l

CULTURAL SPECTACLES
OF THE
EXTRAORDINARY BODY

EDITED BY

Rosemarie Garland Thomson

NEW YORK
'11
UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS TO THE MEMORY OF
New York and London
IRVING KENNETH ZOLA
Copyright© 1996 by New York University
Chapter 22 © Andrea Stulman Dennett

TEXT PERMISSIONS:
A version of chapter 2 originally appeared in Social Semiotics 1, no. 2 (1991):
22-38.
A version of chapter 3 originally appeared in Actes de la recherche en sciences
sociales, September 1994.
A version of chapter 4 originally appeared in Disability, Handicap and Society
7 (1992): 53-71.
Lyrics to the song "Me Too" (Woods/Tobias/Sherman) reprinted by cour-
tesy of The Hal Leonard Publishing Company, Shapiro, Bernstein and Co.,
Inc., Al Sherman Music, and the Songwriters Guild.
In chapter 18, program note in the Pacific Film Archives series "Received
Images: A Reading of Disability in Cinema," University Art Museum and
Pacific Film Archive Calendar, July 1990; University of California at Berke-
ley; © Regents of the University of California.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Freakery : cultural spectacles of the extraordinary body/ edited by Rosema-
rie Garland Thomson.
P· cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8147-8217-5 (cl.: alk. paper).-ISBN 0-8147-8222-1 (pb.: alk.
paper)
1. Abnormalities, Human-Social aspects. 2. Body, Human-Social as-
pects. 3. Sideshows-History. I. Thomson, Rosemarie Garland
GT6730.F74 1996
391' .6-dc20 96-10034
CIP

New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their
binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 1
UOJ'WTENTl!il!I

List of Illustrations XI

Foreword Xlll

LESLIE A. FIEDLER

Preface and Acknowledgments XVll

1. Introduction: From Wonder to Error-A Genealogy of Freak Discourse 1

in Modernity
ROSEMARIE GARLAND THOMSON

I. THE CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF FREAKS

2. The Social Construction of Freaks 23

ROBERT BOGDAN

3. The "Careers" of People Exhibited in Freak Shows: The Problem of 38

Volition and Valorization
DAVID A. GERBER

4. Intolerable Ambiguity: Freaks as/at the Limit 55

ELIZABETH GROSZ

II. PRACTICES OF ENFREAKMENT

5. Monsters in the Marketplace: The Exhibition of Human Oddities in 69

Early Modern England
PAUL SEMONIN

vu
 r
-;j CONTENTS f -;j CONTENTS f

6. Death-Defying/Defining Spectacles: Charles Willson Peale as Early 82 17. The Circassian Beauty and the Circassian Slave: Gender, Imperialism, 248
American Freak Showman and American Popular Entertainment
EDWARD L. SCHWARZSCHILD LINDA FROST

7. P. T. Barnum's Theatrical Selfhood and the Nineteenth-Century Culture 97 V. TEXTUAL USES OF FREAKS
of Exhibition
ERIC FRETZ 18. "One of Us": Tod Browning's Freaks 265
JOAN HAWKINS
8. Social Order and Psychological Disorder: Laughing Gas 108
Demonstrations, 1800-1850 19. An American Tail: Freaks, Gender, and the Incorporation of History in 277
ELLEN HICKEY GRAYSON Katherine Dunn's Geek Love
RACHEL ADAMS
9. Photography and Persuasion: Farm Security Administration 121
Photographs of Circus and Carnival Sideshows, 1935-1942 20. Freaking Feminism: The Lift and Loves of a She-Devil and Nights at the 291
RONALD E. OSTMAN Circus as Narrative Freak Shows
SHIRLEY PETERSON

III. EXHIBITING CORPOREAL FREAKS 21. Teaching Freaks 302

BRIAN ROSENBERG
10. Of Men, Missing Links, and Nondescripts: The Strange Career of P. T. 139
Barnum's "What is It?" Exhibition
VI. RELOCATIONS OF THE FREAK SHOW
JAMES W. COOK, JR.
22. The Dime Museum Freak Show Reconfigured as Talk Show 315
11. Aztecs, Aborigines, and Ape-People: Science and Freaks in Germany, 158
ANDREA STULMAN DENNETT
1850-1900
NIGEL ROTHFELS 23. Freaks in Space: "Extraterrestrialism'' and "Deep-Space 327
Multiculturalism''
12. The "Exceptions That Prove the Rule": Daisy and Violet Hilton, the 173
JEFFREY A. WEINSTOCK
"New Woman," and the Bonds of Marriage
ALLISON PINGREE 24. Being Humaned: Medical Documentaries and the Hyperrealization of 338
Conjoined Twins
13. Cuteness and Commodity Aesthetics: Tom Thumb and Shirley Temple 185
DAVID L. CLARK AND CATHERINE MYSER
LORI MERISH
25. Bodybuilding: A Postmodern Freak Show 356
CECILE LINDSAY
IV. EXHIBITING CULTURAL FREAKS
26. The Celebrity Freak: Michael Jackson's "Grotesque Glory" 368
14. Ethnological Show Business: Footlighting the Dark Continent 207
DAVID D. YUAN
BERNTH LINDFORS
Contributors 385
15. Ogling Igorots: The Politics and Commerce of Exhibiting Cultural 219
Index 389
Otherness, 1898-1913
CHRISTOPHER A. VAUGHAN

16. "What an object he would have made of me!": Tattooing and the Racial 234
Freak in Melville's Typee
LEONARD CASSUTO

Vttl tX
 I L LU Ii!!! T:RA...TI O Nil" Ii!!!

1.1. Charles Tripp 6 10.2. Brady's Portraits of William Henry

1.2. Lipstretching 7 Johnson 143
1.3. Freak Show 8 10.3. The Missing Link 146
1.4. Cover of the Life Narrative of"the Tat- 10.4. Promotional Image of Zip 146
tooed Greek Prince" 9 11.1. Bartola and Maximo 160
2.1. Carnival Talker 26 11.2. The Aztec Children 161
2.2. Bearded Lady 31 11.3. Krao 163
2.3. Barnum and Bailey Circus Sideshow 11.4. Lionel 170
Group 33 12.1. Daisy and Violet Hilton 174
5.1. Drawing of Monstrous Birth 73 12.2. San Antonio's Siamese Twins 179
5.2. Female Monster 74 13.1. Brady's "Fairy Wedding Group" 193
6.1. Peale's Artist in His Museum 89 13.2. Bill Robinson and Shirley Temple 200
6.2. Peale's Rachel Weeping 92 14.1. Poster ofSartjee 209
8.1. Gillray's Scientific Researches! 111 14.2. The Bosjesmans 211
8.2. Seymour's Living Made Easy 114 15 .1. Igorot Village 222
8.3. Seymour's Grand Exhibition of . .. 15.2. Igorot Feast Dance 223
Laughing Gas! 114 15.3. Igorot Dancers 231
9.1. The Central Iowa 4-H Fair 124 16.1. Advertisement for James F. O'Con-
9.2. Sideshow 125 nell 239
9.3. Freak Show 127 17.1. Miss Fatima 258
9.4. Talker at a Sideshow 127 17.2. Zumigo the Egyptian 259
9.5. Sideshow at the Circus 129 18.1. Poster for Browning's Freaks 266
9.6. Fat Man 129 22.1. Fat Person 324
9.7. Fat Lady Show Banner 131 25.1. Strong Man 359
9.8. Man Chewing a Piece of Snake 131 25.2. Bodybuilding Competitor 363
9.9. Selling Tickets at Sideshow 133 26.1. MichaelJackson 374
9.10. Freak Museum Entrance 135 26.2. Leopard Child 378
10.1. Artist's Representation of Freak Produc-
tion 141
 JF O :U, E-WO :U, 11>

LESLIE A. FIEDLER

When, nearly two decades ago, I published my pioneering study of the way in which self-
styled "normals" perceived certain of their physically anomalous fellow humans traditionally
called "freaks," scarcely any of my academic colleagues responded positively. This did not, of
course, surprise me, since my earlier books, beginning with Love and Death in the American
Novel, had been similarly ignored or calumniated by more orthodox critics and scholars,
who-whatever the reigning orthodoxy-found them wilfully, perversely heterodox. For all
their heterodoxy, however, these earlier books dealt primarily with works which even the most
orthodox considered "canonical" -or at least plausible candidates for eventual canonization.
But in Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self, I dealt at considerable length with what
the critical establishment still thought of as subliterature: comic books, rock music, circus
sideshows, and carnival Ten-in-Ones. What interested me in such pop forms, as it also had
in High Art, was not their message or their medium but their underlying myths, especially
the Myth of the Stranger. In this study, I found that the archetypal outsider was figured not
by the woman, the homosexual, the Jew, the Red Man, and the Black, as it often has been in
classic American literature. Instead, I discovered that the strangely formed bod¥.has-=pre-
sented absol1Jk.Oiliemessj11,,tlLtimes,""1d-plac=siI>cehwrul!lJJi.S1~,i;gan.
Though at the moment my book appeared, the demeaning colloquial epithets for all
exploited "minorities" had become taboo, I insisted on calling the most exploited of my
brothers and sisters not by a politely euphemistic name hke "special people" or a presumably
neutral scientific one like "terata," but simply "freaks": a designation then considered in some
quarters as offensive as "faggot" or "nigger" or "kike."
Yet what offended some of my colleagues even more was that I talked about the protago-
nists of "great books" like Captain Ahab or Hester Prynne and sleazy circus performers like
JoJo the Dog Faced Boy or the Bearded Lady, as if they were of equal cultural import. This
seemed to them not merely a lapse in good taste, but a flagrant betrayal of what they felt to
be their essential professional function and mine: to defend the standards of High Culture,

Xttt
 /4 FOREWORD f /4 FOREWORD f

indeed, of civility itself, against the onslaught of the leveling and hopelessly vulgar culture of me about a group of eight- or ten-year-old inner city kids who kept returning to stare with
the marketplace. baleful fascination at the quasi-obscene images on the new page of Freaks to which she flipped
This was first made clear to me when I tried out the thesis of my still unfinished book at daily in a copy she had displayed under glass. So, too, I was even more delighted when I
Johns Hopkins before an audience of graduate students and their teachers, most of them at discovered that someone had optioned the book for a possible movie. After all, persistent
that point newly converted to poststructuralism. Even as I spoke I could feel their silent memories of Tod Browning's elegantly crafted movie, Freaks, had first triggered in me the
resentment; and as I walked out I could hear them murmuring to each other that this was meditations which eventuated in the book of the same name.
where they had foreseen I would end up: not merely as a critic of pop literature, but a pop I had, moreover, always dreamed that one or another of my works would be translated into
critic as well. Though a couple of maverick students in the audience actually followed me the more universally comprehensible language of film. Two times at least, that dream seemed
back to SUNY Buffalo, this only served to confirm the doubts of their mentors, as did the tantalizingly close to being realized, but each time (as is true, I gather, of almost all such
marketplace success of my book when it finally appeared. enterprises) these projects fizzled out after many false starts and unfulfilled promises, as did
Though Freaks never became, of course, a real bestseller, it initially sold many more copies the desired filming of Freaks. Clearly, if my dream of breaking through to a larger and more
than any other book I published, even my now-classic study, Love and Death in the American varied audience was to be realized, I had to seek it elsewhere.
Novel The initial atrention Freaks garnered was in large part because of the way it was By the time I realized this, such a new audience was seeking me. It consisted, improbably
marketed by Simon and Schuster. For a while, everything seemed to be working out to our enough, of precisely the sort of medical professionals whose initial reaction to my book had
mutual profit and delight. To begin with, I was reviewed in periodicals which seldom if ever been generally quite hostile. They had not only been annoyed because I, a self-confessed
noticed the publication of any book written by a Ph.D. These included the Daily News, amateur, had entered a territory they considered their own. To make matters even worse, I
Penthouse, Hustler, and even High Times, whose readership was drawn largely from the drug- had challenged their attempt to redefine as potentially curable medical challenges many
obsessed generation of the sixties, young men and women who though physiologically deviations from the physiological norm that had traditionally been regarded as awesome
"normal," liked to refer to themselves as "freaks." The mention of my name in such places mysteries. What vexed them most, however, seemed to have been my offhand observation
persuaded even my youngest and freakiest son (then just turning fifteen) that I existed not that more "malformed" babies had been allowed to die by what they euphemistically call
just in the Neverland of academia but in what was to him the only real world, the hyperspace "removal of life supports from inviable terata" than had been killed by ritual exposure in
of mass culture. ancient times.
So, too, it persuaded the masters of the postprint media who presided over the large O.,,ite unexpectedly, however, these medical professionals now keep inviting me to partici-
audience who never read the New York Times Book Review, but watched the Phil Donahue pate in the conclaves where they gather to discuss the ethical ambiguity of certain of their
Show, the Today Show, the Tomorrow Show, the Late, Late Show-sometimes even the Dick procedures which, ultimately, they are willing to confess trouble them almost as much as they
Cavett Show. When I first began the book about freaks, they were starting to dominate the do critical humanists like me. "Bioethics" is what such soul-searching among professionals in
postprint media. The story of the "Elephant Man," for instance, was attracting record the health sciences has come to be called. Aware now that they are the amateurs in the area
audiences in movie houses and on television, even as more grotesque variations from the of ethics, they appeal for help from philosophers, theologians, sociologists, anthropologists, as
human norm, in the guise of aliens from outer space, were achieving similar box-office well as an occasional humanist like me. Since writing Freaks put me well on the way to
success. Simon and Schuster, therefore, had no difficulty persuading the producers of talk becoming a bioethicist without quite knowing it, I accept their invitations without hesitation.
shows to let me promote my book before their cameras. I ended up talking about the freak as Moreover, my first attempt to explore that subject further was an essay called "The Tyranny
stranger to this hypothetical mass audience on all of these shows. of the Normal," originally delivered as a talk to health professionals, and then published in
To be sure, more often than not such appearances turned out to be comedies of errors. Which Babies Shall Live?, a collection of essays addressed to such an audience.
None of my hosts, it became clear, had actually read my book. Worst of all, was my experience These days, indeed, I prefer talking to and writing for that audience rather than my
with Phil Donahue, when I found myself confronted (with no previous warning on either colleagues, who often eschew the traditional vocabulary of esthetics or ethics. Therefore, I -
side) by a pair of conjoined twins and cast somehow as their heartless exploiter. The live who for many years ventured outside the classroom mostly to speak at meetings of the
studio audience, at any rate, clearly perceived me as such, self-righteously reviling and Modern Language Association or the English Institute-am now more likely to address a
insulting me until I withdrew into an uncustomary silence. As they really do say- "that's World Congress of Theologians or a session of the United Nations inaugurating the Year of
Show Biz'." But the alacrity with which I agreed to appear on these shows made me realize the Handicapped. Consequently, my next collection of essays deals chiefly with topics like
that I had been on some buried level yearning to try to reach the mass audience. gerontology, child abuse, and organ transplants, setting them in the context of such long-time
In the hope of doing so, I had from the start determined to make Freaks-unlike anything best-selling mythic works as Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and The Island of
I had written before-an illustrated book: so profusely illustrated, in fact, as to provide an Dr. Moreau, in which our fears and fantasies about doctors are made manifest.
alternative kind of text, available to the majority audience who may be unaccustomed to At long last, doctors seem ready to listen, as they were not when Freaks was published. But
reading words with ease or pleasure but has no trouble with images on the printed page or the when the book first appeared, the people whom the medical profession seek both to demystify
screen. I was especially pleased, therefore, by a letter from a librarian in Philadelphia who told and "cure" responded sympathetically to my book. Early on, for instance, I began receiving

xiv xv
 -;1 FOREWORD~

mail from dwarfs and midgets, who are often the most militant and articulate of show freaks. 11."':UEF'.AOE .AND
Later, I heard from women, homosexuals and bisexuals, those similarly cast as archetypal .AO 11..:NO-WJLE D G - ~ E NTl!!!!J
outsiders, albeit for their gender or sexual preference rather than their physiology. Presumably
people such as these invited me more recently to speak after the showing of a film about a
bearded lesbian at a meeting held about "(hieer Theory," a field that celebrates human
deviance in all its manifold forms.
So after twenty years, my apology for freaks seems to be current once again. Though it had
earlier been allowed to go out of print, Freaks was recently reissued by Anchor Books.
Apparently confused about its content and genre, however, the editors catalogued it as
sociology rather than criticism. No such doubts, though, seem to have troubled the makers of
the two anthologies about freaks due to be published before the year is out. One, called The
Tyranny of the Normal, contains my essay of that name, a long passage from Freaks, essays
about congenital malformations, and a selection of fiction and verses in which such people
appear. The other book is, of course, this very volume, Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the
Extraordinary Body.
Most of this Foreword consists of afterthoughts on my own Freaks and reflections on its
subsequent fate, rather than comments on the essays in this volume that it presumably helped
inspire and that extend its ideas. Nevertheless, I have read all of the chapters that comprise
Freakery with profit and pleasure, learning much from those that ventured into areas I had
not myself explored. Although I am, to be sure, deeply grateful for the respectful references "You need to read this," said Irv Zola-father of academic disability studies-as he pulled
to me and my work, I am surprised a little that the essays here so comfortably participate in piles of books for me from his office shelves in his characteristically generous manner one day
the academic arena and are so grounded by the scholarly apparatus that I myself sought to in 1989 at Brandeis University. As he pressed into my hand a copy of Robert Bogdan's new
avoid in my flight from the traditional limits of criticism and toward a mass audience. It study, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit, I recoiled with horror.
seems that my deliberately unfashionable book has opened the way for an innovative yet The lurid cover photo of a midget standing on a platform and the garish red book jacket,
mainstream volume on a once iconoclastic subject that is nevertheless published by a university emblazoned with "FREAK," repelled and stunned me. "Freak" disturbingly summarized the
press, suitable for classroom use, and appropriate to both an interdisciplinary academic accusation I had secretly most dreaded my entire life. Having recently come out as a person
audience as well as the general reader. Although this is not what I expected my renegade book with a disability, and feeling nervous about my new professional mission of weaving disability
on freaks to occasion, I am pleased to have contributed to making such studies of popular studies into literary and cultural criticism, I was still fairly thin-skinned about confronting the
culture like Freakery not only possible but integral to cultural studies, the academic field of negative images of disability I had previously disclaimed. Flatly refusing to read the book, I
inquiry my earlier work helped authorize. nonetheless deferentially left Irv's office with it, depressed by the suspicion that I could not
possibly expose myself by calling attention in my scholarly work to what seemed then the
LESLIE A. FIEDLER personal bogeyman I had spent my whole life trying to get everyone to ignore. It was two
Buffalo, New York years before I could bring myself to read Bogdan's book.
I survived Freak Show, however. In fact, the book consolidated the direction of my scholarly
work and galvanized my professional aims. The notion that someone with a very visible
physical disability might "come out" perhaps seems oxymoronic to those for whom the
cultural assumptions that structure the riormal remain unquestioned. Indeed, pressures to
deny, ignore, normalize, and remain silent about one's own disability are both compelling and
seductive in a social order intolerant of deviations from the bodily standards enforced by a
quotidian matrix of economic, social, and political forces. That I am now authoring studies
on freaks and editing this collection no doubt witnesses my own personal and professional
journey within an academic community that is beginning to both accommodate and recognize
disability as a political issue, a social construction, an individual difference, and a category of
inquiry. Nevertheless, what enabled my own coming out, as well as the more important
accompanying scholarly work, was discovering that disability studies is an emergent academic

xvi XVll
f
I
II
0 ;j PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS f

discourse in the social sciences that can be interrogated and infused into recent trends taken ONE
in the humanities by cultural studies and literary criticism.
Freakery has been created in such a spirit. Although it does not explicitly declare itself as a
study of disability, its purpose is to reveal the practices and cultural logic that construct certain
corporeal variations as deviant and to denaturalize the generally assumed opposition between
Introduction: From Wonder to Error-A Genealogy
normal and abnormal bodies. The essays assembled here invoke a wide range of disciplinary of Freak Discourse in Modernity
approaches within cultural studies to argue collectively that the freak is a historical figure
ritually fabricated from the raw material of bodily variations and appropriated in the service
of shifting social ideologies. In short, we show the freak of nature to be a freak of culture. ROSEMARIE GARLAND THOMSON
I wish to acknowledge gratefully that my own understanding of freaks, expressed in both
the introduction and the orchestration of this volume, arises from research generously sup-
ported by the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships for University Teachers,
the College of Physicians of Philadelphia's Wood Institute Research Fellowship, the Massa-
Ii chusetts Historical Society's Andrew W. Mellon Research Fellowship, and the Howard
University Faculty Research Program in the Social Sciences, Humanities, and Education. The
I
' contributors to this collection also greatly expanded my understanding of freaks and their
cultural contexts. I am deeply indebted to all the contributors for the outstanding scholarship
that made this volume possible, and I appreciate their cheerful enthusiasm. I also offer thanks
to Michael Gilmore, Eric Lott, Lenny Cassuto, Bob Bogdan, David Gerber, and Leslie People who are visually different have always provoked the imaginations of their fellow human
Fiedler, all of whom encouraged my interest in freakmaking as a legitimate subject of inquiry beings. Those of us who have been known since antiquity as "monsters" and more recently as
and some of whom read my work at various stages. I am grateful as well to Michael Dumas, "freaks" defy the ordinary and mock the predictable, exciting both anxiety and speculation
Fred Dahlinger, Fred Pfening, and Bob Bogdan for their help with illustrations. Particular among our more banal brethren. History bears ample witness to this profound disquiet stirred
thanks are due to Niko Pfund, editor-in-chief at New York University Press, who initiated in the human soul by bodies that stray from what is typical or predictable. Such troubled
the collection, supported it efficiently and generously at every stage, and whose good humor fascination with the different body has occasioned enduring cultural icons that range from the
and compelling interest in freaks persisted throughout the project. As always, I am grateful to cyclopic Polyphem~-,n,ril1eg1gantic Goliath to werewolves and the seven adorable little
Bob, Rob, Lena, and Cara Thomson for their support and patience. dwarfs. Perhaps even the founding Judea-Christian myth that Adam's body contained Eve,
Rosemarie Garland Thomson drenched as it is by millennia of interpretation, derives from reports of the rare condition fetus
1
Washington, D.C. in fetu, in which tumors encasing fetuses are embedded in the bodies of their living siblings.
The presence of the anomalous human body, at once familiar and alien, has unfolded as well
within the collective cultural consciousness into fanciful hybrids such as centaurs, griffins,
satyrs, minotaurs, sphinxes, mermaids, and cyclopses-all figures that are perhaps the mythi-
cal explanations for the startling bodies whose curious lineaments gesture toward other modes
of being and confuse comforting distinctions between what is human and what is not. What
seems clearest in all this, however, is that the extraordinary body is fundamental to the
narratives by which we make sense of ourselves and our world.
By its very presence, the exceptional body seems to compel explanation, inspire representa-
tion, and incite regulation. The unexpected body fires rich, if anxious, narratives and practices
that probe the contours and boundaries of what we take to be human. Stone Age cave
drawings, for example, record monstrous births, while prehistoric gravesites evince elaborate
ritual sacrifices of such bodies. Clay tablets at the Assyrian city of Nineveh describe in detail
sixty-two of what we would now call congenital abnormalities, along with their prophetic
meanings. Aristotle, Cicero, Pliny, Augustine, Bacon, and Montaigne account for such
disruptions of the seemingly natural order in their interpretative schemata. For these fathers
of Western thought, the differently formed body is most often evidence of God's design,
divine wrath, or nature's abundance, but it is always an interpretive occasion.

xvzu I
 ~ ROSEMARIE GARLAND THOMSON f -;i INTRODUCTION~

Perpetually significant, the singular body has been alternatingly coveted, revered, and broad strokes here how__freak.discourse js both imbricated in and reflective of our collective
dreaded. Their rarity made exceptional bodies instrumental and lucrative to those who cultural trarisformati,;n into modernity. The trajectory of historical change in the ways the
appropriated them, even in precapitalist societies. For example, Egyptian kings, Roman ano;;;alous body is framed within the cultural imagination -what I am calling here the freak
aristocrats, and European royalty kept dwarfs and fools as amusing pets. Cheap, popular discourse's genealogy-can be characterized simply as a movement from a narrative of the
"monster ballads" in Renaissance England detailed the corporeal particulars of anomalous marvelous to a narrative of the deviant. As modernity develops in Western culture, freak
bodies and uncovered their hidden lessons: a cleft palate cautioned against lewd talk; missing discourse logs the chaI)ge: the prodigious monster transforms into the pathological terata;
fingers warned against idleness. An anxious England even made bestiality a capital offense in what was once sought after as revelation becomes pursued as entertainment; what aroused .
1534, lest the occasional, unsettling birth anomalies that suggested hybridity might burgeon aWenow inspires horror; what was taken as a pOrtent shifts to a site of progress. In brief, (
uncontrolled as testimonies to some threatening cousinship between man and beast. 2 Tributes wonder becom'<~s -error:·
to Matthew Buchinger-who was virtually armless and legless, but nevertheless powdered __,.,Consider, ·for iriStince, the semantic distinctions applied to anomalous bodies over time.
and wigged-record that he dazzled eighteenth-century Europe with his conjuring, musical Never simply itself, the exceptional body betokens something else, becomes revelatory, sus-
performances, calligraphic skills, and marksmanship with the pistol. 3 Learned gentlemen of tains narrative, exists socially in a realm of hyper-representati~~lndeed, the word monster-
the early Enlightenment collected relics of the increasingly secularized monstrous body in perhaps the earliest and most enduring name for the singular body-derives from the Latin
their eclectic cabinets of curiosities, along with an array of oddities such as sharks' teeth, monstra, meaning to warn, show, or sign, and which has given us the modern verb demonstrate.
fossils, and intricately carved cherrystones. 4 As scientific inquiry began to eclipse religious Monsters were taken as a showing forth of divine will from antiquity until the hand of God
justification, the internal anatomy of exceptional bodies was exposed in the dissection theaters seemingly loosed its grip on the world. When the gods lapsed into silence, monsters became
and represented in early medical treatises upon which reputat,~ns were built. The cabinet of an index of Nature's fancy or-as they now appear in genetics and embryology-the Rosetta
curiosity commercialized into such equally diverse popular museums as P T. Barnum's famous Stone that reveals the mechanics·oflife. As portents, monsters were the premier manifestation
American Museum, all replete with their sensationalized, hyperbolic narratives. 5 The ancient of a varied group of astonishing natural phenomena known as prodigies, marvels, or wonders.
practice of exhibiting anomalous bodies in taverns and on streetcorners consolidated in the Under the sign of the miraculous, comets, earthquakes, six-legged calves, cyclopic pigs, and
nineteenth century into institutions such as American circus sideshows or London's Bartho- human monsters confirmed, repudiated, or revised what humanity imagined as the order of
lemew Fair, where showmen and monster-mongers proliferated in response to a seemingly things. By challenging the boundaries of the human and the coherence of what seemed to be
insatiable desire to gawk contemplatively at these marvelous phenomena. 6 In a definitive the natural world, monstrous bodies appeared as sublime, merging the terrible with the
bifurcation from the popular, nineteenth-century science officially enunciated teratology as wonderful, equalizing repulsion with attraction.
the study, classification, and manipulation ofmonstto_us .bodie_s. As scientific explanation Whether generating awe, delight, terror, or knowledge, the monstrous emerges from
eclipsed religious mystery to become_ th_e authoritative cultur_al narrntive of modernity,· the culture-bound expectations even as it violates them. Certainly the cultural relativity of what
exceptional body began increasingly to be represented in clinical te;ms _as pa~h~logy, and the counts as monstrous is witnessed by the medieval Wonder Books, which imagined as monsters
monstrous body move_d frqm the freak show stageinto the medical theater, Thus, even though the alien races of distant geographies, particularly those of "The East." 8 In a similar genre,
the di;c;;;;~ses of the anomalous body comprise a series of successive reframings within a the French surgeon Ambroise Pare in 1573 conflated what we would today see as the normal,
Vffiefy of registers over time, the uneasy human impulse to textualize, to contain,__ to explain the deviant, and the fanciful in an illustrated treatise on monsters that catalogues together
our most unexpected corporeal.manifestations to ourselves has remai~~d ~onstant. 7 marvels such as conjoined twins, giraffes, hermaphrodites, sea devils, elephants, unicorns,
.. As this very brief recapitulation of the excepti.onal body's appropriations in Western culture comets, incubi, and Egyptian mermaids. 9 Pare's Des Monstres et prodigies straddles the seam
implies, what we might call "freak discourse" can be seen as a single gauge registering a between wonder and error, between marvelous and medicalized narratives of the anomalous
historical shift from the ancient to the modern era. Although extraordinary bodily forms have body. Along with the traditional divinely driven explanations, Pare initiates a secular, clinical
always been acknowledged as atypical, the cultural resonances accorded them arise from the approach to monsters that runs parallel to and competes with religious interpretations, finally
historical and intellectual moments in which these bodies are embedded. Because such bodies eclipsing them around the beginning of the twentieth century. This incipient scientific view,
are rare, unique, material, and confounding of cultural categories, they function as magnets to which depends upon the fantasy of objectivity and sees regularity rather than exceptionality as
! : which culture secures its anxieties, questions, and needs at any given moment. Like the bodies founding epistemology, imposes empiricism upon the narrative of wonder that had ranged
of females and slaves, the monstrous body exists in societies to be exploited for someone else's relatively freely across earlier representations of monsters. By the seventeenth century this
purposes. Thus, singular bodies become politicized when culture maps its concerns upon alternative humanistic, scientific discourse, which endorses the predictable, entwines itself
them as meditations on individual as well as national values, identity, and direction. Under with the idea of religious prodigies, casting extraordinary bodies as nature's benevolent
the extreme pressures of modernity, it would seem, the significances imposed upon such whimsies, bestowed upon the world to delight man's curiosity and inspire his awe. This is
bodies intensified and the modes of representation proliferated in ways from which we can not, however, the awe of divine warning, but rather an implication that the world exists
coax fresh cultural understandings. increasingly not to glorify god but to please man, who is destined to be its master.
As a way to introduce the chapters that comprise this volume, I want to suggest in rather The notion of the monster as prodigy fades at this juncture, transfiguring singular bodies

2 3
 1 ROSEMARIE GARLAND THOMSON~ /4 INTRODUCTION~
l
into lusus naturae, nature's sport or the freak of nature. As divine design disengages from the oddities in taverns and the slightly more respectable performances in rented halls evolved in
natural world in the human mind, the word freak emerges to express capricious variegation or the mid-nineteenth century into institutionalized, permanent exhibitions of freaks in dime
sudden, erratic change. Milton's Lycidas seems to have initiated freak into English in 1637 to museums and later in circus sideshows, fairs, and amusement park midways. The apotheosis
mean a fleck of color. By the seventeenth century freak broadens to mean whimsy or fancy. of museums, which both inaugurated and informed the myriad dime museums that followed,
Not until 1847 does the word become synonymous with human corporeal anomaly. Thus, was P. T. Barnum's American Museum, which he purchased and revitalized in 1841. Later,
wonder, which enters the language as early as 700, separates from augury to become whimsy Barnum shaped the circus into the three-ringed extravaganza, infusing it with vigor and freaks
as Enlightenment thinking begins to rationalize the world. What was once ominous marvel well into the twentieth century. Until the turn of the century, dime museums proliferated,
now becomes gratuitous oddity as monsters shift into the category of curiosities. 10 Curiosity offering spectacles of amusement parading as edification to all classes of Americans. 14 Human
fuses inquisitiveness, acquisitiveness, and novelty to the ancient pursuit of the extraordinary freaks were the central magnets of Barnum's showplace and all successive dime museums. In
body, shifting the ownership of such bodies from God to the scientist, whose Wunderkammern, the museums' curio halls and lecture rooms as well as on the sideshows' stages and platforms
or cabinets of curiosities, antedate modern museums. Simultaneous with the secularism that gathered an astonishing array of corporeal wonders, from wild men of Borneo to fat ladies,
finds delight in nature's corporeal jokes arises the contrasting empiricism that creates the living skeletons, Fiji princes, albinos, bearded women, Siamese twins, tattooed Circassians,
knowledge used to drive fancy from the world. armless and legless wonders, Chinese giants, cannibals, midget triplets, hermaphrodites,
Consequently, at just the historical moment when the foreboding monster transforms into spotted boys, and much more. Augmenting the marvelous bodies were ancillary performers
the whimsical freak, the Enlightenment logic Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno have and curiosities such as ventriloquists, performing geese, mesmerists, beauty contestants,
termed "the disenchantment of the world" produces teratology, the science of monstrosity contortionists, sharpshooters, trained goats, frog eaters, sword-swallowers, tumbling monkeys,
that eventually tames and rationalizes the wondrous freak. 11 Formally articulated in 1832 by boa constrictors, canaries whistling "Yankee Doodle," and a "Nail King" who drove nails
the French zoologist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, teratology recasts the freak from aston- through boards with his teeth. 15 From the Prince of Wales and Henry James to families and
ishing .corporeal extravagance into the pathological specimen of the terata. Mastered ;nd the humblest immigrants, Americans gathered at this most democratizing institution to gaze
demythologized by modernity, then, is the marvelously singular body whose terrible presence raptly at the ineffable other who was both the focus and the creation of the freak show's
in theworld quickened such cultural narratives as Genesis and the Odyssey. Domesticated hyperbolic conventions of display. 16
within the laboratory and the textbook, what was once the prodigious monster, the fanciful The exaggerated, sensationalized discourse that is the freak show's essence ranged over the
freak, the strange and subtle curiosity of nature, has become today the abnormal, the intolera- seemingly singular bo4i_~s_th_;,t we would n<>"1 call eid1er "physically disabled" or "exotic
ble. The exceptional body thus becomes what Arnold Davidson calls an "especially vicious etbn_ics;'_'-f~_arrung- th~_i:11 _and heighteni11g .thei~. diff~~~pc;_~~-f!::Qro __vie_w_ers·; _ _ Who _were__rende_red
normative violation," demanding genetic reconstruction, surgical normalization, therapeutic comfortably C<l111tn~n-"!lci safely stanclar,{ by
the exchange. Freak discourse structured a
elimination, or relegation to pathological specimen. 12 cultural. ri~al that seized upon any deviation from. the typical, embellishing and intensifying
In response to the tensions of modernity, the ancient practice of interpreting extraordinary it to -i'ffoduc£ahuman spectacle whose every somatic feature was laden with significance
bodies not only shifted toward the secular and the rational, but it flourished as never before 15efore the gaping spectator. An animal-skin wrap, a spear, and some grunting noises, for
within the expanding marketplace, institutionalized under the banner of the freak show. example, ma,le_a ret;!fded blackman into .the Missing_Link. Irregular pigmentation enhanced
Especially in Victorian America, the exhibition of freaks exploded into a public ritual that by; loincloth and some palm fronds produced the Leopard Boy. Feathers, blankets, and a
bonded a sundering polity together in the collective act oflooking. In a turbulent era of social seven-pound hammer turned an "ordinary nigger" into the Ironed-Skulled Prince. 17 Shaved
and material change, the spectad_e o.f the extraordinary body stimulated curiosity, ignited heads, top-knots, and gaudy tunics render two microcephalics into the Aztec Children.
speculation, provoked titilfation, furnished novelty, filled coffers, confirmed commonality, and Congenital anomalies and progressive or hereditary conditions yielded imaginative hybrids of
certified national identity. From the Jacksonian to the Progressive eras, Americans flockea to the human and animal reminiscent of classical satyrs, centaurs, or minotaurs: the Turtle Boy,
freak shows. With the older narrative of wonder still culturally tenable and the newer narrative the Mule-Faced Woman, Serpentina, the Camel Girl, the Dog-Faced Boy, the Bear Woman,
of error ever more compelling, the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries comprised a the Lobster Boy, the Lion Woman, the Alligator Man, and Sealo. Bodies whose forms
heightened, transitional moment for such ceremonial displays. Redolent with the older appeared to transgress rigid social categories such as race, gender, and personhood were
authority of the prodigious, infused with the fitfulness of the fanciful, and susceptible to the particularly good grist for the freak mill. Albino Africans with dreadlocks, double-genitaled
certainties of scientific positivism, the singular body on exhibit was ripe for reading. 13 hermaphrodites, bearded women, fat boys, half-people, the legless and/or armless, and con-
joined twins violated the categorical boundaries that seem to order civilization and inform
individuality. Such hybridity, along with excess and absence, are the threatening organizational
But before we probe further the ways the freak show entwines itself with the social, economic, principles that constituted freakdom. At once dangerous and alluring, this cultural space of
political, and ideological structures of what was arguably America's most intense period of seemingly infinite license is what the freak shows both amplified and contained with their
modernization, we should first explore the conventions of display that created Victorian conventions of display.
America's celebrated freaks. The early itinerant monster-mongers who exhibited human An interlocking set of stylized, highly embellished narratives fashioned unusual bodies into

4 5 ,I

Ir
 ij ROSEMARIE GARLAND THOMSON le ij INTRODUCTION f

1.2. Lipstretching, often exoticized in circuses and freak shows, in an African tribe. Courtesy of the
Circus World Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin.

freaks within the formalized spaces of shows, museums, fairs, and circuses. The four entwined
narrative forms that produced freaks were, first, the oral spiel-ofte~~illtd__ the---~lec.ture" -
that was. de]ivered by the showman or "professor''who-usuaI!fin.;;aged the exhibited person;
second, the oft~,.; fabricated or fantastictexhlal ~~c~u;.,t;-=1:,~1hl~ng pamphlets and broadside
or newspaper advertisements-of the freak's always extraordinary life and identity; third, the
staging, which included costuming, choreography, performance, and the spatial relation to the
audience; and fourth, drawings or photographs that disseminated an iterable, fixed, collectible
visual image of staged freakishness that penetrated into the Victorian parlor and family
album. For commercial ends, freak exhibits enlisted, then, the oral and visual senses as well as
their technological prosthetics, the reproducible printed word and image, to bombard actual
and potential audiences with the freaks that their conventions manufactured.
Although commercial hyperbole drove all these narrative modes, the linguistic genres
themselves varied. The fabulous was shot through with the scientific; truth claims abutted the
credulous; the mundane flanked the peculiar. One example is the sensationally embroidered
printed biographies of the freak's life, accomplishments, and corporeal irregularities. Ac-
cording to one pamphlet, the pregnant mother of the hirsute Madame Howard, the Lion
Woman, was attacked by lions that her brave father then slew. Similarly, the Lobster Boy's
1.1. Charles Tripp, the "Armless Wonder," demonstrates his ability to eat with his feet. Courtesy of fate was determined when his pregnant mother allegedly fainted at the sight of her husband's
Bogdan Collection, Syracuse, New York. exceptionally large catch of the day. 18 Tattooed white men were ostensibly captured and
tortured by cannibals. Missing Links were discovered in the jungles of darkest Africa. The I
I
6 7 II
y
i
;j ROSEMARIE GARLAND THOMSON f ;j INTRODUCTION f

1.3a, b, c. A common practice at freak shows was

to juxtapose stark physical differences. Collection
of Robert Gould Shaw, Harvard Theatre Collec-
tion, The Houghton Library.

lHElATJODED GREEK PRINCE

~SLATED - - W~llTENBYHIMSElF. ._- fATHl
C: /'-Z, f~0MTttE0RJGl~}.ll\(lM~16~PRDFE~SORJ)e~e1Blx~,
~·-·----""~"-'-----•- ,. -•---- - --·- -----------·-·--

G. A. FARIN I'S
LATEST WONDER,
Royal Aquarium, Westminster.
-.-<-',i•; :r<:,/ .../- .. _· . • -- · _ _ - -- - 0•

NE\f,'YORK fOPULAR.PVB CO. 32 BEEKMAN ST NEWYO_~-~

1.4. The cover of the life narrative of Captain Costentenus, "the Tattooed Greek Prince,
Written by Himself and Translated from the Original Romaic by Professor Demetri of
Athens." These exaggerated and frequently fraudulent pamphlets were often sold at
freak shows. Courtesy of the Ron Becker Collection, Syracuse University Library,
Department of Special Collections.

