,

or are being represented in a non-complex way because they have never been given the

opportunity to.
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Due to the fact that Freak Show represents actors and actresses that actually have a

disability, this holds potential for this deconstruction. Freak Show also explores the real evil of

society: the rich, the powerful, and sometimes, the conventionally attractive ones according to

societies standards. This is shown through characters like Dandy Mott, or even the detectives that

do not protect and serve, and instead, only attempt to reap the benefits of privilege. Characters

like Twisty are evil not because of their own disability, but because dominant society has pushed

them to a point where it appears they have no other choice but to act in evil ways. Jimmy Darling

and Desiree Dupree show what the “rhetoric of emancipation” may look like; they do not try to

accommodate the world, but force the world to accommodate them. Freak Show does fall into

the category of the rhetoric of horror that Couser opposes throughout the series, but it has

“counterhegemonic potential.” The real horror, or the most chilling evil of them all, lies not with

the freaks themselves, but how they are treated by characters that are in positions of power; these

powerful people are the biggest freaks of them all. Although this series is not written by people

with disabilities, there are actors and actresses with disabilities that play their own role.

American Horror Story: Freak Show has its fair share of problems, but it has the potential to

move towards more positive representation within the disability community, and to continue the

dialogue of how this can be improved.


Turner 17

Works Cited

“American Horror Story Freak Show.” YouTube, uploaded by Onceupon a Horrorstory, 6 Sep.

2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKnylNmhT2M.

“American Horror Story: Freak Show Extra Ordinary Artists – Jyoti Amge HD.” YouTube,

uploaded by American Horror Story, 7 Oct. 2014.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvNUt0MwkyE.

“American Horror Story: Freak Show - Extra-Ordinary Artists - Rose Siggins HD.” YouTube,

uploaded by American Horror Story, 2 Oct 2014.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asvYF-KLs-k.

“American Horror Story Freak Show - Interview with Ben Woolf.” YouTube, uploaded by AHS

Poland, 9 Oct. 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dnqjGsrIbk.

“American Horror Story: Freak Show – Interview with Erika Ervin.” YouTube, uploaded by

AHS Poland, 7 Oct. 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI3qcrn35xE.

“American Horror Story: Freak Show - Interview with Mat Fraser.” YouTube, uploaded by AHS

Poland, 3 Oct. 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2zR0vgESBo.

American Horror Story, Season 4, FX, 8 Oct. 2014. Netflix.

https://www.netflix.com/search?q=american%20horror%20story&jbv=70210884&jbp=0

&jbr=0.

Baynton, Douglas C. “Disability and the Justification of Inequality in American History.” pp. 33-

57. [PDF]

Couser, G. Thomas. “Rhetoric and Self-Representation in Disability Memoir.” Signifying

Bodies: Disability in Contemporary Life Writing, University of Michigan Press, 2009, pp.

31-48. [PDF]
Turner 18

“Dandy Mott's Monologue - American Horror Story Freakshow.” YouTube, uploaded by

Skeletonguns9, 23 Nov. 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=992HpviuhX0.

Gaffney, Dennis.“Who Were the Circus ‘Freaks’?” PBS, 1 Jan. 2006,

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/stories/articles/2006/1/9/who-were-circus-freaks/.

Accessed 1 Dec. 2017.

Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. “Seeing the Disabled: Visual Rhetorics of Disability in Popular

Photography.” The New Disability History: American Perspectives, edited by Paul K.

Longmore and Lauri Umansky, New York University Press, 2001, pp. 335-374. [PDF]

Larsen, Robin and Beth A. Haller. “Public Reception of Real Disability: The Case of Freaks.”

Journal of Popular Film & Television, vol. 29, no 4, Winter2002, p. 164. EBSCOhost,

libproxy.csun.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ahl

&AN=5971476&site=ehost-live.

Lorde, Audre. “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism.” 1981,

http://www.blackpast.org/1981-audre-lorde-uses-anger-women-responding-racism.

Accessed 1 Dec. 2017.

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