8 9
 -,j ROSEMARIE GARLAND THOMSON~ ~INTRODUCTION~

armless and legless performed on stage, with their alternative limbs, such ordinary tasks as seductive. It evidently was well worth the dime or quarter at a time when modernization
violin playing, calligraphy, needlework, or taking tea, which were then detailed in inflated rendered the meaning of bodily differences and vulnerabilities increasingly unstable and
language that makes them remarkable even as it invites pity and admiration. Autographed threatening.
souvenir cabinet photographs or the extremely popular cartes d'visites literally framed freaks The freak show's golden age occurred specifically within the productive context of nine-
by surrounding them with enhancing props like jungle backdrops or by juxtaposing giants teenth-century America's swift and chaotic modernization. That rich cultural matrix provided
with midgets, for instance, or fat men with human skeletons to intensify by contrast their a conducive environment for the archaic custom of exhibiting and interpreting extraordinary
bodily differences. 19 Presented along with the printed souvenirs were the oral narratives of the bodies and alien cultures to thrive in the invigorated form of the freak show. But the very
showman's pitch, the lechlrer's yarn, and the "professor's" pseudo-authoritative accounts-all cultural and socioeconomic conditions that animated anew this ancient, almost anachronistic,
ornamented with the lurid and dramatized to the point of caricature. Respected medical practice composed the very context that at the same time rendered it obsolete, making the
doctors authenticated the exhibits by detailing their examinations in language at once clinical freak show today virtually synonymous with bad taste, a practice that has gone the way of
and reverent. Costuming enhanced the extraordinary quality of the freak's body, and staging public executions. In the escalating upheaval of modernization between about 1840 through
established distance as well as literal hierarchies between the group of spectators and the lone 1940, what we now think of as the freak show flared like a comet and then vaoished from
spectacle on the elevated platform or in the sunken pit. Living skeletons wore leotards; fat or view, re-emerging in almost unrecognizable forms in the late twentieth century. 22 Although it
bearded ladies sported frills and jewels; hermaphrodites dressed in half-male and half-female is impossible to disentangle or establish causality among the interlocking and mutually
outfits; Zulu warriors became alien by way of animal skins, spears, whoops, and jungle scenes. determining cultural phenomena that quickened and then quieted the freak show, let us
Conventionalized stage names created parodic juxtapositions as well. Midgets always had nevertheless try roughly to uncouple the forces modernization brought to bear on the exhibi-
inflated titles from "high" society, such as Commodore Nutt, General Tom Thumb, Princess tion of the anomalous body.
Wee-wee; fat ladies' names, such as Dolly Dimples, Captivatin' Liz, and Winsome Winnie, Most fundamentally, modernization reconstituted the humao body. Freak shows became
mocked feminine scripts. Taken together, these mediating narratives, as well as the cultural ritual sites where the uncertain polity could anxiously contemplate the new parameters of
premise of irreducible corporeal difference upon which the freak show was founded, comprise embodiment that cultural transformations had wrought. The changes in production, labor,
the process David Hevey calls "enfreakment." 20 technology, and market relations that we loosely call industrialization redeployed and often
Enfreakment emerges from cultural rituals that stylize, silence, differentiate, and distance literally reconfigured the body, perhaps turning America's collective eyes more attentively on
the persons whose bodies the freak-hunters or showmen colonize and commercialize. Para- the extraordinary body for explanation, validation, or simply comfort. Machine culture created
doxically, however, at the same time that enfreakment elaborately foregrounds specific bodily new somatic geographies. For example, the decline of the apprentice system, the rise of the
eccentricities, it also collapses all those differences into a "freakery," a single amorphous machine and the factory, as well as wage labor, put bodies on arbitrary schedules instead of
category of corporeal otherness. By constituting the freak as an icon of generalized embodied allowing natural rhythms to govern activity. Rather than machines acting as prosthetics for
deviance, the exhibitions also simultaneously reinscribed gender, race, sexual aberrance, eth- the human body as they had in traditional cultures, the body under industrialization began to
nicity, and disability as inextricable yet particular exclusionary systems legitimated by bodily seem more like an extension of the machine, which threatened to replace the working body
variation -all represented by the single multivalent figure of the freak. Thus, what we assume or at the least restructure its relation to labor. Efficiency, a concept rooted in the mechanical,
to be a freak of nature was instead a freak of culture.21 ascended to prominence as a measurement of bodily value. Mechanized practices such as
standardization, mass production, and interchangeable parts promoted sameness of form as a
cultural value and made singularity in both products and bodies seem deviant. The profession-
The freak show made more than freaks: it fashioned as well the self-governed, iterable subject alization of authority, wage labor, the logic of slavery and abolition, as well as the women's
of democracy-the American cultural self. Parading at once as entertainment and education, rights movement challenged the common citizen's sense of autonomy and mastery over his
the institutionalized social process of enfreakment united and validated the disparate throng own body and others' bodies. Moreover, industrial accidents as well as the technologies and
positioned as viewers. A freak show's cultural work is to make the physical particularity of the scale of the Civil War literally changed the shapes of human bodies on a dramatic new scale.
freak into a hypervisible text against which the viewer's indistinguishable body fades into a Both sentimentalism and realism, the major representational modes of the freak show period,
seemingly neutral, tractable, and invulnerable instrument of the autonomous will, suitable to register in differing ways the concern with the place and meaning of the body. If this new
the uniform abstract citizenry democracy institutes. Yet the freaks' popularity-the strange body felt alien to the ordinary citizen, the freak's bizarre embodiment could assuage viewers'
blend of reverence and condescension audiences registered- suggests ambivalence toward uneasiness either by functioning as a touchstone of anxious identification or as an assurance
such forfeiture of the bodily distinction that marked eminence in traditional societies. Bound of their regularized normalcy. 23
together by their purchased assurance that they are not freaks, the fascinated onlookers Modernization not only reimagined and reshaped the body, it relocated it as well. The new
perhaps longed in some sense to be extraordinary marvels instead of mundane, even banal, geography of labor changed the physical relationships between bodies, literally separating
democrats in a confusing cultural moment. Nevertheless, the privileged state of disembodi- workers from owners, the skilled from the unskilled, men from women and children. Mental
ment that the freak show conferred upon its spectators, however fraudulent, must have been and manual work migrated apart. Transportation systems and new work patterns moved

IO II
 r
~ ROSEMARIE GARLAND THOMSON!< ~INTRODUCTION!<

people from farms and familial contexts into cities as well as into anonymous social and iconographic-that is, of the show, whether religious or secular-began to be intersected by
labor hierarchies. Wage labor and urbanization created unstructured leisure time and forged literate, scientific discourse and to fragment into an array of specialized discourses, some
situational, transient relationships, while change stimulated a taste for the novel. In addition popular and some elite. With this dispersion of discourses, Victorian middle-class decorum's
to restless physical migrations, a surging marketplace both promised and threatened social project of self-definition increasingly repudiated the popular freak show, while sentimentality
mobility founded upon unstable incomes. All these dislocations created anonymity, forcing recast awe into pity, and other forms of visual entertainment like theater- and, later, mov-
people to rely upon bodily appearance rather than kinship or local memberships as indices of ies-proliferated. Thus the freak show itself-which although perpetually democratic, had
identity and social position. 24 In addition, secularization deemphasized the condition of one's always vexed respectability-came to rest irrevocably at the bottom of low culture. Indeed,
soul, while an intensifying market system spawned the anxious display of status, and technol- the word "freak'' was stigmatized enough by 1898 that the Barnum and Bailey Circus replaced
ogies such as portraiture photography located identity in one's exterior image. Social upheavals it with the term "human curiosities" by 1903, supposedly in response to a group protest by
such as immigration, emancipation, and feminism-along with discriminatory responses such the circus freak performers. 27
as nativism, segregation, and eugenics-depended upon the logic of visual corporeal differ- Yet before the freak show broke off from respectable society around the turn of the century,
ences for their coherence and enactment. Consequently, the way the body looked and func- it was a central element in our collective cultural project of representing the body. Although
tioned became one's primary social resource as local contexts receded, support networks the earlier freak show, with its hybrid of old wonder narratives, commercialized show narra-
unraveled, and mobility dominated social life. tives, and clinical scientific narratives, seems today to have dissipated, it has instead dispersed
In this way, modernity effected a standardization of everyday life that saturated the entire and transformed. Freak discourse did not vanish with the shows, but proliferated into a variety
social fabric, producing and reinforcing the concept of an unmarked, normative, leveled body of contemporary discourses that still allude to its premises. Before this dissemination, how-
as the dominant subject of democracy. Clocks, department stores, ready-made clothing, ever, the exhibition of freaks was inextricably entwined with an array of now-discrete dis-
catalogues, advertising, and factory items sculpted the prosaic toward sameness, while in- courses that were then only beginning to differentiate from one another in the nineteenth
creased literacy and the iterable nature of a burgeoning print culture fortified the impulse century. Genetics, embryology, anatomy, teratology, and reconstructive surgery-the discrete,
toward conformity. With its dependence on predictability, scientific discourse also reimagined high scientific discourses that now pathologize the extraordinary body-were once closely
the body, depreciating particularity while valorizing uniformity. Statistics quantified the body; linked with the showmen's display of the freak body. The equally elite discourses of anthropol-
evolution provided a new heritage; eugenics and teratology policed its boundaries; prosthetics ogy and ethnology, as well as museum culture and taxidermy, were inseparable from the
normalized it; and asylums cordoned off deviance. Additionally, allopathic, professionalized display of freaks in the early nineteenth century. The entertainment discourses of vaudeville,
medicine consolidated its dominance, casting as pathological all departures from the standard circuses, beauty pageants, zoos, horror films, rock celebrity culture, and Epcot Center have
body. Finally, the notion of progress and the ideology of improvement-always a fraught descended from the freak show, to which displays of these kinds were once fused.
consolation against the vagaries of contingency-implemented the ascendance of this new
image of a malleable, regularized body whose attainment was both an individual and national
obligation. 25 I have suggested here that modernity moved the freak from the embodiment of wonder to the
Thus the iconography of social status transformed as the polity concerned itself with the embodiment of error. This volume, however, documents that shift not as an exha_t!_stion_9f the
subtleties of decoding bodies pressed toward the homogenous, even while the ideology of genre but rather as a dispersal of fr~..k show cliscourse into-an array.;T;,th-;,r-;epresentational
individualism called for distinction. In the midst of this communal quest for identity, the .iii.oae,, ·some. ofwhich-for example, .th~ theater of surgery_thatnorma.lizes the bodies of
extravagantly marked, pliant figure of the freak quietly commanded the imaginations of today's conjoined twins-may not be recognizable today at first glance: Focusing, though not
practically everyone. During a confusing era, the freak body represented at once boundless exclusively, on the classic freak show's most intense manifestation in nineteenth- and twenti-
liberty and appalling disorder, the former the promise and the latter the threat of democracy. etli~century America, the chapters assembled here center on parti~lar aspects ;f freak ~how
The enterprising entrepreneur capitalized on all of this amid the prevailing culture of exhibi- cultuie~--~~-~zing the structures of meaning, sociopolitical context, and conventions ___of
tion in which eager and puzzled citizens sought truth, meaning, edification, and distraction display that constitute the figure of the freak in modernity, Taken together, they demonstrate
within a ceremonial cultural space that ritually fused the visual with the textual. how the social ceremony of the freak show sits at the crossroads of all systematic discourses-
This standardization of life and body under modernity was accompanied by a tendency race and gender, for example-that underpin sociopolitical subordination by representing
toward compartmentalization and stratification. As culture became more dynamic, complex, difference as deviance. The volume thus comprises a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary conversa-
and literate with modernization, broad discourses tended to cleave into multiple, discrete tion that charts the interconnections among a profusion of both muted and blatant discourses
discursive systems inflected by an elaborate system of social markers. Such differentiation of the freakish body. ,
created, for example, myriad branches of specialized knowledge and work, each located This volume extends and elaborates the investigation of freaks initiated in 1978 by Leslie
somewhere on the ladder of social status. In democratized nineteenth-century America, class Fiedler's literary critical study, Freaks: Myths and Images ef the Secret Self, and continued in
distinctions solidified, bifurcating cultural discourses as well into high and low. 26 Swept 1988 by Robert Bogdan's sociohistorical account, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities far
along on this wave, freak show discourse, which from premodern times had been primarily Amusement and Profit. Fiedler probes the archetypical aspects of the freak, while Bogdan

I2 IJ
 ~ ROSEMARIE GARLAND THOMSON f-
~INTRODUCTION~

argues for the freak as a social construction. Representative of their c;,spective decades and enfreakrnent, while continuing to chart correlations between museum and freak discourses, as
disciplines, both studies inform the essays here. The casting by cultural studies of a wider net she traces the interpretation of the laughing gas demonstrations that augmented revenues
of inquiry has brought freaks and their exhibition onto the academic deck, inviting the kinds from the 1845-48 traveling exhibit of Rembrandt Peale's monumental temperance painting
of politicized and historicized interrogations collected here. Fiedler's foreword, Bogdan's essay "The Court of Death." Grayson reveals that these laughing gas experiments by audience
(chapter 2 below), and this introduction launch the subsequent conversations that probe the members shifted from subversive to reactionary, acting finally to reveal character and censure
resonances imposed upon the ritual spectacle of visible difference that is the freak.
aberrant behavior so as to affirm bourgeois respectability. finally, Ronald E. Ostrnan's chapter
The book's first_ section,"The Cultural Co11structi911 gf Freaks," gathers three germinal analyzing Farm Security Administration photographs taken between 1935 and 1942 explicates
perspectives ~h~t,__al~_ri_g_"'it'1J:i1:dler's__fo_rew9siL.;.omprise_an.intr9 111!c:t9 ry exalllination of the the role of photography in establishing the persuasion, veracity, and commercialism that
freak as a historical and cultural phenomenon. Bogdan historicizes the- dtedE1:io;; ~(the supported human exhibitions during the waning freak show era. Ostman's re-created carnival
freal<'s6oc!yoysnowconventions, emphasizi;;g that the freak is essentially a fraudulent figure spiels and his analyses of the dynamic among viewers, showmen, and workers revealed by the
produced by modes of presentation that show business employs to construct freaks from photographs suggests how much the shows had to strain for credibility in the twentieth
people with dis_abilities or non-Western ethnicities. Summarizing the taxonomy of representa- century after they had been severed from the more respectable urban museum culture to
tion identified m his book, Bogdan details a variety of strategies, such as the "exotic" and the which they were earlier united.
"aggrandized status" modes, that the shows use to promote freaks. By foregrounding the The third section, "Exhibiting Corporeal Freaks," places particular freak exhibits choreo-
problem of exploitation, historian David A. Gerber shifts the focus of analysis from Bogdan's
graphed trompeoplewliom we woiila ·now te,m:-''a1sab1eamto~eirso6ob1storical ~o~~':"1°s,
social constructionist narrative to a consideration of consent and free will on the part of the
analyzing the larger po1iticalmeanings of-theseindividual-clisplays-:ina reveal~ng stron[ ~nks
performers. Gerber ad~ocates "remoralizing" the question of the freak show, suggesting that berweeii"Hi:e shows -ar1dothei seemlllglyuriimplicatea-strands ofajlt,ir;i[discourse._J ames W.
we. see it b_oth as a socially constructed form of entertainment and as a product of unequal Cook;Jr:;··r;;,gins by-;~rutinizing Barnu-;dslong-running exhibition, "What is lt?"-the
soc,al relations. Whereas Bogdan and Gerber focus on enfreakment strategies, Elizabeth remarkably pliant ·figure of indeterminate corporeal otherness upon whom audiences or
Grosz probes the essential meaning of the freak body to its viewers. Exploring the effects of showmen could project numerous geographical, racial, and cultural templates. By revealing
lived and represented corporeality on identity, philosopher Grosz posits that the freak imperils Barnum's manipulation of "What is It?" as a "nondescript," Cook contests Fretz's claims in
the very categories we rely on to classify humans. Focusing on hermaphrodites and conjoined the previous section about freaks' agency, demonstrating that this particular exhibit literally
twins, the two modes of freakishness whose embodiments are most ambiguous, Grosz embodied the era's deep conflicts over race. Nigel Rothfels extends Cook's linkage of race and
concludes that such corporeal ambiguity is culturally intolerable and always subjected to freak discourse, adding to it an account of how scientific and freak discourses intersected in
surgical intervention because it questions the integrity of received images of the human self. the framing of several exhibitions. Rothfels shows how the German scientific community
The second section, "Practices of Enfreakment," centers on strategies of mediation used to used the bodies ofBartola and Maximo (the ''Aztec Children"), the hirsute Krao, and a group
frame the freak as a spectacle appropriated for the showme;:;'sor-tlie_vi~~n~.pw:p= Paul 1
of Fuegians-all of whom were cast as ' missing links" -as sites on which to formulate and
Semoniiisiliapfor on monstere:xhibitsirrrhemarl<efplace·s-of early modern England glimpses debate the two most important scientific theories of the nineteenth century: evolution and
the beginnings of the freak show's institutionalization. In accounting for the shows' enduring, recapitulation. Focusing next on the famous performing twins Daisy and Violet Hilton,
cross-class appeal, Semonin challenges the assertion that monsters were viewed as either Allison Pingree examines not only how conjoined twins threaten notions of individual
religious portents or scientific specimens by unearthing a popular folk discourse that interprets personhood, but also how gender politics were mapped onto the pair's attachment. Pingree
monsters as comic grotesques. Edward L. Schwarzschild examines next one of the earliest shows that the popular representations of the twins cast their bond as a threatening substitute
institutions of enfreakrnent in America as he shows how Charles Willson Peale colonized the for marriage that is both exploited and contained by entertainment discourse. Lori Merish
spectacle of the dead body in his eighteenth-century Philadelphia museum. Peale's taxidermy, then probes the cultural spectacle of"cuteness" by establishing a genealogy between prodigious
pamtings, and plan to embalm Ben Franklin testify to his museum's attempt to make a freak midgets such as Tom Thumb, whose wedding was one of the century's greatest mass specta-
show of death to achieve individual and national distinction by controlling human mortality. cles, and the equally prodigious and cute Shirley Temple. Exploring as well the politics of
If P. T. Barnum's purchase in 1850 of Peale's failing enterprise supports Schwarzschild's cuteness in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Shirley's constant pairings with childlike
imbrication of museum and freak discourses, Eric Fretz's essay on Barnum's orchestration of a blacks, Merish yokes the comic theatrical style of cute to both racial and gender politics.
theatrical self akin to that of his freaks cements the conjunction of museum and freak cultures ~ fourth section,_ "Exhibiting C11ltixal f're:!h,:dem.onstrates.ho:w.exhi.bitions ...exoJi,ized
in nineteenth-century America. Delineating the larger culture of exhibition in which freak non-Westerners ~s phy;ically deviant figures _JJa~allel to the. fre~ with disabilitie,s. The
sh~ws and museums were embedded, Fretz demonstrates how Barnum's multiple autobiogra- concept of "ethnologicalsllow business" elaborated in Bernth Lindfors's chapter on the
phies and other forms of self-presentation stylize a malleable figure that precisely parallels his nineteenth-century British display of Africans-the famous Hottentot Venus, Zulu Warriors,
fashioned freaks, leading us to ponder the relation between exploitation and agency in the and Bosjesmans- suggests the early fluidity between freak discourse and the nascent project
freakmaking process. Ellen Hickey Grayson next examines the practice of psychological of anthropology. Pointing to the irony that the British simultaneously abolished slavery and

IS
 f
~ ROSEMARIE GARLAND THOMSON~ ~INTRODUCTION~

institutionalized imperialism, Lindfors reveals how cultural others become CO!JlOreal others in Star Wars and the television series Star Trek.· The Next Generation, Weinstock suggests that
the context of exhibitions. Christopher Vaughan examines a similar incarnation during the the extraterrestrial alien is a complex figure of disavowal and identification that validates an
United States' turn-of-the-century missionary imperialist era. Vaughan argues that the display often narrow version of the human as superior. David L. Clark and Catherine Myser's analysis
of Philippine lgorots at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair fed a public hunger for cultural of a documentary film about the surgical separation of conjoined twins yokes together even
difference that affirmed America's sense of cultural progress, of being "civilized" rather than more securely science, entertainment, and freak discourse in the postmodern era. Clark and
"savage." Continuing to track the conjunctions of race, anthropology, and freakishness, Leo- Myser's interrogation of such separations ultimately questions the very idea that the body has
nard Cassuto demonstrates how tattooing acts as a code for racial difference in Herman a fixed, normative outline to which anyone's form can be restored. Cecile Lindsay moves next
Melville's account of failed cultural tolerance, Typee. Cassuto investigates the ways in which from surgical transformations to other forms of bodily plasticity as she demonstrates the
freak discourse ultimately attempted to maintain a fiction of absolute racial distinction at a parallels between the freak figure and the contemporary bodybuilder, a form of bodily
time when abolitionism was threatening such assertions. Focusing in the section's last chapter production Adams commented upon in her chapter. Lindsay argues that bodybuilders, finding
on the intersection of gender, race, and eroticism in the figure of the Circassian Beauty/ new categories to blur, perform themselves and become their own projects, thus potentially
Circassian Slave, Linda Frost shows how this Barnum freak figure served political ends as a challenging the enforcement of cultural norms and embodying postmodern selfhood. Finally,
representative of racial purity who was desired and enslaved by the dark, barbaric Turk. David D. Yuan continues pondering the freak in postmodernity by seeing Michael Jackson as
The fifth section, "Textual Uses of Fre~ks," looks aLs.rune.imp_l"_mentations of the freak a postmodern celebrity freak who creates himself as a freakish figure of theatricalized trans-
figurein-1.it;atureandfilm. Joan H;;;.kins unearths the disturbing ambivalence in Tod gression even while his audience creates him at the same time. Yuan enlists Jackson's reputed
Browning's -~Ta:ssic h~rror film, Freak.r, noting at the same time the misogyny that dovetails identification with Joseph Merrick, the "Elephant Man," as well as Jackson's manipulation of
with the troubling presentation of corporeal difference. Released in 1932 at the moment when his own appearance and skin color to suggest that his refashioned body is part of a perfor-
freak shows became an unacceptable genre, the controversial film, according to Hawkins, mance that challenges gender, sex, and racial boundaries in the manner of enfreakment.
simultaneously humanizes and dehumanizes the film's actual freak performers. Rachel Adams This volume, then, enlists a wide array of scholarly perspectives that collectively illuminate
continues by scrutinizing Katharine Dunn's equally disturbing 1989 novel, Geek Love, which a generally ignored arena of popular culture. These richly varied, often interconnected analyses
she argues vacillates between recognizing that freakishness is socially produced and at the uncover the practices and ideologies through which representation situates the body both in
same time validating bodily materiality as the familial history of the bizarre freak family at history and in the communal consciousness. What lingers here as a residue of these explora-
the novel's center. Adams introduces the troubling issue of the postmodern body's almost tions is the poignant image of the freak, the person cordoned off from the rest of humanity
infinite mutability through surgery and technology, a theme that Shirley Peterson examines by this embroidering, sensationalizing discourse that makes of his or her body not only a
in her chapter on the enlistment of freakishness for a feminist agenda in Angela Carter's cultural spectacle but a token of the anxieties and aspirations of a society intent upon
Nights at the Circus and Fay Weldon's The Life and Loves of a She-Devil Peterson shows that publicizing the freak's private body with its stares. My hope is that our collection will be an
the female protagonists, a hulking giantess and a winged aerialist, explore the transgressive invitation to further discussions that aim ultimately at installing the humanity these discourses
potential of the unfeminine woman in patriarchal culture. In the section's final chapter, Brian deny freaks.
Rosenberg surveys literary and film representations of freaks by detailing his experiences
teaching a literature course on freaks-what he calls "a walk on the pedagogical wild side."
NOTES
Finding that human oddities are a persistent, if muted, presence in literature, Rosenberg 1. George M. Gould aod Walter L. Pyle, Anomalies and Curiosities ef Medicine (Philadelphia: W. B.
explains how in the classroom freak discourse can encourage complex thinking and highlight Saunders, 1897), 199-200.
significant social issues. 2. Keith Thomas, Man and the Natural World (New York: Paotheon, 1983), 135.
The last section, "Relocations of the Freak Show," enumerates several contemporary sites 3. Ricky Jay, Learned Pigs and FireproefWomen (New York: Villard, 1986), 44-57.
where culture reconfigures i-lie freak sh""')nto currently acceptable fi,~ that21s:<',er_t§el~ss 4. Oliver lrnpey aod Arthur MacGregor, eds., The Origins ifMuseums (Oxford: Clarendon, 1985), 4.
5. For discussions of Barnum, see Neil Harris, Humbug: The Art of P. T. Barnum (Boston: Little
!"9'licatetneearriercnoreograplues of~mbodied -otherness:· JGdi:~a-Stulman Dennett juxta- Brown, 1973); and A. H. Saxon, P T. Barnum: The Legend and the Man (New York: New York
po~-ni;;;;~-c.;~~y-d.i~;·;:;,u;eu~ fi-e~ shows and contemporary television talk University Press, 1989).
shows, charting the similarities in structure and presentation between the two displays of 6. Richard D. Altick. The Shows if London (Cambridge: Belknap, 1978).
ostensible human aberrance, the earlier physical and the later psychological. Moreover, Den- 7. The history of monsters and freaks is found in Gould and Pyle, Anomalies and Curiosities; John
nett argues that the one true remaining physical freak today is the fat person, a ridiculed stock Block Friedman, The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1981); Mark V. Barrow, ''.A Brief History of Teratology," in Problems efBirth Defects, ed. T. V. N.
talk show figure cut off from the sympathy that ostensibly rescues disabled people from such
Persaud (Baltimore: University Park Press, 1977), 18-28; JosefWarkaoy, "Congenital Malformations in
scorn. If Dennett suggests that technology informs postroodern freak shows, Jeffrey A. the Past," in Problems ef Birth Defects, ed. T. V. N. Persaud (Baltimore: University Park Press, 1977), 5-
Weinstock confirms her point by demonstrating that science fiction films are the last frontier 17; Dudley Wilson, Signs and Portents: Monstrous Births from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment
of freakdom in contemporary culture. Examining the uses of anomalous bodies in the film (London: Routledge, 1993); Charles J. S. Thompson, The Mystery and Lore ef Monsters (New Hyde

I7
 1 ROSEMARIE GARLAND THOMSON 1,- 1 INTRODUCTION I,-

Park: University Books, 1968); Kathryn Park and Lorraine Daston, "Unnatural Cgnceptions: The David Rothman, The Discovery of the Asylum: Social Order and Disorder in the New Republic (Boston:
Study of Monsters in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century France and England," Pcis-Fand Present: A Little, Brown, 1971).
Journal of Historical Studies 92 (August 1981): 20-54; Yi-Fu Tuan, Dominance and Affection: The 26. Lawrence W. Levine, Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence o/ Cultural Hierarchy in America
Making of Pets (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), chap. 13; Leslie Fiedler, Freaks: Myths and (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988); and Stuart M. Blumin, The Emergence of the Middle-
Images ofthe Secret Self(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978); Robert Bogdan, Freak Show: Presenting Class: Social Experience in the City, 1760-1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
Human Oddities for Amusement and Pr'!ftt (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988); Daniel P. 27. Bruce A. McConachie, "Museum Theater and the Problem of Respectability for Mid-Century
Mannix, Freaks: We Who Are Not as Others (San Francisco: Re/Search Publications, 1990); and Frederick Urban Americans," in The American Stage: Social and Economic Issues from the Colonial Period to the
Drimmer, Very Special People (New York: Amjon, 1983). Present, ed. Ron Engle and Tice L. Miller (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 65-80;
8. Freidman, Monstrous Races; and Mary Bane Campbell, The Witness and the Other World: Exotic "The Uprising of the Freaks," Barnum and Bailey Route Book, 1897-1901, p. 21. John Lentz, in "The
European Travel Writing, 400-1600 (]thaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1988). Revolt of the Freaks, Bandwagon Sept.!Oct. 1977, p. 26-29, concludes that this revolt was a publicity
9. Ambroise Pare, On Monsters and Marvels, trans. Janis L. Pallister (Chicago: University of Chicago stunt; nevertheless, its success demonstrates that the term freak was considered generally objectionable
Press, 1982). by the end of the century.
10. All definitions are from the Oxford English Dictionary, 2d ed. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1991).
11. Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment, trans. John Cumming
(1944; reprint, London: Allen Lane, 1973), 3; see also Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic
(New York: Scribner's, 1971).
12. Arnold I. Davidson, "The Horror of Monsters," in The Boundaries of Humanity: Humam,
Animals, Machines, ed. James J. Sheehan and Morton Sosna (Berkeley: University of California Press,
199), 51.
13. For a discussion of prodigies and religion in America, see Michael P. Winship, "Prodigies,
Puritanism, and the Perils of Natural Philosophy: The Example of Cotton Mather," William and Mary
Quarterly, 3d series, Ll, no. 1 (January 1994): 92-105.
14. The words muse and amusement both descend from the related Old French and Old English
words for staring, gaping, or being idle. Museum comes directly into English from the Latin.
15. George C. D. Odell, Annals of the New York Stage (1927-49; reprint, New York: AMS Press,
1970), 14:1888-91; and William G. FitzGerald, "Side-Shows," parts 1-4, Strand Magazine, March-
June 1897,321-28,405-16,521-28, 776-80.
16. Brooks McNamara, "'A Congress of Wonders': The Rise and Fall of the Dime Museum,"
Emerson Society Quarterly 20, no. 3 (1974): 216-32; Marcello Truzzi, "Circus and Side Shows," in
American Popular Entertainment, ed. Myron Matlaw (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1979) 175-85;
and James B. Twitchell, Carnival Culture: The Trashing of Taste in America (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1992), 57-65. ·
17. FitzGerald, "Side-Shows," part 2,409.
18. The theory of maternal impression as a source of congenital anomalies is discussed in Marie
Helene Huet, Monstrous Imagination (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993).
19. Michael Mitchell, Monsters of the Gilded Age: The Photographs of Charles Eisenmann (Toronto:
Gage, 1979).
20. David Hevey, The Creatures That Time Forgot: Photography and Disability Imagery (New York:
Routledge, 1992), 53.
21. Susan Stewart, On Longing: Narratives o/ the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984), 109.
22. Richard D. Brown, Modernization: The Transformation ofAmerican Life, 1600-1865 (New York:
Hill and Wang, 1976); and Bogdan, Freak Show, 2.
23. For a discussion of the body's historicity, see Thomas Laqueur, Making Sex: Body and Gender
from the Greeks to Freud (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); for a history of disability in
America, see Deborah A. Stone, The Disabled State (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984). For
discussions of the body in modernity, see Mai:k Seltzer, Bodies and Machines (New York: Routledge,
1992); David S. Landes, &volution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World (Cambridge:
Belknap, 1983); and Richard Sennett, The Fall ofPublic Man (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1974).
24. Karen Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study o/Middle-Class Culture in America,
1830-1870 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982); and Sennett, The Fall of Public Man.
25. Paul Starr, The Social Transformation o/American Medicine (New York: Basic Books, 1982); and
r
I

The Cultural Construction

of Freaks
I r
I

The Social Construction of Freaks

ROBERT BOGDAN

At the height of the freak show's popularity, people strolling in urban entertainment districts
or down midways of circuses and carnivals heard the hardy voice of a freak show lecturer
pitching to the crowd: "Step right up ... see the most astonishing aggregation of human
marvels and monstrosities gathered together in one edifice" (lsman 1924). "Freak shows," the
formally organized exhibition of people with alleged physical, mental, or behavioral difference
at circuses, fairs, carnivals, and other amusement venues, .was once an accepted, popular, and
lucrative practice in the United States. There is no record of these shows being attacked as
offensive until well into the twentieth century. Today, they are on the fringe of society, seen
by many as crude, rude, and exploitive. The few remaining freak shows are only the seedy
vestiges of a once gala practice.
This chapter introduces "freaks" as a social construction.---%e focus is the J?~ese11:tation
(Goffman 1959) of human exhibits to the publiE_fo~amuo,emerrLa_nd_pi:onr:_:_tkstudicof
"freak shows" provides an exciti_ng_opl'_ortupi;y_t0Ec,vc,lo1cunderst3c~in,1,_<1fp_a~tl'racticc,J and
ch;ngi;;g ~,;-;,~~ptionsofh.U:-;,,an variation. What strat~gi,§, tec:1}11igues, and images did
-manage!S-and--exliiDiiS ll~e- in promoting attractions;i Haw did these pr.~entations fit with .th_e
c;;Jture of th~!'!JtU~~!Il~!!Lworld and--with-oormnonsensearuLscientifif__n_otions about hu~an
·~ff~_<:_r1ce§? _Y\lhat can weJearn ab0ut-cment--meth0ds-of..retailing.b_odi~ frQm.J:hiL&.QQruogi-
cal encounte_i:__with history? 1
·--They;;;;;, 1840 to 1940 witnessed the rise and fall of the freak show in the United States.
By 1840 "human curiosities," who up to then traveled and were exhibited independently, were
joining burgeoning amusement organizations (Wilmeth 1982). P. T. Barnum, the major figure
in the nineteenth-cenhlry amusement business, took over the American Museum in New
York City during the early 1840s, and this Disneyland of Victorian America featured "human
curiosities." By 1940, economic hard times, technological and geographic changes, competi-
tion from other forms of entertainment, the medicalization of human differences, and
changed public taste resulted in a serious decline in the number and popularity of freak shows,
although they continued through the 1950s and 1960s, and vestiges exist even today.

23
 ~ ROBERT BOGDAN f ~ THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF FREAKS f

shared a sense of camaraderie and a perspective on life. They divided humanity into two
THE Soc1AL CoNSTRUCTION OF "FREAKS"
categories, those who were "with it" ( the insiders' phrase for being part of the amusement
In the mid-1920s Jack Earl, a very tall University of Texas student, visited the Ringling world) and those who were not. They developed a unique language, life style, insiders' secrets,
Brothers circus sideshow. Clyde Ingles, manager, spotted Earl in the audience and approached and contempt'for those who were outsiders. The "marks," "rubes," "suckers," or "yokels," as
the young man to ask him: "How would you like to be a Giant?" This story clarifies a point customers were contemptuously referred to, were targets for systematic shortchanging, rigged
freak show personnel understood but those who have written about "freaks" often neglect: games of chance, establishment pickpockets, and a whole variety of grift,2 fraud, and humbug
whilej,_eip._K_\')(tn;mely t_alJ)s__a_ matte_,_ c,fJJ!iy~ology, being~- a- -•~•~
giant involves somethi'IB_~· (Sharpe 1970; Dadswell 1946; Inciardi and Petersen 1972). Although freak shows were often
..-:-'. "'"~ •· - . . •" ___ _, - ••----- •--~ --~--
... - ~-'--,"-~ - •"' -••·•<-<~ c<>

Similarly, being a "freak," a "human oddity," or a "human curiosity'' is nOt a personal matter, a presented as educational or scientific exhibits, they were always first and foremost a for-profit
physical condition that some people have (Goffman 1963). "Freak" is a way of thinking about activity, and within the climate of the amusement world, misrepresentation was an accepted
and presenting people-:-• frame of mind and a set of practices. practice.
What were the various kinds of human freaks? The few who have written about the Those exhibiting freaks learned, along with their medicine show colleagues, that packaging
sideshow, mainly popular historians, answer the question by concenttating on the physical was as important as content. Using imagery and symbols managers and promoters knew the
characteristics of those exhibited (Drimmer 1973; Durant 1957; Fiedler 1978; and Mannix public would respond to, they created a public identity for the person that was being exhibited
1990). They organize the chapters of their books like medical textbooks. Headings include that would have the widest appeal, and thereby would collect the most dimes. To accomplish
such topics as: "little people" (dwarfs and midgets), "giants," "hairy people," "human skele- this they took citizens, some with abnormalities and others with none (except the desire to
tons, " "arm1ess and 1egIess wond ers, " "pin . h eads, " UJ:iat peop1e, " "alb'1nos," "S'iamese_ twms, . " live the life of a trouper), and made freaks out of them.
"people with extra limbs," "half men/half women," "people with skin disorders," "tattooed In a strict sense of the word, every exhibit was a fraud. This is not to say that freaks were
people," and "anatomical wonders." without physical, mental, and behavioral anomalies. Many had profound differences (severe
People on the inside of the exhibiting business use the physiological categories as well, but disabilities in today's language), but, with very few exceptions, every person ~.hili;d wa1t-Jr:·
they also distinguish among "born freaks," "made freaks," and "novelty acts" (Gresham 1948). ajsr~J!r~s~ut~d. Showmen fabricated freaks' backgrounds, the nature of their condition, the
According to this classifo:a!i.9.1),:'1:,_o_;n_freaks" are people who, at birth, had a r!i~isa!~ll\>illm' circumstances of their current lives, and other personal characteristics. The accurate story of
that makes th.em ;;;;usual, such as Siamese-twins aI10- ariiiles(-friil.Tegl~~speople. "Made the life and conditions of those being exhibited was replaced by purposeful distortion designed
freaks" do something to themselves that makes them unusual ~nough for exhibit, such as to market the exhibit, to produce a more appealing freak. In some cases, only a minor detail
aclorriinf ili~ir__bodi~~tht_~tl:oos. Tl!~. "n.~;elty _act" h~s ~n.
n.n.us11al pertoiiaii~e, s~~h as of the person's true identify was altered-the albino from Australia really came from New
s~illowi"ng swords or charming snakes. In addition to these three main types, sideshow Jersey. In other cases the deception was merely exaggeration -inches added to the height of
people refff1o-"gafrecltteili~=ine-fakes, the phonies-such as the armless wonder who giants and subtracted from midgets. The gaffed freak was only the extteme of fakery.
tucked his arms under a tight-fitting shirt, or the four-legged woman whose extra legs really Flagrant misrepresentation was part and parcel of the most famous as well as the minor
belonged to a person hidden from the audience. When in public, freak show personnel exhibits. The Davis brothers were short and mentally retarded. One was born in New York,
showed disdain for the gaff; their competitors might try to get away with it but they would the other in England. Both grew up on a farm in Ohio. From 1852 until 1905 they achieved
not. The "born freak" was publicly acknowledged as having esteem. natiOnal fame as exhibits in dime museums, fairs, and in the circus sideshow as the Wild Men
This JS-the stand~cftypologyas·ti;:.;,;;,·-;n.-th.;;-i:;;,;;;;ess-present it, and it has not changed of Borneo, who were presented as having been, after a bloody struggle, captured by a ship's
over the last 120 years. In the abstract, the insiders' way of categorizing differentiates freak crew in the far-off Pacific and domesticated. The five-year-old, Connecticut-born Charles
show exhibits from one another, but even they had difficulty applying it. Most exhibits were Stratton became the eleven-year-old, English-born Tom Thumb when Barnum began exhib-
too complex to fit into this simple scheme, and the categories did not acknowledge the iting him. Stratton later married, and although he and his spouse were infertile, they were
pervasive fraud and deception that were characteristic of the whole freak show enterprise. If exhibited with a baby that was presented as theirs (Saxon 1983). An additional Thumb, it was
taken at face value, the insiders' typology veils more than it reveals. It is of interest not hoped, would stimulate business.
because it clarifies the freak show or the exhibits, but because embodied in it are the Show people would not classify Tom Thumb or the Wild Men of Borneo as gaffs. Telling
commonsense notions of the amusement world. of their view of genuineness, they referred to them as the "original" and "authentic" Tom
Thumb and Wild Men of Borneo. Fabrications and misrepresentations were just part of the
taken-for-granted hype of the freak show world. People who were "with it," by emphasizing
THE WoRLD OF AMUSEMENT: GRIFT, FRAUD, AND HUMBUG
the gaffed freak in their typology, and by publicly dwelling on this extreme form of fraud as
The major venues for freak shows became distinct organizational forms in the nineteenth being distasteful, glossed over the accepted widespread misrepresentation that was part and
century, but the boundaries that separated them remained permeable. Showmen and "human parcel of freak shows and the larger institution of which they were apart.
curiosities" jumped back and forth from museums to carnivals to circuses, often playing the
ttaveling shows in the warm months and permanent exhibition halls during the winter. They

24 25
 ;j ROBERT BOGDAN f ;j THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF FREAKS~

PROMOTING THE SHOW

The organization and promotion of freak shows became standardized during the second half
of the nineteenth century. One form of promotion was the exaggerated come-ons that were
presented through newspaper advertisements, handbills, couriers, and posters. Shows were
located in tents on midways at fairs and circuses, in buildings on busy city streets, and on
board walks in amusement parks. The potential customers were part of the strolling crowds.
A row of large canvas paintings of individual attractions called the "bannerline" appeared
outside many shows, with depictions that outlandishly distorted what was inside.
Although written publicity and signs were used, the person who stood outside the entrance
spieling to the crowd about the attractions inside was the key to the promotion. The job of
the "talker" or "outside lecturer" was to get people to "step right up" and buy a ticket. The
best of them were orators who had mastered the art of persuasion. Using exaggeration and
falsification, they told passersby of the wonders that awaited within for the price of a thin
dime. To help attract the crowd the talker often had a "bally'' -one of the exhibits out ftont
as a lure to move the customers closer. A scantily clad woman with a python around her neck
or a colorfully dressed person with a blatant physical deformity would serve the purpose.
Inside, a series of platforms formed separate stages for each "human oddity." An "inside
lecturer" would take over, going from attraction to attraction telling in fabricated detail "the
life and true facts" behind each one. A few exhibits would just sit observing the observers, but
most actively performed. The elastic skin man would stretch his epidermis, the wild man
would look ferocious and pace up and down, and the armless woman might sign autographs
with her feet. Some played musical instruments or sang and danced. Many lectured about
themselves. Whatever they did, it had to correspond to the fabricated image that was created
for them. It also had to be short because the inside lecturer had to keep the crowd moving to
make space for the next batch of customers.
Nevertheless, they did not rush the audience and rob them of the opportunity to buy
souvenirs from the "curiosities." Photographic portraits of each exhibit were available and
would be inscribed with a personal message for an additional fee. Professional photographers
took the pictures, and they carefully posed the attraction in their studios to promote the
exhibits' staged identity (Mitchell 1979). Booklets containing the concocted "true life story
and facts about the conditions'' of each exhibit were also available. The popularity of these
and other items afforded the freaks a convenient way to supplement their incomes, measure
their own popularity, and break the boredom of the routine of the show.

STRATEGIES OF PROMOTING FREAKS

The pitches that freak show promoters used in selling tickets contained the same appeals
other entrepreneurs employ in promoting cars, vacuum cleaners, or colleges for that matter.
2.1. A mediator, such as this carnival talker, is a fixture of the freak show, which requires a figure of Show people presented exhibits as unique, or the best of their kind-the tallest, or the
authority to negotiate the encounter between freak and audience. Courtesy of the Pfenig Collection, sh0ite"St, -the only one, or one <?fa category never seen before. All _were re_commended by or
Columbus, Ohio. associated with prestigious people _ a,nd organizations-_scientis.ts, doctors, clergy, newspapers,
and scientific organizations. People were told about the great popularity of the exh:ibits and of
the need to act quickly so as not to miss the chance of a lifetime. Freak shows were heralded
as morally uplifting and educational, not merely as frivolous amusement. The price was right

27
 T

-;1 ROBERT BOGDAN~ 1 THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF FREAKS~

as well, too much of a bargain to pass by-particularly if you believed the talker's description "savage African" was a popular motif (Lindfors 1983). Late in the nineteenth century and
of the great time and expense involved in getting the exhibits from far-off lands and the high early in the twentieth, when the United States took the Philippines from Spain and was
salaries some exhibits allegedly received. These ploys, many of which have become the cliches fighting the indigenous peoples, the Philippine backdrop was prominent. The scientific
of the sales industry, were liberally injected in the promotion of exhibits. reports and travelogues of nineteenth and early twentieth century natural scientists were
In addition to these general appeals, there developed two specific modes of presenting another important source of stories for the promotion of freaks. Pre- and post-Darwinian
freaks: tli"!',:otic _ll,'!'ef!'_at1cl!lie aggrandized status mode. 3 ':r'liese modes of eresent~tio!). represent discussions about the place of human beings in the great order of things and the relationships
patte,f!1S ofparticttl,µJec:hniques, str~te_gies, andstyles thatp,:omoters and managerS-used to of the various kinds of humans to each other and to baboons, chimps, and gorillas were in the
e:ri1:iE1,e_the_app_eaL0Ltlle. exhibits. They12rPvicledthe formulas for deyeloping.the fabrications air (Gould 1981, Jordan 1968, Gossett 1963). Pseudoscientific writing on classification and
thit. made -up-the· ''tme-•life· stories and.facts regarding"...the _sta_ged. appeJl(anc:e,.thepictures, anthropological reports about the "races of man" provided the ideas for the decorations and
~d o!beLasp""t~-ofcthei'freaks"--prom0ti0n. the details of the presentation narratives in the exotic mode.
--These modes of presentation provide an alternative to categorizing sideshow exhibits on Natural scientists were involved more directly with freak shows. Showmen asked scientists
the basis of physiological characteristics and help avoid the trap of seeing "freaks" as objective to authenticate the origin and credibility, and the scientists' commentary appeared in newspa-
facts. These patterns reveal the implicit assumptions embodied in the freak show world by pers and publicity pamphlets (Altick 1979). Some exhibits were presented to scientific
allowing the focus to be on the institution of exhibiting people and the perspective of those societies for discussion and speculation. Showmen played up the science affiliation. They used
involved rather than on the bodies of those exhibited. the word "museum'' in the title of many freak shows and referred to freak show lecturers as
"professor" or "doctor." L~g_:freak_~_ib_its...w:ith sr.ience made the attractions more interest-K
ing, m()~ebelievabl~'--"11cj_l,:,;_s_friy:£lous to Puritanical an!)~rnain=u.rntiment§. · ·
The Exotic Presentation ----rilthe most flagrant distortion under the exotic mode, Americans citizens were misrepre-
In the exotic mode, the person received an identity that appealed to people's interest in the sented as non-Western foreigners-Ohio raised dwarfs were said to be from Borneo, a tall
culturally strange, the primitive, the bestial, the exotic (Alloula 1983; Said 1978; Karp and North Carolinian black from Dahomia. But the exotic mode was not just employed for
Lavine 1991; Banta and Hinsley 1986). For example, promoters told the audience the person native-born Americans. Many people who were exhibited as freaks actually were born in the
on exhibit came from a mysterious part of the world-darkest Africa, the wilds of Borneo, a countries promoters said they were from. In these cases, the distortion and misrepresentation
Turkish harem, an ancient Aztec kingdom. The geographic location of origin was most often came in the details of the stories and in the exaggeration of the exotic in the descriptions of
the non-Western world, but occasionally American Venues such as Native American villages the culture and the person exhibited. The odd, bizarre, erotic, and savage was highlighted
or the wilds of the Far West qualified. The lecturer and the "true life story" booklet would tell (Rydell 1984). Favorite themes included cannibalism, human sacrifice, head hunting, polyg-
of the person's origin, giving specific or purposefully erroneous and distorted information amy, unusual dress, and food preferences that repelled Americans (eating dogs, rodents, and
about the life and customs of the area of alleged origin and of the freaks place in that society. insects).
Tales of albinos, for example, contained descriptions of them either being worshipped or, People with demonstrable physical differences (those who were very tall, very short, without
more usually, being prepared for sacrifice. Sacrifices were curtailed by an explorer who saved arms and legs, conjoined, etc.) were brought from the Third World and exhibited within the
the life of the albino by taking her or him from the tribe. Some stories were so elaborate they exotic motif, emphasizing their anomalies plus their "strange ways." But many freaks who
took thirty-five pages to tell. were brought from abroad had nothing "wrong" with them physically. Nevertheless, they were
Dressed to fit the story, the exhibit would behave consistently with the front. The "wild referred to as freaks by those in the business as well as by the press and the general public and
men'' or "savages" might grunt or pace the stage, snarling and growling, letting off warrior often shared the freak show platform with people we would describe as having disabilities.
screams. Dress might include a loincloth, a string of bones around the neck, and, in a few What made them "freaks" was the racist presentations of them and their culture by promoters.
cases, chains allegedly protecting the audience from the beast before them. In the case of
people from the Middle East or Asia, the presentation and the performance would be more Aggrandized Status
subdued, with the freak acting out in exaggerated stereotypic ways the mannerisms and
customs of its supposed country of origin. The freak presented in the exotic mode typically The ~o~~-I_?:ode_ emphasiz_:~}2?~-~~-r~~~--a~4,__ in___r:nost cases, hmv i_nferior tlie_personJLQil
appeared in his or her photos with a painted backdrop depicting jungle scenes or exotic lands. exhibitw~re, '.fhe_ aggr~g~i-z~dillQcje_reversecj_thatby laying cl,§ to tnesup~;Jo;it_y~9f!_!ie
Papier-mache boulders, imitation tropical plants, and other touches of exotica added a three- ~ Social position, achievements, talents, family, and physiology were fabricated, elevated,
or exaggerated and then :flaunted. Prestigious titles such as "Captain," "Major," "General,"
dimensional flare to the set.
The exotic stories used in presenting exhibits maximized interest. In a period of intense "Prince," "King," "Princess," and "Qyeen" aggrandized exhibits. Since Europe and England
world exploration and Western expansion, news events provided some of the scripts and were admired by Americans as culturally superior, changing common-sounding names to
descriptions for the presentation of freaks. Thus, when Stanley and Livingstone were lost in those that suggested European or English birth, accompanied by a changed birthplace, was
the "dark continent" and imperialist Britain was fighting those they were colonizing, the another technique of elevating status. Showmen sometimes told the public that the freak was
 ;j ROBERT BOGDAN f -1 THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF FREAKS~

highly educated, spoke many languages, and had aristocratic hobbies such as writing poetry
or painting. In addition, having an audience with royalty or with the president of the United
States was commonly flaunted or fabricated. This publicity claimed that the "human curiosity"
was in the same social circle as the celebrities, not merely a scientific specimen. The aggran-
dized status mode also required dressing the part. Expensive jewelry, stylish clothes, top hats
and tails, evening gowns, furs, and the acquisition of fine taste figured lavishly in sOme
presentations. For others, merely being very clean and neat and respectably dressed was the
aggrandizement. Another way to enhance the exhibited person was to boast of conventional
but status-significant organizational affiliations and attainments. Membership and offices held
in churches, the Masons, Eastern States, and the Daughters of the American Revolution were
mentioned in lectures and pamphlets. Some of the "human curiosities" wore pins and dis-
played other symbols of their membership while on their platforms.
Performances in the aggrandized status mode were of two types. The first involved doing
tasks that one n1ight assume could not be done J:,ya person with that particular disability. A
person- without legs, for example, might show how he walked with his-arms. The emphasis
was on how the person exhibited compensated for the disability. The second kind of perfor-
mance Wa~ -more standard show business. Freaks sang, danced, and played musical instru-
ments,4 emphasizing their conventional talents and accomplishments.
Boasting about the normalcy of the freak's spouse was another technique of the aggrandized
presentation. Many of the photographic portraits of freaks sold at exhibits pose them with
their families against a sitting room backdrop with stuffed chairs and other symbols of 2.2. Freakishness was often created from gender
middle-class aspirations. "True life" booklets and the lecturers' descriptions sometimes transgression, as in this image of a bearded lady,
dwelled on the exhibits' family roles and the spouses' and children's accomplishments. Presen- which replicates the traditional Victorian portrait
tation of freaks who were children stressed the normalcy of the parents and siblings, who of marriage. Collection of Robert Gould Shaw,
Harvard Theatre Collection, The Houghton Li-
sometimes were displayed with the freak.
brary.
Those displayed in the aggrandized mode tended to be presented as physically normal, or
even superior, in all ways except for the particular anomaly that was their alleged reason for
fame. In many presentations the exhibit was described as physically attractive and in no way explanations. 5 With the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel, the rise of the eugenics movement,
distasteful to the audience. This was standard in the promoting of midgets. and advances in the understanding of the thyroid and pituitary glands, freaks appeared
The exotic mode of presentation borrowed its narratives from imperialistic excursions and increasingly in newspaper articles describing them as "sick" and in the domain of doctors, not
natural science exploration. On occasion, medical doctors examined the specimen, but for the the public. This medical assault, accompanied by the eugenics movement (Reilly 1991,
most part the freak was presented as belonging to the anthropologists or zoological and Ludmerer 1972), undermined the aggrandized mode in the first third of the twentieth century
philosophical taxonomers. The scientific underpinnings of the aggrandized mode were pro- (Circus and Museum Freaks 1908).
vided by teratology, the study of human "monsters" -the word given to infants born with
congenital abnormalities-as well as other medical specialties (Gould and Pyle 1986). The CHARACTERISTICS OF PEOPLE AND MODES OF PRESENTATION
nineteenth century popularized the idea that human birth abnormalities were not the result
of Satan or evil acts by the parents but were part of God's natural order, an order that could What factors determined which mode a would-be freak was cast into? To some extent,
be understood by rational science. Doctor's testimonials and pronouncements, often appearing particular kinds of anomalies typed the person as being in one mode or the other. For example,
at length in the "true life booklets," were used as part of the presentations in the aggrandized people with microcephaly, a condition associated with mental retardation and characterized by
status mode. These testimonials emphasized that the abnormality was a discrete condition, a very small, pointed head, were typically presented in the exotic mode as "wild men,"
not an indictment of the integrity or morality of the exhibit or his or her parents. Because "missing links," or atavistic specimens of an extinct race. Hypopituitary dwarfs-commonly
little was known about genetics and the endocrine system prior to the turn of the century, referred to as midgets-and who tend to be well proportioned and physically attractive, were
teratology was primarily a science of classification. The causes of the conditions were open for cast within the aggrandized status mode. Achondroplastic dwarfs, whose head and limbs tend
popular speculation, and theories of maternal impression dominated presentations as well as to be out of proportion to their trunks, appeared in the exotic mode. But the person's

JO JI
 '1 ROBERT BOGDAN~ i1 THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF FREAKS~

particular disability was not always the crucial factor. A very tall person, for example, might
be presented in the exotic mode as a warrior from a lost civilization, for example, or in the
aggrandized mode as a European prince.
Skin color was an important factor. Blacks tended to be cast as exotics, billed as missing
links or as savages from Africa. White, native-born Americans were less likely to be exotics
though some were said to be from the South Sea Islands or South American. Although the
presentation and the characteristics of the person exhibited often were congruent, promoters
were very creative with their tales. Whites became exotic with stories about being raised by,
or tortured by, or living among non-Western people by virtue of having been captured,
kidnapped, or washing ashore after surviving a shipwreck. Tattooing as a torture inflicted,
supposedly by barbaric people, was the standard way of presenting Caucasian "human art
galleries." Some of the most famous exhibits in the aggrandized status mode were carefully
groomed and trained for exhibit. For example, Millie and Christine, black conjoined twins
born in slavery, became the celebrated Victorian singing nightingales. P. T. Barnum carefully 2.3. A 1903 shot of the Barnum and Bailey Circus Sideshow Group, depicting forty-seven performers
prepared Charles Stratton, a man born to a family of modest means, to hobnob with society's and illustrating the remarkable diversity of sideshow freakishness. Courtesy of the Circus World
elite as General Tom Thumb. Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin.

humor by juxtaposing incongruity. A famous example was Krao Farini, a hirsute female from
COMPLEXITY IN THE MODES OF PRESENTATION
Laos. In the 1880s, when she was still a child, she started her freak career as "Darwin's
The exotic and aggrandized modes of presentation represent clear patterns, but they do not Missing Link," portrayed as halfway between human and monkey. Even though she remained
capture the entire range of freak images, nor do they suggest the complexity in the imagery of 'Darwin's Missing Link" throughout her career, as she entered her teens she began to be
1

many exhibits. Especially in the mid-nineteenth century, the exotic and aggrandized modes presented as a cultured, intelligent lady who spoke five languages. In the case of Krao,
were often enacted with the serious intent of getting the audience to believe the fa,ade. With Juxtaposing elements of the exotic mode with aggrandized status created novel incongruities
other exhibits, and increasingly toward the last decade of the nineteenth and into the that had an obvious public appeal given her long and successful career.
twentieth centuries, the presentation was more whimsical, containing elements of farce, As Krao's case suggests, some exhibits changed modes over the course of their careers. It
mockery, ridicule, and humor. While there are a few examples of exhibits being dressed as was common early in careers for managers to try different modes to see which seemed to
clowns and cast as fools, the direct presentation of exhibits in a humorous mode, separate appeal to the audience and fit the person behind the fa,ade. The changing characteristics of
from the exotic and aggrandized modes, never fully developed. Rather, comic and mocking the person and the changing tastes of society affected the mode's appreciation. Displays of the
elements were incorporated into the modes already discussed. Usually humor took the form original Siamese twins, Chang and Eng, for example, first emphasized their cultural differ-
of exaggeration. The fabrications, the appearance of the freak, and the overall presentation ences, exotic dress, and habits (Hunter 1964). In early publicity drawings, the twins appear in
were so outlandish that both the talker and most in the audience shared a sense of the Asian dress and pigtails. Later in their careers, after they had been Westernized, they dressed
ridiculous. Perhaps the best examples of this were the "fat people" exhibits. Obese people American by wearing suits and ties, and the fact that they each were married and had large
were common in freak shows and were so popular that a few carnivals carried sideshows made families was stressed. Many freaks moved from a straight, one-mode presentation to taking
up exclusively of extremely heavy people. "Congresses of Obesity'' exhibited women dressed on elements of farce as they got older.
in dainty, frilly lace dresses and other trappings of stereotyped petite femininity and gave By the turn of the century humor and mockery became stronger element of the freak show.
them names like "Babe Ruth," ((Little Emma," and "Dollie Dimples." The lecturer would This is not to say that the unironic, straight exotic and aggrandized modes were completely
acknowledge his participation in the farce with asides, humor, and commentary. In some absent. As late as the 1930s, Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus, the most
cases, hints of irony were subtle, allowing the showmen to play to the more worldly segment prestigious and popular of the circuses, showed two separate groups of indigenous people, the
of the audience as a farce, while playing straight to the more naive. By presenting some "Ubangi Savages" and the "Burmese Giraffe Neck Women," as "educational and scientific
exhibits on the borderline between farce and straight, showmen avoided some of the confron- attractions."
tations that might occur with members of the audience who wanted to expose the fraud. By By the early twentieth. century the audience was learning to view the freaks differently.
playing this borderline skillfully, showmen could have the audience participate in the hoax People with disabilities started being viewed as sick-::.as having various. geµe,ic and. encloc:.rine
much in the way adults participate in seeing Santa in the presence of children. disorders.-As the j,iiolic became knowledgeable about the people of the world, exoti,~hype
The exotic and aggrandized modes were not always mutually exclusive. Some freaks losLit;appe:tl,fh~ iazz1e=daizle died down and was replaced by a more staid prnsenta_tion.
appeared in a mixed mode, borrowing elements from each and deriving interest as well as The "talker" p_eg,1n_ using _a m_ic;:rophone_, ~nd "tru_e life booklets" became: s_hort_~r and muc11__ less

32 .33
 1 ROBERT BOGDAN~ 1 THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF FREAKS f

~mbellished. The carefully posed, professional quality photographic images of the freaks were achieye_rnents~nd for how, except for their particularphysical anomaly, they were_ quite
replaced by poor quality postcards. nonµal, _even supe~io;.-Th~ a~di~n:c~. must" hiVe-w~nJefe"d-WhY, :·1£-th~Y. ~er~ --;0- ~OmJ)ete~t,
t~ey madcaliving having others look at them. Witli the best circuses, dime museums, and
amusement parks, salaries and living conditions were good. Some exhibits chose their careers
D1scussJON because of the financial benefits and fame they brought. But for the majority, those who were
By seeing freak shows as a business and exhibits as presentations, we can begin to understand exhibited in the second-rate establishments, life was marginal and precarious. Here the
3!1e_ n1a_n~c°"'~and management of disability images for profit. Well into the twentieth exhibits chose their way of life not because of what it offered, but because of what they got
century, such shows- were an :iccepfoapart of American popular culture. As we have seen, the away from. With an urbanizing country, no social security, discrimination in employment,
way exhibits were presented-the exotic mode that exploited the public's interest in the "races architectural barriers, and strained interpersonal relations, ps:rJ.9_!1:~_J.ri!h ... ar1.gr_;n_alj_~s .f~upd
i of man," and the aggrandized mode that capitalized on the public's status concerns-was not r~ftige in ~_w9r_ld_wherethere were others similarly situate&If they did not find fortune and
' II fame, they found acceptance and more_freedom than either custodial institutions or the
offensive to nineteenth- and early twentieth-century citizens. There are a few isolated exam-
ples of attractions promoted in a way designed to work on the sympathies and compassion of 'mainstream might provide. Although to some extent the imagery of the aggranc:l!zed mode
the audience for the plight of the freak, but they are rare. Pity as a mode or even as an was positive, the mere presence of the exhibits as part of the amusement world, yvhicl1 itself
element of presentation was nearly absent. If it had pleased audiences, promoters might have was depraved in Jhe public view, sµggested that they belonged with their own kind and that
developed presentations emphasizing how difficult life was for the "handicapped" exhibits, they were not competent enough to prosper in the larger world.
told the crowds how unhappy they were, how the admission charge would help pay their
expenses and relieve their suffering. But pity dicl_!>o_t_coincide with the world of amusement CONCLUSION
"'.here1Je9pJe llsc,c!Jh,:irJ~is\!re_til"e ~11_\l ~pent their money to b~ entertained, ;,.;t-t~--~-;,nfr-;,nt
humansufferin .6 ·-- ·· ·- ·· --·---•-----·-·•--'·· ---- -" --------
To some the word "freak'' is offensive. It was the preferred term in the amusement industry,
---- ----·-- ___,g
~-''La ..mocle_of presentingpeople with physical, mental, and behavioral differences fit even among the exhibits themselves, at least through the 1930s (Johnston 1933). Human
better the,111~dicalized. con~eptiqnof human -differences.While in the nin-;,t~~;:;th ce~y exhibits were not offended by the term because they did not take the nouns people used to
natural SC1ent1sts, teratolog1sts, and other doctors examined freaks, they were not patients. refer to them seriously. Their main concern was to make money. Any designation that
Professionals had not gained control over human deviation; people with physical and mental facilitated profit was acceptable. As freaks sat on the platform, most looked down on the
anomalies were still in the public domain. Into the twentieth century, the power of professions audience with contempt-not because they felt angry at being gawked at or at being called
increased and the eugenics movement grew strong. People with physical and mental anomalies freaks, but simply because the amusement world looked down on "rubes" in general. Their
came under the control of professionals and many were secluded from the public. Their contempt was that of insiders toward the uninitiated. For those in the amusement world the
conditions were to be contained or treated behind closed doors. During the first three decades sucker who came to the show was on the outside, not the exhibit. I have not used the term
of the twentieth century, human differences were thought of as a threat to the ''American "freak'' t~ mean people wh~ h_ave certain physical cO~ditions. ' ~ " i~_a f~~IE--~.o_Lm~~!._~ s~t ~'frc_-,
Race." People with physical and mental differences became dangerous because they were of practices, a way of thinking about a11d_ p,:esent1ng peopl~,_Jt1s .not a person but t1ie ,,
alleged to have inferior genes that, if not controlled would weaken the breeding stock. They ena_ctmem c/f ~-ttiditlon, ~the perfp_rjll_an_c:!;_QDU!ylized_presenration. -
needed to be locked away and in other ways controlled to protect the gene pool. This was Whenever we study deviance we have to look at those in charge-whether self-appointed
accompanied by the professionalization of organized charities and fund raising, the invention or officially-of telling us who deviants are and what they are like. Their versions of reality
of the poster child. Pity combined with the medical model became the dominant mode of are presentations, people filtered through stories and world views. The concept of "freak'' no
presenting human differences for money. It is through this lens that we look back on freak longer sustains careers. Human differences are now framed in other modes and by different
shows and find them distasteful. institutions. For sideshow participants, the world view was that of show business, and the
This is not to suggest that the earlier imagery of the disabled promoted by the freak show images were fabricated to sell the person as an attraction. In the hands of professional
enhanced the well-being of disabled people more than modern renderings. The exotic mode organizations, the images created will be designed to reach the organization's aim most
obviously presented people in ways that offend current taste and positive ideas of the capabili- effectively. In the professions and human services, success often comes to be defined as
ties of people with physical and mental differences. Steeped in racism, imperialism, and survival and expansion, which is possible only with a proper cash flow though charitable
?andicapism, this mode emphasized the inferiority of the "human curiosity." The negative contributions and public support. In the end, the freak show has much in common with
imagery paralleled the visions of natural science at the time by casting the exhibits as human service agencies. The imagery may be different but the issue of the relation between
specimens, as inferior and as contemptuous. The association of various human differences presentation and profit is similar. The job of those who want to serve people seen as disabled
with d~ger,_vvitll Sllbhumans, and with animals;was developed as well as perpettrated by or different is to get behind the scenes, to know them as they see themselves, not as they are
the.s_e_ex_hi):,i t§_{gqt _tQ_rn~ritior_i itsimpact ori ima:ges oft a:cial -.tti.riorities "and non"Wesi:erners). presented. Presentations are artifacts of changing social institutions, organizatiorial forma-
~r8!__glance_t!i_e -~grandized mode -seems-p-;,,11:,ve. -Exh,Eits '\vere -1,uoedTcir i:heir tions, and world views. To understand the presentations, to become dislodged from their hold
- . •• .. '.C .,,_.,_ ••·•• ·•--.C ••·.•

34 35
 1 ROBERT BOGDAN~ 1 THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF FREAKS~

on our reality, we have to trace their origins and understand their place in the world as it is Roth, H., and R. Cromie. 1980. The Little People. New York: Everest House.
presently constructed. Rydell, R. 1984. All the Worlds a Fair. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Said, E. 1978. Orienta/ism. New York: Vintage.
Saxon, A. 1983. The Autobiography ofMrs. Tom Thumb. Hamden, Conn.: Archon.
NOTES
Sharpe, A. 1970. "Circus Grifr." Bandwagon 14.
1. The chapter is based on a larger historical study of freak shows in the United States (see Bogdan, Wilmeth, D. 1982. Variety Entertainment and Outdoor Amusements. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood.
1987, 1988, and 1993). Memoirs of show people, period newspapers, magazines, photographs, and
various forms of circus, carnival, fair, and dime museum memorabilia made up the bulk of the data.
Private correspondence and interviews with show personnel were also a source of information.
2. "Grift" is a circus and carnival term for "the crooked games, short change artists, cloths line
robbers, merchandise boosters, pickpockets and all other types of skull duggery" (McKennon 1980).
3. Showmen did not use these phrases. Whether they consciously thought in terms of these concepts
is not clear, but their actions suggest that such ideas were part of their perspective.
4. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries troupes of midgets put on elaborate theatrical
and musical performances (see Roth and Cromie 1980).
5. The theory held that pregnant women's babies could be influenced by the experiences, especially
frightening experiences, the mother had. Thus, in one case, an African-American woman's delivery of
a piebald child was attributed to her being frightened by a white horse while pregnant.
6. In non-freak show venues, sympathy and pity were at work. Charity and begging coexisted in the
society at large with the freak show.

REFERENCES

Alloula, M. 1983. The Colonial Harem. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Altick, R. 1979. Shows of London. Cambridge: Belknap.
Banta, M. and C. Hinsley. 1986. From Site to Sight. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Bogdan, R. 1993. "In Defense of Freak Show." Disability, Handicap and Society 8, no. 1.
- - - . 1988. Freak Show. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- - - . 1987. "Exhibition of Mentally Retarded People for Amusement and Profit, 1850-1940."
American journal ofMental Deficiency 91.
Circus and Museum Freaks. 1908. Scientific America Supplement, April 4.
Dadswell, J. 1946. Hey There, Sucker! Boston: Bruce Humphries.
Drimmer, F. 1973. Very Special People. New York: Amjon.
Durant, A. 1957. A Pictorial History of the American Circus. New York: A. S. Barnes.
Fiedler, L. 1978. Freaks. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Goffman, E. 1963. Stigma. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
- - - . 1959. Presentation ofSe!fin Everyday Life. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.
Gossett, T. 1963. Race. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press.
Gould, G., and W. Pyle. 1896. Anomalies and Curiosities ofMedicine. New York: Bell.
Gould, S. 1981. The Mismeasure of Man. New York: W.W. Norton.
Gresham, W. 1948. Monster Midway. New York: Rinehart.
Hunter, K. 1964. Duet far Life. New York: Coward-McCann.
Inciardi, J., and D. Petersen. 1972. "GaffJoints and Shell Games." journal of Popular Culture 6.
Isman, I. 1924. Weber and Fields. New York: Boni and Liveright.
Johnston, A. 1933. "Sideshow People III." New Yorker, April 28.
Jordan, W. 1968. White over Black. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Karp, I., and S. Lavine. 1991. Exhibiting Cultures. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Press.
Lindfors, B. 1983. "Circus Africans." Journal ofAmerican Culture 6, no. 2.
Ludmerer, K. 1972. Genetics and American Society. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Mannix, D. 1990. Freaks. San Francisco: RE/SEARCH Publications.
McKennon, J. 1980. A Pictorial History of the American Carnival Sarasota, Fla.: Carnival Publishers.
Mitchell, M. 1979. Momters of the Gilded Age. Toronto: Gage.
Reilly, P. 1991. The Surgical Solution. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

37
If

~ THE "CAREERS" OF PEOPLE EXHIBITED~

fascinating book, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities far Amusement and Profit (1988),
and other writings. In this book Bogdan does us an important service by opening up for
systematic discussion the history of Americans with physical anomalies, and by suggesting the
commercial and cultural roots of one process by which physical differences might become
The "Careers" of People Exhibited in Freak Shows: endowed, under specific historical circumstances, with significant meanings. Other aspects of
the book are, for me, troubling. Bogdan advances a social constructionist approach to the
The Problem of Volition and Valorization history of displaying people with physical anomalies that, in effect, serves to accept the
morality of that display in the belief that: (1) "freak'' is an}11veµtion_or construct, not a person,
DAVID A. GERBER so the display of such people is not an offense-'to- humanity but, more or less, show business;
(2) historically the freak show has constituted .a legitimate performance, because_ i_t was
consciously staged for commercial-and.-artistic success; {JLthe freak show __ultimately_was
founded upon the willing participation of th_ose displayed, the majority of whom were "active
participants" in creating their presentations and found value and status in their roles "as hu_man
exhibits; (4) we need to question our assumption that we have a legitimate daim to argue
with• and condemn the choices, such as p"-'!ic!pating in a freak show, of those who)iv~d in
other historical epochs, especially when they saw no moral issue in their activities; and (5) the
freakShow is a long-gone J)henOmenOil, _so i(i~-.ti~e!iss to C~Il<:i:C?~n l~? · ·
In this chapter the phenomenon of the freak show provides the basis for appraising the
If an individual consents, by virtue of what appear to be acts of free choice, to being degraded, issue of volition and valorization, both as a problem conceptualized in the abstract and as it
exploited, or oppressed, does that act of consent end the moral problem that his or her presents itself in the limited instance of the display of people with physical anomalies. I seek
situation seems to constitute? In my own field of social history this question has been asked to revitalize the issue of the moralization of the freak show by combining historical inquiry
frequently in the analysis of a number of different social groups: proletarianized industrial with exploration of the problem of uncoerced-that is, not forced by violence or the threat of
workers, African-American slaves, and Victorian women are prominent examples. Contempo- violence-consent. I first examine the problem of choice and consent in social relations, and
rary feminists ask these same questions about women who choose to work as go-'go dancers, then engage principal assumptions of Freak Show and question, in the conceptual context of
mud wrestlers, and prostitutes, or women who choose to remain in abusive relationships. consent theory, the examples Bogdan develops. Finally, with reference to the same or to
I would like to pose this problem in the context of disabled people exhibited in freak similar examples, I test those assumptions based on the sociohistorical situation and cultural
shows. For centuries people with visible physical anomalies (broadly defined to include body representations, past and present, of some types of people frequently displayed. In this exercise
deformities, disfigurements, deficiencies, and superfluities) have consented to display these I purposefully do not go much beyond Bogdan's own evidence in order to suggest that there
anomalies, in public and for money. How are we to evaluate the quality of that consent- are other ways-actually more complimentary to his approach than conflicting-to read the
especially in light of the extent to which people with physical anomalies have experienced artifacts by which we have come to understand the freak show. We can, I believe, see the
broad and abiding social oppression and marginalization? By what criteria can we judge that freak show as both a socially constructed phenomenon of commercial entertainment and a
consent fictive or credible? Under any circumstance, should that consent necessarily have any product of unequal social relations, oppression, and exploitation, but we cannot understand it
weight at all in reaching a judgment about the morality of such a display? And once having exclusively in either way. Up to a point, social construction provides a powerful tool for
come to terms with the issues posed by that act of consent, how do we measure the quality of dislodging assumptions about the naturalness of disability, but, as I will demonstrate, it cannot
the performance the act of display may be said to constitute? 1 help us much to grasp to concrete social relations in which disability is embedded.
Take the prototypical case of an ultra-obese individual, whose performance consists oflittle My purpose is largely to remoralize the question of the freak show, but my argument is less
more than wearing clothes that reveal her extreme weight, while being seated in an especially with the past than with a troubling aspect of Bogdan's book: his attempt to illustrate the
small chair that enhances the same impression, and allowing herself to be stared at by an social construction of disability seems based upon neutralizing the problem of exploitation.
audience. Say she nonetheless considers herself an actress. What are we to make of the gap This is furthered by the testimonies of those human exhibits who found worth in their
between her evaluation of her "career" (that it is a worthwhile pursuit that enhances her "careers" as freaks. Whereas Bogdan takes these people at their word when they claim to find
status) and what her situation actually seems to be (that she is a human exhibit-"the fat value in the lives they led as freaks, I intend to interrogate these testimonies. Bogdan's goal is
lady" -exploited for possessing qualities that the audience regards as grotesque)? Our analyti- to empower disabled people by establishing their agency and removing them from the
cal goals aside, we must also ask by what right we question either the quality of her volition category of victims. As he has said, too many people wish, patronizingly, to speak Jar the
or the criteria she has adopted in valorizing her role. disabled and not allow them their own voice. I do not believe, however, that it is disrespectful
I am prompted to ask these questions by the viewpoint advanced in Robert Bogdan's or condescending to assume an interrogatory stance. There is no higher mark of being taken

39
 -;j DAVID A. GERBER I< ~ THE "CAREERS" OF PEOPLE EXHIBITED~

seriously than to be admitted to the circle of participants in an argument about questions of to the social arrangements into which they were born. Even as an intellectual exercise for
importance. Before returning to this justification for my inquiry, I want to make clear my own imagining the possibility of an orderly body politic, consent theory was really only relevant to
ethical position as an investigator. I cannot claim to feel sttongly that the issue animating my understanding the social relationships of those middle- and upper-strata males who were
concern is exclusively whether, in a limited, technical sense, human exhibits actually freely allowed to exercise political rights and enjoyed legal and informal authority in social relation-
chose to be in freak shows and found value in doing so. Beyond the question, "Is this choice ships. But even among these persons, the notion of a voluntary compact with society is not
voluntary?" or the surmise, "This choice is so bad, it could not be voluntary," another point realistic. Choice and consent continue to be problematic precisely because of the role of
asserts itself just as insistently in my mind: "This choice is so bad, I don't care if it is circumstances, such as the accident of the social situation into which we are born, in our lives,
voluntary." 3 In short, I wantto establish at the start that! do not approve of freak shows and and because we are not equal in power to influence the course of our lives or even to
thus find condemnation of them, past or present, a compelling purpose. understand them. Thus, a second criticism of consent theory is that consent theorists typically
have refused to consider the relevance of natural and social inequalities that limit our range of
choices and ultimately frame our acts of consent. Third, consent theory resists the claim that
CHOICE AND CONSENT
society is an organism or seamless web of connected parts in favor of the fallacious notion
At the heart of the problem must be our effort to understand both the nature of choice and that society is a collection of atomized, egoistic individuals. The latter viewpoint may make
the ways in which choice ultimately may or may not be said to inform acts of uncoerced for tidy analytical work, but its understanding of human beings makes neither anthropological
consent. For this, it is useful to explore the historical and intellectual frameworks in which nor sociological sense. Society and culture exist as much as structures of relational and mental
free-choice arguments have been conceived in Western discourse. Perhaps the most incisive boundaries constraining individuals as they do as guides to libertarian possibilities. Choices
recent exploration of these frameworks is the suggestively titled Happy Slaves (1989), an are made within society and culture, not outside of them by sovereign individuals. 6
analysis of the problem of consent in social relations by Don Herzog, a political scientist. Nonetheless consent theory does have serviceable dimensions. If historically contextualized
Moving considerably beyond the question of the "consent of the governed," Herzog defines and governed by psychologically realistic premises, the. study o_f choice and consent may
consent theory in a general way that makes it a useful frame of reference for our inquiry. provide .a baseline for analyzing.so.cial relations fron1 the standpoint of individuals. Consent
Consent theory is "any political, moral, legal, or social theory that casts society as a collection theory cannot, however, substitute for a theory ~{;~~ial relations, s~ch as the minority group
of free individuals, and thus seeks to explain or justify outcomes by appealing to their model that seeks to explain the social position of people with disabilities, but rather may serve
voluntary actions, especially choice and consent." 4 only as a framework of questions to be addressed through the application of such a theory
As Herzog makes clear, consent theory predates the rise of capitalism and free-market and the analysis of data. We shall see, in fact, that understanding choice and consent in the
economic thought, with which we usually associate its historical origins. It arose in sixteenth- lives of the human exhibits appearing in freak shows may best be accomplished through use
century England as feudalism declined and the Protestant Reformation spread across Europe. not of consent theory, but of a historically grounded minority group model.
For the first time in the history of the West, political, religious, and intellectual authorities Herzog outlines various conceptual strategies to help us generate just such a framework of
concerned with the sources of social order found it necessary to imagine the bonding of questions. Situating the ethical position of the analyst is a logical place to begin. By what
people, who were now increasingly without masters and appeared to make their own choices right do we sit in judgment of the choices of such people as the "fat lady'' who displays herself
in ever-broader areas of life, to society without the mediation of such traditional, authoritative for money? "By virtue of the necessity of understanding the world," or "In the service of
institutions as manorial estates and without an all-encompassing ecclesiastical system. Far learning," we may answer. Yet though such goals are admirable, riding roughshod over
from being merely a mask for bourgeois privilege, Herzog contends, consent theory began as individuals in their pursuit is neither desirable nor right. Of course, the problem seems less
an attempt to map out the bases of a new world of social relations. Consent theorists posited acute when it is a question of dealing with the choices ofindividuals that directly or indirectly
axioms that would serve to explain the process by which societies composed of sovereign do harm to others. But what about cases in which individuals end up harming only themselves
individuals might spontaneously achieve coherence and order without state coercion. Because or sabotaging their own interests? Here one evidently runs the risk of condescension. Realism
we are still without masters, as that term is used-fO'describe feudal social relations, consent dictates, however, that we acknowledge that individuals ofren do make poor choices, even
theory remains a way of understanding the social relations of groups and individuals. 5 when, as is frequently not the case-especially with those who appeared in freak shows-
As Herzog demonstrates, however, from its inception consent theory has been vulnerable they have everything going for them (i.e., they do not face the prospect of being unable to
to at least three criticisms. First, consent theorists have centered moral and political arguments support themselves; they are not hurried; they have the right information; and they are not
on the choices of allegedly free individuals. The original act of choice was conceived by John coerced by external sources). One simply has to adopt a hierarchy of priorities and goals in
Locke and others as a type of contract by which individuals gave consent to affiliate with analyzing human behavior, and truth-in this case, acknowledging the imperfections and
society. The notion that somehow people enter into their relationship with society by an act confusions of people in determining what is in their own interest (in the awkward Marxian
of consent, and not by virtue of birth and circumstance, is hardly correct. Moreover, consent formulation, the falseness of their consciousness)- has to take priority. This need not ;..eces-
theory arose in a society in which most people-women, children, the indigent and impover- sarily be done at the expense of respect or empathy. Indeed, it is just as easy to argue that one
ished-were only nominally free and actually had little, if any, choice in giving their consent shows disrespect by refusing to extend the claims of truth-telling to an individual. In personal

40 4I
 1 DAVID A. GERBER f; 1 THE "CAREERS" OF PEOPLE EXHIBITED f-

relations, moreover, we consider ourselves well served by friends who question our version of With these considerations in mind, we can proceed to examine the world of the freak show
reality, especially when that version may prove harmful to us. Arguing with our sources may and those displayed within it, as they existed in the past and as Bogdan has presented them
similarly be said to serve them well, even if it does so indirectly. Of course, many cases are to us, paying particular attention to Bogdan's understanding of the volitional status of the
not clear-cut examples of exposing the probability of harm to others or of self-sabotage. freak show performer. We shall see that by the criteria just outlined, the freak show hardly
Among other things, such cases demand a microscopic examination of motivations as well as emerges as a universe of free choices. Moreover, the complex acts by which those displayed
alternatives and outcomes. To this extent, it would seem that without seeking empathy-the may be said to have consented to their situation considerably strain our understandings of
illusive but necessary capacity to imagine oneself as an~ther person-in -apaiticii!_iii- set
of consent.
cir-cumstahtes·~_on.e cahn-ot --~llCCeed, so tile ··anal}'sis has built into __ it so_rne. check" against
conctesce·nsiOii.- ---- - - , . ··--- -- ----- - - -- . -· .. - . - . ·•--.·····----~-----~---
- Let us assuine then that we do not ethically compromise ourselves by sitting in judgment THE FREAK SHow AND lTs INTERPRETERS

of the choices made by the "fat lady" and others. The question then is, "How do we make The display of people with physical anomalies has ancient roots. We have evidence that in
sense of choice and consent? We can divide the problem into two issues, structured as pharaonic Egypt dwarfs lived in royal households, where they were employed to give comic
questions and axiomatic responses, culled from Herzog's analysis. 7 relief to statesmen burdened by the responsibilities of office. Many royal courts in Europe
First, what are the significant preconditions for effective choice and consent? between 1600 and 1800 employed dwarfs as court jesters or kept a complement of "fools,"
who either were developmentally disabled or feigned retardation for amusement. 9 During the
1. One makes a free choice not only when one is uncoerced, but also when one has a Middle Ages and thereafrer, people with deformities and mental disabilities were frequently
significant range of meaningful choices. One must have freedom, in other words, to make displayed for money at village fairs on market days, and peasant parents are known to have
choices from a number of options as well as freedom from the necessity of choosing only toured the countryside displaying for money recently born infants with birth defects. 10 But
one course of action. the access of most people to such spectacles was random u11!i!__t:he rise i11 _the 1840s in the
2. Such freedom is greatest in societies in which the social environment fosters the opportu- l!:>i1:_ed ~t_a!e_~ qf!he_~ommergal freak show, which tookform eventually either asai1 indepen-
nity for individuals to play a number of different roles that do not excessively limit one's d~nt production or as a sideshow attached to _a circus. The modern freak show was a response
choices to take on other roles. {o -tl,e growing mass market foi amusements gene;ated.by urbanization and economic growth.
3. One must have occasions for choice-that is, times when one may exercise independent The New York City entrepreneur P. T. Barnu_m fl~lJl::-9_1} piqn~ered the modern exhibition
agency rather than have things done for one. ·of physically anomalous_ individuals_ at his .A,ner_ic"n l\.1uselllll, ~ popular, in<:Xpensive pleasure
4. One must have the physical and mental capacity to make choices and carry out the course palace. For the next century, in its various guises, the freak show remained a widely prolifer-
of action they suggest. ated; popular, and highly conventionalized form of amusement in both Europe and North
5. One must have information about the alternatives one needs to evaluate. America. ~J_~50be<;ause of a combination of the new, medicalized understandings of
6. One must have sufficient time and physical and mental security to evaluate options. physical anomalies, the growth of concern for mirioiity:.riglits,and theirise:ofalfernative
Io:ms ofa:rrius~m;nt su~h ;~televi~i,m and the movies, the_ freak show had begun todecline.
Next, how do we interpret choices once they are made and understand the ways in which In the 1980s there were perhaps no more than five freak shows of the traditional sort lefr in
choice variously informs consent? The range of problems here is considerable, but among the the United States. A number of small productions continued displaying faked or crafred
most important considerations are the following cautions: human oddities (contortionists, extensively tattooed men and women, etc.), but usually not
people with physical anomalies_11
1. We cannot necessarily infer consciousness from 1?-ehavior in appraising the motivations Today it is difficult to avoid responding to the existence of the traditional freak show from
behind choice, and thus in taking the measure·a"f consent. Apparently voluntary choices anything but a moral standpoint, reinforced perhaps by aesthetic condemnation. To us the
may be products of volition, but also of apathy, which leads to refusing to appraise all freak show appears nothing but vulgarity and exploitation. A barbaric legacy of the past, we
alternatives, or simply of a lack of alternatives. ' are well rid ofit. So what is there left to discuss? Yet, as Bogdan informs us, recent interpreters
2. Consent may not explain the condition of a person who appears to be content with a bad of the freak show have disagreed sharply on how to understand its meanings. 111 the past two
situation. She may not understand her situation, let alone how she came to it, or she may dec3cdesthe djsp1ay_for_~m__u~elll~Il! _<>_f people with physical anomalies has indeed been
lack the motivation to change a situation she knows to be bad. denounced as reprehensible and worthless. 12 But-it h.a:i°.also been conceived as ,;;;;_den~~--;;{;,_
3. Choice, Herzog says, is like opening Pandora's box: "If you chose to open the box, does it 15§c]iuiii~ri<iesfre, spr_ingingJroiii:rhe ini~rwiiigling:-Of;ffection and the will tQ clon1iri_ate,
follow that you've chosen each and every one of its contents?" 8 We need to remember, in to make trained pets of humans, valuing them the more particularly if they_are_<:xotic_ or
other words, that there may be unintended and often undesired consequences from any ariomaI6us-·and-trained to be passive and submissive,_1 3_The fascinatio':' with peo~wl10 _are
course of action, which we would not choose if they were presented to us individually. p~_rsic_ally_ differe11t al,so_ _Jias been attributed .to a rsychological pr~j,e-nsityjicgn~iyi of

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1 DAVID A. GERBER!< 1 THE "CAREERS" OF PEOPLE EXHIBITED~

people_"'!th Jwdily-anomwes as "infoihuman,"__frightJ:11iug_but mmpellingJ:lu:owb_~™__to our innovation and experiment, showmen learned how to make people who simply looked
prehuman, animal origins. 14 It has also been claimed that such people are mirror images of different into "freaks." They might train the very tall to act as if they were the remnants of a
what w~ fear we' -m,ght-b.ecome, if our inchoate but deep-seated anxieties about violations to race of giants, and they might present microcephalics as the missing link. All the while they
the integrity of our bodies were somehow realized. 15 Finally, freak show performers have been continued the "age-old practice of displaying those with congenital limb deficiencies and
conceived as battlers against adversity and oppression who have refused to surrender them- deformities, dwarfs, conjoined twins, and others who might not necessarily be tied to remote
selves to shame and ostracism. 16 areas of either the globe or evolutionary history, but who were nonetheless of continuing
Bogdan dispenses with much of the moralizing that, implicitly or explicitly, is found in fascination.
some of these views. He also is not concerned directly with the psychology of the audience, Bogdan offers a compelling, though limited, explanation of the gradual decline of the freak
though such inquiry might help us understand the long-abiding fears and obsessions that show. He fixes mostly on the medicalization of disability and the rise of gene theory, to the
explain the desire to gawk at the physically atypical, from the distant past to the present. The near exclusion of political explanations focusing on the growth of ideologies and social
feeling of being on display is something with which almost all disabled people have had to movements concerned with minority rights, and the evolution of new media and of new
deal; it is, in fact, a singular form of oppression-the oppression of unwanted attention- genres of entertainment, such as the horror film, which may have served as outlets for the
that disabled people share with few others. We need to return to this point later, because it is same emotional impulses as the freak showY He shows how medicalization transformed
central to the issue of the freak show's exploitation of those with physical anomalies. public consciousness of people with physical anomalies, who now went from being human
Instead, because he is interested in the larger question of the social construction of oddities or monsters to sick people, with some clinically identifiable syndrome requiring
freakishness, Bogdan is concerned with the strategies developed for attracting an audience. surgery, prosthetics, or sterilization. The vulgar categories of showmen were replaced by a
For him, the story of the freak show is a chapter in the development of modern show medical diagnosis. The "giant" was now said to be suffering from acromegaly, the "ossified
business. Although he briefly acknowledges earlier precedents for the display of what he calls man" from polyarthritis deformens, and the "dog-faced boy" from hypertrichosis. As a sick
"human oddities," for Bogdan the history of the freak show begins with Barnum's successful person, the former freak was no longer to be exhibited for profit or in public-as opposed to
efforts to tap the growing urban market for amusements by exhibiting "Tom Thumb" (Charles before interns and specialists in hospital wards and medical textbooks.
Sherwood Stratton) and other dwarfs for money. For Bogdan, therefore, the question is not One feels the weight of familiar and very legitimate grievances against the professional
why do people go to freak shows, or, relatedly, whether we should be troubled by the existence impositions and pretensions of medical doctors in this explanation. But the discussion seems
of freak shows. He sees the freak show as a business specializing in stylized performances, the problematic, and not merely because Bogdan underplays other sources of the freak show's
"freak" as a player trained for his or her role, and the audience more or less as what Barnum decline. He is unwilling to credit the efficacy and legitimacy of, let alone personally embrace,
and a host of lesser showmen thought it to be: a motley collection of suckers credulous the explicitly moral rejection of the freak show. Although he finds this moralism plausible, he
enough to pay the price of admission. Bogdan's analysis centers around the freak show as a seems more sympathetic to the arguments for the freak show-that it created opportunity,
medium for developing ways of exhibiting such people as conjoined twins, dwarfs, the very status, and enhanced power over their lives for the people employed in it.
tall, the ultra-obese, and microcephalics in order to enhance their otherness and exotic In analyzing Bogdan's conception of the freak show and his views of its demise, we must
qualities. The test of these modes of exhibition is that they proved attractive enough to mold deal with the related problems of volition and valorization. In regard to volition, Bogdan
the public into an audience. Bogdan does not analyze the psychologies that might account for generally assumes the willingness of people to be human exhibits. In regard to__valorization,
why people joined this audience, but rather the modes of display that showmen created. he tries to give value, legitimacy, and resl'e_c:_t,l:,i)i_fy.-to-the-rnles of.those :el>biJ:,ited and to treat
These showmen and the illusions they created to befuddle, amuse, and horrify the gullible them-asperformers rather than as~loited victims, because that is thewa)l~ebeli~ve;,the
public engage Bogdan because it is this creative process that serves to construct the freak. majority of them sa.W themselves. Heargue,-tliafpeople chose to become and to remain
Thus the age-old display of people with deformities ;and other anomalies rests at the level of ·frealffbedtise--thefval.iied what the role brought them and because they understood that role
surfaces and impressions upon which the showmen themselves placed it. to be valuable in and of itself. If, therefore, the case for valorizing the role of the freak proves
Bogdan convincingly ties the evolution of styles of display and the formation of the freak weak, the case for volition also would seem to weaken.
show audience to two related historical developments that showmen exploited. First, the To examine the question of valorization is ultimately to ask again why people spent money
expansion of Western exploration and imperialism created a fund of popular impressions of to gain admittance to freak shows-why, in fact, able-bodied people seem compelled to stare
previously remote areas of the world and a hunger for exotica. Human exhibits were often at those with physical disabilities and deformities. How did audiences see these exhibitions
presented as originating in distant lands, as some actually did, and their oddity was enhanced and what did they take them for? Did the audience understand the show as a performance and
through foreign dress and ambience. Second, in its popularized form the new science of attach value to those who were at the center of it? Or did people come to be fascinated by
evolution created various pseudoscientific knowledge categories, such as "throwback'' and the unusual, to stare, to be horrified, and to engage in loathing at a display? Freak shows
"missing link," that could be exploited in exhibiting individuals. Here, too, dress (for example, actually consisted of two types of individual representations, one involving a performance, the
an ape suit) and ambience (a jungle setting) could be employed, separately or in combination, other certainly not. An armless man such as the famed German sideshow performer and
to enhance the presentation and make it knowable to the audience. Through a process of vaudevillian Carl Unthan, a classically trained musician who played the violin with his feet, 18

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-,1 DAVID A. GERBER~ 1 THE "CAREERS" OF PEOPLE EXHIBITED~

is indeed engaged in a performance that may be appreciated for its skill, discipline, and choice and consent. To evaluate this we need to shift the basis for conceptualizing the role of
difficulty as well as its aesthetic value. But Unthan and those like him were decidedly in a freak away from the assumptions, framed by labeling theory and symbolic interactionism, that
minority. More common was, say, the giant or the bearded lady who did little beside attempt, have guided Bogdan. For Bogdan, the freak show was a social construction built on a structure
through environmental props and clothing, to look even taller or hairier, while perhaps of manipulated perceptions and beliefs. Freaks knowingly colluded in creating these illusions,
carrying on some monologue or sometimes perfunctorily, and usually poorly, singing a song. the argument runs, so one could hardly say they were the victims of the situation. In this
Or what of the legless man who attained high speeds walking on his hands, demonsttating Goffmanesque formulation, the freak show is another context for individuals to assume their
what for him was a necessary survival skill? In all of these cases we are speaking less of a role in the endless masquerade that constitutes so much of social life.25
performance than a display-in other words, merely an appearance in which talent, when it There is a powerful insight here: the role of freak is certainly not inherent in having a
existed at all, was beside the point. ,-We are _lefL:\0th_ the.likelihood._that.-'l_.larg.e dQ§.e of disfiguring condition. But neither is participation in a freak show. If .we proceed on the
...--

contempt, mockery, or hunger for bizarre spectacle lay behind the popularity of the freak assumption that, like Harold Russell and Diane DeVries (admittedly of a later era than the
show; oecause It off~r~d the audience nothing else. if tlus lS so, then it i:s difficuln,tvalorize classic epoch of the freak show), others, too, might have been disgusted by the thought of
the rote of freak. · · becoming sideshow attractions, we then have to try to understand why it was that they ended
It is no wonder that the fear of being placed on exhibit has haunted, and continues to up doing so. One particularly significant problem with Bogdan's conception of the freak show
haunt, people with physical anomalies. For example, Harold Russell, who became a bilateral is his reluctance to see the situation in light of the fact that those (showmen, human exhibits,
hand amputee as a result of a military training accident in 1944 and went on to become a and the audience) involved had vastly unequal powers to effect the course of their lives. For
leading American advocate of expanding employment opportunities for the disabled, records this reason, a conceptualization of the freak show framed by a minority group model is in
at a number of points in his memoirs the fear that plagued him during the first months afrer order. Only by understanding the social oppression, exploitation, and degradation experienced
his accident: that the only way he would be able to make a living would be displaying himself by the sort of people who became freaks can we understand the choices, where indeed we find
in a sideshow-this, at a time when there were many freak shows in existence. Russell, who anything resembling choice, that led some, including those who claim to have valued and
was proud of his recent paratrooper training, recalls reflecting bitterly from his bed in Walter profited from their role, to appear to consent to be exhibited. In effect, in the case of the freak
Reed Army Hospital, "Maybe I'd be able to get a job in the circus: The Handless Freak that show, the minority group model serves to join a respect for social process to the power of
Jumps Through the Air with the Greatest of Ease." 19 The oppression of unwanted attention social constructionism. It provides us with a plausible way of asking questions about who
permeates the narrative of Russell's convalescence. 20 More recently, Gelya Frank has written became a freak that may complement our understanding of how the role of freak was framed
about the lives of congenitally limbless or limb-deficient young adults, and finds a number of in cultural terms. Moreover, only by understanding that social context can we come to
them engaged in strategies of aggressive normalization and public self-presentation in order understand that the freak show was something qualitatively distinct from, even if related to,
to counter being regarded as freaks and thereby devalued. 21 One of Frank's informants, Diane ordinary show business. Conventional performers and artists may be exploited by greedy
DeVries, continues to be offended by a well-meaning letter she received years afterward from managers and promoters, and they may be party, wittingly or unwittingly, to the creation of
someone who had admired her when she was a poster child engaged in fund raising, and who all sorts of stupefying illusions, including ones that are also self-deprecating. But, as a class,
suggested she meet a certain sideshow celebrity, possessing some physical anomaly, for they have not been driven into their work by a lack of options and a desire to escape from a
inspiration. Frank records that rereading this letter today, DeVries, who was born without hostile world. Indeed, most of them have aspired to it, attracted by the opportunity for fame,
legs and whose arms are greatly foreshortened, remains "repelled by [the] patronizing tone wealth, glamour, and the chance to develop their art. But, unless the examples of Russell and
and content, which could be taken to suggest that she belongs in a circus." 22 The same DeVries are unusual, it is difficult to imagine people who would aspire to be in a freak show.
revulsion at the dehumanization that is part of such displays, mixed with horror at the sadism Indeed, as we shall see, looked at systematically according to Herzog's exacting criteria, the
that "dwarf bowling" and "dwarf tossing" reveal, has led the Little People of America, an volition of the types of people who regularly appeared as freaks seems dubious, even in the
advocacy organization for dwarfs, to lobby against these new "sports." Here dwarfs, no instances when it was formally free.
strangers to exploitative display, are employed to allow themselves, for example, to be thrown
at bowling pins to the amusement of spectators.23 The word "freak'' continues to serve as a BECOMING A "FREAK"
powerful, aversive metaphor for people with disabilities or physical anomalies, even such
innocuous ones as relatively thick facial hair on women. It encodes negative meanings and the Let us now review the quality of volition in various typical classes of "freaks." My method
memory of painful experiences-ostracism, the oppression of unwanted attention, and the here is to recontextualize the facts as Bogdan presents them, using historical evidence and the
label "abnormal." 24 perspectives and moral insights of both the minority group model for conceptualizing disabil-
But what of the individual, such as the tossed, bowled, or merely displayed dwarf, who ity and Herzog's critique of consent theory. What this reveals is that the volition of those
believes that he or she is the star of a performance? Any argument advancing the view that displayed was sharply proscribed not only by their disabilities and physical anomalies, but also
the freak show was not in and of itself necessarily exploitative and dehumanizing clearly by such social characteristics as age, class, race, and gender. The physically atypical particularly
depends on this individual. It is also the case that highlights most powerfully the problem pf have historically existed in society under conditions of ostracism and stigmatization, and have

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1 DAVID A. GERBER f ~ THE "CAREERS" OF PEOPLE EXHIBITED~

had to endure the oppression of unwanted attention-that desire of others to stare at them and his new profession enabled him to buy a small house back home he lives in when the
that forms a basis of the marketing power of the freak show. An alternative to suffering these show winters. He has no complaints except one. He thought the woman who was complaining
conditions has been to become a human exhibit, or to have a parent or guardian push one in about his being exploited ought to talk to him about it. He would tell her there wasn't
that direction. At least then one might be paid for being stigmatized. It is possible, therefore, anybody forcing him to do it." If this were the end of Jordan's testimony, we would be placed
to speak of people with sharply limited options being tracked into becoming freaks. in the difficult, but as I have suggested, not necessarily ethically compromising position, of
Sometimes the thinness of the historical record is a consequence of the social structures having to argue with him about his situation. We would need to question him about the
and circumstances within which it is created. Documents are artifactual, and some actors in range and the quality of the choices he has actually had in his life, and to probe to see whether
history have not had the power to create artifacts that they might leave behind to explain he believes being a freak is something to aspire to, rather than merely to fall back .on. But,
themselves. One group of freak show participants who probably could not have left any according to Bogdan, this is not all "the Frogman'' had to say. He closed his testimony by
self-explanatory documents were microcephalics ("pinheads")-a standard exhibit in larger actually revealing the grounds on which it would be possible to argue with his appraisal of his
sideshows during the classic era of the freak show. Microcephalics are invariably developmen- own situation. Speaking of Baskin, Jordan said, "I can't understand it. How can she say I'm
tally impaired, though they may be high functioning individuals. Add to this the fact that a being taken advantage of? Hell, what does she want for me-to be on welfare?" Bogdan
significant number of the microcephalics exhibited also were African-Americans or were from concludes from Jordan's testimony that Jordan sees himself as "a showman: proud and
impoverished non-Western lands, and one sees that racism and colonialism add to the social independent." While acknowledging that Jordan's work as a freak probably does not advance
disabilities that involved them in vastly unequal power relations. (Racial minorities are also the cause of the rights of people with disabilities, Bogdan is unwilling to criticize Jordan's
found in other classes of displayed individuals.) To further compound their powerlessness, understanding of his career. Indeed, he actually goes beyond Jordan's understanding, using
some of these microcephalics from outside the European world were sold or given away as language ("proud and independent") considerably more inflated in its valorization of Jordan's
children to showmen, who toured the world looking for human anomalies to display. Their role and what he derives from it. 27 But if Jordan's choices in life have been reduced to
parents were desperately seeking cures for them, or they were unwilling to live with the participating in a freak show or "being on welfare," it really does not appear that he has had
tremendous stigma their cultures attached to physical difference and believed their children much choice at all. Whatever we may make of his pride, about which he himself actually says
might have a better life in another land. (Others also entered the freak show world as nothing, his independence certainly seems tenuous. Perhaps all we can say of his participation
children.) 26 Obviously, choice and consent are irrelevant in evaluating this class of exhibits. If in the freak show world is that he has made the best of a bad situation, while noting, too, that
less severely disabled people found it impossible to support themselves in the past, how could the cause of Jordan's dignity would be better served if our social arrangements allowed him to
such impaired and deformed people do so, especially when they were foreign and nonwhite, earn a decent livelihood from mainstream employment.
and had been immersed in the insular world of the freak show from childhood? Without Finally, let us look at the situation of dwarfs, people who have been used as human exhibits
some sort of guardian like the freak show entrepreneur, these docile children, who could never for many centuries. Dwarfs were Barnum's first successful human exhibits, and they were to
really grow up, were doomed. That, as Bogdan notes, freak show entrepreneurs often took remain thereafter a staple item of all large freak shows. It remains an important case, too,
this guardianship seriously and acted responsibly toward their charges within the limits of the because though the freak show seems moribund, at least at the present time, people are still
situation, even while exhibiting them _as exotics and monsters, surely does not seriously qualify finding ways to exhibit dwarfs because of their physical condition, as the contemporary
the point that these people had few real choices in making lives for themselves. appearance of dwarf bowling and dwarf tossing has revealed. And it is of special concern to
Otis "the Frogman'' Jordan, a physically anomalous but not developmentally impaired us here, because, as Little People of America has noted, dwarfs are allowing themselves to be
individual, provides another, seemingly more illusive, example of the dubiousness of choice tossed and bowled. 28 We may even find one who voices pride in his performance. How are
and consent. Jordan becomes prominent in Bogdan's argument as an example of the weakness we to evaluate the participation of dwarfs in such rituals of debasement?
of the moral case against the freak show before the force of individual volition and empow- A hereditary disorder, dwarfism is frequently a deforming condition, though not necessarily
erment. Jordan, an African-American with deficient, poorly functioning limbs, was blocked a disabling one, in spite of the health problems dwarfs often do experience. Without mental
from appearing at the 1984 New York State Fair after protests on moral grounds by Barbara or serious physical impairments, the lives of dwarfs could be completely normalized, with
Baskin, a disability rights activist. Baskin had no ethical qualms about sitting in judgment of necessary adjustments made for logistical and sizing difficulties. 29 But this has hardly been
Jordan's appearance before audiences. Jordan, however, argued on behalf of his right to appear their history. In the Western world, and outside it, too, short stature is one of the oldest
and do his act, which consisted, among other things, of an old freak show feature of those sources of the perception of human difference, and generally it has been a source of stigmati-
without arms-the survival skill of rolling, lighting, and smoking a cigarette, all with his lips. zation. Even within the normal range, shortness has signaled immaturity and powerlessness.
Prior to becoming a freak, Jordan had spent nearly three decades attempting, with poor When coupled with the bodily disproportions common to many dwarfs, furthermore, short-
results, to support himself. H~ sold small items from a goat-drawn cart along the back ness has been regarded as grotesque and has been an even more likely cause for ridicule and
highways of the American South. One day a carnival came to town. He did his cigarette stunt mocking, if at times also affectionate, humor. 30 In Egyptian tomb paintings and the works of
before one of the showmen and was hired on the spot. Bogdan notes that according to Jordan the early modern European masters, in folklore, and in much written documentation, all
himself, "It was the best thing that ever happened to him. He likes to travel and meet people manner of Western and non-Western cultural representations establish the segregation of

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dwarfs in special roles in which they have been employed for amusement and diversion: court It is plausible, but the type of life led by even so acclaimed a human exhibit as Tom Thumb
jest~r_s, circ~: exhibits. and. performers, and pets_ and mascots of powerful and prestigious does not give us complete confidence in that comforting argument, in which, unlike the world
mdivtduals. Though m th'.s century med,calizatton and gene theory replaced folkish super- as we know it, there are no losers. It was Barnum's sound intuition that he could make money
sttt10n m understanding their condition, this has not guaranteed them equality. Many conven- displaying those finely proportioned dwarfs popularly known as "midgets," who lacked atypical
tional public, adult roles remain closed to dwarfs, and they have experienced comprehensive proportions and were simply very short. People seemed to feel affectionate toward these
· · · 32 For want of alternatives, the entertainment industry has contin-
emp1oyment di scnmmatrnn. miniature adults in the way one feels toward a pet. He heard about Stratton, who had
ued to loom large in the imagination of American dwarfs as a quick route to success, mostly stopped growing in infancy, while recruiting exhibits for the American Museum. He used his
because they were once featured in some vaudeville routines and sideshows and in bizarre considerable powers of persuasion to talk Stratton's working-class parents, people of narrow
roles in a few films, most notably as "munchkins" in The Wizard of Oz (1939). In reality, there means, to allow him to display the boy, who was then almost five, in New York City.
have been few film or television roles of any sort available to them. Those roles that have been Thereafter, Barnum was the principal influence in Stratton's life. Barnum certainly did treat
available have mostly dwelled on their condition and failed to present them as ordinary Stratton well, paying him a large salary, having the finest clothes made for him, and affording
human beings. As media reviewer John Corry said, reflecting on the dwarfs who appeared in him access to other fine things that his family could never have possessed. But Stratton was
The Wizard of Oz, "They were curiosities; adults who looked like children. Moviegoers too young at the inception of his career as an exhibit to know what would be done with him.
presumably found them cute." 33 Few if any of them had acting training or ability, nor was it He was raised to be a freak-it was the only life he knew.
asked of them, for the only requirement of their role was their appearance. An atmosphere of pathos and farce hung over much of his life. It was Barnum who gave
lnfantilized, patronized, stared at, mocked, and lacking significant power over much of him the mock-heroic name, General Tom Thum~, just as he gave the other male dwarfs he
their lives, many dwarfs have had problems with self-esteem and have experienced arrested displayed aggrandizing titles such as "Commodor~." Largely for promotional purposes, Bar-
psychosocial and sexual development. This psychological syndrome has been especially the num put him in contact with many important people of the time, who treated him with
case for males, because of the salience size, as a means for projecting power, has had in the genial good will. Barnum also opened intimate aspects of his life to public observation in
social appraisal of men. Moreover, since their condition cannot be corrected and they are not order to create publicity. Stratton's marriage to Lavinia Warren, also a dwarf, seems to have
chronically ill, dwarfs have frequently been found to show strong tendencies toward denial, been a product of mutual devotion, though there were always suspicions that Barnum had
which manifests itself in refusing to look in the mirror or to make eye contact with one initially arranged the union for his own purposes. The marriage ceremony, to which tickets
another. They also commonly develop a veneer of cooperation and cheerfulness intended both were sold, was a public spectacle elaborately stage-managed by Barnum. The couple then
to make others comfortable around them and to play to some of the positive aspects of the embarked on a European tour, during which they were everywhere displayed in their wedding
popular stereotype of them. Little People of America was founded to be a self-help as well as finery. Though Lavinia very much wanted a child, she was not able to conceive. Barnum
an advocacy organization, precisely because of the need to deal with these psychological understood that the only act that could follow the wedding extravaganza was the birth of, as
consequences of stigmatization, which have caused some dwarfs to participate in their own Bogdan puts it, "a little Thumb," so infants were rented for the couple to display as if they
debasement and most to experience doubts about their worth. 34 were their own.
Dwarfs attempt to be active and creative agents in their lives and have naturally placed What of Stratton the performer? Could he derive a positive sense of himself from his stage
emphasis on those aspects of life that allow them to effect their own normalization. But still career? He had little talent, even for such farcical vaudeville routines (a song, some dance
they have faced significant impediments. Marriage has been difficult to arrange because of the steps, effecting a pose as Samson or some other mythological or historical hero, etc.) as he
problem of finding partners of similar size, and dwarf couples have had low birth rates performed. The saving element in these routines was his refusal to play them seriously,
historically, in part because of biological difficulties, but also in part because of personal tellingly keying the audience into the awareness that he knew that they knew that the whole
ambivalence about reproducing. They, too, perceive wearing stylish clothes as a sign of taste affair was a joke anyway. But as he grew older, Stratton's capacity for this masquerade
and ma_rurity, but it has been difficult for dwarfs to find clothing in their sizes. Employment declined, and a note of gravity entered his personality, as if he wished to be taken more
1s so pnzed among dwarfs as a sign of adult status that it has been common for them to take seriously or at least to take himself more seriously. In later years, he ceased doing his self-
considerable abuse on the job, often in the form of constant remarks about height, in order mocking routines altogether, and simply made personal appearances. His career did bring him
simply to stay employed. 35 wealth, but he spent money with an abandon that suggests compensatory striving. He was
This is vital background that Il)ay help us to understand the participation of dwarfs in freak able to leave his wife only a small amount of the fortune he had made when he died of a
s~ows. Clearly in their case consent to be displayed has to some indeterminate, but probably stroke at age forty-five in 1883.
s1gmficant, extent been premised on a lack of opportunity to earn a living and to acquire This sketch of Stratton's life is based on the facts presented in Bogdan's book. Given the
status in the conventional ways, a point made by Little People of America in explaining why same facts, however, Bogdan and I see their meanings differently. I have seen Stratton as
some dwarfs would allow themselves to be bowled or tossed. 36 Once having taken the step to tragic, a prisoner of conditions over which he, as a dwarf, had little control and that both
become a freak, however, couldn't it be argued that Charles Sherwood Stratton ("Tom profited and humiliated him. While Bogdan does acknowledge that all did not go well with
Thumb") and others enjoyed full, affluent, and interesting lives that hardly made being a freak Stratton, he does not seek to understand why. Instead, impressed by Stratton's affluence and
an ordeal, and made their continuing in that role a matter of conscious consent? his participation in Barnum's outrageous promotional schemes, he attempts, in effect, to

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explain Stratton's life as if it were a real-life correlative to the aggrandized, mock-heroic 4. Ibid., 1.
character of Tom Thumb, the suave, petit, urbane gentleman, that Barnum developed for 5. Ibid., 5-71.
purposes of display. Stratton himself thus appears not as a sad, unfulfilled figure, but as the 6. Ibid., 182-247.
7. See ibid., 215-47, for the basis for these questions and responses.
huckster-charlatan that was the essence of General Tom Thumb.
8. Ibid., 231.
It seems a logical result of Bogdan's understanding of the freak show that the dancer must 9. Yi-Fu Tuan, Dominance and Affection: The Making of Pets (New Haven: Yale University Press,
ultimately be confused with the dance-or the human being with the freak. In this confusion, 1984), 154-61. . .
we lose the capacity to recognize the deeper humanity of Stratton and others like him and 10. Ottavia Niccoli," 'Menstruum quasi Monstruum': Monstrous Births and Menstrual Taboo m_the
Sixteenth Century," in Sex and Gender in Historical Perspective, ed. Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero
the pathos of their lives. Bogdan refers to such talk as "the pity approach," and sees it as
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), 5. .
evidence of condescension on the part of the analyst. 37 If by "pity" here we mean "sorrow" 11. Leslie Fiedler, Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self(New York: Simon and_ Schuster,_ 1978);
and "regret" about the course of a life such as Stratton's, it is not necessarily something for Bogdan, Freak Show, 62-68, 267; Neil Harris, Humbug: The Art of P. T Barnum (Chicago: Uruversity
which to apologize. If as an approach "pity" offers us "empathy," with all of its well-known of Chicago Press, 1973).
analytical pitfalls, that, too, is not necessarily something to avoid. From an analytical view- 12. Bogdan, Freak Show, 3, 285.
point, if our goal is to understand the freak show, are we really better off not attempting to 13. Tuan, Dominance and Affection, ix, 4-5, 15-1?, ,, .. . .
14. Hanoch Livneh, "Disability and Monstrosity: Further Comments, Rehabilitation Literature,
ask ourselves what it must have been like, in an era long before disability rights advocacy and
November-December, 1980, 280-83.
the independent living movement, to be General Tom Thumb or some other famous human
15. Fiedler, Freaks, 31-36. ..
exhibit? Stratton can also be viewed as a mature man with the intellectual resources to see 16. Frederick Drimmer, Very Special People: The Struggles, Loves, and Triumphs of Human Oddities
that much of his life was a masquerade. If, as his emotional development during his adult (New York: Bantam, 1976). .
years suggests, he did come to this understanding, it was evidently too late for him to choose 17. Peter N. Stearns and Timothy Haggerty, "The Role of Fear: Transitions in American Emotional
to change his situation. Besides, what else was there for him to do? Standards for Children, 1850-1950," American Historical Review 96 (February 1991): 93-94.
18. Carl Unthan, The Armless Fiddler: A Pediscript, Being of a Vaudeville Man (London: Allen and
One imagines Stratton and many other human exhibits adopting some of the defensive
Unwin, 1935).
solidarity and cynical insularity of the carnival world, and ultimately consoling themselves 19. Harold Russell, Victory in My Hands (New York: Creative Age, 1949), 70; see also PP· 16, 42,
with the thought that they were exacting some revenge on a hostile, insensitive world of 150.
ignorant suckers by exploiting their vulgarity and credulity, and rather effortlessly taking their 20. David A. Gerber, "Anger and Affability: The Rise of a Repertory of Roles and Motives in the
money. At the same time, we should not be surprised by another state of mind, perhaps Life of a Disabled Veteran of World War II," Journal of Social History 27 (Fall 1993): 1-27. .
21. Gelya Frank, "The Life History Model of Adaptation to a Disa~~ty: The Case of•. Co_ngemtal
coexisting and competing with this cynicism. In the narratives of freaks who retrospectively
Amputee" Social Science and Medicine 19, no. 3 (1984): 639-45; and Beyond Stigma: V1S1bility and
interpreted their lives in terms of the progress of their careers, we see evidence of the effort to Se1f-Em~owerment of Persons with Congenital Limb Deficiencies," Journal of Social Issues 44, no. 1
give coherence and meaning to life by seeing it in terms of volition and unfolding purpose (1988): 95-115.
rather than oppression and victimization. Thus, the element of self-aggrandizement, through 22. Frank, "Beyond Stigma," 104.
which Stratton and others ultimately might bec9me the victims of their own publicity, may 23. "Snow White's an Activist?" Disability Rag January-February, 1990, 21; "Little People Oppose
Events in Which Dwarfs Are Objects," New York Times, 3 July 1989, 1; untitled, New York Times, 25
well be a gesture of defiance. At this point, however, we are talking about a state of mind that
July 1990, B2 (on the passage of anti-dwarf bowling legislation in New,,York State).
is considerably more complicated than even such fertile concepts as "choice" and "consent" 24. For examples of "freak" as aversive metaphor, see Rebecca Bates, The Oppressed-The Oppres-
can help us to comprehend. sor," Disability Rag, July-August, 1990, 20 (for the memory of growing up with _a disabling _muscle
condition); and Holly Devor, Gender Blending: Confronting the Lt"!1'tts o[ Dts~bzlity_ (Bloommgton:
Indiana University Press, 1989), 124 (for the testimony of a woman with thick faaal hau).
NOTES 25. Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday
1. Brief portions of this chapter were initially published as "Pornography or Entertainment? The Anchor, 1959); and Stigma (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1963).
Rise and Fall of the Freak Show," Reviews in American History 18 (March 1990): 15-21. This chapter 26. Bogdan, Freak Show, 127-46.
is a revision of an article published under a similar title in Disability, Handicap and Society (now called 27. Ibid., 280-81.
Disability and Society) 7, no. 1 (1992): 53-69. The present chapter also incorporates ideas contained in 28. "Little People Oppose Events in Which Dwarfs Are Objects."
my response to Robert Bogdan's critique of my original essay. That response was published as "Interpre- 29. Joan Ablon, Little People in America: The Social Dimensions of Dwatftsm (New York: Praeger,
ting Freak Show and the Freak Show," Disability, Handicap and Society 8, no. 4 (1993): 435-36. 1982), 1-3, 29-30; Anthony Smith, The Body, rev. ed. (New York: Viking, 1986), 214,235, 295-96.
2. Robert Bogdan, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit (Chicago: 30. Joan Ablon, Living with Difference: Families with Dwarf Children (New York: Praeger, 1988),
University of Chicago Press, 1988); and "In Defense of Freak Show," Disability, Handicap and Society 8, 50-52, 120; and Little People in America, 6-9, 25-28, 47-54, 81; Barry Worth, "How Short Is Too
no. 1 (1993); 91-94 (quotes on pp. 92, 93; see also Freak Show, 70). Short? Marketing Human Growth," New York Times Magazine, 16 June 1991, 14-17, 28-29, 42. ,
3. Don Herzog, Happy Slaves: A Critique of Consent Theory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 31. Ablon, Little People in America, 4-5; Tuan, Dominance and Affection, 154-61. If Paul Therouxs
1989), 237, suggests these responses, with their different ethical and interpretive weights, in evaluating experience is representative, apparently the stigmatization of dwarfs is not ~mited t~ the ".'7"est. Ther~ux
choice. obServed a crowd, including a number of deaf people, taunting a dwarf m a PeJmg railroad statJ.on;

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i1 DAVID A. GERBER!<

see Paul Theroux, Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train through China (New York: Ballantine 1988) 195- F'OU:U,
96. ' '
32. Ablon, Little People in America, 67, 72.
33. John Corry, "Little People Looks at the Lives of Dwarfs," New York Times, 17 July 1984, C18.
34. Ablon, Little People in America, 91-163.
35. Ibid., 57, 67-72, 75; Smith, The Body, 214.
Intolerable Ambiguity: Freaks as/at the Limit
36. "Little People Oppose Events in Which Dwarfs Are Objects."
37. Bogdan, "In Defense of Freak Show," 93. ELIZABETH GROSZ

But, I that am not shap'd for sportive tricks,

Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world scarce half made up,
and that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them-
-SHAKESPEARE, KING RICHARD III, I.I.I4-2J

Any discussion of freaks brings back into focus a topic that has had a largely underground
existence in contemporary cultural and intellectual life, partly because it is considered below
the refined sensibilities of "good taste" and "personal politeness" in a civilized and politically
correct milieu, and partly because it has required a new set of intellectual tools, which are still
in the process of development, to raise it above being an object of prurient speculation. I am
interested in the question of human freaks not simply for voyeuristic reasons-although these
must no doubt play a part-but also because I am interested in the psychical, physical, and
conceptual limits of human subjectivity, that is, what the nature and forms of subjectivity
consist in and the degree to which social, political, and historical factors shape the forms of
subjectivity with which we are familiar; and the degree to which these factors are able to
tolerate anomalies, ambiguities, and borderline cases, marking the threshold, not of humanity J
in itself, but of acceptable, tolerable, knowable humanity. Closely related to the question of
the psychical conditions of subjectivity (a field that psychoanalytic theory has tended to
Ii dominate) is a concern about the corporeal limits of subjectivity. The ways in which the body]
I is lived and represented, the inputs and effects of the subject's corporeality on its identity,
i seem crucial if usually underestimated factors in any account of the subject.
I I will explore some of the most severe and gross physical disorders aftlicting those human
!' 1
beings who have been coarsely categorized as "freaks," "curiosities," "prodigies," and 'mon-
,I;
1, strosities," poor suffering individuals with observably disturbing bodily disorders, stunted
I limbs, distorted figures: Siamese twins, dwarfs, giants, hunchbacks, humans with parasitic or
autositic attachments, so-called legless or armless wonders, half-creatures, hermaphrodites,
rubber men, and so on. The simultaneous horror and fascination with these people, and the

54 55
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fact that many exist in the world of entertainment and gain their livelihood from being pity). Perhaps more alarmingly, some within the medical and veterinary s_ciences seem to
commercially exhibited, need to be explained. In the so-called normal subjects who constitute have had a passion for experimentation in controlled mutation, cross-breeding, and gen:t~c
the paying audience for freak shows, this fascination amounts to both willingness and shame. engineering in which, like Dr. Moreau, they create two-headed creatures, hermaphroditJ.c
The sometimes overpowering need to look and a horror of and pity toward what is seen are cattle, freemartins, 1 and interspecies hybrids for (pseudo)scientific or perverse reasons.2.
important elements in understanding the psychologies and the body-images of "normal" The freak is an object of simultaneous horror and fascination because, in additJ.on to \
subjects, attesting to what is and is not tolerable or incorporable into normality. Moreover, in whatever infirmities or abilities he or she exhibits, the freak is an ambiguous being whose
attempting to understand the freak's own body-image and psychological structure-the kinds existence imperils categories and oppositions dominant in social life. Freaks are those human
of social, interpersonal, and narcissistic images freaks internalize and the ways in which their beings who exist outside and in defiance of the structure of binary oppositions that govern

I
bodies are inscribed and made socially meaningful, medicalized, and rendered into a typol- our basic concepts and modes of self-definition. They occupy the impossible middle ground
ogy-may also prove invaluable to understanding subjectivity and corporeality in their most between the oppositions dividing the human from the animal (Jo-Jo, the dog-faced boy;
general outlines, and in their most extreme forms. Percilla, the monkey girl; Emmitt, the alligator-skinned boy; the "wild man'' or "geek''), one
First, however, it is necessary to specify what I mean by "freaks." This is not an easy being from another (cojoined twins, "double-bodied wonders," two-headed or multiple-
concept to define. I use this term in part, not as a description or a mode of moral evaluation, limbed beings), nature from culture (feral children, the "wild men of Borneo"), one sex from
but as something of a political gesture. Like a series of other negative labels ("queer" comes the other (the bearded lady, hermaphrodites, Joseph-Josephines or Victor-Victorias), adults
most clearly to mind), it is a term whose use may function as an act of defiance, a political and children (dwarfs and midgets), humans and gods (giants), and the living and the dead
gesture of self-determination. For this reason I prefer it to euphemistic substitutes: it makes (human skeletons). Freaks cross the borders that divide the subject from all ambiguities,
clear that there are very real and concrete political effects for those thus labeled, and a clear interconnections, and reciprocal classifications, outside of or beyond the human. They imperil
political reaction is implied by those who use it as a mode of self-definition. First, let me the very definitions we rely on to classify humans, identities, and sexes-our most fundamen-
clarify what I do not mean by the term: I wish to exclude from my discussion the more tal categories of self-definition and boundaries dividing self from otherness. . . .
commonplace bodily infirmities and deficiencies-those born with nonfunctional or improp- The study of monstrosities, whether human or animal, has long preoccupied physicians,
erly functional limbs and organs, the blind, those who are unable to walk, and those with magicians, sages, and soothsayers. "Teratology," the science of monsters, is al~ost as o~d as
cerebral palsy and other medical disorders. While these persons may be as or more disabled our culture itself, and the study of monstrosities has produced all sorts of peculiar associated
than those categorized as freaks, they do not exert the same ambivalent appeal. Nor do I wish knowledges, including fetomancy and teratoscopy, which regard monstrous births as omens
to include those with congenital abnormalities in internal organs (heart, lung, kidney, etc.). or predictions of the future. The Greeks regarded minor and major terata with the_ gr~atest
Nor do I include the accidental tragedies in which individuals are maimed or wounded (e.g., curiosity, holding them to be divine warnings of the future and/or symptoms ~f past mdiscre-
amputees, brain damage cases, orthopedic problems, etc.). The term freaks does not simply tions. Greek mythology abounds in representations of monsters, combmat10ns of human
refer to disabilities of either a genetic, developmental, or contingent kind. Indeed, some and animal, centaurs and minotaurs, the cyclops, giants, and hermaphrodites. Empedocles,
classified as freaks (such as the bearded lady or the human skeleton) are not necessarily Democritus, Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen, and Pliny all describe in co~siderable de~ail
physically incapacitated at all, although, of course, many are. All suffer a certain social
r
II
marginalization. I also do not refer to those particularly gifred with unusual aptitudes, such as
the athlete or technically skilled performer, although many freaks do fall into this category.
various human and animal deformities. Indeed, stories of double-monsters, mdividuals with
two heads, and mixtures of animals and humans seem to litter the (pre)history of every race.
Speculation that monstrosities were the result of carnal indulgences, and particularly of
Freaks are not just unusual or atypical; more than this is necessary to characterize their unique bestiality, was rife in the Middle Ages, when freaks and human monsters were regarde~ as
social position. The freak is thus neither unusually gifted nor unusually disadvantaged. He or divinations, forebodings, and examples of the wrath of God, as well as forms of glonficatJ.on
she is not an object of simple admiration or pity, but is a being who is considered simultane- of God's might and power. These were usually seen as forms of divine punishment meted out
I
, ously and compulsively fascinating and repulsive, enticing and sickening. to individuals, communities, or even nations.
Many freaks are the result of genetic or hereditary factors: abnormal elasticity of the skin, Teratol_£gy was largely a mystic and ~up~rs!i;tious doct,:i.°:e.11nt~ i!_.was. linked mo~~~l~dy
albinism, the growth of human horns, microcephaly (pinheads), dwarfism or gigantism, to the medicalizationofbodily regulation in the sixteenth ce°:~ry_a11d.?ecame a category ~
multiple births, and so on are commonly observed in disproportionate numbers in certain
families. Others, it seems, are the result of embryological or histological conditions, in which !;:!~~~;t~~~f~~~e~dR~~r~s~r;f~~gt~~o~~fl;e-~~~~·;~t~~!#¾~~~{~t;
fetal development is hindered or altered in utero (e.g., conjoined twins and hermaphrodites). "ne~tral" facts, described in scientific terminology, as part o_f~ !""t1~uJ_o11s c!asiili~~tc:i.ry ")'.§tern
Others are the result of medical factors that emerge after birth: dwarfism is commonly the tliat·e";i,i~p.S~()~ali_es.:g,{~~ders. tl!em-_;;;-ore.,,.norrnal,~__or~t_]_e~!t.rl•ce§tli~gi.. ~!")n. a
result of tumors on the pituitary gland; obesity and extraordinary thinness are usually the brC:.;f~ontinuum containing the "normal" as its ideal. Ambroise Pare clas.sified."!14 ()rg""ized
result of overeating or disgust of food. Some freaks arc the result of conscious efforts on the the monstrous in (pse~d~);cientifi~ form according t?. the {p~ew~ed). causes of .!er~_!•- !"le
part of individuals to maim, cripple, or distort the human body (there are many cases where postulatedtnree maior categories of mon~trositl~s:__anomalies. pf }'J\'.J:$:S.§,._.Qi..dd'l.ul.t,...and~of
limbs have been amputated by unscrupulous individuals, commonly parents, for profit or du:jificity.--rlns classificatory schema, WJ.tll- its impulse for tables, categories, forms, and order,

56 S7
 T
I

~ ELIZABETH GROSZ~ ~ INTOLERABLE AMBIGUITY~

was refined and augmented with medical descriptions only in the eighteenth century, and Mendelian genetics, and in view of more detailed studies of the nature of the sex chromo-
reached its pinnacle toward the end of the nineteenth century. In Anomalies and Curiosities of somes, it has become apparent that there are far more abnormalities of the sex chromosomes
Medicine (1897), George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle date the emergence of "modern'' than are manifested in external sexual characteristics. It is now commonly accepted that the
teratology in the nineteenth century from the work of Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, who category of sex can be determined by at least six different criteria, which so-called normal
was not only committed to advancing a methodological study of human deformities, but also subjects exist in agreement but intersexes or hermaphrodites exist in conflict with each other.
to combating what he believed were the naive and superstitious myths surrounding them. 3 There is generic sex, which is the sex exhibited by the sexual chromosomes (XX in the case of
females, XY in the case of males); ~ t u r e (i.e., whether the organs of generation
are testes, ovaries, or some other alternative such as an ovotestis or a "streak.like" gonad); the
Space permits me to concentrate on only two forms of monsttosity here, though I would have morphology of external genitalia (which, incidentally, is the most common criterion for
liked to discuss others. Nor can I direct adequate attention to the implications of medical assigning sex to th~ 11~wborn.i11tarit); the morphology of the internal genitalia (i.e., whether
discourse and practice in the simultaneous normalization and pathologization of the corpore- the wolffian ducts predominate as in males, or the milllenan:··cructS:-as in females); il_<Jrmonal
ally unclassifiable. I focus on those two examples of monsttosity that most tangibly present constitutiQ_ll_ (in which the predominance of androgens, testosterone, or estrogen dictates
the human subject as ambiguously one identity and two, or one sex and the other: conjoined secondary sexual characteristics); and the sex of rearing (which may confirm or conflict with
twins and hermaphrodites. Both are relatively regular occurrences today, 4 and therefore are the anatomical, hormonal, and functional aspects oTtI,_e individual). John Money's various
the continuing objects of medical investigation and surgical intervention. They are not usually researches into intersexuality and sex change indicates that, paradoxically, the most difficult
subject to infantile euthanasia, as commonly occurs in other cases of gross deformity (which aspect of the individual's sexuality to change is the sex of rearing, and his advice to doctors
may explain the increasing rarity of so-called limbless wonders and other severely damaged and intersexed individuals is, where possible, to use surgical and hormonal procedures to
individuals). And they continue to hold a place of public fascination, even if they are no approximate the sex of rearing rather than, as one would expect, change the sex of rearing to
longer exhibited in sideshows and as forms of public entertainment. This can be seen by the conform to the child's anatomical form or chromosomal structure-a point to which I will
extensive coverage granted in the popular press to the birth of Siamese twins and hermaphro- return later. Wherever there is some discordance bern.reen any of these criteria, we are justified
dites. In the last few years, for example, there have been detailed, globally circulated reports in talking about an intersexed subject, one who is anomalous in terms of our everyday
in newspapers on the birth or separation of conjoined twins, as well as on the medical conceptions of the clear-cut, binarily opposed notions of male and female.
interventions into the sexual typology of hermaphrodites. Within the. medical literature, sexual disorders are usually attributed to one or more of
Hermaphrodites have long been recorded in Western history and are referred to frequently three ,;,;ssible ~a~ses: (1) errors present in .the par~n!S prior to conception (chromosomal
in classical literature. Herodotus, for example, refers to the "Scythians," a race of soothsayers anomalies); (2ferrors that o~~r subsequent to conception, froIIl th~ first division of cells to
and prophets, comprised of women-like men who predicted the future by reading the inner postnatal life (hormonal" or gonad;.i anomalies); .(3) err(.)~s in~hichsex ·determination is
bark of the linden tree. Plato, by contrast, attributes no mythical or religious powers to an normal and sexual differentiation is abnormal (~e in testicular _feinini,;_tion or gonadal: dysgen-
ambisexual tribe, but regards them instead as the (mythical) origins of our own race. In The esis):·'f!usleads i;, ~ ;,,iety ;,i different types of intersexuality: ...
Symposium, he states: "the original human nature was not like the present, but different. In
the first place the sexes were originally three in number, not as they are now; there was man, l. Turner's syndrome, in which the subject is chromosomally female but has primitive "streak-
woman and the union of the two having a double nature; they once had a real existence, but like" gonads in place of the ovaries. Here the subject is generally of short stature, has neck
it is now lost, and the name only is preserved as a term of reproach" (quoted in Jones and webbing and immature development of breasts and genitals, and is infertile;
Scott 1971, 3). 2. Klinefelter's syndrome, in which the subject is chromosomally male but may have undersized
The hermaphrodite was the child of Hermes (the god of invention, athletics, secret or or nonfunctional testes. In this case as well, the subject is infertile. Occasionally there is
occult philosophy) and Aphrodite (the goddess of love). In about 60 B.c., Diodorus speaks of also gynecomastia, meaning that breasts develop after puberty. This type is most commonly
Hermaphroditus "who was born of Hermes and Aphrodite, and received the name which was represented in popular images of the hermaphrodite-the subject who has both a penis
a combination of his parents. Some say that Hermaphroditus is a god ... [who] has a body and breasts;
which is beautiful and delicate like that of a woman, but has the masculine quality and vigor 3. Chromosomal mosaics, in which there is a shortfall in the number or quality of chromosomes
of a man, but some declare that such creatures of two sexes are monstrosities" (quoted in (the normal complement is forty-six). Where the subject has forty-five chromosomes in
Jones and Scott 1971, 4). It seems clear from these and other accounts that ambisexual or some cells and forty-seven in others, we can speak of a mosaicism (XOIXXX). Here the
intersexual individuals were a recognized, if not accepted, part of Greek and Roman life. subject's sexual phenotype is female, yet the external genitalia are undeveloped, the vagina
But it seems likely, given that there are many forms of hermaphroditism, that the Greeks is absent, and there is no breast development. (This type comes closest to an anatomical
and Romans were familiar with only one or two types, those in which the genitalia of one sex equivalent of the celibate-a "sexless" subject);
are coupled with the secondary sexual characteristics of the other in a visible, observable 4. Testicular feminization, in which genotypic males develop into female phenotypes. Here the
mismatch (Klinefelter's syndrome and testicular feminization). In the light of development in · chromosomal sex is female, but the subject has male gonads and, consequently, with the

59
 -ii ELIZABETH GROSZ~ ~ INTOLERABLE AMBIGUITY~

onset of puberty becomes masculinized through increases in circulating male hormones, Third there has been a remarkable medicalization of the hermaphrodite, so that today
developing hirsutism and a deeper voice, with little or no breast development; virtuply\neoruy_~_clis_ci,~rsi,s_ayailableon intersexuality are-thcise- ~rovided by cl,nical.
and
5. Gonadal dysgenesis, in which the subject is chromosomally female but the gonads are neither scientific disciplines, The [llythicai, religious, dramatic, and exhibitionistic context in which
male nor female, instead exhibiting the streaklike characteristic already mentioned. The her,;;arhr~dit:iiip_ ha~ been positioned is a thing of the past. The awe and horror, the
subject in this category is described as a tall, eunuchoid female, with primary amenorrhea special privilege (in some cultures), and the very real dangers (in other cultures) facing the
and underdeveloped breasts and genitalia; and hermaphrodite are today neutralized and normalized through the processes of medicalization.
6. "True" hermaphroditism, in which the chromosomal sex is usually female but the subject has In so positioning hermaphroditism, the question of medical intervention, "correction," is
both testicular and ovarian tissue. Here there are a number of possibilities: the subject may rendered predictable and necessary, and specific treatments can be prescribed.
have an ovary on one side of the body and a testis on the other. The testis may be It is therefore ironic, given the primacy accorded to medical discourses, and given medi-
undescended and undetected, or may take up its place in the scrotal sac. Or the subject may cine's recognition of the complex factors constituting a subject's sexuality, that nevertheless
have a combined ovotestis on one or both sides, or an ovotestis on one side and a primitive the primary concern of surgeons, pediatricians, endocrinologists, cytologists, and psychiatrists
gonadal streak on the other. has been the surgical correction of the subject's nonconforming sexuality so that it comes to
approximate one or the other catego?' of sexual id~ntity. Un~er~eath its manifest or latent(
In addition to these quite distinct types of hermaphroditism, there are also various grada- complexity, it is presumed that there is a true sexuality, which is srmply madequately formed,
tions of intersexuality-depending on the strength, degree, and effectivity of hormonal, rather than an anomalous, nonconformist, or multiformed sexuality. One quote from recog7'
gonadal, and chromosomal anomalies-leading to a number of variations from "normal" nized authorities on intersexuality will illustrate this: ·
sexual identity.
This has been an extremely brief overview of a complex set of categories common in the To visualise individuals who properly belong neither to one sex nor to the other is to
current medical literature, categories that are not without problems of their own. The effects imagine freaks, misfits, curiosities, rejected by society and condemned to a solitary
of taxonomic schema on the groupings and regroupings of individual bodies is capable of existence of neglect and frustration. Few of these unfortunate people meet with tolerance
catastrophic effects such as those outlined in Foucault's account of the reclassification of the and understanding from their fellows, and fewer still find even a limited acceptance in a
hermaphrodite, Herculine Barbin: such reclassification has massive personal effects on the small section of society: all are constantly confronted with reminders of their unhappy
ways individuals live their bodies and their lives. Nevertheless, there are a number of points of situation. The tragedy of their lives is the greater since it may be remediable; with
• i interest I would like to draw out of the various scientific and historical data available on the suitable management and treatment, especially if this is begun soon after birth, many of
. II
question of intersexuality. these people can be helped to live happy well-adjusted lives, and some may even be
First, "'hat ~110,rnally see!' as ~-s~al_p_ol3:"i_ty,__,~•ithJhe JemA\e ..'!1.Qru:_~eme_:,,qcL!'!:~ fertile and be enabled to enjoy a normal family life. (Dewhurst and Gordon 1969, vii)
male at the other, could, based_ul'_on medical evide_I/£,JJ!litt:h_e_ezj§teni:e o( W!Qi~al
I subiectije r,ep_;-.;;ente;cdiff~E~11tly. Rathe~ th'a~p;e~urning two binarily opposed sexes, sexed
subjects could be seen to occupy a position within a sexual continuum. This spectrum would
Finally, it is significant that there remains a ~de sc~is_m_b_<;tween medical unders!':':~ngs
and popularized representations ofhermaphroditis-m: the mostcornmon sideshow an<f Car}llval
contain a broad range of different forms of sexuality, some located-at the male and some at images present a _gii£)ii__c:,·no»g~riit,,J,Jater"Lhermaphroclitiiim by sp)itti,;igJ:l,e..§'Y:'jes_t <!o~
the female poles, with others occupying intermediary positions with varying mixtures of male th~-middle.aqd drJ;.SSi!lgJ/nth:ilfas..Il)3],,_;,J1dJ:l1e ..other .asf~.111ale. The Victor-Victoria, John-
and female attributes. Perhaps more accurately, rather than a continuum (which implies the Jane image has no known medical correlate: these individuals have probably had plastic
smooth transition between intermediate categories), the sexes can be regarded as a (relatively surgery or wear implants on the one side (to create the impression of breasts) or have had one
"!
-~W-8-GontinuQ_~s) series. There are n-sexes rather than two, but these n-sexes have only ever been breast removed. 5 In other words, in popular, nonmedical discourses, there seems to be
defined relati;e tothe two. Indeed, the series is established as such only between male and something intolerable, not about sexual profusion (a biological bisexuality that is fascinating
female, which continue to function as the limits within which anomaly is to be mapped. and considered worth paying for by audiences) but about sexual indeterminacy: the subject
Second, medically oriented studiesof hermap_hroditism have indicated that the Jlrimacy who has clear-cut male and female parts seems more acceptable than the subject whose
giventoth~ VlSlb!e or manifestdifferences_ betwee~tb.e 'sexesis bioiog{~illy un~arr;.,,ted~The genitalia is neither male nor female. These subjects imperil the very constitution of subjectivity
morpliology·o[~e';;;-;;_rg.;;;1tali0 - does.
n.ot provide ,,-dear-cut c!eTineatioh of tlie a,fferences according to sexual categories. I will return to this.
betw""een the sexes, even if it does provide the usual criterion for determining sex in the
neonate. Sex is a multilayered phenomenon, in which a variety of different levels coalesce:
these include organic, genetic, somatic, but also behavioral and psychological factors. Sex is I would like now to turn briefty to that category of monstrosity that is today named after its
thus a much more complicated matter than the information afforded by vision; yet our lived most famous examples, "Siamese" (or conjoined) twins, after Chang and Eng (who, inciden-
(as opposed to scientific) understanding of sexual difference is focused on the presence (or tally, were Chinese, not Siamese). Born in Siam in 1811 of Chinese parents, the pair was
absence) of visible genitalia. discovered by the merchant Robert Hunter in 1824, who obtained the permission of their

60 6r
 ;j ELIZABETH GROSZ I; ;j INTOLERABLE AMBIGUITY I;

parents and the king to take them to the United States and Europe for exhibitions. Signifi- same food, and do whatever they could to act and appear the same. Chang and Eng always
cantly, they were first exhibited before doctors (at Harvard University in 1829), legitimized bought their clothes at the same time, having two suits made in identical styles from the same
and authenticated, and then exhibited before the general public. When they were forty-two, materials. Admittedly, it would have been difficult for them not to at least shop at the same
they took the name "Bunker," married two sisters, English women aged twenty-six and time, but their refusal, for example, to use up material that would have made a suit for one
twenty-eight, and for a number of years lived together in one house. When their families but not for two, indicated that even where it may have been more convenient and cheaper to
became too large, they moved into separate residences, the twins spending three days with dress differently, they refused to do so. A Los Angeles Times article indicates that the same
one woman then three with the other in alternation until their deaths. Between them, voluntary identification occurred with Yvonne and Yvette: "As usual, they dressed identically,
they had twenty-two children and more than two hundred grandchildren. Apparently their from head to toe. Even their purses contain matching sets of everything from vitamin jars to
descendants now number several thousand, many of whom live in the same region today as wallets with exactly the same family photos." Ironically, the linkages between conjoined twins,
the twins did. which seem so pitiable and horrifying to us, are not considered problematic by the twins
Although they were examined by dozens of doctors, and in spite of the fact that as they themselves. A contemporary report on Chang and Eng, from London's Examiner, succinctly
grew older, they fought more and more bitterly, it was decided not to attempt to separate puts the tragedy of their existence into words:
them. Conjoined twins had been successfully separated as early as 1690, when two Swiss
sisters joined belly to belly were separated by ligature and a simple operation (Gould and Pyle It is a mournful sight, to behold two fellow-creatures thus fated to endure all the
1897, 172). In Chang and Eng's case, however, it was decided that surgery would endanger common evils of life, while they must necessarily be debarred from the enjoyment of
the survival of both. Moreover, Chang and Eng were so dispirited by the idea of separation many of its chief delights. The link which unites them is more durable than that of the
that, at least in the first forty years of their lives, they would weep if it was even mentioned. marriage tie-no separation can take place, legal or illegal-no Act of Parliament can
It is significant that today the lives of conjoined twins are considered tragic if th_e.operati.Q_n to divorce them, nor can all the power of Doctors' Commons give them a release even from
separate· them is not fe_asible, This does not always accord with the feelings of the_ conjoined bed and board. (Qyoted in Wallace and Wallace 1976, 80)
twins themselves. - -· · •- - ·- -
Conjoined twins are relatively rare, and first-person (singular or plural) accounts are even However, the twins themselves seemed far more content than this, being limited more by the
rarer, so it is difficult to know what the experience of a permanent coupling is like. There are social necessity of their economic survival in a culture puzzled and horrified by them, and
now, in the late twentieth century, usually only two possible fates for conjoined twins: aware of their peculiarity only from others.
separation, with the attendant dangers it poses for the children's physical and emotional well- The conjunction of twins is made more stark, and the divisions between one existence and
being; or isolation from society, either through institutionalization or through a kind of self- another more blurred, in the case of parasitic twins, where only one of the twins is fully
imposed segregation. Probably the most famous adult conjoined twins in recent times are the formed and organically functional and the other is embedded in the body of the first. In such
McCarther twins, Yvonne and Yvette, who were born in 1949 joined at the top of the head, cases, it is exceedingly rare that the head of the parasitic twin is developed or formed; more
and who died in 1992. Their story made newspaper headlines worldwide when they emerged commonly, the limbs exist in atrophied form, so that either a torso protrudes from the torso
from thirty-eight years of being housebound-as they put it "just (lying) around the house of the fully formed twin, or she or he has extra limbs in unexpected places. In such cases, it is
all day, watching TV and being worthless" -to enroll in college in Los Angeles. no longer clear that there are two identities, even if the bodily functions of the parasitic twin
The Siamese twins and the McCarther twins are the only conjoined twins I know of who occur independently of the will or awareness of the other. In such cases, is there one subject
have given some public indications of their psychical states of being. There are a number of or two? If the subject is considered a single being, what kind of body-space does he or she
striking similarities between them. It is clear for both sets of conjoined twins that they are occupy? Given that the sensations of the parasitic twin are not always perceived by the
two separate subjects, in the sense that they have different personalities, preferences, and autositic twin, does the body-image include the parasitic body? What kind of body image
styles. Yet it also seems evident that the usual hard and fast distinction between the boundaries must it be if the body is to include sensations and experiences the subject cannot experience
of one subject and another are continually blurred: speech patterns and even sentences are in the first person?
shared; all their experiences are shared; they do not need to consult over decisions but make The presence of conjoined twins raises a number of points of interest, some of which are
them in unison automatically. Chang and Eng, for example, even wrote their letters in the similar to those raised by hermaphrodites. First, just as sexuality is best regarded in term~.,<:>[ a
first person singular, using "I" where others would have presumed a 'we" was appropriate, and
1
series' of sexual morpholog1~~"~d.__p.o_sitions_,---8D~ too,_.i_n_ th~-~a£~_Qf .co_nj9tg~JLhri.!?-~" there seems
signing themselves in the joint name "ChangEng." to be a continuum-of id_"11titi_es,_r'!t_1gi11g_fr_oII1_the_ so~called no_rma!Li_ncjiyiduat;cGiri""~ar
It seems to be an affront to the common sense of identity that two individuals, even suo1ect, to a nonindividuated, collectivized multiple subject. -- - ·-
identical twins, should submerge themselves so completely in an identification with another -Second;-thesubJetrl_trrot_given_ aitideiitity iqdepepdent of his or her bodily morphology-
person as to lose all trace of their singularity. However, in the case of both of these sets of eitnersexual or more broadly corporeal-----:but acquires anid~11t:i_tyin;}jie ~e)~t1o§"fci"~dy.
twins, every attempt to individuate them in terms of dress, appearance, and behavior was The rangeofpeculiiiritiesandb1010gic:i.l anomalies to which the body is liable clearly make a
frustrated. It seems that both sets were more than happy to wear the same clothes, eat the difference to the kind of body-image and consequently to the kind of identity the subject (or
 1 ELIZABETH GROSZ i; 1 INTOLERABLE AMBIGUITY~

subjects) attributes and finds others attributing to itself. If it is uncertain where one body ends identity with another is greater or more pervasive than our fear of bodily incompletion. This
and another begins, the subject's identity too must remain undecidably singular and plural, fear, like the fear and horror of ghostly doubles or Doppelganger, is a horror at the possibility
individual and collective. of our own imperfect duplication, a horror of submersion in an alien otherness, an incorpora-
Thu:;l,_a.s__in.J:he..caseofhermaphroditi§m,_i!.\s_significant that, i_n spite of the state of health tion in and by another.
of_c<)aj()i11e_c\_1wins0 Jli,ere appear~ t9 _b_e a medical imperative for surgical interventioinmd The freak illustrates our so-called normal pleasure and fascination with our mirror-images,
~~rmalization, even ifsurgery may actually eodangerHves thafmayotfierwise ieni:iln 'liealthy. a fascination with the limits of our own identities as they are witnessed from the outside. This
Ifseems th~t the p;;r~anent ~o~junct;;,n of individuals is socially mt~lerabl~, ·,;;,cf th~t 1t is is a narcissistic delight at the shape of our own externality, which is always inaccessible to us
unimaginable to others that these subjects themselves would not wish to be able to lead by direct means and is achievable only if we can occupy the perspective others have on us.
"normal" lives. Surgery, it is argued, provides the only hope of such a normality, and surgical The relation we bear to images of ourselves is drawn from this simultaneous and ambivalent
intervention clearly functions more successfully the earlier it occurs: the younger the children reaction: the mirror-image threatens to draw us into its spell of spectral doubling, annihilating
are, the less formed their body-image is. the self that wants to see itself reflected. At the same time, it gains pleasure from the access it
Finally, the existence of conjoined twins, whether autositic or parasitic, raises the question gives to the subject's exteriority, from an illusory mastery over its image. Fascination with the
of the nature of bodily boundaries and the distinctions that separate one being from another. monstrous is testimony to our tenuous hold on the image of perfection. The freak confirms
While psychologically distinct individuals, conjoined twins are nevertheless far closer than the viewer as bounded, belonging to a "proper" social category. The viewer's horror lies in the
any other two beings ever could be, and while there are two identities, they are not sharply recognition that this monstrous being is at the heart of his or her own identity, for it is all
distinguished from each other. In separatiI1g_conjoined twins, one does not thereby create two that must be ejected or abjected from self-image to make the bounded, category-obeying self
autonomous beings, only as close_as~identi~al.twins; cO.:nj.010.~dtwi'ni !ire:bonoeathmii~Ji.t:he possible. In other words, what is at stake in the subject's dual reaction to the freakish or
psych1c:al inscription of their historical, even if not current, corporeal links. Those who have bizarre individual is its own narcissism, the pleasures and boundaries of its own identity, and
sha,red:o.rga_n,;;, a comm.on
J.,ioo.f Gii~µl:rti~n, and every minuted;;tail of everyday life can n~ver the integrity of its received images of self.
havethiscorporeallinkeffaced. ··· -- - ·· - -- - ·-- -- -----------
NOTES
This chapter was written in 1986, under the auspices of and with funding from the Humanities
In conclusion, I would like to return to one of the concerns I mentioned at the beginning of Research Centre, The Australian National University. It was published as "Freaks: An Exploration of
Human Anomalies" in Social Semiotics 1, no. 2 (1991): 22-38. It has been rewritten for this collection.
this chapter: not to so-called freaks themselves, but to what is freakish among those who are
not freaks-that is, the dual horror and fascination others have toward those they label freaks. 1. A freemartin is a sterile twin in cattle, sheep, goats and pigs, in which the female twin is
This mixture of reactions is a peculiar one that requires some kind of explanation. Why are masculinized when the male hormones secreted by the male twin enter the female twin through
people horrified at seeing deformities and human anomalies? Why do they classify such common blood circulation. See Mittwoch (1973), 60ff.
anomalies as freaks? What is so unsettling about freaks? I suggest that it is not gross deformity 2. I was recently alarmed to read in my local newspaper a report on the experiments of scientists
who, as part of the human genome project, are trying to map the genes relevant to sight. They have,
alone that is so unsettling and fascinati!lf;,. Rather,. there are other reasons far tli.isciinziliy
thr?ugh gene-splicin~, been_ able to induce the development of up to fourteen eyes on a single fly, in
and horror. First, it seems to me that the initial reaction to the freaki_sh ,arid..the.mo_ru;J;r~us is unlikely and dys~nctl.onal sites (e.g. on the end of antennae, on legs, on the thorax or back). Sadly, it
a perversekh!d ofsexii:¥'curfos,Itf- Pioople in_il k__~t<> tf,~~s~l;~s: "H()l"' c\o.•!.4"Ld.O if~'- What seems, -the more mformation about genetics and genetic manipulation is developed, the more bizarre
and extreme are its experimental implications.
__ l<i11_d._c,f_sex !i_v_e_s _art, a"'1il."lcle_!"-§!."!n..es~_1wi!'-.§,J,erm~Rhrodites, bearde~ ladies,_ an~m_<igiets?
There is a certain morbid speculation about what it would be like tobe with such ~ersons, or 3. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire's teratological classifications were as follows:
wc,rs;;,. to betliem. rt is not iiltogetner surpnsmitl1ai a_· v;;;y1;;g~ percentage offre;f;"f have CLASS I-Union of several fetuses. CLASS 2-Union of two distinct fetuses by a connecting band.
researclied-were-married~o,involved-in sexu:il liaisons:X~ Vict()r Hugo writ<?~in Th(~M,n CLASS 3-Union of two distinct fetuses by an osseous junction of cranial bones. cLAss 4-Union of
WhoLaughs, "You are not onlyugly;but hideous,_lJgfo~e_ssjs iniigp.i:ticant, defo.r~,grand. two distinct fetuses in which one or more parts are eliminated by the junction. CLASS 5 - Union of
Ugliness i~ ~ devil's grin beh1ndbeauty;-deformity is akin to sublimity." . two fetuses by a bony union of the ischii. CLASS 6-Fusion of two fetuses below the umbilicus into a
common lower extremity. CLASS 7-Bicephalic monsters. CLASS 8-Parasitic monsters. CLASS 9-
'-- The per versepleasureofVO)reuflSffi- an.a·iae'riii.hcatIOiliS~-OOUiite!balanced by horror at the
Monsters with a single body and double lower extremities. CLASS 10-Diphallic terata. CLASS 11-
blurring of identities__(~!'Xllal, mcpare,l, penonal)__J)1at ,"'itiless our chaotic and insecure Fetus in fetu, and dermoid cysts. CLASS 12-Hermaphrodites. (Qgoted in Gould and Pyle 1897,
identities. Freaks traverse the ve~oundaries that secure the "normal" subject in its given 167)
identity and sexuality. Mo:;;~ters invc,l"e ajljgnds of doubling of the human form, a duplica- 4. An estimated three hundred conjoined twins have survived beyond a few months of age in
tion of the bodyorsomeot its-parts. The major terata recognized throughout history are recorded history, although the success rate in separating conjoined twins is increasing with advances in
largely monsters of excess, witli two or more heads, bodies, or limbs, or with duplicated sexual the techniques of microsurgery. In the case of intersexuality, however, the rate is much more frequent,
I I
organs. One might ponder why the excess of bodily parts is more discomforting than a perhaps being one in two thousand.
,1 shortage or diminution of limbs or organs. Perhaps our fear of the immersion or loss of 5. Significantly, probably the most striking mass culture representation of the hermaphrodite, in

'i
I
 ~ ELIZABETH GROSZ~

Federico Fellini's Satyricon, in which there is a closer correspondence with medicalized images, was
played by a sexually immature boy who, through the help of make-up, was given the appearance of
breasts.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dewhurst, Christopher J., and Ronald R. Gordon. 1969. The Intersexual Disorders. London: Bailliere

Practices of Enfreakment
Tindall/Cassell.
Drimmer, Frederick. 1973. Very Special People. New York: Amjon.
Fiedler, Leslie. 1978. Freaks: Myths and Image of the Secret Self New York: Simon & Schuster.
Gould, George M., and Walter L. Pyle. 1897. Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine. Philadelphia: W.
B. Saunders.
Hirst, B. C., and G. A. Peirson. 1893. Human Monstrosities. Philadelphia: Lea Brothers.
Jones, Howard W., and William W. Scott. 1971. Hermaphrodites, Genital Anomalies and Related
Endocrine Disorders. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.
Josso, Nathalie, ed. 1981. The Intersex Child. Basel: S. Karger.
Lifson, Robert. 1983. Enter the Sideshow. Bala Cynwyd, Pa.: Mason Publishing.
Mittwoch, Ursula. 1973. Genetics of Sexual Dijferentiation. London and New York: Academic Press.
Money, John. 1968. Sex Errors ofthe Body: Dilemmas, Education, Counselling. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press.
Nishimura, Hideo, and James R. Miller. 1969. Methods for Teratological Studies in Experimental Animals
and Man. London: Pitman Medical Publishing.
Rubin, Alan. 1967. Handbook of Congenital Malformations. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.
Smith, David W. 1976. Recognizable Patterns ofHuman Malformation. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.
Wallace, Irving, and Amy Wallace. 1976. The Two. London: Cassell.
Wilson, James G. 1973. Environment and Birth Defects. New York: Academic Press.

I
i

66
I'' F'I-VE

Monsters in the Marketplace: The Exhibition of

Human Oddities in Early Modern England
PAUL SEMO NIN

The publication of Jonathan Swift's satire Gulliver's Travels in 1726 signaled the decline of an
era in which the taste for monsters had become an almost universal craze among English
citizens of all ranks. Swift's tales parodied many different aspects of English society, but the
central motif for his beleaguered hero in the novel Voyage to Brobdingnag, "the Ignominy of
being carried about for a Monster," was borrowed from a centuries-old fixture in English
popular culture, the display of monsters in the marketplace. 1 Though he scornfully mocked
the "monster-mongers and other retailers of strange sights" in an earlier work, A Tale ef the
Tub, Swift himself was a connoisseur of these strange sights, being among the first to see the
Ii seven-year-old Hungarian sisters, Helena and Judith, twins joined at the backs, who were
typical of the so-called monsters that had thrilled learned Englishmen since the Restoration.
Only a month after a scholarly description of these twins was read before the Royal Society
on May 12, 1708, Swift commented on their impact on him, remarking that seeing them
"causes many speculations; and raises an abundance of questions in divinity, law and physic." 2
For many observers, the decadence at the court of Charles II heralded the resurgence of
interest in monsters that swept through England in the late seventeenth century, a phenome-
non that drove historian Henry Morley to declare that after the Restoration "the taste for
monsters became a disease." 3 Though dwarfs had always played a role in court society, the
increased demand for them, along with armless and legless performers, hermaphrodites, scaly
boys, and many other performers with natural deformities, brought fame, though not very
often fortune, to the most versatile of these entertainers. Matthew Bucl,inger, the armless and
legless German dwarf, whose virtuosity with a pen, musical instruments, playing cards, cups
and balls, and witty repartee made him a court favorite, appeared at the Blackmoor's Heads
in Holburn, near Southampton, in 1723, a few years before Swift's Gulliver's Travels was
published.
At the peak of their popularity after the Restoration, the term "monsters" applied to many
types of exotic exhibits besides those natural anomalies that fell into the category of monstrous
births. Even these prodigies, which had come to be viewed as wonders of God's nature,
 '
I

~ PAUL SEMONIN f;- ~ MONSTERS IN THE MARKETPLACE f;-

included an assortment of fabulous creatures, whose pedigrees clearly went well beyond the of curiosities and founder of the British Museum, sent a draughtsman to make drawings of
limits of natural conception into the realm of the mythical. From Elizabethan times, when the monsters and compiled the most extensive collection of handbills advertising them.
the first inhabitants and specimens of animal life from the New World began to arrive in Exhibitors were obviously aware of the interest among learned naturalists in their audience
England, there appeared among the exhibits a startlingly diverse array of monstrous creatures, and worded their handbills to highlight such appeal: "For the satisfaction of all curious
many of whom were already familiar to their audiences through popular fables, the bestiaries, enquirers into the Secrets of Nature, is to be seen a Woman Dwarf, but Three Foot and one
pictorial prints, and biblical lore. Late seventeenth-century handbills, many from Sir Hans Inch high, born in Sommersetshire, who discourses excellently well, and gives great Satisfaction
Sloane's collection, announced such hybrid creatures as the hand of a Sea Monster, half man to all that ever saw her." 7
and half fish; a Man-Teger {sic] from the East Indies, "from the Head downwards resembling The intellectual fascination for. mon_sters_among the naturalists was testimony to the
a Man, its fore parts clear, and his hinder parts all Hairy"; a "strange and monstrous Female enduring scientific interest Tn them engendered by Franas Baco,i during thiearly seventeenth
Creature that was taken in the woods in the Deserts of Aethiopia in Prester John's Country, cefihir}': In j620, Bacon had given monstrous births a strategic place in his tripartite s~liema
in the remotest parts of Africa"; and a monster from the "Coast of Brazil, having a Head like for-the-study of natural history, arguing that they should constitute a special category, the
a Child, Legs and Arms very wonderful, with a Long Tail like a Serpent, where with he feeds preter-natural, which he saw linking the other two categories, the natural and the artificial.
himself, as an Elephant doth with his Trunk." In addition to the hermaphrodites, dwarfs, His principal concern was to separate monstrous births from the long tradition of supernatural
giants, and giantesses who were standard fare at these shows, there were also a wide variety of explanations of such phenomena. As Katherine Park and Lorraine J. Daston note, "Bacon
persons with natural anomalies, including a woman with three breasts, a boneless child, and a was at pains to distinguish his history of marvels from 'books of fabulous experiments and
monster with one body, two heads, four arms and four legs, with teeth in each mouth. 4 secrets' which served up a jumble of fact and fable to 'curious and vain wits.' " 8
Throughout the seventeenth century, the London monster shows were the occasion of a Even within the narrow world of natural history, such efforts to confine monsters to a
mingling of the classes that may have been unprecedented. Foreign visitors to England strictly scientific niche only succeeded eventually in hastening their departure from the polite
declared the wide appeal of these exhibits to be one of the characteristic traits of the English company oflearned society. The principal legacy of this demythification was the establishment
people. While the top acts entertained the royalty at court, wealthy connoisseurs could obtain of a secular yardstick for measuring the credulity of those who still attended the shows in the
private audiences by paying the showmen to bring these curiosities into their homes. Inns marketplace. From the early days of the English Renaissance, there had been a growing
were regarded as the most eligible show places for upscale public viewing, since the common criticism of the gullibility of the penny audience, the "Mob," which patronized the monster
practice of renting lodging to a monster during fairs ofren attracted customers to these shows. "By the mid-eighteenth century an appetite for the marvelous had become, as Hume
establishments. The cheapest shows were those of itinerant showmen who set up their declared, the hallmark of the 'ignorant and barbarous,' antithetical to the study of nature as
displays in the streets near taverns or coffeehouses. Don Saltero's Coffeehouse, London's first conducted by the man of'good-sense, education and learning.' " 9 Monsters came to symbolize
public museum, advertised such exhibits in Mists Weekly Journal in 1723: "Monsters of all the imbecility_'!f_IlQPUlarbeliefs, the perfect me!ap],,oi:_far_qe_cryi_ngthe sheep-like mentality
sorts here are seen, Strange things in nature as they grew so." 5 oltbLm..:SOs, who were the_ butt of ridicule by everyone fromsatiristst~=;~i~n~st~.- - ·· ··- - -
For ordinary Londoners, the tumultuous throng that often provided the burgeoning mass Efforts by modern scholars to understand the popular appeal of monsters· have been
audience for the monsters, there were the penny shows in the streets and at the fairs, which hampered by their tacit acceptance of this gullibility thesis. In their comprehensive study of
were also frequented by a surprising number of the penny-pinching better sort. A midget early modern monster literature, Park and Daston frame their argument in terms of a struggle
named the "Corsican Fairy," normally shown in Cockspur Street for two-shillings and six- between the Protestant reformers, who viewed monstrous births primarily as ominous signs
pence, could be seen at Bartholomew Fair at three-pence for "Working People, Servants and of God's displeasure with sinful behavior, and the nascent scientific mentality that sought to
Children," but six-pence for "Gentry." 6 Henry Morley's history of Bartholomew Fair points strip away any religious significance in order to interpret them mainly within the realm of
out that the cheap shows there were not rarities to be seen only at the fair, but rather medical pathology. For Park and Daston, the transition from popularly based broadside
entertainments of the regular London showmen, normally scattered about the city during the ballads by Protestants to the learned clinical treatises by scientists paralleled the withdrawal
rest of the year. of the educated classes from popular culture, ending finally with the predominantly secular
Among the most ardent admirers of these monsters were many of the luminaries of the opinion that popular beliefs about monsters were symptoms of ignorance and superstition. "In
London literary scene, especially budding naturalists. Diary entries by John Evelyn, Samuel the early years of the Reformation, the tendency to treat monsters as prodigies-frightening
Pepys, and Robert Hooke, all members of the Royal Society, record their visits to the cheap signs of God's wrath dependent ultimately or solely upon his will-was almost universal. By
exhibits, as well as the more expensive. Scholarly descriptions of the monsters appeared the end of the seventeenth century, only the most popular forms of literature-ballads,
frequently in the early issues of the Royal Society's journal. Pepys's servant, James Paris du broadsides and the occasional religious pamphlet-treated monsters in this way." 10
Plessis, produced an early chronicle of these exhibits, a three-hundred-page book entitled A Although Park and Daston seem well aware of the ancient tradition of monster culture pre-
Short History of Human Prodigies and Monstrous Births, of Dwarft, Sleepers, Giants, Strong dating the Reformation, they make only passing reference to its manifestation in popular
Men, Hermaphrodites, Numberous Births and Extreme Old Age, Etc., which included fifty-four culture, preferring instead to highlight its influence upon medieval writings and the new
hand-colored drawings of these figures. The physician Sir Hans Sloane, an eminent collector Renaissance genre of wonder literature, where the strictly religious treatment of monsters as
 4 PAUL SEMONIN f -;j MONSTERS IN THE MARKETPLACE f
7 ;.:
i

prodigies was replaced by an encyclopedic interest in them as marvels of nature. The cosmo-
graphies of Konrad von Gesner and Pierre Belon were typical of this new genre, which had
its roots in the efforts by late medieval Latin humanists to compile encyclopedic treatises,
I
i
I
including Albertus Magnus's De secretis naturae. German and Swiss scholars borrowed heavily
from ephemeral literature on monstrous births to create learned Latin treatises on the subject
in the sixteenth century, and these works were quickly vulgarized by authors who either
translated them into the vernacular or simply plagiarized them to produce the popular prodigy
books. Though the distinction between the prodigy books and the wonder literature often
seems overwrought, there can be little doubt that both had a tendency to secularize the
subject, since they inevitably included clinical descriptions of the monstrous births with
occasional accounts of mythical creatures. In many respects, it seems more appropriate to
identify learned prodigy books such as Pierre Boaistuau's Histoires prodigieuses and Ambroise
Pare's Des Monstres et prodiges (see fig. 5.1) with the protoscientific Baconian tradition. Jean
1
Ceard, a French authority on Pare, considers Des Monstres et prodi"ges 'the most sustained
11
attempt (during the sixteenth century) to 'naturalize' monsters." Nonetheless, Jurgis Baltru-
saitis's remark about Pare's contribution to this new genre of medicalized monster lore
suggests that scientific imagery was capable of creating its own fantasy world: "The fantastic
realism of the image-makers is joined here to the awakening of a realistic [scientific] mind." 12
Even though vulgarizers of this new wonder literature, like Thomas Lupton, the late
sixteenth-century English author of the catalogue of natural marvels A Thousand Notable
Things, wrote in a plain style aimed at "the slenderly learned and common sorte," it should be
evident by now that we must use the word "popular" advisedly when dealing with the new
audience of lay readers- especially if we are to maintain any integrity to a notion that
5.1. Drawing of monstrous birth from Ambroise
previously, if not primarily, was applied to the folk beliefs of semiliterate and illiterate Pare's Des monstres et prodiges (Geneva: Librairie
peasants, laborers, and migrant workers. For Park and Daston, "vulgarization" is relevant Droz, 1971; orig. 1573), 14.
mainly to the emerging middle-class lay readers rather than the "mob." This is evident in
their efforts to link the wonder literature to the conversation manuals, both of which
"presented a new, civil ideal of culture, opposed to both popular ignorance and the solitary By 1637, a Protestant minister's sermon against the showing of monsters in the marketplace
efforts of the professional scholar, and identified with the culture of the educated layman- acknowledged the declining popular interest in prodigies: "The common sort makes no
the lawyer, the businessman, the government official, and their wives and daughters." 13 further use of prodigies and strange-births, than as matter of wonder and table-talk." 16 Even
"While popular literature retained its traditional prodigious and prophetic thrust," they argue, though these ballads were "sung" by the peddlers who sold them, it was often not a song in
"educated culture, in this and other areas, was tending to detach itself from what it perceived the traditional sense, but rather a crying of the news, that they most resembled. Lyric ballads
as the ignorance and superstition of the folk-'the most deceptable part of Mankind,' as like Chevy Chase and Barbara Allen, Peter Burke notes, were "swamped by new ones which
Thomas Browne called them in Pseudodoxia epidemica." 14 often dealt with current events; battles, murders, witchcraft, monstrous births and other
The broadside ballads, on which the edifice of Protestant prodigy literature rested, actually prodigies." 17 Often the ominous ballad lyrics, as the broadsides themselves indicated, were to
served in many ways to obscure the popular meaning of monsters in the marketplace. The be sung to music from other songs, whose incongruous titles sometimes suggest an almost
ballads sought to instill fear instead of wonder in the hearts of the common people, to whom satiric tone was sought in their actual singing.
the dreadful litany of God's wrath must have become a numbing routine. In the late sixteenth Such patently journalistic headlines were typical of the broadsides. By the late seventeenth
century, ''A mervaylous strange deformed Swyne" brought from Denmark to England for century, a ballad about a woman who gave birth to a toad, a serpent, and a child announced
display occasioned a ballad whose verse was typical of the Protestant sentiments: the event under the rubric of "True wonders and strange news," while retaining elements of
the familiar prodigy formula in its verse: "Strange miracles the Lord has sent, that we our sins
Come neere, good Christians all, may lay aside." 18 From the earliest broadsides, the element of wonder seems to have been an
Beholde a monster rare, important ingredient in this genre, since the monstrous births, the signs of God's wrath, were
Whose monstrous shape, no doubt, fortels, also considered miracles, indications of God's power over nature. However, the sense of
Gods wrath we should beware. 15 wonder was undercut, if not entirely negated, by a stark realism evident in the detailed

?2 73
 ;j PAUL SEMONIN I'
;j MONSTERS IN THE MARKETPLACE ,c
description of the monstrous birth, which had none of the fanciful spirit of the showman's
handbills. An early seventeenth-century broadside, headlined "The true picture of a Female
Monster born near Salisbury" (fig. 5.2), was accompanied by an anatomical sketch and
THE
announced "a wonderful Creature, which cannot be otherwise accounted than a Monster: It TRU)'<; PICTURE
OF A
having two Heads, four Arms, and two Legs." 19 FEMALE MONSTER
llORN NEAR
Even these prodigies were often brought to the marketplace, not for religious purposes, but SALISllURY.

for commercial display to curiosity seekers. In 1664, a broadside described how the embalmed
bodies of two monstrous twins, Martha and Mary, joined together at the navel, were brought
to London where the father, a poor man, had "twenty pounds given him the first day, by
persons of Q,,ality." 20 By viewing these events mainly through the broadside ballads, as
manifestations of religious sentiments engendered by the Reformation, we run the risk of
ignoring their wider nonreligious significance in the marketplace. After all, a person there
could see a monster for the one-penny price of a broadside ballad. The ballads themselves Ot~~~%,i :1';:o'.'.~:t1~~~;::•;;11;:;,:.::'b~;~,:::;~,~~u1:1":::t~
N Weduosd,y tho 06. day of 0&1,hr, 166+ The Wife of Joi," W•l<nnan, a Hus-

u Moa,ter, It having""" Head,, lou, Arm,, .,nd two Leg,.

were sold and sung by peddlers in the marketplace, where they competed with the handbills Tho Hood, ,<and;ng contra')' cad, to other, one Hsod s<andfog whore the Fee,
,hauldbe
There were t,m perfect Boa;,, downws,d, to cl>o Navel, " if cl>ece had b,= """
of showmen for the attention of the assembled throng. In many respects, the realistic tone of Chi,jt=L,~~'~, ~;: !?~i,::~l:~~;~~;t:~f ,he Bod;<',jo,t in tho middle,
these broadsides may have had more in common with the secular scientific tradition of the """'' both Bodie, weroJoyned w~ethet.
It,.._, dissected, and ,h,re """' found two Hom,, two Live,", and all tho inward
parts complo,e, a, tl,e outwal"d to the Navel, except only that it had but two Kid.
learned naturalists than with the popular mentality of the marketplace, which both Protestant "'J'.}·o.,., wa, bot Ooe s,~ to both these Bodies, wl,kh wos the Fem.Jo.
Th\, Monster lived tmo days, anC.during that time took Sustonollco. h would not
reformers and the secular naturalists eventually condemned with equal ferocity. What these Suck, buo<l;d }:at .,;ti, bo,h Mouthes; when the one cried, the other di<l oo too, each
;,nltacing ,he other in ,ove,al action,, nnd W8" '"<n ol;ve by ruany hondred, of d,e
neighbouring plares, which nockod to " • "' strnnge • Croatur,.
groups had in common only becomes readily visible when both are set off against the The Mothot h•rl ru,e Child n,o,e •t the""'" time, which W.. bo,n fir,t, and
which ,.J;o i, • FemRle, and • V<:')' coa,dy Child in all propcrcions, and i,, yet living.
profoundly different folk mentality of the popular mind, which tends to remain submerged in 'I"!,;, Mo"11<r;, i,,,mJ,d 1p"d;/y to I,, br,;,ugh/" London.
With Allowance, R,r,,. L"E,,-,.,,,,1;,, N,,,ml. 5. 1M4-
the background of early modern monster lore so long as we rely so heavily upon the literary WNDON,
Prin,ed for R. P. at tho Sign of the Bible in
evidence, whether it be broadsides or Latin treatises. Even within the literary tradition itself, Clumm7./aa,,,664.

the popular taste for monsters, with its decidedly folkloric conception of them, constitutes a
well-documented outlook that is later dismissed simply as credulity. 5 .2. "The True Picture of a Female Monster"
Beneath the surface of the documentary evidence, with its thinly veiled contempt for (London, 1664), broadside, reprinted in The Pack
popular beliefs, lies a shadow world of monster lore that is surprisingly visible, if we look at of Auto!ycus, ed. Hyder E. Rollins (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1927), 140.
the cultural environment in which these people lived. In the medieval bestiaries, the crab
crawling sideways symbolized the fraudulent; ironically, it is to the fabulous, imaginary
creatures that we must turn for further insight into the popularity of monsters in the
marketplace. While Protestant divines and naturalists were busy trying to separate humankind
satyrs, and minotaurs, not to mention the dog-headed men, pygmies, and troglodytes who
from nature, the popular mind still felt at home in a mental world inhabited by fabulous
constituted the monstrous races believed to inhabit remote parts of the earth. 23
creatures, a realm of natural wonders based upon the ancie1:1,t assumption that human beings
Naturalists seeking knowledge of plant life from rural folklore found that "for most people
and nature were locked into one interacting world.
in the early modern period the plant world was alive with symbolic meaning." 24 Even plants
Early Christianity had adopted a hostile attitude toward the animistic beliefs common in
could give birth to monsters. Learned sixteenth-century herbalists saw further evidence of
pagan cultures, and it promoted a distinctly antimythical doctrine in which humankind's
popular credulity in the fantastic stories surrounding the mandrake root, a plant that popular
separation from nature was symbolized by the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden
lore held grew beneath the gallows from the seed of hanged men. The mandrake plant, which
of Eden. In his timely study Man and the Natural World, Keith Thomas has explored some of
has narcotic properties, produces a forked, fleshy root shaped like a human figure, which
the consequences of this dichotomy, pointing out that among them was the repudiation of the
popular lore maintained was so full of animal life it gave a shriek and dropped human blood
tradition in classical Greek culture that man was descended from animals. 21 By the early
when torn out of the ground. In medieval times these roots were made into charms, and by
modern era, the boundary between the human and animal worlds had become the battleline
the Tudor era they were being sold as puppets by itinerant peddlers at Bartholomew Fair,
in the war against popular beliefs. "Wherever we look in early modern England," says
where they aroused an indignant warning from William Turner, author of A New Herbal!,
Thomas, "we find anxiety, latent or explicit, about any form of behaviour which threatened to
that they were the fabrications of confidence men. 25 The mandrake charms are concrete
transgress the fragile boundaries between man and the animal creation." 22 In the popular
evidence of the monster lore that crossed over from medieval popular beliefs into the early
monster lore, this boundary between beasts and humans was virtually nonexistent and was
modern marketplace despite efforts to suppress it. In 1611, they posed a haunting question to
crossed over frequently in a bestiary tradition dating back to antiquity that included centaurs, the schoolmaster and author Henry Peacham:

74 75
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1 PAUL SEMONIN ~ 1 MONSTERS IN THE MARKETPLACE~

Why doe the rude vulgar so hastily post in madnesse From the same manuscript drawings, we can see that Bartholomew Fair was the site of
To gaze at trifles, and toyes not worthy the viewing? miracle plays, the mysteries and the moralities, for they depict a stage scene with the devil
And thinke them happy, when they may be shew'dfor a penny emerging from a Hell-mouth, the grotesque anim!ll's i}ead--'that was the traditional medieval
The Fleet-streete Mandrakes, that heavenly Motion ofEltham. 26 stage device thrbugh which these monstrous creatures came and went. But in these produc-
tions, as Morley points out, the devil was always portrayed as a comic character, wearing a
For anyone seeking the answer to Peacham's question, Bartholomew Fair represents a rare leather dress trimmed with feathers or hair.
vista in the landscape of early modern popular culture, a monumental assemblage of the Bartholomew Fair eventually became a sort of mecca for monsters, a place of pilgrimage
strange and exotic that the English poet William Wordsworth described at the beginning of whose aura of the miraculous survived even after the dissolution of the monasteries. The
the nineteenth century as the "Parliament of Monsters." From its inception in the early monsters appeared there in a carnival setting, along with a corps of professional entertainers
twelfth century until its final suppression in 1855, the fair was a living museum of the including rope dancers, puppeteers, posture-masters, fire-eaters, and animal trainers, all
monstrous, which survived everything from the Reformation to the Civil War, before finally immersed in a cacophony of rumbling kettle drums, penny trumpets, bagpipes, and fiddlers.
falling victim to the middle-class decorum of the Victorian era. "It is there you will see the Italian Scaramouch dancing on the Rope," cries a handbill, "with
By the Elizabethan age, Bartholomew Fair was already an "ancient custome," having been a Wheel Barrow before him with two Children and a Dog in it, and a Duck on his Head,
first chartered over four hundred years earlier in 1133 by a monk named Rayer, who had been who sings to the Company, and causes much laughter." 28 While the puppet shows echoed the
court jester to Henry I. Beginning on the eve of St. Bartholomew's Day in the month of miracle plays and moralities of medieval times, the "drolls," short comic performances, often
August, the fair was celebrated for three days each year at the Priory of St. Bartholomew, featuring dwarfs, trained animals, and persons with natural anomalies, provided an array of
located in West Smithfield, just beyond Alder Gate outside the London city wall. Until 1614, theatrical shows that were not shut down even when London's playhouses were silenced
when Smithfield was first paved, the site remained, in Henry Morley's vivid words, "a broken during the Commonwealth. In many respects, Bartholomew Fair was a theatrical extravaganza
plain of mud" full of the filth of men and beasts, at the edge of London, where paths from in which the monsters were normal and their extraordinary form became part of a spectacle
the countryside met uninhabited lanes from the city. Originally the site of the king's market of the unnatural, the grotesque, and the lewd. A pamphlet from 1641, the earliest tract
held every Friday, the large open field before the priory eventually became a daily gathering describing the Fair, captures this intermingling of the monstrous with the theatrical among
place for Londoners seeking recreation, and it was the scene of great jousting tournaments, the crowds of people:
wrestling, and ninepins. The city gallows there were the site of public executions, while the
open field also became a place of martyrdom for heretics burnt alive and was a public burial Here a Knave in a fooles coate, with a trumpet sounding, or on a drumme beating,
ground for plague victims. invites you and would faine perswade you to see his puppets; There a Rogue like a wild
Everywhere in England the first fairs had originated as gatherings of worshipers and woodman, or an Antick shap like an Incubus, desires your company to view his motion;
pilgrims at sacred places, on the feast days of saints enshrined in the nearby abbeys and on the other side, Hocus Pocus with three yards of tape or ribbin in's hand, shewing his
cathedrals. They were held within the church itself until this practice was prohibited, shifting art of Legerdemaine, to the admiration and astonishment of a company of cocko-
their locale to the churchyard and the surrounding neighborhood. The Priory of St. Bartholo- loaches.29
mew operated a hospital for the poor, and under Rayer's tutelage the site quickly became a
"wonder-working shrine," a place of pilgrimage famous for miraculous cures. Rayer himself In the early Tudor period, the word "anticke," derived from the Italian antico, was synony-
staged numerous "miracles" to attract people to the Fair, and although they were denounced mous with the term grotesque, which was used to describe various monstrous forms, including
later by the church they continued to occur even after his death. the diabolical genre of paintings and prints from continental artists. Breughel's painting of
From its inception, on the feast days during the fair St. Bartholomew's was the scene of the torments of St. Anthony, with its dream-like Germanic style full of demons and hybrid
wondrous entertainments, intermixed with sinful excesses. Morley provides an atmospheric creatures, was typical of this genre. The German painter Hans Holbein's prints depicting the
description of the fair based upon drawings from the Decretals, thirteenth-century illuminated ridiculous antics of folly and death introduced England to diablerie and were extremely
manuscripts prepared by monks depicting life around the priory: popular there. 30 The weird figures in these "lewd" prints, often satyrs, fauns, griffins, and
harpies derived from Roman myths, were called "antics" by their critics. French artist Jacques
We have but to give voice and life to all those pictures, and we have the spirit of the Callot's inexpensive prints, which became popular in England during the early seventeenth
concourse at the Fair. Cripples about the altar, miracles of saints, mummings of sinners, century, included figures with natural anomalies as well as fantastic hybrid creatures.
monks with their fingers in the flesh-pot, ladies astride on the high saddles of their While the clergy saw these "anticke" images as diabolical, to the popular audiences such
palfreys, knights, nobles, citizens and peasants, the toilers of idleness and industry, the fabulous creatures, including the Devil, were often comic characters, whose mirthful qualities
stories that were most in request, lax morality, the grotesque images which gave delight were derived from older pagan mythologies. "The demons of the monkish legends," Thomas
to an uncultivated people. 27 Wright reminds us, "were simply the elves and hobgoblins of our forefathers, who haunted

77
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the woods, and fields, and waters, and delighted in misleading or plaguing mankind, although popular at country fairs. This innocuous sideshow amusement, with its blending of the
their mischief was usually of a rather mirthful character." 31 Even in the old mysteries or monstrous with the comic, might be regarded simply as a cony-catching ruse for the rustic
religious plays in which these demons appeared, their roles were the comic scenes, or farce, of countrymen were it not for the fact these same facial contortions descended from an ancient
the piece. "The devils are droll but not frightful; they provoke laughter, or at least a smile, but comic tradition "dating back to the clowns and buffoons of antiquity, who employed the same
they create no horror," observes Wright. 32 The spirit of these medieval monsters-hairy, expressions in their mimicry.
shaggy creatures with horns, hoofs, and tails-was that of the ludicrous, where the monstrous The grimacing faces in the marketplace echoed the grotesque and monstrous heads found
expressed the love of burlesque and caricature in the popular tradition. in the stone sculpture and wood carving decorating medieval churches. Three "grimacers"
The seventeenth-century English poet John Dryden, himself an ardent critic of the found on the carved wooden stalls at the church of Stratford-upon-Avon were typical of this
"anticke," divided comedy into two categories-the naturalistic and the fantastic. For him, popular art form found in many English ecclesiastical buildings. "This grinning face with
naturalistic comedy, which was the acceptable form, was a comedy of natural deformity, based tongue out was not a fanciful mode of making the demon appear more repulsive, but was
upon Aristotelian rules. By contrast, the fantastic was a meaningless exercise, a distortion of adopted from a classical source." 36 The frightful face with the tongue lolling out took the
the real world, which, ironically, he associates with the monsters at Bartholomew Fair: form of Gorgon in ancient Greek mythology, and dated back to the Egyptian monster
Typhon, "the apparent origin of a long series of faces, or masks, of this form and character,
The persons and actions of farce are all unnatural, and the manners false, that is which are continually recurring in the grotesque ornamentation, not only of the Greeks and
inconsisting [sic] with the characters of mankind. Grotesque painting is the resemblance Romans, but of the middle ages." 37 Wright maintains that many of these grotesque forms
of this; and Horace begins his Art of Poetry by describing such a figure, with a man's were handed down to medieval times directly from antiquity by the stone carvers themselves.
head, a horse's neck, the wings of a bird, and a fish's tail; parts of different species Along with the many other monstrous creatures found in medieval church decorations, from
jumbled together according to the mad imagination of the dawber; and the end of all the legendary monstrous races of the "Indian wonders" to the Germanic wild men, these
this, as he tells you afterwards, to cause laughter; a very monster in Bartholomew Fair, figures bear silent witness to a long tradition of popular folk humor, in which the monster
for the mob to gape at for their two-pence. 33 was a mythological figure, imbued with an essentially comic meaning for its audience in the
marketplace. Even though figures with natural anomalies were relatively rare in the carvings,
By transposing Dryden's metaphor, we can see that in the popular tradition monsters were their infrequent appearance there should be sufficient to link them, along with their living
actors in a drama, rather than merely symbols of God's wrath or specimens of scientific counterparts in early modern England, to an enduring folk attitude toward the monstrous
interest. They were characters of comic horror intimately connected to an ancient tradition of that is quite distinct from either the Protestant prodigies or the protoscientific natural
folk humor, which provides the best insight into the enigma of their enduring appeal in the wonders.
marketplace. After the Restoration, when the taste for monsters had become so widespread, In contrast to the frivolity of popular attitudes toward the monstrous, the Puritan attacks
the term "grotesque" became "the generic designation for all low comic characters, whether upon these "anticke" figures often shrouded them in shame and fear. Yet, for all the foreboding
fantastic or merely naturally deformed." 34 The use of grimacing figures, obscene language, portents in their prodigies, the Puritan critics clearly understood an important element of the
and bawdy jests were then considered only suitable for vulgar street plays. psychology of the monstrous, even while they attempted to strip away the symbolic signifi-
Among the monsters exhibited in London in this period, we find a creature who illustrates cance of the ludicrous. Sir John Davis, the Calvinist author of Nosce Teipsum, a collection of
the comic character of the monstrous. In a handbill advertising his show, he was called the verse published in 1599, believed that men were afraid and ashamed of the "antickes" and
"Bold Grimace Spaniard," a "wild man" captured in the mountains where he had lived for "chimeras" because they were part of the inner self, what the soul saw when it looked at its
fifteen years after being snatched from his cradle by a savage beast. His performance consisted own image.
of the following grimaces:'
E'en atfirst reflection she espies
He lolls out his Tongue a foot long, turns his Eyes in and out at the same time; contracts Such strange chimeras and monsters there,
his face as small as an Apple; extends his Mouth six inches and turns it into the shape of Such toys, such anticks, and such vanities
a Bird's beak, and his eyes like to an Owl's; turns his mouth into the Form of a Hat As she retires and sinks for shame andfear. 38
coclc'd up three ways; and also frames it in the manner of a four-square Buckle; licks his
Nose with his Tongue, like a Cow; rolls one Eyebrow two Inches up, the other two Many modern scholars believe that the ludicrous spirit of the grotesque style of modern
down; changes his face to such an astonishing Degree, as to appear like a Corpse long literature is an effort to disarm these primordial fears, to subdue the demonic aspects of the
bury'd_3s world. But, as Frances Barasch points out in her illuminating introduction to a reprint of
Wright's study, these modern critics generally ignore the popular tradition, the idea that
While wild men were stock figures in medieval monster lore, the Bold Grimace Spaniard also "medieval frivolity was man's attempt to effect a 'secret liberation' from his sense of help-
embodied the traditional peasant entertainment of grinning through horse collars, which was lessness and horror." 39

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I -,I PAUL SEMONIN ~ -,I MONSTERS IN THE MARKETPLACE f

In his classic study of the popular roots of tli_e grotc;,;,:rnein Rabelais, the_ R',!s~ill!lliterary 5. Altick, Shows, 17.
theorist-M,khail Bakhtin argues that the monstrous images .in popular folk h]lmor are 6. Morley, Memoirs, 336-37.
intimately relatecfto-th~primordial fears that the Calvinists saw in the soul,only_theresponse 7. Ibid., 257.
8. Katherine }>ark and Lorraine J. Daston, "Unnatural Conceptions: The Study of Monsters in
in popular culture is laui;hter instead of shaine and_ guilt. By the early modern period, the
Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century France and England," Past and Present 92 (1981): 45.
Hell-mouth, the monstrous animal's head from the miracle plays, had moved into the 9. Ibid., 54.
marketplace, where it becaine pait of the carnival processions there. "This grotesque image," 10. Ibid., 24.
says Bakhtin, "cannot be understood without appreciating the defeat of fear. The people play 11. Jean Ceard, introduction to Des Momtres et prodiges by Ambroise Pare (Geneva: Librairie Droz,
with terror and laugh at it; the awesome becomes a 'comic monster.' "40 For Bakhtin, the 1971), xiv.
monstrous represents the essence of popular culture, the master metaphor for the de'1a_s_ing 12. Baltrusaitis's remark appears in Janis L. Pallister, introduction to On Monsters and Marvels by
Ambroise Pare (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), xiii.
-powerottnepeop_le'sTallghter, w'1ichlie_s beneath thep!ac,a surface of oflicialc;uJiµ;:~, gnly to 13. Park and Daston, "Unnatural Conceptions," 39.
rear-itsugfy head from time to time, to remind the world of its humani_ty "The essential 14. Ibid., 41.
principle of grotesque realism is degradation, that is -the lowering of all that is high, spiritual, 15. Joseph Lilly, A Collection if Seventy-Nine Black-Letter Ballads and Broadsides (London: J. Lilly,
ideal, abstract; it is a transfer to the material level, to the sphere of earth and body in their 1870), 187.
indissoluble unity" 41 Bakhtin links the grotesque imagery of popular culture directly to the 16. Park and Daston, "Unnatural Conceptj.ons," 35. "
17. Peter Burke, "Popular Culture in Seventeenth-Century London," in Popular Culture in Seven-
literary and pictorial tradition that was such an important legacy from antiquity for popular
teenth-Century England, ed. Barry Reay (London: Croom Helm, 1985), 49.
monster lore, including the legends of the Indian Wonders and medieval demonology. 18. Hyder Edward Rollins, The Pack ifAutolycus (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1927), 192.
In her essay "Proverbial Wisdom and Popular Errors," which deals with the changing 19. Ibid., 140.
attitude of learned scholars toward popular proverbs, Natalie Zemon Davis frames her 20. Ibid., 145.
argument with references to a fifteenth-century woodcut depicting the famous dialogue 21. Keith Thomas, Man and the Natural World (New York: Pantheon, 1983), xx.
between the scholarly king Solomon and the peasant Marcolf. 42 While the actual identity of 22. Ibid., 38.
Marcolf remains as obscure as the source of this cycle of stories, Davis identifies him as a
23. Rudolf Wittkower, "Marvels of the East: A Study in the History of Monsters," Journal if the
Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 5 (1942): 159-97, surveys the genealogy of the monstrous races.
"barefoot rustic," whose ribald responses to the learned Solomon's proverbs in the monkish 24. Thomas, Natural World, 79.
legend raise many poignant issues of interpretation for modern scholars of popular culture. 25. Ibid., 75.
Interestingly enough, Marcolf, or Marolf, also appears in Bakhtin's study of Rabelais, where 26. Al rick, Shows, 7.
he is referred to only as a "clown," an exainple of the debasing humor of an ancient folk 27. Ibid., 49.
28. Ashton, Social Life, 190.
tradition. However, Barasch adds an intriguing new dimension to this speculation about
29. Bartholomew Faire (London, 1641); facsimile reprint, ed. E.W. Ashbee (London: John Tuckett,
Marcolf's identity when she points out that during the English Renaissance the comic horror 1868), 4.
of medieval monsters was transferred to comic types such as Puck, Robin Goodfellow, Till 30. See Frances Barasch's excellent discussion of the history of the grotesque style in her intrpduction
Eulenspiegel, and Marcolf, whom she identifies as a hunchback or dwarf: "The career of the to A History if Caricature and Grotesque by Thomas Wright (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1968; orig.
comic hunchback Marcolf-perhaps a survival of the ancient comic dwaif Maccus- has also 1865).
been traced from the gleeful medieval demon to the clown and fool of Renaissance comedia 31. Wright, Car£cature, 61.
32. Ibid., 73.
and jest books." 43 The dwarfish figure from the fifteenth-century woodcut that Davis used to 33. From John Dryden's preface to his translation of Charles Du Fresnoy's De Arte Graphice.
illustrate her essay lends support to Barasch's characterization of Marcolf as a monster. 34. Barasch, introduction to Wright, Caricature, ::oocv.
The monsters in the marketplace of early modern England embodied elements of an 35. Morley, Memoirs, 250.
ancient comic tradition. The comic horror of monsters and fabulous creatures has been effaced 36. G. C. Druce, "Some Abnormal and Composite Human Forms in English Church Architecture,"
by the prodigy literatur;-,;{_I'rQt-.,,s_t3,At_r_d:<1rmeiiand.-_th~.l!atµr;.]}~tiimfU:-d;i;::~I~iin ArchaeologicalJournal 72 (1915): 153.
37. Wright, Caricature, 9.
scho1ars:-Recover1ngtbis li~k, however, should alter fundainentally our l'ercep(iQ11 c,f tli_,: i:q\e
of monsters in popular culture. - -- -- --·· - . ---- - -- 38. Sir John Davis, Nosce Teipsum (London, 1599), cited by Barasch, introduction to Wright,
Caricature, xxx.
39. Barasch, introduction to Wright, Caricature, xiv. Leslie A. Fiedler's Freak.r: Myths and Images of
the Secret Se!f(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978) is an exception to the dearth of serious treatment
NOTES of this topic.
1. For a full discussion of Swift's legacy to the London monster shows, see Aline Mackenzie Taylor, 40. Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984), 91.
"Sights and Monsters and Gulliver's Voyage to Brobdingnag," Tulane Studies in English 7 (1957): 29-82. 41. Ibid., 19.
2. Richard Altick, The Shows efLondon (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978), 37. 42. Natalie Zemon Davis, Society and Culture in Early Modern France {Stanford: Stanford University
3. Henry Morley, Memoirs if Bartholomew Fair (London, 1892), 246. Press, 1975), 226-27.
4. Ibid., 252-56; see also John Ashton, Social Life in the Reign if Queen Anne (London: Chatto and 43. Barasch, introduction to Wright, Caricature, xxxii.
Windus, 1925), 204.

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~ DEATH-DEFYING/DEFINING SPECTACLES f

8IX The fact that Peale, in his museum and in many of his portraits, often presented death as a
"freak of nature" helps to clarify his connection to freak shows. Susan Stewart, echoing the
work of Leslie Fiedler, 3 has emphasized that the so-called "freak of nature" needs to be
.understood as "a freak of ciJ~-;;,,,-,'His or lief ahoirlalous status is articulated by the process
Death-Defying/Defining Spectacles: Charles Willson of the spectacle as it dist;~nces the viewer, and then~by it 'normalizes' the vieweI' ·as riiUCli" as it
Peale as Early American Freak Showman marks the freak as an aberration." This dynarnicis akin to coloruzation: "The body of the
cultural other is. by means of this metaphor both naturalized and domesticated in a process
w~__ rp~ght consider to_ 1?e _ch;ir;,icteristic of cOlonization_ in general Foi all colonization iilVOives
EDWARD L. SCHWARZSCHILD
the taming of the beast by bestial methods and hence both the conversion and projection of
the animal and human,_difference and ide11tity. On display, the freak represents the naming of
the frontier and the assurance that the wilderness, the outside, is now territory." 4 For Peale,
death was grotesque and aberrant, an inscrutable if unavoidable freak of nature that he sought
to make simultaneously separate, controlled, and artistic. Peale would colonize death, making
it his territory. Just as freak shows work to establish the normalcy and authority of the
spectators, Peale's pictorial, chemical, and curatorial efforts were part of a larger attempt to
normalize and empower his self and his nation. To preserve and command the realm of the
PRESERVING AND DISPLAYING THE DEAD FOR THE LIFE OF THE -NATION
dead would testify to the authority and permanence of Peale's still fledgling country. Freaks,
It is my ardent wish to bring this Museum into such consideration, however, are never as "other" as the shows suggest; similarly, Peale's freak of nature refused to
as to make it worthy the public protection; and at the same time, that stay separate, forcing him to realize that death remained beyond his control, undermining his
my family may not lose the benefits of my assiduous labors of years
drive for order, his quest for individual and national distinction.
past, and to enable my children to contribute their future aid to this
my favorite undertaking, I am teaching them the methods I use to As with the divisions posed by freak shows, Peale's order and power were called into
preserve subjects. 1 question most insistently by the shared human condition of corporeality. Still, at times Peale
was confident in the extent of his command over death, widely publicizing and celebrating
the significance of his ability to arrest this inevitable process. For instance, after 1787, when
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827)-American painter, inventor, ethnographer, writer, writing of his accomplishments, lobbying for the nationalization of his groundbreaking
collector, curator-was also one of his era's most atj.d taxidermists and portraitists, and he Philadelphia museum, and petitioning federal and state governments for financial support,
prided himself on his ability to preserve the dead. Throughout his life and many of his myriad Peale regularly emphasized that the method he had devised for dressing "Animal subjects"
endeavors, Peale sought to use his skills at preservation-chemical as well as pictorial-to was "much superior to those in general use in Europe" -he saw his taxidermic method not
both evoke and erase the effects of death. Peale struggled, in essence, to make of death a only as an individual accomplishment, but also as a national triumph (2.1:388). Yet the
controlled spectacle, to distance himself from the clutches of death even as he strove to gain component parts of the process he detailed for his friends and for posterity were rather
individual and national distinction by displaying a dramatic control over human mortality. straightforward. His 1787 "Directions for Preserving Birds, &c.," for example, called for
Assessments of the diversity of Peale's substantial achievements have not traditionally discussed simple skinning and stuffing-rote evisceration:
him as a pioneer of freak show culture in the United States. I argue, however, that the particular
manner in which his most prominent lifelong projects-his portrait painting and museum- Those birds which are large . . . may be skinned in the following manner, Vizt. open
making-revolved around an interest in twdermy, preservation, and death establishes his im- with a sharp pen knife from the vent to the breast and separating the skin on each side
portance to understanding the shape and significance of freak shows in American culture. until the thighs may be drawn through the skin and cut off at the joint of the legs, do
Recent analyses of cultural institutions-from all bands of the political spectrum-force- the same with wings to the pinion, and in the pinion part of the wing draw out all the
fully evidence that museums can function as "powerful identity-defining machines," capable flesh you can get out with the hooked wire ... , then draw the neck through the skin
of determining and displaying how a community sees itself and, simultaneously, how it views until you can cut off the neck close to the skull, and cutting off the body and the tail,
and interprets "others." 2 Understood broadly, museums offer carefully designed, framed having thus the skin separated from the body hook out all the brains through the back
spectacles, enabling and encouraging visitors to form various distinctions, be they aesthetic, part of the skull where the neck was cut off Cut out the roof of the mouth, take out the
social, racial, national, or historical. Freak shows, of course, function similarly. Unlike the eyes by means of the hook from the inside of the mouth ....
participatory structure of carnivals, which can hinge on an almost democratic reciprocity and All sorts of beasts may be skinned by opening the belly and drawing the legs and
blurring of extant boundaries, the framed spectacles of museums and freak shows tend to be cutting off at the joint of the feet, if very small the whole skin may be left & treated and
strµctured by distance, by marked divisions between "us" and "them." with the larger birds, but the larger beasts it will be sufficient to cut off from the head
f 1 EDWARD L. SCHWARZSCHILD ~

such part as will show the upper & under teeth, which may be left attached to the skin -
1 DEATH-DEFYING/DEFINING SPECTACLES~

display death for posterity, presiding over his chosen territory, keeping his body and his self
salt may be put on the skins of beasts but never in the birds. (1:488-89) invulnerable.
After providing some additional biographical information, I will focus on several of Peale's
Such thorough directions reflect not only a familiarity with the material of bodies, but also a portraits-most particularly his famous 1822 self-portrait, The Artist in His Museum-and
physical mastery of the corporeality of other life. Peale, as naturalist and instructor, presents on his relations with Benjamin Franklin in order to show in greater detail how Peale, while
himself in complete control, reigning supreme over the bodies of "all sorts of beasts," educat- painting and museum-making, strove impossibly but insistently to separate self from other,
ing his contemporaries in his method. freak from normal, death from life-all in the name of strengthening himself, his family, and
Peale's cherished taxidermic originality ultimately resulted from his experiments with a new his nation.
form of preservative, but his discovery is shadowed by the very vulnerability he worked to
defeat and master. As early as 1788, instead of using the powders of dried herbs, spices, and PORTRAIT PAINTING, SHOWMANSHIP, AND THE SPECTACLE(s) OF
lime or alum popular with his contemporaries, Peale was dipping his specimens into mixtures BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
of hot water and arsenic (1:487). The advantage of this mixture was, as he explained to his Sorry I am, that I did not propose the means of ... preservation to
friend and correspondent Thomas Jefferson, that it kept the skins "free from the depredation that distinguished patriot and worthy philosopher, Doctor Franklin.
of insects a great length of time" (2.2:929). Yet the arsenic solution was not without its own (2.1:15)
depredatory side effects, as one of Peale's complaints to his diary indicates: "continued my
labour this whole day in washing my birds & beasts in the arsenic water, having my hands From his childhood forward, Peale's identity was bound to a concern with corporeality
continually wet, I find a considerable soreness at the ends of my fingers, so much that I had a and transitoriness-more literally, with skin and timepieces. Apprenticed at age nine to a
small fever at night & some restlessness" (1:512). These lines, while they suggest the ill effects saddlemaker, he learned to handle leather and, at the same time, taught himself to make and
of arsenic, also starkly describe the inherently self-reflexive dynamic that pervades Peale's repair watches. Preservation was indeed Peale's central and lifelong occupation. In fact, in
efforts to preserve his museum displays. Peale's observation points out that Ins process of order to receive his first instruction in painting, he exchanged "one of his best saddles" for
preservation, in the midst of attempting to prevent the physical decay of the dead, reveals the three lessons from the portraitist John Hesselius: it is, we might say, Peale's skin trade that
corporeal vulnerability of the living; in other words, the process he embraces calls attention to links his work in preservation to his work in art (1:33). He went on to gain a reputation as a
the fragility of both one's own body and the bodies of others. 5 portrait painter, able to list among his sitters numerous heroes of the young United States:
This vulnerability is a stubborn fact, one that testifies to the deeply paradoxical nature of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Baron von Steuben, the Marquis de Lafayette. In
Peale's attempt to interpret his taxidermic success as an enduring individual and national the sixty-six-foot-long gallery that he built onto his house (the first sky-lit gallery in
triumph. What Donna Haraway has written of early twentieth-century American taxidermy America), Peale gathered and displayed his images of the famous, hoping eventually to "make
illuminates Peale's lifelong struggle to preserve and publicly exhibit the dead: his museum full such a collection of portraits to fill his gallery as might be valuable in a future day" (1:375). In
of specimens is predicated on the belief that "the body can be transcended," as if it were addition to presiding over his portraits, in 1785 Peale converted one end of his gallery into a
possible to birth a "better than life" world "from dead matter." Haraway arguys that "taxi<lermy theater for the viewing of what he came to call "Moving pictures with changeable effects."
was about the single story, about nature's l!Ili!Y, _the. u_nl:,l_e_l]li?he,I. type_ spe.ciwen~,,J.he When this imitation of Philip James de Loutherbourg's London "Eidosphusikon" ("image of
··power ofth.Ts""'stance ~sin_ its magical_ effects: what is so painfully constructed appears nature") proved unprofitable, he "quitted" it, as he wrote Benjamin West in 1788, "for a new,
effortlessly, spontaneously f<>uf!d, discovered; simply there if or1e will only look . : ~-Th,siirt but no less arduous undertaking. That is the preserving of birds, beast, &c to form a Museum"
r~pays-Talior-wiili..iransc~ndence." 6 To maintain the control he desired, Peale workedfo (1:544). 7 As his career shifted from one undertaking to another, Peale used the images and
suppress hisownphysicaivulnernbifity: he would magically find only transcendence-both bodies of others to create a public self; he emerged as a figure who ordered, preserved,
national and individual--i~ his painfully constructed museum world; he w_ould create perma- exhibited, and presided over visions of his nation .
. rient oidet71fiooistirictioii imf of an· iiuiovative chemical practice that at once ,e;,.i!!led and Consistently, Peale's various exhibitions owed much of their power and popularity to a
obs_cmed. the evanescence of the corporeal. conscious appeal to nationalistic sentiment. One of his earliest works on canvas (1768) offers
}'he .specti.cle-oLdeathl'eale sQUghr .to_ g~ate .wollld ideally ttw.sform Jh.e.fa~of physical an emblematic image of William Pitt dressed classically in the robes of a Roman republican. 8
vulnerability into a didactic, carefully organized, self-serving and_ self:savi11g fre_aj<~i);.2iiJhe In an effort to both guide interpretation and build a reputation, Peale issued, together with
- pictures and objects he exh_ibited were_poise_d precariously b~~eeu life and_death._plac;:.ed in the mezzotint of the portrait, a prose broadside that emphasized Pitt's work on behalf of the
· something of a hybrid, unnatural, "other" world against which Peale could define himself and American colonies (he had recently opposed the Stamp Act). The broadside also praised the
his desired world. In seeking to control the re-presentation ·of death in the eadylf;,_"fted "natural Faithfulness and Fi"rmness of AMERICA," and explicated the portrait as a representation
States, Peale operated like a national colonizer, hoping to claim a future and a past for of "the Gratitude of AMERICA to his Lordship" (1:76). Similarly, to fill out his "Collection of
America that could transcend death and decay. Like a showman, he hoped to tame and Illustrous Personages," he took advantage of his Philadelphia location by capitalizing on
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~ EDWARD L. SCHWARZSCHILD ~
-'1 DEATH-DEFYING/DEFINING SPECTACLES~

opportunities for sittings provided by the presence of the Continental Congress, effectively
possess it; if public, some of the states or the United States, may secure all the advantages
tying his professional career to the formation of the new nanon (1:412). ~nd when his
of such an institution, by an inconsiderable appropriation.
moving picture show was failing to make money, he added to the convennonal views of da~,
To Pennsylvania the first offerings are now tendered. (2.1: 388-89, emphasis in orig-
dusk, rainbows, and "Pandemonium" (all previously executed by de Loutherbourg) a patnonc
inal)
scene that showed John Paul Jones's Bonhomme Richard capturing the British ship Serapis
(1:141). Further, Peale long envisioned his museum as a nationally sanctioned establishment,
Despite the urgent tone of these lines, which he sent to Jefferson in January 1802, Peale
an institution that would ultimately stand above "all the splendid Museums of the great
continued to preside over the museum until 1810, when he retired to a farm in Germantown,
European nations" (2.1:10). Each of these "splendid" European institutions had, Peale re-
only to take up control of the museum again in 1822, remaining in charge until his death in
minded the public, "risen from ... foundations laid by individuals" and gone on, once adopted
1827. Thus, in some respects, this address, with its reference to "the uncertain tenure of
by the government, to represent national power and enlightenment (2.1:10). The construction
human life," reveals that the preservation of Peale's individual and national accomplishments
of an American museum, Peale believed, would, like his portraits and his moving pictures,
was interwoven with an anxious recognition of his mortality. At the same time, however, the
come to represent the accomplishment of the United States; it would become a central
crisis alluded to here was hardly imminent. Indeed, Peale seems to have used the specter of
monument testifying to the force, distinction, and permanence of an American national
death as a marketing ploy, a bargaining tool, as if mortality were something he could wield
identity.
and manipulate.
But just as the work with arsenic solution suggested that Peale could not ignore the role his
This simultaneously anxious and confident sense of mortality appears more dramatically in
own hands played in the process of preservation, the creation of his museum, the projection
Peale's relationship with Franklin. Early in his autobiography, Franklin expressed a strong,
of his moving pictures, and the organization of his gallery all stand as structuring acts shaped
unconditional desire to relive his life. But, he explained, "since such a Repetition is not to be
by a certain self-interest, acts marked by strategic personal involvement. The quests for
expected, the next Thing most like living one's Life over again see'.;'s to be a Recollection o!
national and individual identity were inextricably linked. Each display represented not only
the Life," a recollection, Franklin added, that should be made as durable as possible.
the accomplishment of the United States, but also, and perhaps· more immediately, the
Franklin here posited the construction of collections as a substitute for rebirth. He also
accomplishment of Charles Willson Peale. Influenced by and, he hoped, influencing the new
confessed that, in his own recollection, he would "a good deal gratify" his "own Vanity.'' He
nation forming around him, Peale repeatedly attempted to achieve his individual goals; he
would attempt to make "as durable as possible" an ideal version of his life. 9
strove both to affect a changing society and to secure a privileged place in that society.
As the quintessential self-made man, a man with wide-ranging interests, capable of strate-
Throughout his showman-like career, Peale's curatorial actions stemmed from a complex
gically refashioning his public identity with the images that surrounded him, Frankli_n was a
network of personal and national motivations.
powerful model for Peale. In fact, Franklin was such a powerful model th~t Peale desJred not
His motivations and showmanship coalesced around a desire for individual control and
only to emulate, but also to embalm him: "Sorry I am," Peale confessed m the m1dst of _his
distinction, a desire made very clear in his attempt to gain Jefferson's support for the "national
1792 speech to his Museum's trustees, "that I did not propose the ~eans _of ... p_reservatJ.on
establishment of [his] Museum" (2.1:386). When he described his hope in a letter to the
to that distinguished patriot and worthy philosopher, Doctor Franklin ... 1t 1s not improbable
president, Peale also mentioned that he would soon be offering the museum to the state of
that ... he could have been prevailed on, to suffer the remains of his body to be ... in our
Pennsylvania. A rhetoric of salesmanship pervades Peale's letter: he explains that the "income
view." This curious desire to execute and publicly exhibit human taxidermy is merely the
by visitations to a museum [in Washington, D.C.] would be far short of what may be had in
natural extension of Peale's devotion to preservation and the framed spectacle. In addition to
any of our larger cities for many years to come," but he would make the sacrifice, provided the
hundreds of taxidermic specimens, his museum also displayed mummies, and, on at least one
federal go\lernment act without delay (2.1:388). For emphasis, Peale appended to his letter
occasion he tried assiduously to procure for exhibition the body of an embalmed child
the text of the address he planned to deliver to the state legislature. The museum had become ' .
(2.l:2ln. 4). Human taxidermy could, Peale imagined, "hand down to succeeding generanons,
a time-consuming burden; Peale explained how he valued its "public utility" but also valued
the relicks of such great men" -the "actual remains" would provide posterity with information
his private life and, consequently, wanted a government, any government, to help provide for,
and knowledge which could not possibly be gleaned from mere painted portraits; a gallery of
in his phrase, the "main tenance" of the museu,m (2.1:388). Seeking to gain private profit,
stuffed, famous men would enable his nation's citizenry to better appreciate the distinctions
freedom, and fame from skillful, strategic public presentation, Peale used his address to the
and successes of its antecedents (2.1:14-15). Such a display, of course, would also foreground
legislature to sow seeds of competition:
human mortality and a sense of the impermanence of such human constructions as identity
and culture, but Peale presents himself as firmly in control, capable of making the dead bodi~s
The time is now fully arrived when it has become expedient to decide the fate of the
"speak'' only of progress, potential, and unity. 10 Thus, Peale's desired treatment of FrankHn
Museum .... [F]rom the uncertain tenure of human life it may not long continue in the
forcefully reiterates that in museums the triumphant idealization of oneself or one's culture 1s
same circumstances in which it has progressed, and means must be devised for its
invariably dependent upon the subordination of others, or, as John R. Gillis explains, national
durability, perfection and public utility.... It must either continue private property or
memory is formed "as much by forgetting as by remembering." 11 This subordination and
become a public one; if private, the place where suitable encouragement is given must
suppression can be lodged in corporeality, in one's apparent bodily power over life and death.

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 ~ EDWARD L. SCHWARZSCHILD ~ ~ DEATH-DEFYING/DEFINING SPECTACLES f

To sharpen further our sense of Peale's subordinating practices, we need only juxtapose for
a moment an 1804 self-portrait by Peale with his well-known 1785 portrait of Franklin.
When Peale listed The Artist in His Museum in the 1822 catalogue of the Eleventh Annual
Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, he described his painting briefly as
a "Portrait of C.W. Peale, Esq. proprietor of the Museum painted in the 81st year of his age
without spectacles." 12 As in the painting itself, Peale sought in this catalogue entry to
emphasize and preserve an enduring power: though he was eighty-one at the time, he insisted
that he required no glasses, that is, no mediation between himself and his work. He owned
spectacles, as the 1804 image makes clear, but he did not need to use them. When we
examine Peale's 1785 portrait of Franklin, we can better appreciate what it means, in Peale's
taxidermic terms, "to suffer the remains of [a] body to be ... in our view." In this portrait,
painted a few months before Franklin's own eightieth birthday, the bifocals are perhaps the
most prominent feature. Not only do these spectacles seem to distort Franklin's face, but, in
light of Peale's later comment about his own remarkable physical constitution, the distortion
of Franklin's features suggests a corresponding corporeal weakness, one decidedly not suffered
by Peale. To suffer one's body to be a part of another's display is to yield power, to submit
oneself to the control of another. The glasses are a visible representation of the vulnerability
associated with a reliance on such mediation. Peale, as showman, painter, taxidermist, and
curator, would prefer to stand apart, separate from his audience, separate from those con-
demned to decay and death. From his safe position of remove, he would determine how these
visitors and subjects would appear to themselves and to future generations: they would appear
as if they were objects on display, balanced precariously between the revered and the freakish,
caught in a world structured by spectacles. And the pun on spectacles here marks a critical
convergence, for it registers, visually and verbally, the interwoven relations between vision and
power that pervade Peale's life's work. 13

THE DEATH OF THE ARTIST IN HIS MUSEUM

I think it is important that I should not only make it a lasting

ornament to my art as a painter, but also that the design should be
expressive that I bring forth into public view the beauties of nature
and art, the rise and progress of the Museum. 14

In The Artist in His Museum we can see more clearly how Peale worked to strengthen his own
image through the erasure and depiction of "glasses" (fig. 6.1). This image stands as Peale's
most nuanced attempt to reconcile his desire to preserve with the fact of his mortality. Peale's
collection of portraits holds the highest position on the walls of the museum, but these images
of famous men are not the only portraits apparent here. Denied any sense of spatial depth or
three-dimensionality, the cabinets, as they frame the preserved specimens, have the look of
paintings; though more carefully rendered than Peale's illustrious personages, these glass-
covered cabinets also appear as portraits. It is, perhaps, as a result of this erasure of depth that
critics of Peale's work do not attend to the sheets of glass that cover the cabinets behind the 6.1. Charles Willson Peale, The Artist in His Museum (1822). Oil on canvas, 103¼" x 79 7 /s 11 • Courtesy
plush curtain. But it is this glass that provides a perfect figure for understanding Peale's of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Gift of Mrs. Sarah Harrison (The Joseph
position in the world he paints. The rendering of light was central to the composition of the Harrison, Jr. Collection).
painting-seeking to avoid creating "a picture such as are usually done in common Portraits,"
Peale made what he described as a "bold attempt" to use light in an original fashion. 15 In

88
 1 EDWARD L. SCHWARZSCHILD f 1 DEATH-DEFYING/DEFINING SPECTACLES f

preparatory studies for the portrait, Peale had worked to make the surface of the glass visible, mastodon skeleton, however, never stood in the Long Room or in the State House but was
as he had worked to convey the depth of the cabinets. i 6 In the final, publicly displayed located in a nearby building. In order to place himself alongside his most renowned object,
version, however, the glass that encloses Peale's objects and separates his visitors from the Peale has here altered the arrangement of his museum and distorted its actual structure: he
portrait-like exhibits is, it seems, completely transparent. The artist of the painting offers his wanted posterity to associate his image with the extraordinary achievement of exhuming the
museum as a work of art that he has the power to give directly, independent of intermediaries mastodon, an event which he recorded in another well-known painting. 18 This distortion,
other than himself. like the desire to embalm Franklin, is merely the natural extension of Peale's particular
In addition, the apparent transparency is offered in direct opposition to the nature of the commitment to preservation and framed spectacles: he would reconstruct and display the
physical material available to Peale. During the early nineteenth century, as Peale wrote in an dead for his own benefit, thereby subordinating others to his own idealized version of reality.
1809 letter to the botanist Stephen Elliot, "Good Glass [was] not to be had" in Philadelphia. Peale's imaginary space works to eliminate evidence of mediation, to create an impossible
It was difficult to find glass that was not "thin, uneven & coloured" (2.2:1179). Richard perspective, and to image an ideal individual and national union. Denying physical limitations,
Sennett has suggested that plate glass has always been a "material which lets [one] see Peale's ideal museum and his presence in it suggests that the artist/showman's desires will
everything inaccessible to desire"-it allows vision, but prohibits touch_i 7 Revealing and always outstrip what he is actually, physically capable of achieving. Ultimately, these distor-
reflectmg, sheets of glass function as both windows and mirrors. On one level, then, Peale's tions disrupt Peale's monument for posterity and point to the tensions undergirding the
elimination of the glass represents an attempt to move from a desired order to an achieved museum. Within the Long Room of Independence Hall, death and regeneration collide,
order. On another level, however, the production of this utter transparency speaks to the leaving a vision of an exceedingly fragile order. The museum is full of animals grouped in
physical imp_ossibility _of Pe_ale's desire. The construction of a durable recollection, the preser- cabinets, offering by their proximity and pairing a visual promise of reproduction. The family
vatJ.on of an rde_alized identity, and the defeat of an imminent death cannot be achieved except stands in the plane of the cabinets, and these cultural types also seem to exhibit a certain
through distortJ.on. Peale sought a transparency that would enable him to display evidence of promise for coming generations-the American family stands harmoniously alongside the
impermanence as contributing to a careful narrative of individual and national progress; as in family of Nature. But, of course, the animals are all dead, eviscerated, and stuffed-bathed in
the gallery of human taxidermy he envisioned, this drive for transparency testifies to human arsenic and utterly sterile. It is from these sterile objects that the painting shows the child
evanescence, even as it strives to instantiate an enduring, idealized American order. obediently receiving his education. The painting's discourse, in the end, is strangely terminal.
The r:moval of the glass, and the contingent depiction of transparency, is only one example Peale's self-portrait resonates with Theodor Adorno's observation that "museum and mauso-
of the distortJ.ons that disrupt the self-portrait Peale himself described as his own "lasting leum are connected by more than phonetic association." 19 Peale raises the billowy curtain, he
monument." In fact, much of the painting's considerable force comes from the tension that lifts the crimson veil, but this spectacular act reveals a world and a country, quite literally,
pits the desire for life ~nd idealized recollection against the inevitability of death and unregu- drawn to death. Although he attempted to depict death as a "freak of nature" he could escape
lated memory: cognitive discord repeatedly manifests itself as painterly disruption. In this and control, Peale's most "lasting ornament ... as a painter" offers a visual record of death's
attempt to control the appearance of life and to conceal the fact of death, bodies necessarily persistent presence-the culminant self-portrait in the museum shows how the fact of
occupy a central position, revealing, as in the Franklin portrait, the corporeal consequences of mortality continually threatens to dissolve even the most carefully constructed, strongly
Peale's curatorial power. The four museum visitors who stand on the other side of the raised guarded distances and divisions.
curtain are dwarfed by Peale's gigantic, black-clothed, curiously amorphous body. Like the
specimens of taxidermy, these visitors can be seen as part of Peale's displayed collection; and ConA: RACHEL WEEPING OvER PEALE's DESCENDANTS
like the trustees from whom he received financial backing, and his audience generally, these
Draw not the curtain, if a tear
small figures appear as objects he wanted to arrange in order. In their traditional postures,
Just trembling in a parent's eye
they stand as cultural types: the astonished woman, the instructive father with his obedient Can fill your gentle soul with fear
child, and the enlightened young man seem linked together in a didactic vision of domestic Or arouse your tender heart to sigh.
union. That Peale has raised the curtain that could cover them and make them invisible
testifies to his power-:-; a_ power that seems capable of both reducing the size and determining A child lies dead before your eyes
the shape_ of the publics image. He further emphasizes his control by skewing the perspectival And seems no more than molded clay,
While the affected mothers cries,
constructJ.on of the room, making himself appear all the more towering. And constant mourns from day to day. (1:380)
In the painting Peale proudly displays_ himself, his mastodon skeleton, and his carefully
orgamzed exhibits m an indisputable posit10n of national importance-the second floor of
the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall, where the Declaration of The above poem, written by Peale in the early 1780s, was part of a display that anticipated
Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution had been debated and the design both of The Artist in His Museum and of freak shows. The poem came to
I signed. This room was part of the space that the museum had occupied since 1802. The accompany Peale's Rachel Weeping, a painting he worked on between 1772 and 1776, that

I
 ~ EDWARD L. SCHWARZSCHILD ~ -\j DEATH-DEFYING/DEFINING SPECTACLES~
i
took as its subject the death of his fourth child, Margaret Bordley Peale (fig. 6.2). Apparently
because his wife Rachel could not bear to look at the image, Peale placed it behind a curtain,
using his lines of poetry to warn potential viewers of his painting's subject and power. The
Freemans Journal of December 4, 1782, described the poem as "found in Mr. Peale's New
Room, pinn'd to the curtain which hangs before the portrait of Mrs. Peale lamenting the
death of her child." 20
As Susan Stewart has pointed out, "Rachel Weeping is only the first example of Peale
working through, via his painting and collecting activities, an anxiety regarding death." And
she goes on rightly to note that the painting materializes his questioning "the meaning of
nature's lessons when such lessons were clearly unnatural, even monstrous." 21 How, Peale
seems to ask, is one to understand this "freak of nature"? How is one to find order in the
death of an infant? At the same time, it is important to note that these questions are
inextricably linked to more market-oriented, showman-like interrogations: How is one to
display and thereby control death? How is one best to represent death to the paying public?
The curtain and the poem suggest that, several years before his pioneering work in arsenic
and hot water, forty years before the painting of The Artist and His Museum and its own
billowing red curtain, Peale was concerned with preserving death in such a way that he could
make of it a controlled spectacle, something he could aestheticize and from which he could
distance himself.
"I am teaching [my children] the methods I use to preserve subjects," Peale wrote, ex-
plaining that he wanted his many descendants to be able to contribute to his "favorite
undertaking." They, too, would have to learn how to confront the child that "lies dead before
your eyes"; they would have to find their own success between the tasks of mourning and
preserving required for survival. Had he been able, Peale would surely have bequeathed to all
his descendants and heirs a world carefully constructed, completely curated, free from chaos.
But, failing that, he left them with the tensions that had shadowed him, with the delicate
balances he had sought to maintain. Some of his children pursued careers as painters,
museum-makers, and naturalists. A son (Titian Ramsay Peale II) and a grandson (Coleman
Sellers) became avid photographers, colonizing for themselves another territory where death
and life, self and other, freak and normal are complexly, inextricably linked. And Phineas T.
Barnum, though not a family relation, became heir to Peale's collections. In 1850 he pur-
chased what remained of the Philadelphia museum, and he went on to reach new heights in
the marketing of framed spectacles, combining the cultural spaces of museums and freak
shows more thoroughly than Peale ever dared.
It is fitting that, late in life, when Peale was planning to re-exhibit a retouched Rachel
Weeping in the Pennsylvania Academy's annual exhibition in 1818, he reconsidered and finally
6.2: Charl:s Willson Peale, Rachel Weeping (1772-76). Oil on canvas, 371 /s" x 32¼". Courtesy of the withdrew the painting-he could not bring himself to expose this image of mourning once
Philadelphia Museum of Art: given by the Barra Foundation, Inc. more to the public. 22 Just such moments of decision and indecision give force to The Artist in
His Museum. Indeed, this movement back and forth between exhibiting human imperma-
nence and attempting to conceal it, between displaying the fact of mortality and hoping to
control it, between defining death as "other" and as inseparable from oneself, pervades Peale's
lifetime of work. The painters, curators, photographers, freak show makers, and spectators
who have come after Charles Willson Peale have recapitulated but have yet to resolve the life-
and-death struggle he left to posterity. 23

92 93
 ~ EDWARD L. SCHWARZSCHILD f ~ DEATH-DEFYING/DEFINING SPECTACLES f
I
NOTES
head and black-feathered body, resembles the bald-pated, black-clothed Peale-the common features,
1. All quotations from the papers of Charles Willson Peale, unless otherwise noted, refer _to T_he
to a certain degree, pair the eagle with Peale (see Stein, "Peale's Expressive Design," 182). Just ~s he
Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family, ed. Lillian B. Miller (New Haven: Yale Umversity
sought power from his connection to the mastodon skeleton that stands as. a symbo~ for_ a rmghty
Press; Washington, D.C.: National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Institution, 1983_-88). Th:se American past, he also linked himself visually to the symbol of the new nation. In his th1rd-person
widely available volumes provide exact transcriptions of the Peale documents; I have normali~ed spellmg
autobiography, Peale wrote of his attachment to this symbol of the United States: "This Eagle had been
and capitalization in order to clarify meaning. Here I cite 2.1:19; all further references to this work are so long domesticated, that Peale could without fear stroke him with his hand, nay it knew well that
cited in the text by volume and page number.
when [Peale] was walking in the State House Garden, it would utter cries expressive of its pleasure on
2. Carol Duncan, "Art Museums and the Ritual of Citizenship," in Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics
seeing him. He had in Gold Letters on his cage Feed me daily 100 years; however it did not live in
and Politics of Museum Display, ed. Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine (Washington, D.C.: Smithsoni~n
captivity only 15 years." Peale domesticated the national symbol, freely exercising physical control over
Institution Press, 1991), 101-2. The entire collection offers useful perspectives on current debates m
the eagle. The country's icon, content in its containment, revered its keeper. But despite the "Gold
museum studies. See also Daniel}. Sherman and Irit Rogoff, eds., MuseumCulture: Histories, Discourses,
Letters" printed across the cage Peale provided, the bird did not endure. ~eath ignored Peale's privileged
Spectacles (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994). .
sign, undermining both his individual and national control. See Edgar P. Richardson, Brooke Hmdle, and
3. See Leslie Fiedler, Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Se!f(New York: Simon and Schuster,
Lillian B. Miller, Charles Willson Peale and His World (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1983), 114.
1978), 13. See also Robert Bogdan, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities far Amusement and Prqftt
11. See John R. Gillis, ed., Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity (Princeton: Princeton
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988). Bogdan rightly stresses the inherently constructed nature
University Press, 1994), 7. . . . .
of the distance desired and/or observed between the "freak" and the "normal": "Our reaction to freaks is
In a recent study of Peale's museum and its audience, David R. Bngham importantly shows how
not a function of some deep-seated fear or some 'energy' that they give off; it is, rather, the result of
Peale's displays of "human difference" worked to promote a vision of social h_armony predicated _on
our socialization, and of the way our social institutions managed these people's identities. Freak shows
hierarchy and subordination: "Embodied within Peale's representation of humaruty was th~ assump~on
are not about isolated individuals, either on platforms or in an audience. They are about organizations
that a consensus was possible that benefitted all races, classes, genders, and people of vanous physical
and patterned relationships between them and us, 'Freak' is not a quality that belongs to the person on
capacities. Yet this harmonious vision depended upon resignation to unequal social and material
display. It is something that we created: a perspective, a set of practices-a social construction'' (xi) ..
circumstances. Resistance to one's station was perceived to be a disruptive response to natural order.
4. Susan Stewart, On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection
Slaves who resisted their master's authority, Native Americans who fought displacement from their
(Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1993), 109-10.
land, and the lower sort who disrupted public gatherings were particularly guilty" (144). See Brigh~m,
5. The ill effects of this mixture are at the center of Phoebe Lloyd's recent argument that Peale's son Public Culture in the Early Republic: Peale's Museum and Its Audience (Washington, D.C.: Smithsoman
Raphaelle died in 1825 from arsenic poisoning brought on by his taxidermic work for the museum. See
Institution Press, 1995), 122-44.
Lloyd, "Philadelphia Story," Art in America 76 (November 1988): 154-71, 195-203. .
12. Anna Wells Rutledge, ed., Cumulative Record of the Exhibition Catalogues: The Pennsylvania
6. Donna Haraway, Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World if Modern Science (New
Academy efthe Fine Arts, 1807-1870 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, _1955), 163. .
York: Routledge, 1989), 28, 38.
13. Peale's desire to preserve bodies also animated his commitment to the mechamcal ~ts. As S~dn:y
7. The editors of the Peale papers provide this description of the "moving pictures":
Hart has observed he "manufactured artificial teeth, ground lenses for spectacles, and built an artificial
Peale's "moving pictures" were patterned closely after the novel and widely acclaimed "Eidophusikon'' hand for a mcmbe; of the Pennsylvania state legislature." See Hart," 'To encrease the comforts of Life':
(or "image of nature") created by Philip James de Loutherbourg (1740-1812) .... De Loutherbourg's Charles Willson Peale and the Mechanical Arts," in Miller and Ward, eds., New Perspectives on Charles
scenes were shown on a "stage" about ten feet wide, six feet high, and eight feet deep, lit from above Willson Peale, 240.
by the recently invented Argand lamps, which by means of an oil-burning wick placed between two 14. Peale to Rembrandt Peale (23 July 1822), in Lillian B. Miller, ed., Peale Family Papers, microfiche,
concentric tubes produced a concentrated and steady light capable of being focused and projected by American Philosophical Society Library. .
a lens. A variety of materials-pasteboard, cork covered with mosses and lichens, wooden figures, 15. Charles Coleman Sellers, "Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale," Transactions of
strips oflinen and transparencies-made up several layers of scenery. Color effects were produced by the American Philosophical Society 42, Part 1 (1952): 161.
placing slips of stained glass over the lamps and sound effects by such devices as tambourines, a sheet 16. That Peale attached great importance to this late painting is evidenced by the fact of these
of copper to produce thunder, and boxes of shells, peas, and light balls. preparatory studies; he did not make such studies for most of his other paintings, preferring to work
Peale's moving pictures were based upon transparencies and lit also by Argand lamps. We have no directly.
other information concerning their construction. (1:428) 17. Richard Sennett, "Plate Glass," Raritan 6, no. 4 (Spring 1987): 1-15.
18. See Lillian B. Miller, "Charles Willson Peale as History Painter: The Exhumation of the
8. For a discussion of Peale and the tradition of the emblematic portrait, see Roger B. Stein, "Charles
Mastodon," in Miller and Ward, eds., New Perspectives on Charles Willson Peale, 145-65.
Willson Peale's Expressive Design: The Artist in His Museum," Prospects 6 (1981): 139-85.
19. Theodor W. Adorno, "Valery Proust Museum," in Prisms, trans. Samuel Weber and Shierry
9. Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Leonard W. Labaree (New
Weber (London: Neville Spearman, 1967), 173-86.
Haven: Yale University Press, 1964), 43-44.
20. See Phoebe Lloyd's discussion of Rachel Weeping, ''A Death in the Family," Philadelphia M~seum
10. David Steinberg is concerned with Peale's rendering himself as divinely empowered. While it is
ofArt Bulletin 78 (1982): 3-13, esp. 3-7. Sec also Susan Stew~t, "Death and Life, in that Order, m _the
vital to appreciate Peale's desire to wield an overarching power, it is equally vital to see both the national
Works of Charles Willson Peale," in The Cultures of Collecting, ed. John Elsner and Roger Cardmal
context and individual context of this desire. See "Charles Willson Peale: The Portraitist as Divine," in
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994), 204-23, esp. 209-13. While Stewart sees the validity of
New Perspectives on Charles Willson Peale, ed. Lillian B. Miller and David C. Ward (Pittsburgh:
an interpretation that attends to the nation-making role of Peale's work, she forcefully argues that the
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991), 131-43.
construction of Peale's museum was also importantly tied to his interrogation of deism's doctrinal
This national and individual convergence is reflected in the singular bald eagle imaged in The Artist
relation to death. Along with many of his contemporaries, Peale struggled to reconcil: his religion's
in His Museum. The only animal cabineted without a mate is particularly significant, for this was an
denial of divine interposition with his own desire to see a nature composed of somethmg other than
eagle that Peale himself had raised from an eaglet. In fact, as Stein has noted, the eagle, with its white
indifference and disorder (207-11).

94 95
 ~ EDWARD L. SCHWARZSCHILD f

21. Stewart, "Death and Life, in that Order," 211.

22. Lloyd, ''A Death in the Family," 9. . . . . .
23. I would like to thank the American Philosophical Society Library for the Me~on Res1d:nt
Research Fellowship that made this work possible-I am particularly indebted to Martin L. Levitt,
Elizabeth Carroll-Horrocks, and Roy E. Goodman of the Library. I am grateful as w~ll to Susan
Stewart who kindly provided me -with an early draft of her essay on Peale. I would also like to thank P. T. Barnum's Theatrical Selfhood and the
Robert Jensen for his comments on an earlier draft of this essay, and Rosemarie Garland_ Thomson for
her crucial suggestions and insights. A Grant-in-Aid Award for Research and Scholarship from Sweet Nineteenth-Century Culture of Exhibition
Briar College helped to secure the images for this essay.
ERIC FRETZ

P. T. Barnum performed a remarkable kind of cultural work in nineteenth-century America.

He orchestrated performances and exhibitions, produced narratives and advertisements for
public consumption and debate, and achieved a public role as the nineteenth century's greatest
showman. From his initial foray into the popular entertainment world of New York City in
the early 1830s until his death in 1891, Barnum firmly held his position as the public manager
of nineteenth-century American popular culture.
In 1834 Barnum moved his wife and child to New York City in order to fulfill his dream
of owning a public exhibition: "I had long fancied that I could succeed ifI could only get hold
of a public exhibition." 1 The nineteenth-century culture of exhibition was wide and varied,
involving the public display of natural curiosities, technological advances and demonstrations,
and medical/psychological treatments. Cultural phenomena such as mesmerism, phrenology,
animal magnetism, and the art of daguerreotyping were all displayed on the exhibition stage
of nineteenth-century America. The public lectures and lyceums that became popular during
the 1830s and the grand revival traditions of the same decade also contributed to the larger
exhibition culture of the period. Barnum participated in and used all these aspects of the
culture of exhibition -he gave lectures (his most famous was entitled "The Philosophy
of Humbug"), exhibited mesmerized subjects in his "Lecture Room" and even addressed
congregations of America's churches. 2
Barnum's participation in the mid-nineteenth-century exhibition culture represents a fun-
damental shift in the way Americans perceived the individual within the public sphere.
According to Jay Fliegehnan, Revolutionary Americans considered the public adornment of
the private man or woman a nefarious threat to the new republic. Reacting against the
Enlightenment's formalized and hierarchical use of language, the Revolutionary leaders set
out to discover and employ a natural language that would reveal the true motivation of the
speaker and mitigate, even preclude, the duplicitous representation of self. In the Revolution-
ary period, the "unadorned public man" who was free from the ostentations and chimeras of
affected public life became the ideal. 3

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1 P. T. BARNUM'S THEATRICAL SELFHOOD f;
1 ERIC FRETZ f;

who, as "The Prince of Humbugs" and "The Prince of Showman," is merely acting out his
By the mid-nineteenth century the ideal of the unadorned private man had given way to
innate talents. Barnum's first autobiography incorporates aspects of the picaresque novel,
the reality of the public confidence man, or painted woman, who concealed or transformed
instructional literature, and Yankee trickster/Southwestern humor tales, all told in an authorial
his or her private nature in the construction of a public identity. 4 Barnun:i, and _the antebellum
voice that explicates, narrates, and even confesses the actions and events of the life of P. T.
exhibition culture in which he participated, celebrated the mdmdual s ability t~ stylize a
Barnum. Life is a cornucopia of American literary traditions; the shadows of Ben Franklin,
public persona and assert these artificially constructed _identities into the _public_ sphere.
Stephen Burroughs, and Jonathan Edwards and the legends of Mike Fink and Davy Crockett
Barnum exhibited both himself and his freaks as commodities m an era of exh1bit1omsm that
are lurking within its anecdotal, bombastic, and didactic rhetoric. The apparent lack of
privileged appearance over essence. When Barnum exhibited himself in his ~utobiography
narrative direction and the homely metaphors and anecdotes give Life its native charm. Yet
and his freaks and dwarfs on the public stage, he was challengmg the American public to
the linear progression of a self that moves from a small-town wag to a big-shot showman who
accept the pliant and adorned nature of self; Barnum displayed theatrical Selfhood to the
occupies and manipulates the public mind of the nineteenth-century becomes the strongest
public- and they bought it.
selling point of this most American of books.
In his autobiography, as well as his life, Barnum worked out the _problem of selfhood on
Barnum trimmed down the anecdotes for the 1869 version, spending more time on Tom
the debit and credit sheets of his financial records. For Barnum, it does not matter that
Thumb and the Jenny Lind enterprise, but the book was still a formidable affair, running over
"things are not what they seem." 5 "Not knowing" or the_ inability to distinguish ill~sion from
seven hundred pages (the 1855 version is just over four hundred). The 1869 version appeared
reality is no longer an epistemological conundrum posmg a threat to the republic ~d the
in a dazzling number of different editions-small print, large print, abridged editions, and
good order of society. The gulf between public and private perception, or between reality and
both cheap and expensive styles of the autobiography inundated the American and English
illusion, seems less threatening when someone like Barnum-a public figure who strove for
reading public. Moreover, Barnum persisted in making unprecedented autobiographical moves
middle-class respectability-is orchestrating the public perception of_ the self. By mid-
by continuing to write chapters and tacking them on to new editions of the 1869 version. In
century, this theatricality of self had become a normal part of American life t~at entertamed,
1884 Barnum waived the copyright contingencies and announced that the autobiography was
diverted, and challenged the masses. The performing selves that Barnum displayed for the
open for publication by any interested party. Throughout the 1880s, Barnum nearly gave the
public gaze-whether they were the different .Barnums of his autobiography or the many
book away during his circus performances-paying spectators received complimentary copies
human exhibitions he displayed throughout his career as a showman-"'.ere gleefully ap-
of the book, and the showman remarked that the crowds leaving his bigtop looked "as if they
plauded and consumed. Barnum recasts th~ problem of _self-representation of the post-
were corning out of a circulation library." 9
Revolutionary period by turning the problem mto an entertamment for the masses.
Barnum exhibits a dynamic sense of selfhood in his autobiographies; with each new version,
he creates a new P T. Barnum, replacing and adding on to the former. The 1855 version
RE-MAKING THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SELF uncovers the inherent subjectivity of writing a life by flamboyantly flaunting that life's
malleability in the face of the reader. The revisions of Barnum's autobiography demonstrate a
p T. Barnum fashioned an autobiographical self that surreptitiously celebrated theatrical
malleable self that transforms itself with the passage of time and the continual (re)act of
selfhood. Barnum was only forty-five when he wrote the first of three versions of his
writing. Barnum's notion of a dynamic self, illustrated in each rewriting of the autobiography,
autobiography. Published in 1855, The Life of P. T. Barnum, W~itten by Himself promptly sold
exposes the elusiveness of essential self-identity. With the subsequent publications of the
160,000 copies in the States. 6 Pirated editions soon appeared m Germany, France, Holland,
autobiography, Barnum validated a sense of stylized selfhood in American culture. The
and Sweden. Never happy with the 1855 version, Barnum considered the first autobiography
autobiographical act corrals experience, forming a public self; in this way, autobiography
to be a form of advertisement, explaining that it was designed "for the purpose, principally, of
becomes an achievement of self-construction and the rhetorical shaping of a public persona.
advancing my interests as proprietor of the American Museum." 7 When the sales of LiJ! Despite the confessional tone and the occasional attempts to reveal a private self, Barnum's
started to decline, Barnum destroyed the plates, intent on publishing another version of his
autobiographies remain highly stylized narrative constructions and, consequently, incline
life. The second autobiography, updated, altered,/and renamed Struggles and Triumphs: ~r,
toward fiction. Less than "self biography" and tending more toward the fictive invention of
Forty Years' Recollections of P. T. Barnum, was published in 1869. Half a null10n copies were m
self, Barnum's Life becomes a "hopelessly subjective" autobiographical fiction. 10 Thomas
print by 1882, and by 1888 the figure had reached one million. The final version ofBarnu~s
Couser finds this problematical, complaining that the Life "very nearly makes an autobiogra-
life appeared in 1889, two years before his death, under ~he same name as the :869 vers_10n.
phy out of practical jokes, and a joke out of autobiography." Ultimately, argues Couser, the
If any book of the nineteenth century is worth considering for its cir~ulat10n within the
"effect of his prolific production and circulation of different accounts of his life during the
culture, it is surely the three versions of Barnum's autobiography. Each vers10_n has a tenor ~nd
second half of the nineteenth century was to undermine the authority of his own autobiogra-
tone of its own and each constructs a different Barnum as well as reflectmg the changmg
phy and, by implication, that of the genre as a whole." 11 Possibly. But Barnum was never one
cultural climate; of mid-century America. The 1855 edition is anecdotal, primarily concen-
to be overly concerned with authority, and, like his contemporary, Walt Whitman-who
trating on Barnum's early life. Spontaneous, artless, and full _of the "confessions" of the
published the first of nine editions of his autobiography in 1855-Barnum multiplied the
narrator, Barnum's Life has all the stylistic attributes of autob10graphy. The first ~undred
autobiographical moment as an act of self-advertisement.
pages read like the tale of a Yankee trickster and work to establish Barnum as a born iokester

99
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;1 ERIC FRETZ,;- ~ P. T. BARNUM'S THEATRICAL SELFHOOD f

In the emerging market economy of mid-century America, the creation and manipulation STYLIZATION OF PUBLIC SELVES AND AN ANTEBELLUM CULTURE OF EXHIBITION
of self determined success. Closing his autobiography with a section titled "Rules for Success
in Business," the showman encourages fortune hunters and speculators to "put on the appear- In his autobiography, Barnum invented his life and made it palpable for middle-class con-
ance of business and the reality will follow" (Life, 396). For some critics Ba_rnum's book is a sumption. But Life is primarily made up of accounts of Barnum's attempts to theatricalize the
dark derivation of Franklin's autobiography and suggests the potentially subversive elements lives of others. Indeed, Barnum made a name for himself by stylizing the lives of others and
of American democracy.12 Yet a quick survey of the public reception of Life (and the packaging them for public consumption.
subsequent versions) reveals that many nineteenth-century Americans distinguished Barnum's Barnum was working in a tradition of public exhibition whose development from the post-
book as a model of American virtue, piety, and ingenuity_l3 As the reviews suggest, Barnum's Revolutionary period to the mid-nineteenth century we might pause to adumbrate. Before
book did the kind of cultural work that confirmed the values of a mid-nineteenth-century the Revolution, traveling showmen roamed the colonies exhibiting natural curiosities for
market economy as it spread across space and time. Read as a handbook for survival in a profit. 20 But by 1850, when Barnum introduced Jenny Lind to America, "exhibiting" had
burgeoning market economy, the text, which glorified dynamic selfhood as it exhibited its become a formalized extravaganza yielding high profits and intense public fervor.
central figure, established the general acceptance of theatrical selfhood in a socially and Barnum's most famous predecessor in the area of public exhibitions was Charles Willson
economically turbulent time. "To Barnum's admirers," explains Neil Harris, "his autobiogra- Peale, the eccentric developer of America's first museum of indigenous artifacts and natural
phy was simply a road map of the route to success," 14 and George Bryan reminds us that the history. Peale's museum, which he opened in Philadelphia in 1784 and passionately developed
autobiography was used as a manual for common business sense. 15 John Fitch, a contemporary until he retired in 1810, was a product of an Enlightenment mind that believed in the
of Barnum, told the showman: "I know every line in your book ... and I have conducted my essential perfection of the natural order. For Peale, humans who copied and learned from
business on the principles laid down in your published 'Rules for Money-Making.' I find Nature led happy, righteous lives, and he exhibited Nature in order to teach and instruct: "I
them correct principles; and [I] thank you for publishing your autobiography, and to tell you love the study of Nature," he once said, "for it teacheth benevolence." 21
that to act of yours {sic} I attribute my present position in life." 16 Harris reports an American After Peale retired, he gave the museum management to his sons, Rembrandt and Reubens,
lecturer who reasoned that he knew "of no book which is better adapted to become a post-Enlightenment subjects who found it impossible to maintain the didactic mission of the
thoroughly instructive and agreeable guide through life," 17 and Bryan reprints advertisements museum. The exhibition of Nature gradually gave way to public demand for fantastic and
for Struggles and Triumphs declaring "Every young man should read it." Furthermore, that exotic displays and performances. Gradually, the function of the museum moved from an
other instructor of young men, Horace Greeley, explained (this is according to Barnum) that institution benefiting the public good to a money-making device as Reubens, late in the first
the book and the lecture on the Art of Money-Getting "was worth a hundred-dollar green- decade of the nineteenth century, began to use lecturers, performers, and experimenters to
back to a beginner life." 18 A. S. Saxon notes that Barnum boasted (in an unpublished letter attract more customers. 22 By 1817, Reubens conceded that the museum could only survive by
dated 13 March 1855) that his publisher had received over one thousand auspicious reviews pursuing profits, so he added catchpenny shows and a pandean band (a one-man musical
of Life since its publication in December of the preceding year. Saxon reprints a "fair example" show). By 1838, three years prior to the opening of Barnum's American Museum, Peale's
of one of those reviews: museum was displaying Negro bands, Yankee impersonators, Hungarian minstrels, and musi-
cal ladies. Tom Thumb appeared on the Museum stage in 1845. The museum stayed on this
THE MORAL OF BARNUM'S BOOK. If this book be not superficially read, it is easy to see course until Barnum purchased it in 1850.
that, under a cloak of fun, jokes and good humor, the author intends to teach and press The spectacular and bizarre captured the imaginations of early nineteenth-century Ameri-
II, home the lesson that mere humbugs and deceptions generally fail, and that money cans,23 and Barnum capitalized on this captivation by stylizing the public display of others.
acquired in immoral occupations takes to itself wings and flies away.... Thus he shows By the mid-1840s, Barnum's American Museum was in full swing, attracting audiences who
'I
l''
I'
.I
''
... his "humbugs" were no source of direct profit to him, but were used merely as
advertisements, to attract public attention to himself, and to gain public support for his
were able to view freaks of all sorts. From the Bearded Lady to the "Nova Scotia Giantess,"
from the Leopard-Skinned Boy to Zalumma Agra, the famous "Circassian Girl," and from
Ii,, real and substantial exhibitions, such as his Museum, Tom Thumb in England, and the Chinese family to the Albino family-if they were deformed, exotic, disproportioned in
Jenny Lind. 19 any way, or simply inclined to be transformed into one of Barnum's freaks (he exhibited a
"Yankee Man" at one point), the great showman would put them on the stage of his "Lecture
In his encouragement of the reader to take Barnum's book seriously and engage it on a deeper Room" for the inspection of the masses.
level of meaning (a level similar, perhaps, to the way nineteenth-century readers would have "Freak shows," or the exploitation of human strangeness, was a theatrical performance
been encouraged to read the Bible), the writer of this article suggests the comfort that grounded in the disguise of the (mostly) nonwhite subject. Blacks acted out aboriginal roles,
American culture, by 1855, had with individuals engaging in pfots of mistaken identity and often being represented as "missing links"; Native Americans performed rituals and dances
i
,1 games of duplicity, arguing that the public hoaxes were all for the "greater good" of Barnum's that confirmed their primordial type; and Gypsies and Bohemians (usually women) were
"real" and "substantial" (could this be thick irony?) public displays. represented as lusty, exotic beauties. The "freaks" would perform according to their public

I roles: sartorial significations suggested their foreignness, and their stage presence would

IOI
 1 ERIC FRETZ~
/4 P. T. BARNUM'S THEATRICAL SELFHOOD f-

correspond to stereotypical roles- Native Americans would whoop and chant, "savage" blacks "favorably struck with the appearance of the old woman'' who "might almost ... have been
would grunt, and Asians would affect a demure and sedate demeanor. 24 called a thousand years old" (Lift, 148). Toothless, blind, and nearly completely paralyzed,
Ironically, as the freak shows were entertaining the urban masses, criminal penitentiaries her eyes "were so deeply sunken in their sockets that the eyeballs seemed to have disappeared
and insane asylums-institutional homes for humans with "aberrational" tendencies-were altogether." Her decrepit hand bent inward and the fingernails projected beyond her wrist.
becoming an integral part of the American reform culture. America was the site of the world's Rounding out the picture, Barnum tells us, "The nails upon her large toes also had grown to
first penitentiary system; the French government sent Alexis de Tocqueville to America in the thickness of nearly a quarter of an inch" (Lift, 148-49).
1832 to observe the new penitentiary system. Prior to the rise of the asylum the poor and the Heth mixed her grotesque features with a fine sense of histrionics when she passed herself
insane were assimilated into the community. By the 1830s, a Lockean way of viewing human off as George Washington's nursemaid: She was "sociable" and talked "incessantly" to her
behavior demonstrated that society itself was corrupt, and a burgeoning reform tradition public viewers. Heth performed on her own volition; unlike Tom Thumb, her successor in
gradually developed the idea that criminals and the insane could be reformed of their the world of Barnum's exhibitions, she did not rely on Barnum for any prompting or training
problems by removing them from the social (dis )order. The implication was that separation (Lift, 148). She sang hymns, spoke of the first president as "dear little George," and proudly
from the social milieu and a good dose of moral reform would rejuvenate rational behavior. 25 claimed to be present at his birth. "'In fact,' said Joice, and it was a favorite expression of
Reformers carted aberrants away, sequestering them behind institutional walls while showmen hers, 'I raised him.' " Appealing to the piety of her viewers, Heth moved from anecdotes of
like Barnum paraded "defective" individuals before the wondering and paying public gaze. As Washington's childhood to religious subjects, "for she claimed to be a member of the Baptist
far as we know, Barnum did not search out his "freaks" from neighboring asylums or Church," which "rendered her exhibition an extremely interesting one" (Lift, 149).
penitentiaries. Yet the irony of a society that has made room for human aberrations in the Joice Heth, ultimately, had the last laugh on P. T. Barnum. Throughout his career, Barnum
forum of a culture of exhibition and, at the same time, demanded the removal of social submitted that he was astonished when the physicians who examined her corpse discovered
pariahs, illustrates one of the paradoxes of the tension-filled nineteenth century. that Joice was no more than eighty years old. It is important that Barnum maintains his
When Barnum exhibited Otherness on the nineteenth-century stage, he ceded authorial innocence in this alleged humbug. In his Lift, he willingly reveals previous public deceptions.
control to the human aberrations he chose to display. Consider Barnum's initial foray into the He happily confessed to his organization of the Great Buffalo Hunt hoax of 1843-an event
exhibition culture of antebellum America. In 1835, the "Prince of Humbugs" began his career in Hoboken, New Jersey, that attracted spectators by advertising a frontier simulation of a
as a showman by becoming a slaveholder. Keen on the public demand for the exhibition of wild buffalo hunt, complete with real cowboys and Indians. The event never reached the level
race and difference on the public stage, Barnum made every possible effort to supply the of simulation that Barnum advertised because the seven hundred buffalo, terrified by the
public need. 26 He purchased Joice Heth, the alleged 161-year-old woman who was displayed crowd, headed straight for the nearest swamp upon being released from their cages. Moreover,
before the public as George Washington's nursemaid, in June of 1835 and began to exhibit Barnum freely admitted his participation in the Woolly Horse hoax of 1848 when he
her at Niblo's in New York City in August. Shortly before he purchased Heth, Barnum visited purchased an odd-looking horse from an Indiana native and passed it off to the public as one
Scudder's Museum (which he would purchase six years later) to bargain on the purchase of a of the animals that General Fremont had brought back from his expedition to the Rocky
Hydro-Oxygen Microscope that the owner guaranteed would "secure its owner an indepen- Mountains. As any reader of the autobiography can see, Barnum was not averse to uncovering
dence" if the invention were exhibited throughout the country (Lift, 144). The two-thousand- former deceptions, but by maintaining his ignorance of Joice Heth's age, he admits that he
dollar price tag was more than Barnum was able to pay, though. Shortly thereafter Barnum has been duped by the histrionics of the clever old woman. In his Lift, Barnum was still
discovered Heth and does not seem to have had much trouble talking her owner down from asserting his innocence in the Heth hoax, arguing that he bought her in "perfect good faith,"
the three-thousand-dollar asking price to one thousand: it was more profitable in antebellum and that he was duped by a ''forged bill of ,ale purporting to have been made by the father of
America to exhibit fantastic African Americans than it was to offer close-up glimpses of George Washington." Barnum argues that he "honestly believed' the false document and
nature through a microscope. On a pragmatic level, Barnum certainly made the right choice laments the fact that he "has ever since borne the stigma of originating that imposture"
in choosing Heth over the microscope. The fantastic claim of her age and the mythical (155, italics in original). The uncomfortable situation of owning an African American and
connection to Washington was ripe for the spectacular imagination of the 1830s. Barnum profiting from her performances does not seem to have affected Barnum's conscience. It
only enjoyed Heth's services for seven months; she died on 19 February 1836. A public probably hurt Barnum more to admit his unwitting role in the falsification of Joice Heth's
autopsy revealed her age to be no rrlore than eighty years, and Barnum came under public character because, by doing so, he was admitting that she duped him. Heth, not Barnum,
suspicion for his blatant humbuggery. He managed to make Heth the subject of public displayed the most crafty sense of showmanship in the Joice Heth affair. Throughout the
controversy and to profit considerably from her exhibitions. Indeed, Joice Heth became the autobiography, Barnum goes to painstaking lengths to prove to the reader that no one can
first of a multitude of subjects that Barnum exhibited and stylized for public consumption. outsmart him, yet Joice Heth out-theatricalizes "The Prince of Humbugs" at the start of his
Yet, Heth authored herself as much as Barnum created her character. The dynamics between illustrious career. She performed her role so well that it was only death that could uncover her
Barnum's manipulation of Heth and her presentation of her public self makes this incident mask of deception.
important here. With Joice Heth, Barnum used blackness as an integral part of the national past; he
According to Barnum's description, Heth was a wonder to look at: He says he was stylized a public performance that marked the ironies of a nation that subscribed to the

I02
 -,---

1 ERIC FRETZ f ~ P. T. BARNUM'S THEATRICAL SELFHOOD ~

notions of the Declaration of Independence yet institutionalized African American slavery. he was looking for in himself, and the subtle reference to continuing performances ("After
Barnum was colorblind only when it came to exhibiting human aberrations on the public singing my negro songs one evening") is intriguing; Barnum has performed the songs on a
stage. White, brown, black, or red; man, woman, or child- Barnum was satisfied if he could number of occasions, and, moreover, he has made them his;- that is, he has taken stock in his
profitably present any "body'' into the public sphere. However, as we saw in the Joice Heth "negro songs"· and made a repertoire from them. In the preceding passage, Barnum never tells
episode, the bodies that Barnum exhibited were not selfless and will-less mannequins. And it us what the disturbance was about; indeed, when he emerged from the tent disguised as a
is their assertion of self as it conflicts with Barnum's presentation of them that makes black man and began haranguing the stranger, a new problem quickly arose: "He instantly
Barnum's participation in the exhibition culture interesting. drew his pistol, exclaiming, 'You Black scoundrel! dare you use such language to a white man?'
Following the Joice Heth affair, Barnum continued to receive dividends from his invest- and proceeded deliberately to cock it. I saw that he supposed me to be a negro [sic}, and
ments in black culture. In a curious incident in Life, Barnum performed race on the public might perhaps blow my brains out. Qcick as thought I rolled up my shirt sleeves, and replied,
stage when he assumed the role of an African American by blacking his face and participating 'I am as white as you are, sir.' He absolutely dropped the pistol with fright! (Life, 189). The
in the American minstrel tradition-a cultural practice that struck to the heart of race psychosexual overtones of this passage (the gun as phallus, and the imagery associated with
relations in antebellum America. In the spring of 1836 Barnum was managing a traveling the man "deliberately'' cocking his pistol) are examples of the white male's latent fear of
circus. On a jaunt through South Carolina a minstrel singer named Sanford flew the company, miscegenation and the homoerotic fascination of the black body that Leslie Fiedler first
leaving Barnum with a problem. noticed in 1948.28 Moreover, this incident is of interest to us for the way it demonstrates the
lack of control Barnum (or anyone who "blacked up") had over the role they were performing.
I had advertised Negro songs; no one of my company was competent to fill [Sanford's] Whites mistook the minstrel singers for "real" African Americans. Eric Lott remarks, 'When,
place; but being determined not to disappoint the audience, I blacked myself thoroughly, in the decades before the Civil War, northern white men 'blacked up' and imitated what they
1
and sung the songs advertised, namely, ' Zip Coon," "Gittin up Stairs," and "The supposed was black dialect, music, and dance, some people, without derision, heard Negroes
Raccoon Hunt, or Sitting on a Rail." It was decidedly "a hard push," but the audience singing." Barnum's anecdote demonstrates that this racial conflation occurred offstage as easily
supposed the singer was Sanford, and, to my surprise, my singing was applauded, and in as it did under the footlights. 29
two of the songs I was encored! (Life, 189, emphasis in original) It is probably too easy to chastise Barnum for "not moralizing on race at this opportune
narrative moment," and treating "it as a contingent phenomenon, allowing the incident to
Blacking himself and performing black culture represent Barnum's ultimate attempt to stylize stand as a practical joke that nearly backfired." 30 Barnum's views on slavery were characteristic
and control the black body. Perhaps he learned a lesson from the Joice Heth affair and realized of many Northern Democrats. On the one hand, he could write the following to Thomas
the black subject's ability to stylize a self that undermined Barnum's own cultural authority. Wentworth Higginson in April of 1855: "I have spent months on the cotton plantations of
The nineteenth century's constµnmate showman rarely appeared onstage in a costume other Mississippi, where I have seen more than one 'Legree'"; on the other hand, he could argue
than his own self. Barnum orchestrated his own life and the lives of others, but his stage was for the continuing enslavement of blacks on the grounds that emancipation would put them
the theatrum mundi. It is curious, then, that when Barnum does assume another character it in an inferior position to the whites. 31 It was no accident that Barnum omitted this incident
is done by blacking his face and improvising a minstrel act. His rationalization for blacking from the 1869 version of the autobiography. The racial "problems" relating to black slavery in
up-that no one in the company was "competent" enough to perform-seems disingenuous. antebellum America that were lost on Barnum in the 1855 version are considerably absent
Barnum simply delighted in the prospect of the performance. His comment about the from the 1869 version, as were the blackfacing episodes. The Joice Heth affair remained a
"competence" required in minstrelsy suggests both the professionalization and the specializa- sore spot for Barnum, and he continued to talk about it in the subsequent versions of his
tion of the practice. What, then, made Barnum qualified to perform the minstrel routine? autobiography, but without the aplomb he exhibited in Life.
The minstrel show was a performance of blackness based on a white invention, and as
Barnum demonstrates here it was used as a cultural commodity. Here, Barnum reaps the
CONCLUSION: NEGOTIATING THEATRICAL SELVES IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE
rewards of reification through his investment in black culture. Mimicry required study and
observation, and the minstrel singers who confused the empirical boundaries between black The exhibition culture of the nineteenth century was a site of cultural exchange and conflict,
and white entered into black culture in order to present it (in a highly artificial, distorted and the public display of theatrical selfhood both confirmed and implicitly challenged middle-
manner) to their white audiences were engaging in some form of cultural exchange. 27 class values. The public selves on display became ideological mirrors that reflected the values
Barnum concludes this foray into nineteenth-century issues of race with a final anecdote: of a developing American middle class by confirming notions of success, otherness, and, in
"After singing my negro [sic} songs one evening, and just as I had pulled my coat off in the some instances, blackness. Hegemonic and peripheral voices mingled in the sites of public
'dressing room' of the tent, I heard a slight disturbance outside the canvas. Rushing to the pleasure created by public exhibitions. The exhibition textualized the public self and high-
spot, and finding a person disputing with my men, I took their part, and spoke my mind to lighted the subjectivity of the exhibit. Like the act of writing autobiography, the exhibition
him very freely" (Life, 189). Barnum did not simply fill in for Sanford for one night, and he defied official closure. To exhibit is to hold something up for question, to deny its totalizing
makes no mention of searching for another minstrel singer. Indeed, he had found the minstrel teleology. Audiences and performers struggled to make meaning of the self on display, but

I04 IOS
 ~ ERIC FRETZ f 1 P. T. BARNUM'S THEATRICAL SELFHOOD ~

neither the seer nor the seen were able to control the interpretation of bodies. Cultural 7. George Bryan, introduction to Struggles and Triumphs: or, The Life of P. T Barnum, Written by
meaning is the result of negotiation between the audience's and the performer's interpretation Himself(New York: Knopf, 1927), xviii. , . . .
of the public self. "Culture is neither autonomous nor an externally determined field," remarks 8. For a detailed printing history ofBarnums autob1ograph1es, see Raymond Toole-Stott, Circus and
Richard Johnson, "but a site of social differences and struggles." 32 Yet the reflecting mirrors theAlliedArts (Derby: Harpur, 1971), 4:9719-41.
were distorted-like the funhouse mirrors at a carnival. The freaks on display disturbed the 9. Bryan, introduction to Struggles and Triumphs, xx. . .
10. William Spengernann, The Forms of Autobiography: Episodes in the History of a _Li~erary G~nre
audience's interpretation and established authorial autonomy through their public perfor- (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980), xiii; Thomas Couser, Altered Egos: Authority in American
mances. Autobiography (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 66.
P. T. Barnum validated theatrical selfhood in nineteenth-century America. Even after Joice 11. Couser, Altered Egos, 53-54.
Heth's death, Barnum (with Levi Lyman's help) shamelessly continued the charade by starting 12. Ibid., 53. . ) 31
a rumor that Heth was not really dead but alive and well in Hebron, Connecticut, and that 13. The book had detractors. See Neil Harris, Humbug (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973 , 224- .
the woman's body on whom the doctors performed their autopsy was one ''Aunt Nelly," whose 14. Ibid., 224.
15. Bryan, introduction to Struggles and Triumphs, xxx.
dead body was brought as a stand-in for Heth. Similarly, each of Barnum's many editions
16. Q\loted in ibid., xxx.
(additions) to his Life, is a narrative display of a temporal slice of an ever-changing P. T. 17. Harris, Humbug, 224. . .
Barnum. Barnum as much as admitted this in the preface to Struggles and Triumphs: "If my 18. C29-oted in Bryan, introduction to Struggles and Triumphs, XXXI.
pages are as plentifully sprinkled with 'I's' as was the chief ornament of Hood's peacock, 'who 19. Saxon, P. T Barnum, 12. . M "
20. Brooks McNamara, "'A Congress of Wonders': The Rise and Fall of the Drme useum,
thought he had the eyes of Eusope on his tail,' I can only say, that the 'I's' are essential to the
Emerson Society Quarterly 20 (1974): 218. . .
story I have told. It has been my purpose to narrate, not the life of another, but that career in 21. <29-oted in Charles Sellers, Mr. Peale's Museum: Charles Willson Peale and the First Popular
which I was the principal actor." 33 Museum in Natural Science and Art (New York: Norton, 1980), 15.
Barnusn's use of the image of a peacock with ornamentation illustrates how far selfhood 22. See ibid., Chap. 6. . B h
had come in American discousse since the Revolution. Fliegelman terminates his study of an 23. Constance Rourke, Trumpets ofJubilee: Henry Ward Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lyman eec er,
American culture of performance with the culmination of the Revolution, when the un- Horace Greeley, P. T Barnum (New York: Harcourt, Br_ace, ~927), 291. ,, .
24. Robert Bogdan, "The Exhibition of Humans with Differences for Amusement and Profit, Policy
adorned public man proudly exhibits his private self in the public square. Barnum, however,
Studies]ourna/15 (1987): 537,540. . . .
becomes an example of the adorned public man of the mid-nineteenth century-a man of 25. See David Rothman, Discovery o/ the Asylum: Social Order and Disorder in the New Republic
varying social selves who stylizes his life, as well as the public lives of others, to become the (Boston: Little, Brown, 1971). . . .
quintessential public man of the age. 26. On the representation of African Americans and Native Amencans on the American stage, see
I NOTES
Richard Moody, America Takes the Stage: Romant£ci!m in American Drama and Theatre, 1750-1900
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955), especrally Chap. 2. . . .
27. Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Ammcan Working Class (New York.
1. P. T. Barnum, The Life of P. T Barnum, Written by Himself (New York: Redfield, 1855), 143.
Ii
11;
Hereafter cited in the text as Lift.
2. See David Reynolds, Walt Whitman\ America (New York: Knopf, 1995), for a discussion of
Oxford University Press, 1993), 39. The critical response to the mms~el tradition, a h1?hly popular
nineteenth-century entertainment, has exposed the phenomena as a raast attempt _by white ~ture to

f nineteenth-century pseudosciences. On public oratory, see Carl Bode, The American Lyceum: Town
Meeting of the Mind (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956); Donald Scott, "The Popular Lecture
lampoon black culture, and so it was. Yet, despite its mockery, as Lott argues, th~ mmstrel tr~d1t.10n was
the first white recognition of black culture, and the first American cultural practice to es~ablis~ avenu~s
of exchange between black and white culture. Whit~s commodified blackne_ss by mvestmg t~eu
and the Creation of a Public in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America," journal of American History 66
interests in black culture (learning dialects and songs, apmg gestures and rnannensms) and then selling

r
11
(1980): 791-809. For a discussion of enthusiastic religion, see Whitney Cross, The Burned-Over
transmogrified versions of blackness to white audiences. ,, . .
District: The Soda! and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800-1850
28. See Leslie Fiedler, "Come Back to the Raft Ag'in, Huck Honey, m The Fiedler Reader (New
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, i950). For a discussion of Barnum's politic\)l activities in the early
111
1830s and his reactions against "hysterical Christianity," see A. H. Saxon, P. T. Barnum: The Legend
York: Stein and Day, 1977), 3-12.
I and the Man (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980), 40. 29. Lott, Love and Theft, 57, 17.
3. Jay Fliegelman, Declaring Independence: Jefferson, Natural Language, and the Culture of Peiformance
30. Couser, Altered Egos, 57. . . .
31. P. T. Barnum, Selected Letters of P. T Barnum, ed. A.H. Saxon (New York: Columbia Umvemty
111
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993).
1. 4. See Karen Halttunen, Cori.ftdence Men and Painted Women: A Study o/ Middle-Class Culture in Press, 1983), 86.
32. Richard Johnson, "What Is Cultural Studies Anyway?" Social Text 16 (1986): 39.
America, 1830--1870 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982); and Gary Lindberg, The Confidence
Man in American Literature (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982). 33. Barnum, Struggles and Triumphs, 46.
5. The allusion is to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "A Psalm of Life," a popular nineteenth-
century poem published in Knickerbocker in 1838.
6. Carl Bode, introduction to Struggles and Triumphs; or Forty Years' Recollections of P. T. Barnum by
P. T. Barnum (New York: Penguin, 1981), 19.

I06 ,
m7
 ~ SOCIAL ORDER AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER f;

EIGIIT Unlike the freak shows featured in Barnumesque museum exhibitions, volunteers from the
audience were the subject of the spectator's gaze in laughing gas demonstrations. Instead of
defining the parameters of normalcy in physical terms, laughing gas performances exhibited
cultural aberrations or "otherness" in psychological terms. And rather than focusing on surface
Social Order and Psychological Disorder: Laughing contours, the performances were believed to expose character traits normally hidden within.
By placing defects of character on display, audiences exorcised aberrant behavior within the
Gas Demonstrations, 1800-1850 collective whole.
The success of the laughing gas performances during the 1840s tour of Court of Death
ELLEN HICKEY GRAYSON demonstrates the extent to which market capitalism incorporated seemingly subversive ele-
ments into commercialized forms of entertainment, which in turn reinforced the existing
social order. Shifts in the interpretive frameworks associated with the demonstrations indicate
how audiences and the marketplace adapted and adopted cultural products to suit their own
purposes. Even as the laughing gas performances suggest a collective ambivalence toward the
role of irrational passions amid expanding democracy and advancing capitalism, they also
demonstrate how new forms of commercial entertainment reinforced the parameters of
middle-class respectability.
In 1773, Joseph Priestley first identified nitrous oxide as "Dephlogistic Nitrous Air."
Priestley believed the gas to be poisonous.2 Twenty-six years later, in 1799, the young British
Between 1845 and 1848, Dr. Gardiner Qiiincy Colton traveled throughout the eastern United chemist Humphry Davy set out to challenge Priestley's conclusion by developing a means of
States exhibiting the colossal thirteen-by-twenty-four-foot temperance painting, Court of purifying nitrous oxide so that it was safe to inhale. He succeeded on April 11 of that year.
Death. At twenty-five cents, the price of admission to see the painting was comparable to a The circumstances under which Davy conducted his experiments established the initial
ticket to the circus or a cheap seat at the theater. Together with Colton's popular science and interpretive framework associated with the gas. Davy conducted the experiments in Clifton, a
telegraph demonstrations, the exhibition packed thousands of viewers into hotel ballrooms suburb of Bristol, where he was employed at the Pneumatic Institute, a facility established in
Masonic halls, lyceums, and young men's associations, especially in towns along the Eri~ 1798 to treat illnesses with doses of inhalable gases. Many of the participants in the experi-
Canal where the message of spiritual redemption and economic progress appealed to minis- ments were friends or associates of the founder of the Institute, Thomas Beddoes, a physician,
ters, civic leaders, and moral reformers. Eager to assert cultural authority and advance their former lecturer in chemistry at Oxford, and outspoken liberal democrat, who expressed his
own. ~gendas, these. individuals comprised an elaborate promotional network capable of political opinions in The Watchman, a short-lived, bimonthly journal edited by Samuel
mobilizmg large audiences. As the exhibition traveled further west, however, in commercial Taylor Coleridge. 3 Together with Robert Southey, Robert Lovell, Joseph Cottle, and Thomas
centers where the promotional infrastructure was less highly developed, attendance figures Wedgwood, Coleridge and Beddoes formed a circle of poet-scientist-philosophers who shared
tapered off.. Faced with diminishing revenues, Colton resorted to laughing gas demonstra- an interest in liberal politics and romanticism. 4 Interrelated through marriages and sources of
tlons. Drawmg record crowds in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, New Orleans, patronage, the members of the group espoused German aesthetic philosophy, especially the
and Mobile, the demonstrations were far and away the most lucrative element in Colton's work oflmmanuel Kant. 5 Davy's account of the experiments, with his emphasis on subjective
exhibition package. Indeed, they proved more successful in mobilizing audiences than even experience, reflects this shared philosophical orientation.
the '.11ost highly developed network of ministers and moral reformers. And although the In his five-hundred-page treatise Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, Chiefly Concerning
6
media differed, both the demonstrations and the painting achieved the same ends. Nitrous Oxide, Davy recounted in minute detail experiments performed primarily on himself.
In order to understand why these laughing gas demonstrations were so popular and how Over a period of fourteen months, Davy inhaled from six to twelve quarts of the gas four or
they became a legitimate form of commercial entertainment, it is useful to trace the history five times a week and sometimes as many as three or four times a day. He described the
of the mterpret1ve frameworks associated with nitrous oxide. 1 During the first decades of the sensations produced by the gas as "intense intoxication" and "sublime emotions connected
nmeteenth century, responsibility for constructing these frameworks shifred from the scientists with highly vivid ideas" eliciting "thrilling and other pleasurable feelings" and, afterwards,
who recorded the effects of the gas in experiments to newspapers and lecturers who promoted "vivid and agreeable dreams." 7 Aiming to observe the effects of the gas under different
the demonstrations as a form of commercial entertainment. Once subject to the dictates physical circumstances, Davy inhaled doses at various times of the day (after he had eaten,
of the marketplace, new interpretive frameworks gradually neutralized the demonstrations' fasted, slept, not slept, in the company of others, in solitude, etc.). The experiments culmi-
potentially subversive effects. And while the specific content of the interpretive frameworks nated with a procedure on December 26, 1799, when Davy "resolved to breathe the gas for
changed, the role of the demonstrations, as an antidote to broader cultural concerns, remained such a time and in such quantities, as to produce excitement equal in duration and superior in
the same. intensity to that occasioned by high intoxication from opium or alcohol." 8 Emerging from an

I08 ro9
 ~ SOCIAL ORDER AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER f
~ ELLEN HICKEY GRAYSON f

airtight breathing box and immediately inhaling twenty quarts of pure nitrous oxide, Davy
recalled having "lost all connection with external things; trains of vivid visible images rapidly
passed through my mind, and were connected with worlds in such a manner, as to produce
perceptions perfectly novel. I existed in a world of newly connected and newly modified ideas.
I theorized-I imagined that I made discoveries." 9 When he awoke from "this semi-delirious
trance," although his recollection of his "imagined discoveries" was "feeble and indistinct,"
Davy proclaimed, "in prophetic manner, Nothing exists but thoughts!-the universe is
composed of impressions, ideas, pleasures and pains!" 10 The fact that Davy assigned to the
experience such profound insight into the subjectivity of human perception indicates the
IJ'
extent to which he was willing to use his accounts of the experiments to promote Kantian I
aesthetic philosophy and furnish a scientific basis for the link between chemistry, human I
physiology, and subjective experience.
Descriptions of other responses to inhaling the gas replicated Davy's findings. In his
Researches, Davy included the responses of eighteen participants, most of whom inhaled six to
seven quarts of the gas four or five times over a period of days. They described unsuppressible
laughter, heightened sensory perception, enhanced physical strength, and general euphoria,
and attributed the source of their pleasure to "effects on the nenrous system," or "delicious
tremours," which "thrilled all through" one inhaler and caused another to "faint in extacy
[sic}." 11 Although some experienced weightlessness, drowsiness, or a sense of serenity and
tranquility, most reported feelings of "irrepressible muscular strength." 12 Often at a loss for
words to describe the sensations, participants searched for analogous situations, such as the
feelings elicited by climbing high mountains, hearing "great choruses of the Messiah'' from 8.1. In his parody of pneumatic research, artist James Gillray depicts Humphry Davy working the
seven hundred instruments in Westminster Abbey, witnessing heroic acts on the stage, or bellows as Professor Thomas Young administers gas to Sir John C. Hippisley. Count Rumford stands
reading a sublime poetic passage.13 Davy himself observed that he had sometimes experienced at the extreme right. James Gillray, Scientific Researches_! New Discoveries in Pneumaticks_! or an Experi-
"sensations similar to no others, and they have consequently been indescribable." 14 This mental Lecture on the Powers efAir, colored etching, 1802. Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach
emphasis on unprecedented, ineffable feelings challenged Lockean theories of sensory percep- Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden
Foundations.
tion, which stipulated that all interior thoughts or perceptions originate in external stimuli.
The publication of Davy's Researches established his credentials as a scientist. In the spring
of 1801, Davy left Bristol for London, where he delivered three addresses at the Royal
head." 17 Cottle recalled that the laughing gas experiments "quite exorcised philosophical
Institute, a scientific organization recently established under the direction of Count Rumford
gravity, and converted the laboratory into a region of hilarity and relaxation." 18 Physician
for the "diffusion of knowledge." Davy's experiments helped him to secure a position as
William Paul Crillon Barton, who later experimented with nitrous oxide in Philadelphia,
lecturer in chemistry at the Royal Institution, where on June 20, 1801, he presented his
noted that Davy's observations on the effects of nitrous oxide were "derided as extravagant
findings to an audience of five hundred who, according to Davy, responded with "unbounded
and imaginary" and efforts were made to expose "the delusion ... and to laugh it into
applause." The following day, a "party of philosophers" met at the Institution to inhale the
contempt." 19
"joy inspiring gas," which produced "a great sensation." 15 Reviews of Davy's demonstrations
For others, the laughing gas experiments were neither amusing nor benign. Davy himself
were published in the Philosophical Magazine, the Monthly Magazine and British Register, and
recognized the addictive qualities of the gas, confessing in his Researches that "the desire to
the Monthly Review or Literary Journal. 16
breathe the gas is awakened in me by the sight of a person breathing, or even by that of an
Despite a generally favorable reception, not everyone took the laughing gas demonstrations
air-bag or air-holder." 20 George Burnet admitted to an "irresistible appetite to repeat it." 21
seriously. In 1802, artist James Gillray published an engraving of the demonstrations that
Maria Edgeworth concluded that "Pleasure even to IIladness is the consequence of this
satirizes the learned pretensions of both the scientists and their audiences (fig. 8.1). Maria
draft." 22 Years later, in his reminiscences of Coleridge and Southey, Cottle recalled "the
Edgeworth, whose brother Robert Lovell participated in Davy's experiments at the Pneumatic
appalling hazards encountered by M. Davy, in his intrepid investigation of the gases." These
Institute, observed that a predisposition to perform was necessary to fully experience the
"destructive experiments/' according to Cottle, "probably, produced those afflictions of the
effects of the gas: "faith, great faith, is I believe necessary to produce any effect upon the
chest to which he was subject through life, and ... beyond all question, shortened his days." 23
drinkers, and I have seen some of the adventurous philosophers who sought in vain for
Davy admitted that during the course of his experiments his health had been "somewhat
satisfaction in the bag of Gaseous Oxyd, and found nothing but a sick stomach and giddy

III
no
 -;1 ELLEN HICKEY GRAYSON~ 1 SOCIAL ORDER AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER~

injured": he slept less than usual, experienced an "uneasy feeling ... analogous to the sickness texts, focusing on interior sensations to outward, visual displays of its effects. Central to this
of hope," became more irritable, and lost physical strength.24 Qiiestionable proc~dures at the interpretive shift was a new emphasis on the dangers of the gas, especially its ability to
short-lived Pneumatic Institute further undermined the perception of expenments with unleash irratio1,1al passions. Whereas only two of the participants in Davy's experiments
nitrous oxide as a valid course of scientific inquiry. Less than one year after the Institute characterized the sensations produced by laughing gas as a loss of control, early accounts of
opened its doors, attendance figures had dropped so low that Beddoes was forced to pay laughing gas performances in America emphasized uncontrollable passions and physical
.
patients . his gaseous treat ment25
to receive s. . aggression. 34
After his demonstrations at the Royal Institution, Davy abandoned nitrous oxide expen- A political tract published in Philadelphia in 1814 on the anniversary of the birth of
ments. Although in his Researches, Davy briefly noted its potential use as an anesthetic, George Washington helped to establish this new framework. 35 The treatise opens with an
neither he nor any of his contemporaries pursued the possibility further. Nitrous oxide was account of a demonstration at which four young men between the ages of fifteen and twenty-
never fully divested of its association with the "philosophic revelers" at the Pneumatic Institute five inhaled the gas and stormed around the lecture hall, assuming military postures, leaping
nor the Kantian aesthetic philosophy and liberal politics they espoused. Indeed, the most over furniture, and attacking members of the audience. The unidentified author of the treatise
significant impact of Davy's Researches was to promote Kantian subjectivity and provide a equates these performances to the mood of the nation, warning that America should not
scientific basis for the link between human physiology and the aesthetic sublime. 26 With no retaliate against Britain on the eve of peace negotiations for the end of the War of 1812. The
immediate medical or scientific application and little relevance outside the rarefied circles of young men whose rational understanding was rendered powerless by the nitrous oxide, to this
London's scientific and literary elite, the discovery of nitrous oxide would appear to have author, personified the volatility of the democratic masses. Asserting that the entire country
reached its logical conclusion. The commercial applications of the gas, however, had yet to be was "in a state of political intoxication," and that nothing could be more natural than "young
fully explored. men ... in a state of inconceivable excitation" resorting to irrational retaliation, the author
William Paul Crillon Barton's Dissertation on the Chymical Properties and Exhilarating condemns the policies of "self-styled republicans" and "demagogues of democracy." By refer-
Effects ef Nitrous Oxide Gas, published in Philadelphia in 1808, drew directly upon the ring to the gas as "potent doses of the delicious poison" and noting that the ladies were
interpretive framework established by Davy's Researches. 27 Like Davy, Barton performed the instructed to "place themselves upon the hindmost seats ... out of harm's way," the author
experiments primarily on himself. Although his descriptions were far more detailed than emphasizes the element of danger posed by the gas. 36
Davy's, Barton nevertheless had difficulty putting his feelings into words.28 He equated the Partially in response to concerns about the loss of reason and unleashed passions, the
sensation to that which he had "often experienced in a state of voluptuous delight, vibrating interpretive framework for nitrous oxide demonstrations began to emphasize the ability of the
between a waking consciousness and the torpor of sleep." 29 Feeling "furnished of two separate lecturer (usually a scientist, chemist, druggist, or doctor) to control the volunteers from the
minds" in this "semi-conscious, semi-delusive state," Barton described becoming equally audience who inhaled the gas. Newspaper announcements elevated the status of the lecturer
convinced of two conflicting ideas at once: "the one confirmed what I fancied, the other by emphasizing his expertise and mystifying the performance. The New York Evening Post
convinced me that it was all imaginary." 30 Like Davy's conclusions, Barton's observations warned, "If the gas be not pure it might produce serious consequences to those who aspire it,
challenged the basic tenets of the Enlightenment understanding of reason, especially the not only in lasting injury to the lungs, but immediate death." 37 The proliferation of quacks
belief that the mind cannot contain two contradictory ideas at once. and competition among lecturers intensified such rhetoric. Dr. Preston, who performed
Barton also briefly notes possible anesthetic applications for nitrous oxide, especially after demonstrations in 1821 at the City Hotel in New York, complained that "some persons, who
experimenting with the gas while still suffering from a head injury. Yet never in his subsequent have no pretensions to chemistry, have advertized such exhibitions." Fearing that he may "in
career as a Navy surgeon did Barton use the gas for that purpose. 31 R ath er than purswng. its
. some measure [beJ implicated if any melancholy event should transpire from impure gas, even
application as a painkiller that would render the individual passive, neutral, and without the exhibited by other persons," Dr. Preston insisted that the preparation of the gas be supervised
use of will or reason, Barton envisioned a role for the gas in terms of human perfectionism - by not simply a "scientific," but also a "practical chemist." 38 Incidents such as when a young
the answer to Benjamin Rush's search for "some production of nature or art, yet undiscovered, man was found comatose beside the open spigot of the gasometer after a demonstration
that shall act in such a manner upon the brain, as to enlarge and strengthen the intellectual performed in Utica, New York, in 1821, further heightened the sense of danger. 39
faculties." 32 Such an application would seem entirely fitting, given the importance of social Robert Seymour's satirical print Living Made Easy: Prescription far Scolding Wives drama-
mobility and competitive individualism in the context of expanding democracy and advancing tizes the balance of power between the lecturer and the inhaler by introducing the issue of
capitalism. 33 The neutralizing effects of laughing gas, however, proved even more appealing gender (fig. 8.2). A thinly disguised metaphor for male sexual prowess, laughing gas is
to those concerned about the volatility of the democratic masses. To this latter concern, the portrayed as a sedative. In the central grouping, later used in broadsides, the husband stands
interpretive framework gradually responded. astride his seated wife (fig. 8.3). Holding the back of her neck in a vice-like grip, his leg
Within the first decade of the nineteenth century, nitrous oxide demonstrations, whicli had separating her legs, he forces the inflated bag of gas into her mouth as she tips backwards,
been confined to relatively small scientific circles in Philadelphia and New York, were eyes bulging and hands cringing in horror. In the background a satisfied husband, his bag
adapted as a form of commercial entertainment, now reaching much broader audiences. With deflated, gestures toward his wife, who sits in a chair facing a wall, giddy with laughter and,
commercialization, the medium establishing the interpretive framework shifted from written apparently, sedated. 40

II2 IIJ
 ~ SOCIAL ORDER AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER~

During the 1840s, the interpretive framework for laughing gas again began to shift. The
power of the lecturer to mystify and sedate members of the audience with his scientific
expertise no longer suited the concerns of a society that considered the charismatic powers
and mystical practices of Mormons, Catholics, and Freemasons to be a threat to the state. 41
Instead, the interpretive framework began to emphasize the ability of the gas to reveal "true
character." In so doing, it shifted authority from the lecturer to the audience, who, with their
spectating gaze and vocal laughter, discerned "true character" and censured aberrant behav-
ior. 42 The interpretive framework for the laughing gas demonstrations included on the 1840s
tour of Court of Death illustrates the reasons why this shift took place.
At first it would seem that Colton's laughing gas demonstrations subverted the message of
temperance and control of the passions represented in Court of Death. By providing socially
sanctioned space for the display of irrational passions, these performances would seem to
validate the very thing that supposedly threatened to undermine the moral fabric of society.
Indeed, the performances included several characteristic features of the carnivalesque- espe-
cially laughter, masks, and the grotesque with its emphasis on orifices and bulging body
parts-that Mikhail Bakhtin described in his study of seventeenth-century society, Rabelais
and His World. 43 Far from the scenes of masked revelry erupting in seventeenth-century town
squares, however, both the audiences and the performers in nineteenth-century laughing gas
demonstrations were carefully regulated.
8.2. The issue of gender dramatized A GBAIID Newspaper announcements regarding safety precautions offered readers both reassurance
the power relationship between the lec- and titillation. Notices consistently insisted that the gas was medically safe, that the sensations
turer and the inhaler and emphasized
the ability of the gas to neutralize the
!IX.BIIIITl<ll)ff were "perfectly delightful," and that "no impropriety need be anticipated." 44 Nevertheless,
Of lNE UHCTI fft!IIUC!D Bf 111MIUN3 twelve "strong men" were engaged to stand on the stage built with a railing around it in order
uncontrollable masses. Robert Sey- Nnms O!IDE, EIUILEHA1lN6, !I to protect "those under the influence of the gas from injuring themselves or others." 45 An
mour, Living Made Easy: Prescription
far Scolding Wives, colored etching1
London1 1830. National Library of
Medicine.
tllJGHING G!S! Will DE &IVEN AT r/te.,/4'a✓,,,,.t .Jifs~
officer was stationed in the balcony, where "no boys were admitted," and dress seats on the
parquet were reserved for "the ladies." 46 Assurances were made that the gas would be
administered only to "the first class of gentlemen." Such arrangements aimed "to prevent the
8.3. The central grouping from Sey- ;,,;,o/ EVllHIIII, /~ "' excited participants from cutting up and extravagant extras," and to assure that the same
mour's engraving was used on broad- "intelligent, respectable audiences" who attended the exhibition of Court of Death would also
sides advertising the demonstrations in
comprise the audiences for the laughing gas demonstrations. 47 "The whole entertainment,"
the 1840s, even after the interpretive
framework shifted to emphasize the announced the Pittsburgh Gazette, "will be calculated with the propriety and decorum which
JO SAWIIIS or GAS
audiences' ability to discern "true char- shall deserve the patronage of an intelligent class ofladies and gentlemen." 48
,..au be
acter." A Grand Exhibition ef pll'll"pared end admin:<11(l"red
The new interpretive framework of revealed character further mitigated the potentially
Laughing Gas/, ca. 1845. Broadside. h:J ti.II iin ltw au«lilPilir~ subversive aspects of the demonstrations. Instead of exposing seemingly disruptive passions
Buck Hill Associates 1 Johnsburgh, ldlotle1dre do inhale U. under the anonymous cover of the street crowd and carnival mask, laughing gas demonstra-
New York.
~'I-IE~ wlli be lnvUN flrom 11'1'f' nadlenrt>, fo tions placed individuals from the audience onstage and, one by one, subjected them to the
p!l"Oteri dhfll~• umlf'r (Im('- lnffaf'm'«" of thd." 111.:.an flrom ln-
jull'l11,: dlu•1n!!it•h',•11 OIi' odfi(>f"'II, 'l'hin t-onrrn• h adopted scrutiny of the audience. 49 As a means of revealing "true character/' laughing gas was claimed
Oualt no epprt'b4•Mion of tlht~,•r 1ma1· be f'Rdf"rhllnird ..
Probably no onl' nm nttf'mpt to O.r::ht~ to be more accurate than phrenology. 50
TIU: •a·n:1··1· ,w Tu•: IH.~ ;. I,> ""b 11,- "~" ;.r..i, ;,. ei!h••
Both participants and audiences were nevertheless profoundly aware of prescribed parame-
!.JIOGB, Sl!IG, DAIICE, SPEAK OR l'IGIIT, &• &•
ll<"t,ntdi11J? lo 111<" h•~dinl? milt nr !h<"U' <"hnmril"r. Tl11•y ~rl"m 111 nt!'III
con~rim,~m•,,. rm,u~h 111>! lo ,ny oJ' do lhnl nhil"h lh1"1 1111111,IJ,avl" nr ..11ainn
ters of disclosure, especially for women, who restricted their performances to demonstrations
1
" ;~ru:·. 'l'!w «~ns v,·ill 1w 1tdmi!nMl!'!N'd only do ~ndle-
of moral virtue. Most recited scripture, broke into song, or lapsed into poetic verse. Those
nu•aa of Ow fl,nd ll't'IIJK•rtahllldy. The- o~et't i11 to nutke- women who revealed inappropriate character traits, like the woman in St. Louis who,
ill<' 1•11i,•rd11ln1111•nd ha t-1rery l'Cl<IIJW'l'd, R 17;,•ntffl effillll"o •
Th,,... «loai"h•lr 1hr lio.< "''""• ""' •l1>•J• on,cio"" lo ioMlo I! lho ,,....,d time. 'fl,..., ;. Mt according to the Daily Union, "let the cat out of the bag," rendered themselves subject to
"";;~::!""' •~!~",1:!:;r., tho ,lcli~hlful ,.,.,..cioo
d,;, ",J":,f,;"'l,J,,,r,•of lh• hli;lo<'l of
p,odUN•d. R"b<rt S..,lhey. li:c<:\l "':;'
l"'"!h!e !"•••••< ru<t•l hi,co••~ffl nf th,
,.[I j.,.,_
,..;,1
public censure and humiliation. 51 So strong was the tendency towards self-censure among
••••• full oero,m!of (he dfe<I P"'d"m "1"'" """'• of lh• ,.,..,1 dW.!ogui,,he<l ,n,ool Eu"'P",
,,.. llooj>o,', ,\kdio•l Dfot!on••r, un.lor th, boodofSiu,,gM,
"'"•'°"'""'"'"'"'°J""°"""-"-Y.
women that during afternoon auditions for evening performances, Colton actively encouraged
""" HK!
more "interesting"-if not deviant-behavior. Among twenty women wishing to inhale the
n4
 ....

;1 ELLEN HICKEY GRAYSON~ ;1 SOCIAL ORDER AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER~

gas in Mobile, Alabama, Colton announced that only four or five of the "most interesting ence-were licensed to reveal their true characters. The scientific nature of the exhibitions
subjects" would be selected to perform in public. 52 made them seem controllable and safe.
Descriptions of performances by male volunteers encompassed a wider range of behavior, Taken as a ~hole, the traveling exhibition package of Court of Death offers two models of
including political harangues, performances of high tragedy, military maneuvers, and song. cultural hegemony. In towns along the Erie Canal, known for the religious revivals that took
The interpretive framework of revealed character, nevertheless, structured these performances place there during the Second Great Awakening, powerful cultural mediators and an elaborate
according to ethnic and class stereotypes. Reports on performances by Irishmen and working- network of ministers, newspapers, and moral reform institutions mobilized large audiences to
class firemen confirmed stereotypes that these individuals were especially prone to violence. 53 see the painting and advance the message of moral reform. In towns throughout the Midwest
Middle-class or elite professionals, such as the young lawyer who "threw himself into an and South, where this infrastructure was not as highly developed, laughing gas demonstrations
attitude and recited three stanzas from Bryant," demonstrated how cultivated passions could accomplished the same ends. Having internalized the moral philosophy represented in the
be appropriately channeled into poetic sentiment. 54 Occasionally performances subverted painting, audiences, through their laughter, reinforced the parameters of middle-class codes
outward appearances, as when a "gentleman'' danced a "magnificent breakdown," a dance of decorum.
specifically associated with the Bowery b'hoys and urban, potentially deviant youth. Performed The history of laughing gas during the first half of the nineteenth century ultimately links
unaccompanied, the dance epitomized the refusal of the unassimilated male youth to conform the Kantian aesthetic philosophy espoused by a circle of liberal, scientific, and literary elites
to domesticated codes of decorum. Equally ominous was the performance of "a merchant, in England to the self-promoting, upwardly mobile, rugged individualist of antebellum
well known as a very amiable young man" who "proceeded to kick and knock every body America. Advancement and, often, survival in a democratic society and market economy
about on the stage," appearing to be "in a great rage." The reviewer concluded that, despite demanded enormous energies of self-fashioning. But the liberating aspects of expanding
outward appearances, "our quiet young friend must be _a regular destructive in disposition." 55 democracy gave pause to those concerned about the volatility of the democratic masses. And
Disjunctures between revelations of inner character and outward appearances, however, even as advancing capitalism fostered rugged individualism and competitive entrepreneurship,
were rare. More often the laughing gas demonstrations merely confirmed public perception of it also imposed the regimentation of wage labor and mass production. The shifting interpre-
character, as when an editor moved across the stage "very gravely and with great dignity ... tive framework for laughing gas demonstrations mirrored this tension between expansion and
being doubtless, in secret, a diplomatist," or when a man identified as a "philanthropist" in St. restraint. In responding to one set of concerns, the laughing gas demonstrations raised a new
Louis "opened his pocket book, handed the lecturer a five dollar bank note-then, as if he set of issues, which in turn were revised by yet another set of cultural imperatives. In
had not done enough, thrust the pocket book on him-then gave his purse, and finally felt response to concern about the volatility of the masses, the laughing gas lecturer became the
his vest, pantaloons and coat pockets apparently for more. The countenance expressed extreme embodiment of scientific (rather than religious) social authority, capable of exerting control
benevolence-tears even starting in his eyes." 56 Newspaper accounts reported that lawyers over audiences and performers, a metaphor for the body politic. Mystifying audiences with
and "gentlemen" revealed virhlous characteristics far more frequently than performers identi- feats of scientific mastery, the lecturer neutralized the masses, as the husband in Seymour's
fied by working-class occupations or ethnic origin. engraving sedates the wife. In time, the very mystifying quality of the lecturer's power also
In the end, laughing gas demonstrations were hardly subversive, in the Bakhtinian sense or proved unsettling, and the interpretive framework again adjusted itself by investing the
otherwise. By ritualizing the unveiling of character under the auspices of science, laughing gas audience with the means to discern "true character."
performances, rather than refuting the moral philosophy represented in Court ofDeath, in fact Colton himself embodied this tension between expansion and constraint: the expansiveness
affirmed the dominant values of bourgeois respectability. According to newspaper accounts of of romantic wanderings and opportunities for self-actualization versus the imperatives of
the demonstrations, it was not the effects of the laughing gas in revealing true character that market capitalism, the constraints of bourgeois respectability, and the isolation of rugged
were most amusing, but rather watching the participant's reaction as the nitrous oxide individualism. Audiences remarked on his "gentlemanly bearing" and his "perfect understand-
wore off. Like twentieth-century television audiences for Allen Funt's ''Candid Camera," ing of the subject." 58 Yet under the veneer of gentility, Colton was as much a man on the
nineteenth-century audiences were as amused by the embarrassment of revealed character as make as the next showman.
by the performance itself. The effect of both exercises was to collectively impose a self- Fittingly, just as Colton maximized nitrous oxide's potential as a form of commercial
consciousness upon participants and viewers, reinforcing a profound awareness of behavioral entertainment, so too did he exploit it as an anesthetic. Almost by accident, a medical
norms and the parameters of respectability. application for nitrous oxide was finally established, not within the sterile halls of scientific
There seems to be something uniquely American, disturbingly familiar, and rather pathetic institutions, but rather within the chaotic atmosphere of the sensationalized public exhibition.
about the image of the isolated individual, venting deep-seated social frustrations onstage During one of Colton's demonstrations in Hartford in i844, a drugstore clerk, while under
before a large and vocal audience, whose moral code of conduct was advertised on a billboard- the influence of the gas, ran into a bench and lacerated his leg. Observing that the clerk had
sized painting serving as a backdrop to the performance. Compare, for example, the isolated felt no pain, Horace Wells approached Colton afterwards and asked him to administer the
figure of Joe, thumbing his nose at the audience in Pittsburgh, to individuals losing themselves gas while Wells had a wisdom tooth extracted. The procedure was successful and is cited as a
among crowds of masked revelers. 57 Court of Death embodied the dominant code of moral seminal moment in the establishment of nitrous oxide as an anesthetic. Although credited
values that made audiences laugh when individuals like Joe- only under the guise of sci- with the discovery, Wells did not live long enough to reap any financial rewards. Addicted not

II6 II7
 -;j SOCIAL ORDER AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER 1,-
-;j ELLEN HICKEY GRAYSON!,-

9. Ibid., 289-90.
only to nitrous oxide but also to ether and chloroform, Wells committed suicide in 1848 while 10. Ibid.
imprisoned in New York's city jail. The ever-resilient Colton, however, returned to New York 11. Participants used terms such as "glowing warmth," "senses more alive to every surrounding
after a stint managing a silver mine in California and in 1864 established the Colton Dental impression," and ~ "almost delirious but highly pleasurable sensation in the brain" to describe their
Association. By 1886, Colton had several branch offices along the East Coast. At the end of experiences. While Southey described the sensations produced by the "bag of nitrous oxide with which
he [Davy] generally regaled me" as "perfectly new and delightful," Coleridge reported "great extacy
his career, Colton is said to have administered nitrous oxide as an anesthetic more than
[sic]' and "unmingled pleasure." Davy, Researches, 499,501,505, 508, 520; Robert Southey to Humphry
125,000 times, painlessly extracting hundreds of thousands of teeth. 59 Davy, 4 May 1799, crted m St~sfield, Thomas Beddoes, 172; Suzanne R. Hoover, "Coleridge, Humphry
On the eve of the American Revolution, fearing that moral degeneracy would jeopardize Davy, and Some Early Expenments with a Consciousness-altering Drug," Bulletin o/ Research in the
public virtue, the First Continental Congress instituted codes of conduct that outlawed Humanities 81 (Spring 1978): 9-28.
theatergoing, cockfighting and horseracing. 60 At the close of the war, the codes of conduct 12. Davy, Researches, 499,503,514,519.
were repealed, once again placing the moral fiber of society at risk. The evolution of the 13. Ibid., 501, 521, 525.
14. Ibid., 405.
interpretive framework for laughing gas performances indicates that such fears were un- 15. Fragmentary Remaim, Literary and Scientific, of Sir Humphry Davy, Bart., ed. John Davy
founded. By the 1840s new forms of commercial spectacle furnished the means to preserve (London: J. Churchill, 1858), 64.
codes of conduct and delineate the parameters of middle-class respectability with greater 16. June Z. Fullmer, Sir Humphry Davys Published Works (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
effectiveness than abstinence from the theater or horseracing could ever have hoped to 1969), 30.
accomplish. Advancing capitalism and expanding democracy proved remarkably adept at 17. Maria Edgeworth to Mrs. Ruxton, 26 May 1799, in Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, ed.
Augustus J. C. Hare (London: E. Arnold, 1894), 165-66.
producing commercial spectacles that would promote the survival of their own social and
18. Joseph Cottle, Early Recollections, Chiefly Relating to the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 2 vols.
economic structures. (London: Longman Rees, 1837), 2:37 .
.19. W~am Paul Crillon Barton, A Dissertation on the Chymical Properties and Exhilarating Effects of
Nitrous Oxide Gas, and. I!s App~ication ~o Pneumatic Medicine, Submitted as an Inaugural Thesis for the
NoTES
Degree of Doctor ofMedtctne (Philadelphia: Lorenzo, 1808), xiv.
1. Usually applied to reader response in literary analyses, the term "interpretive framework" works 20. Davy, Researches, 493.
equally well for studies of audience response to visual spectacle. In the case of the laughing gas
21. Ibid., 308.
demonstrations, the term refers specifically to the written texts (scientific accounts, political treatises,
22. Ibid., 312.
and newspaper reviews) that shaped viewers' understanding of the performances. For further discussion 23. Joseph Cottle, Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey (London: Houlston
of the term, see the introduction in Stanley Fish, Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of and Stoneman, 1847), 269-70.
Interpretive Communities (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980). 24. Davy, Researches, 464, 478.
2. Samuel Latham Mitchill reiterated Priestley's understanding that the gas was poisonous in his
25. ".'7"ithin months of the opening of the Pneumatic Institute in 1798, the opinion prevailed among
Remarks on the Gaseous Oxyd ofAzote and of Its Effects (New York, 1795). See David Knight, Humphry
the panents that "they were merely made the subjects of experiment." Cottle Reminiscences 26 7 270·
Davy: Science and Power (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), 28. See also "Review . '
of Thomas Beddoes' Notice o/ some Observations made at the Medical Pneumatic
J ' '

3. Anticlergy, protemperance, and abolitionist, The Watchman attacked William Pitt's policies, Institution," Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine 6 (1800): 424-28.
condemned the intensification of the war with France, and exposed corrupt magistrates in Birmingham.
26. For discussion of ~ similar relationship between mesmerism and radical politics in France, see
Dorothy A. Stansfield, Thomas Beddoes, 1760-1808, Chemist, Physician, Democrat (Dordrecht: D. Robert Darnton, Mesmerism and the End efthe EnHghtenment in France (Cambridge: Harvard Univer-
Reidel, 1984), 132; Trevor H. Levere, "Dr. Thomas Beddoes and the Establishment of His Pneumatic
sity Press, 1968), 83-125.
Institution: A Tale of Three Presidents," Notes and Records of the Royal Society ofLondon 32 (July 1977): . 27. Jam.es Woo~ouse, Barton's lecturer in chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, performed
41-51. mtrous made experiments upon his return from London in 1802, as did fellow lecturer in chemistry
4. For discussion of conflicting political attitudes in British scientific circles, see Maurice Crosland, John Griscom in New York. Barton, Dissertation, 4, 51.
"The Image of Science as a Threat: Burke versus Priestley and the 'Philosophic Revolution,'" British 28. Barton's experiences typically began with a "warm glow" and sense of expansion in the chest
Society far the History of Science 20 (July 1987): 277-307. foll?wed b~ a "thrilling ~r titilla~ng sensation that extended to every part of my frame." Subsequent
5. In 1794 in Bristol, Coleridge, Southey, and Lovell developed plans for a utopian community to be feelings of ,~apturous delight which then entranced my faculties" and an "indescribable extacy {sic]," he
located on the banks of the Susquehanna in Pennsylvania and resolved to marry the Friker sisters, concluded, must be what angels feel." Ibid., 55, 57.
Sarah, Edith, and Mary. Cottle, a bookseller who published Southey's Joan ofArc (1796) and Coleridge's 29. Ibid., 59.
Lyrical Ballads containing the "Ancient Mariner" (1798), was also a member of this circle. Wedgwood,
30. Ibid., 61.
the son of ceramic manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood, became the chief benefactor of Coleridge and
31. Ibid., 74.
principal investor in Beddoes's Pneumatic Institute. Wedgwood also financed Coleridge's trip to 32. Ibid., 80.
Germany. As early as 1793, Beddoes included excerpts from Kant's Critique o/ Pure Reason in his 33. Hoping that the gas could "invigorate memory and increase the quantum of genius in our
Observations on the Nature efDemonstrativeEvidence.
country," ~arto~ ~nvisioned .application~ for nitrous oxide comparable to the longings of a young Dr.
6. Humphry Davy, Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide (London:
Frankenstem. C1tmg The Life o/ Darwin by Anna Seward, Barton refers to the transfusion of blood
J. Johnson, 1800). from young people and animals into old people as a precedent for such an application. Ibid., 82.
7. Ibid., 463, 492-93. 34. Davy, Researches, 528, 531.
8. Ibid., 187.

n8
 ~ ELLEN HICKEY GRAYSON~
r
35. A Cursory Glimpse of the State o/ the Nation on the Twenty-Second of February, 1814, Being the
J"'W I J"'W El
Eighty-First Anniversary of the Birth of Washington, or A Physico-Politico-Theolog£co Lubrication upon the
Wonderful Properties of Nitrous Oxide Newly Discovered Exhilirating Gas in Its Effects Upon the Human
Mind and Body (Philadelphia: Moses Thomas, 1814), 5.
36. Ibid., 8-9.
37. New York Evening Post, 7 March 1820, sec. 3, p. 1. Photography and Persuasion: Farm Security
38. Ibid.
39. G. Foy, Anaesthetics, Ancient and Modern (London: Balliere, Tindall and Cox, 1889), 25-27, cited Administration Photographs of Circus and Carnival
in Elizabeth A. M. Frost, ''.A History of Nitrous Oxide," in Nitrous Oxide, ed. Edmond I. Eger (New
York: Elsevier, 1985), 9-10. Sideshows, 1935-1942
40. Women generally did not participate in public performances oflaughing gas demonstrations until
the 1830s and 1840s. Still, their attendance in the audience was crucial to legitimizing the exhibitions.
For Preston's performances in New York, a single ticket admitted two women if accompanied by a man. I
RONALD E. OSTMAN
Tickets were sold at the Ladies Literary Cabinet, and the Female Assistance Society sponsored one of I

the evening's demonstrations. New York Evening Post, 2 March 1821, sec. 3, p. 2; 4 March 1821, sec. 3, J

~
p. 1.
Although the single account of a woman inhaling the gas in Davy's Researches suggests that women
responded to the gas by experiencing languor, Cattle's later account of the woman running out of the
Pneumatic Institute indicates that women also responded to the gas with increased physical vigor,
similar to that experienced by men. Cottle claims that this incident so appalled the other female
patients at the Institute that they subsequently refused to inhale the gas. Davy, Researches, 530; Cottle,
Reminiscences, 267,268.
41. For further discussion of countersubversive movements, see David Brion Davis, "Some Themes Persons who differ from the physical norm have been exhibited throughout history (Thomp-
of Counter-Subversion: An Analysis of Anti-Masonic, Anti-Catholic, and Anti-Mormon Literature," son 1931), and the reaction of viewers has run the gamut from revulsion to terror to sympathy
Journal ofAmerican History 47 (September 1960): 205-24. to awe to mirth. Aristotle taught that persons who are considered "human oddities" were lusus
42. For further discussion of the desire to discern true character in the era of the confidence man, see naturae, or "jokes of nature" (Fiedler 1978). Those who accepted this explanation reacted to
Karen Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middle-Class Culture in America, viewings with amusement and were inclined to tease and mock. Those subscribing to super-
1830-1870 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982), 1-32.
43. Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1968), 9-12, 26,423, 432-47;
natural or religious views sometimes saw a satanic or sinful ontogeny and felt justified in
idem, The Dialogic Imagination (Austin: University ofTexis Press, 1981), 36-37, 54-58; Dominick La killing, torture, and cruelty. Others saw the uniqueness of human oddities as a possible sign
Capra, Rethinking Intellectual History: Texts, Contexts, Language (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, of supernatural or divine intervention and/or favor.
1983), 291-324. When human oddities have been exhibited, persons from all stations of life have been
44. Cincinnati Gazette, 3 October 1847, p. 2; 9 October 1847, p. 2. willing to pay for the privilege of viewing. For the most part, potential viewers were fascinated
45. Pittsburgh Daily Gazette, 1 September 1847, p. 2.
with the idea of what they were promised but remained skeptical. Therefore, persuasion
46. Pittsburgh Daily Gazette, 3 September 1847, p. 2.
47. St. Louis Reveille, 7 December 1847, p. 2. usually was necessary in order to extract payments from them. Sometimes persuasion was
48. Pittsburgh Daily Gazette, 1 September 1847, p. 2. necessary only at first-once a few people had viewed the promised sights they could be
49. After inhaling the gas, explained one notice, the "restraints which usually hide the real character counted upon to spread the word, thus reducing others' reluctance and reticence. Exhibitors
of the man, disappear." Gists Weekly Advertiser (Cincinnati), 12 October 1847, p. 2. of human oddities in circus or carnival sideshows during the early twentieth century faced
50. Ibid.
genuine resistance from potential viewers, who were very skeptical of the sideshow's honesty.
51. The Daily Union (St. Louis), 20 December 1847, p. 2.
52. Mobile Register and Journal, 5 April 1848, p. 2. It usually was necessary to show them a taste of the real thing to persuade them to buy a
53. Daily Commercial Journal (Pittsburgh), 2 September 1847, p. 2; Gist) Weekly Advertiser (Cincin- ticket to see the whole show. Because of the ever-changing nature of the transitory, milling
nati), 12 October 1847, p. 2. crowds, it was necessary to continually convince potential customers to pay to see the
54. Daily Commercial Journal (Pittsburgh), 2 September 1847, p. 2. promised human oddities of the sideshow.
55. Ibid.
56. Gists Weekly Advertiser (Cincinnati), 12 October 1847, p. 2.
57. Daily CommercialJournal(Pittsburgh), 2 September 1847, p. 2. RECENT HISTORICAL BACKDROP
58. New-York Tribune, 19 December 1845, p. 2.
59. Frost, "History of Nitrous Oxide," 11-14. In the New World, itinerant promoters of human oddities toured from tavern to tavern, inn
60. For analysis of the cultural implication of these codes of conduct, see Ann Fairfax Withington, to inn. The first human oddity to be exhibited in the United States was a "maiden dwarf,"
Towards a More Perfect Union (New York Oxford University Press, 1994). Miss Emma Leach, who was shown in Boston in 1771 for one shilling a visit (Durant and
Durant 1957). The practice stabilized and became an institution when Phineas Taylor

I20 I2I
 ;1 RONALD E. OSTMAN ls-
r ;1 PHOTOGRAPHY AND PERSUASION~

Barnum established his American Museum in 1842, collecting at one permanent site a group Roy Stryker, head of the FSA Historical Division, said in 1935 that "it might be appro-
of human oddities for paid exhibition. Thus, the crowds came to the human oddities rather priate to gather together a collection of photographs of all aspects of American rural life, with
than vice versa. Barnum expanded upon this theme, creating both location-bound exhibits [an] emphasis on what had gone wrong: deforestation, soil erosion, migrant fruit pickers, and
and traveling shows for the next fifty years. Michael Mitchell (1979) notes that private dime hungry children'' (Guimond 1991, 110). By the early 1940s, Stryker was telling his photogra-
museums featuring human oddities could be found throughout the growing urban areas of phers to take positive photos that showed the successes of New Deal programs and the
the United States after the Civil War, and that the rapid expansion of the railroad system strength of the American people and land. His photographers were only too happy to oblige.
permitted fast and widespread travel of human oddities to ever more remote areas, often to They were seeing many interesting and stimulating things during their journeys, and they
their vast financial benefit. During this same period, the classic American circus was formu- were creative and independent artists who sometimes resented being told exactly what type of
lated, and elaborate touring shows invariably carried a sideshow exhibition of human oddities. dull, unimaginative photograph to take by some regional FSA worker who wanted publicity
By the end of the nineteenth century, however, small-town preachers and editors were in a local newspaper.
complaining quite loudly about the proliferating tent shows that infiltrated county fairs (Sears, State and county fairs were a natural venue for FSA photographers on the prowl for photos
Belsky, and Tunstell, 1975). that would satisfy Stryker's desire to show American farming and life au naturel There,
The invention of photography by French physicist Joseph Nicephore Niepce in 1824 and images could be made of prize livestock, new farming equipment, crafts, food preservation,
the subsequent improvements leading to commercial practicality by Louis Daguerre in 1837 and a myriad of topics that fit the practical needs of the FSA Historical Division. More
led to its rapid expansion shortly thereafter (Becker and Roberts 1992). Most people were importantly, for present purposes, state and county fairs also featured circuses and carnivals,
willing to accept as objective and true any evidence that was captured by photography. which offered human oddity sideshows as a regular part of their entertainment. The FSA files
Photographs removed some of the doubt from the population's beliefs concerning human contain many images of these sideshows. The ten images shown here were taken by a variety
oddities, but because they revealed so much they were not often used as a means of promoting of photographers in various U.S. locations during the years 1938-42. Based on these images
human oddity exhibits. Artistic renditions of human oddities, often exaggerated and romanti- we can reconstruct the process of persuasion right up until the customer stepped inside to see
cized, continued to be the norm. Therefore, the exhibitor still faced the challenge of convinc- the real show. Anecdotal evidence permits a further understanding of what happened once
ing potential paying customers that what could be seen for a fee was bona fide. the ticket was collected.
Another use of photography was of direct benefit to exhibitors and human oddities. Many
human oddities were photographed and had carte de visite or cabinet portraits produced by the SucKERs/TowNERS
bulk lot, individual copies of which were sold to exhibit viewers as souvenirs (Coleman 1977).
Not only did this increase the income beyond the initial entrance fee, it also provided the P. T. Barnum reportedly said, "There's a sucker born every minute." He spoke the right lingo,
possibility of yet a third fee if the viewer wanted the photographic copy autographed (assum- according to Joe McKennon (1980), who lived tl!e life of a circus trouper and made an effort
ing the human oddity was able to do so, of course). Moreover, the photographs helped sell to preserve circus and carnival language. McKennon's dictionary permits us to reconstruct
future exhibition tickets once the purchasers took them back out on the streets and into their what is going on in the FSA photographs. In figure 9.1, for example, Arthur Rothstein
neighborhoods and homes. Here was evidence that the phenomenon was real and that when photographed seven men waiting for ... well, waiting. They're in Marshalltown, Iowa, in
one bought a ticket to see it, one wouldn't be tricked or taken for a sucker. September 1939, at the Central Iowa 4-H Club Fair. Seeing the Reynolds & Wells United
Show's "Oddities of the World" sideshow banner (which the troupers sometimes called
"valentines") before they sat down was exciting and almost exotic considering they spent the
FARM SECURITY ADMINISTRATION PHOTOGRAPHY
summer farming, small-town clerking, or maybe banking. Not that any of them intend to see
The Farm Security Administration (FSA) was a New Deal government agency. It grew out the human oddities: the half-crab-half-human, the two-headed-one-bodied baby, the four-
of the Resettlement Administration, begun in 1935 to resettle poor farm families away from legged woman, the Siamese twins, the jungle woman with the huge disk lips, the mermaid,
their worn-out land, and to make grants and loans for new starts. Ultimately, the Resettlement the human-with-a-mule-face, or the dwarf (called "runts" by circus and carnival folk). They
Agency evolved into the FSA, which had the general mission of assisting farmers and others figure the show probably has a lot of fakes. Besides, with 9.4 million Americans (17.2 percent
associated with agriculture-including migrant workers, sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and of the workforce) still unemployed a decade after the Great Depression began, a dime is
experimental communalists-who were in economic trouble because of the depression. The something you don't throw away (McElvaine 1993). These, then, are the "suckers" or "town-
1
Historical Division of the FSA was charged with the responsibility of photographing govern- ers" that circus and carnival folk will soon convince that 'one thin dime, the tenth part of a
ment activities toward that end. Only a handful of photographers were hired during the dollar" is a trifle and that the world oddities inside the midway tent are well worth the cost of
agency's existence from 1935 to 1942, but they were among the best documentary photogra- a ticket. How is that accomplished?
phers working in the United States. Some quarter of a million images were made over that
period, some of which have achieved icon status (Stott 1986; Zakia 1993).

I22 I2J
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~ RONALD E. OSTMAN 1,- ~ PHOTOGRAPHY AND PERSUASION f;

9.1. Marshalltown, Iowa, September 1939. The Central Iowa 4-H fair. A show on the midway. Photo 9.2. Rutland, Vermont, September 1941. A sideshow at the Vermont State Fair. Photo by Jack Delano.
by Arthur Rothstein. US. Farm Security Administration Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, U.S. Farm Security Administration Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
Library of Congress,

known as a "spider" or "grinder") dressed in a nurse's uniform. She is trying to "turn the tip"
THE TALKER TROUPERS
(convince the patrons that what she says is truthful, that there really is a "first in medical
The search for money drives the circus and carnival workers. Their language is spiced with history" inside the tent, and that they should pay their dime to see the Strong twins). The
references to "jitneys" (nickels), "dimers," "quaters," and so on. Many spend most of their idle "nurse" talks smoothly about the "blessed event" that led to the "world's most famous twins"
hours fishing in their "grouch bags" or "pokes" (the place where they keep their cash) for the and invites the tip to meet their mother inside. She assures the patrons that the twins are
"blanket game" (gambling with other show folks). If they are lucky enough to leave their alive and cites confidence-building information as printed by the Sunday News. "One has
gambling with any money, they are said to be "holding." If they are broke and are forced to brown eyes, one has blue," she claims. "One is a caucasian baby and the other one is negroid.
live on credit from the show's management, they are "on the burr" or "on the nut." When They were born one right after the other, from the same mother, less than ten minutes apart."
they are asked to "up it," they are being requested to pay back what they owe (with an implied The single-o talker relies heavily on her charismatic ability to gain the tip's trust, because
"or else"). Everyone is constantly on the lookout for "queer" (counterfeit money). Day in and there will be no "ballyhoo" (a short free show on the platform prior to ticket sale). The tip
day out, they have to "crack the nut," meaning there are the daily expenses to be made before has to be turned with words alone.
a profit can be counted from the "take." Since they're only in the area for a few days before Many sideshows combined this mixture of entertainment and seemingly scientific informa-
moving on to the next location, they aren't particularly scrupulous in how they "work on the tion. Often, such a show would have a second person inside, called a "lecturer," who would
suckers" (and empty the "natives'" pockets, if possible). If it takes a bit of dishonesty, well, deliver a talk that simulated an educational classroom, with the patrons as students. These
then it takes a bit of dishonesty. In their lingo, they will "work strong" (do what it takes) to "educational" shows were photographed by FSA photographers along with the other side-
accomplish their goal. shows. Their banners described "The Unborn'' or "Life Unborn," for example. The unborn
In fact, many of the human oddities are legitimate. For example, there really is a four- usually consisted of fetuses preserved in jars. Often these were abnormal and malformed
legged woman who will help "clean" the patrons. But the suckers only think they're seeing a fetuses, such as two-headed babies and conjoined twins, born prematurely or aborted, and
mermaid. That little piece of thievery will help "skin'' the "sucks" slick and clean. Figure 9.2, unceremoniously called "pickled punks" in private by the troupers. Other shows of this genre
a photograph made by Jack Delano at the Vermont State Fair in Rutland, September 1941, included "The Hall of Science" (which presented a talk on whether or not "Dr. Carrell &
features a "single-o," or single attraction that probably is legitimate. Pictured is a (<talker" (also Col. Lindbergh will be able to grow human beings in bottles. 40 people from all nations. Can

I24 I25
 -;i RONALD E. OST MAN f ~ PHOTOGRAPHY AND PERSUASION f

it penetrate the eternal mystery of life? Here is science's supreme adventure.") The same Hall
of Science promised an examination of the "Sins of Marriage" and presented "Beautiful
Princess Mary, the Shrunken Headed Girl." It also was dedicated to "Exposing Birth Control"
and featured "Dr. R. Garfield, Robt. L. Ripley's 'Believe It Or Not' The Man Without a
Skull. Alive." If that wasn't enough, the patron would also learn "The Laws of Nature" while
attending to "Knowledge Concerning Life." If the patron was still not convinced, a sign
promised the piece de resistance: "Extra! Delivered by Dr. Sterling. Added attraction. Clinton
Mystery. Twins born to live. 3 heads 2 bodies. Born Clinton, N.C. June 12, 1935. Baffled
medical science." All this could be had for only ten cents, the tenth part of a dollar.

THE BALLYHOO

The ballyhoo or "bally" gives the crowd enough of a taste of the real thing to stimulate their
appetite for more, which could be satisfied inside the tent for ten, fifteen, or twenty cents.
The bally consists of a free show outside the sideshow tent to attract a crowd and to convince
them that what is inside will be even more elaborate, spectacular, and irresistible. "Tomorrow,
we'll be gone," the talker says, "and your friends and neighbors will be bragging about what
they've seen in here today and you'll be sorry if you don't go inside. Tomorrow all that'll be
left is wagon tracks and empty popcorn sacks. Only a dime! Surely, you can spare a dime to
see these spectacular wonders of the world!" In Figure 9 .3, also taken by Delano at the
Vermont State Fair, the talker points to the banner, referring to the amazing sights inside. To
his right stand two human oddities and to his left a "pinhead" (microcephalic). This is part of
the World of Mirth sideshow, which features "strange human freaks alive" -the third sex
family, the backward boy, Boko the alligator skin boy, Zip and Pip the pinheads, and Betty
Williams, the genuine double-bodied girl with four legs ("Alive! Not in a bottle, not a trick!"),
among other attractions. The pinhead's hair has been shaved to show the upward sloping
volcanic-shaped skull. A small tuft of hair at the very pinnacle is tied up with a bow so that
the hair spills over like lava. The backward boy to the talker's right is Demetria Ortiz, listed
in Ripley's "Believe It Or Not" as "the only man living who can twist his body completely
around while his feet remain stationary. When the lower half of his body is facing in one
direction, the other half is in the opposite direction, and he can walk in that position. Senor
Ortiz is from Mexico."
While showing the bally, the talker delivers a steady stream of words, modulating his tone
up and down the scale. He refers to the human oddities on the platform and describes their
actions, and marvels on the wonders that they are yet to do inside the tent. He also refers
frequently to the banners behind them: "That's the way she looks, ladies and gents, boys and
girls! You'll find them on the inside just as they are represented on the canvas! Step right up
and the gentlemanly usher will escort you to points of vantage! One thin dime, the tenth part
of a dollar!" Sometimes, the bally would feature others from among the human oddities. 9.3. Rutland, Vermont, September 1941. Outside a freak show at the Vermont State
When dwarfs were on the platform, the talker would say: "Now, ladies and gentlemen, boys Fair. Photo by Jack Delano. U.S. Farm Security Administration Collection, Prints and
and girls, if you please, step over here and see the world's tiniest people. Note the yardstick- Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
an accurate, an exact, a perfectly calibrated instrument against which to measure the height of 9.4. Donaldsonville, Louisiana, November 1938. A talker at a sideshow with human
these minuscule humans, some of them members of the foreign titled aristocracy! (Step oddities at the South Louisiana State Fair. Photo by Russell Lee. U.S. Farm Security
Administration Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
forward, Count, and you too, Baron, and stand by the yardstick.) Each and every one of these

I26
 r

~ RONALD E. OSTMAN f
i
~ PHOTOGRAPHY AND PERSUASION f
I
little people, ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, is a full-grown human being! (Thank you, 9.5. Klamath Falls, Or-
Count. Thank you, Baron.)" 1 egon, July 1942. Side-
Figure 9 .4 provides a closer view of the talker and his bally review. This image was made show at the circus.
Photo by Russell Lee.
by Russell Lee in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, in November 1938. The only pictured bally
U.S. Farm Security
performer for whom information exists is the man in a Native American feathered headdress Administration Col-
at the talker's far right, who was identified in a different photo as "an Indian glass eater." The lection, Prints and
banner shows the English bulldog girl on all fours coming out of a doghouse. Also pictured Photographs Division,
are a three-legged woman, pinheads, a doubled-bodied man, midgets, a thin man, and a fat Library of Congress.
woman. Part of a drum can be seen at the far right edge of the photo. 9.6. Rutland, Vermont,
A drum also can be seen in figure 9.5, immediately behind the talker. Drums often were September 1941. A fat
man at the Vermont
used as attention-getters during the initial portion of the spiel, hence the expression "drum-
State Fair. Photo by
ming up business." The banner in the background shows an armless, legless woman, a double- Jack Delano. U.S. Farm
bodied man, a three-legged man, Siamese twins, and midgets, among other unidentifiable Security Administra-
human oddities. The double-bodied man image appears to be based on a photograph of Jean tion Collection, Prints
and Jacques Libbera, born in Rome in 1884 and shown by Barnum and Bailey in the United and Photographs Divi-
sion, Library of Con-
States as early as 1907. Whether Jean and Jacques were part of this particular sideshow of
gress.
"freaks, strange people, oddities" is unknown. Equally mysterious in this photo are the
evidently humorous comments being made by the talker and the strange demeanor of the
woman with a cloth covering her head. Other photographs in the series, made by Russell Lee
at Klamath Falls, Oregon, in July 1942, show that she remained rigid throughout the spiel.
Detail in the additional photos also reveals that this particular sideshow was labeled an "Odd
'i' torium" and featured attractions from "past and present," including a bearded lady, midget
oriental dancers, and an elephant-skinned man.
Obese people in the "fat show'' have always been crowd pleasers. Perhaps more than other
human oddities, these individuals have been held accountable by the public for their physical
condition. The popular criticism has been that they are obese because they eat too much.
However, Tom Ogden (1993) offers a more charitable explanation that they suffer from
hormonal imbalances. There is evidence that the condition is familial. Jack Delano's photo of
one member of the "world's fattest family," taken in Rutland, Vermont, in September 1941
(fig. 9.6) shows an individual who does not look terribly obese to the modern eye. The banner
for this particular sideshow depicts "Sister Violet" at 531 pounds, "Mother" at 648 pounds,
"Father" at 702 pounds, "Baby Ruth" at 409 pounds, "Brother Bill" at 518 pounds, and
"Brother Burvia," whose weight is not visible in the image. They are, the banner says, "Just
one big fat family." The banner further depicts them as a musical family- Burvia holds a
saxophone, Violet plays the drums, father holds a trumpet, Baby Ruth strums a guitar, Bill
plays a horn, and mother is seated at the piano, presumably on a reinforced piano seat. They
will, the talker promises as he points to a sign, perform "ten big vaudeville acts. Ten! The
family sings 'Hello Everybody.' Willie does a whistling solo. Ruth favors you with a tap
dance. Burvia gives a stirring sax solo. Ruth follows with an acrobatic number. Not to be left
out, Ma and Pa will dance. Sibling rivalry? The fat family's got it and Will and Burr will have
a boxing match. Violet calms things down with a Hawaiian hula so realistic you'll think you're
on Waikiki Beach with soft ocean breezes and the fragrant scent of flowers. Ruth provides a
soulful song of blues. And last, certainly not least! Will and Violet show you how the jellyrolls
shake with a fast, modern jitterbug! Oh, you won't want to miss it. We've had to bring in
structural engineers to figure out how to hold up the stage floor with all that blubber shaking

I28 I29
 ~ RONALD E. OSTMAN ~ /4 PHOTOGRAPHY AND PERSUASION~

and shifting, putting such a strain on that poor floor. Fat? I'll say! Talented? You bet! Six
people and more than 3,500 pounds. Use your fourth grade math. That's an average of nearly
600 pounds each. How much does your family weigh? You'll be lucky if your family weighs an
average of 150 pounds per individual. See them quiver and shake! I don't even want to tell
you how much food this family consumes on a regular day. And Thanksgiving? Oh, my!
Thanksgiving they eat enough to keep a small town fed for several days! Oh, you won't want
to miss it. You can't miss it. You shan't miss it, either, for the price of fifteen cents adults, ten
cents for children under twelve. Let your children see this show, ladies and gentlemen. Let it
be an object lesson to them. Imagine, ten big vaudeville acts, at a cost of only one cent per act
for the kiddies, a penny and a half per act for the adults. The fat family. See them now. You'll
never see a fatter family in all your born days. You'll remember this act, folks, long after you've
forgotten everything else that transpired here today! Oh! They are fat. So terribly, terribly,
terrifically fat."
Marion Post Wolcott's March 1939 photo of "Dolly Dimples, Personality Fat Girl" (fig.
9. 7) was taken at the Strawberry Festival and Carnival, Plant City, Florida. Dolly is posed as
an odalisque, reclining on billowy soft pillows and couch. Gauze and veils do a flimsy job in
attempting to cover her ample, suggestive body. Personality girl or not, however, Dolly is daily
insulted, as the adjacent banner depicts. A taxi driver responds to her wave for a ride with the
curt, "You can never get in the door. You will have to ride in a truck." In another banner,
shown in a different photo, Dolly is being measured by a tailor for a dress. He wraps a fabric
around her, exclaiming, "Just one more bolt of cloth will make it." Dolly traveled a far-flung
circuit. FSA photographer Ben Shahn photographed these banners earlier at a county fair in
Central Ohio in August 1938. She did not command the price that Delano's fat family did,
however. The posted price at the ticket seller's booth was ten cents for adults and five cents
for children.
Another group of human oddities was what Ogden (1993) calls "self-made freaks," such as
tattooed people, glass eaters, human pincushions, sword swallowers, and so on. Preying on
people's almost universal revulsion for rats, bats, snakes, and the like, the "geek" shown in
figure 9.8 presumably earned his living by tearing the flesh from snakes and eating it. This
(purportedly) African man, who in all other respects appeared "normal," was part of a
sideshow cleverly labeled with large lettering proclaiming "Believe It Or Not" on the top line
and, in equally large lettering, "A Ripley Show" on the bottom line. The casual viewer
probably didn't see the middle line, in much smaller lettering, which said, "this is not." The
come-on for this Congo show, as it was known, sounded like this: "This man, ladies and
gentlemen, girls and boys, looks like an ordinary person." (The man shuffles onto the stage
for the bally, smiling a simpleton's blank smile.) "He was brought to this country from the
Congo in deepest, darkest Africa some years ago. And while we've been able to dress the
savage up like a person you might meet on the street, I want you to know he's no ordinary 9.7. Plant City, Florida, March 1939. A Strawberry Festival and Carnival fat lady show
man. No. Beneath those clothes of civilization lies a jungle beast who has refused to eat what banner. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott. U.S. Farm Security Administration Collection,
you or I might prefer." (Here, the "savage" reaches into a box and withdraws a long snake, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
which is nearly as long as he is and as round as his wrist. The talker shudders with distaste 9.8. Donaldsonville, Louisiana, November 1938. A man chewing a piece of snake which
and grimaces.) "No, he never learned to appreciate the taste of civilized food." (The talker, he has just bitten off at the South Louisiana State Fair. Photo by Russell Lee. U.S. Farm
who had been looking away from the man, now looks at him and immediately increases the Security Administration Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
volume and pace of his delivery.) '(HE 1s GOING TO EAT . . . CAN IT BE? LADIES AND
GENTLEMEN, GIRLS AND BOYS, 1 THINK HE's GOING TO eat that snake.' oh oh oh my my my . ..

IJO IJI
 '1 RONALD E. OSTMAN ~ '1 PHOTOGRAPHY AND PERSUASION r,-

he's going to ... is he? I think he is. Oh how terrible!" The man caresses the snake. He licks
the snake's skin. He gingerly places the snake in his mouth, taking care to grasp it just behind
the head. His free arm comes up. You can see him grinning even as he tightens his jaw
muscles. Then, he releases the snake from his mouth and playfully shoves it toward those in
the front row of the crowd. They push back. "Aren't you going to eat that snake?" The talker
seems both relieved and annoyed at the same time. The man turns toward the talker, allowing
the crowd to press forward again. ''Ain't you hungry? I thought you said you was hungry?"
The talker chides the man, who continues to hold the snake. The audience can't tell if the
snake is alive or not, because the man keeps moving it. "If you're going to eat that snake, EAT
1T! YOU DON'T NEED TO TEASE THESE GOOD FOLKS!" The talker's voice becomes more strident.
~=~~~~~~~~~~~~~&~
teeth glisten, showing a gap where a front tooth is missing. The diamond texture of the snake
is clearly visible. The man again thrusts the snake toward his mouth in a sudden motion,
shutting his eyes as he bites and tears flesh with an audible grunt, then rips the snake away
from his mouth in a spasmodic, writhing snarl. He moves quickly about the stage, holding
the coiling snake, which he finally throws back into the box. In his mouth is a bloody piece of
snake. He chews, grinning, bloody red liquid flowing down from the corners of his mouth,
oozing down his chin, inching closer and closer to that nice white shirt he's wearing. Some in
the audience look as if they might be sick as they search for handkerchiefs, their cheeks
puffing out, lips tightly together, and their heads bobbing forward. With a final snarl, the
"Congo savage" disappears behind a canvas flap. "There he goes, there he goes. But he only
got one good bite. He'll be wanting more to eat when you see him inside the tent, ladies and 9.9. Central Ohio. Selling tickets to the county fair sideshow. Photo by Ben Sbahn. U.S. Farm Security
Administration Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
gentlemen, girls and boys. He'll eat more snakes. Oh?! Did I tell you that he also eats rats
and bats and mice and lice and bites the heads off live chickens?" (Thus the man was not only
a geek, but a "gloamer," a "gloaming geek.") "Oh, yes. If you had trouble believing what you who also often is a "grinder," taking up the banter as the talker trails off. This is done several
just saw, what your eyes just told you, well, you're going to be absolutely flabbergasted what ways. In a "grift show," where the entire circus or carnival operation is set up to clean the
you see on the inside!" Thus, the talker begins his windup, pushing toward the final sell, the suckers, ticket boxes are purposely built high to prevent the patron from seeing the change as
clincher, the closer that will separate the suckers from their dimes. it is laid down (never counted). Sometimes, change inadvertently will be left on top of the
ticket box by customers (who are then called "walkaways"). Change is made with one hand
for the first customer, tickets are torn with the other hand for a second customer, while at the
SHILLS AND TICKET SELLERS
saµie time the ticket seller is asking a third patron "How many, please?" If the ticket seller
When it comes time to move the tip from rapt bally audience to ticket purchasers, the talker hands the money to a patron (again, never counting it), it is almost certain that he is "duking"
tries to rely on whatever energy he can whip up when ending the bally. This done, the stage them. Because of the distraction and confusion of the "speed show," the ticket seller can get
empty, the human oddities all back inside the tent, only the ticket seller stands between the away with "clipping" or "cloating" the entire line of patrons. In the event that an earlier patron
crowd and the show inside (see fig. 9.9). The natural human impulse under these conditions, counts his or her change and finds it short, it will be difficult to interfere with the speed
unfortunately for the ticket seller, is inertia. For that reason, circuses and carnivals used selling show and the mob of moving customers. If the short-changed sucker makes a fuss
"shills," individuals who dig for their dimes and move to "purchase" a ticket. The crowd, nonetheless, he or she probably will be reimbursed for the amount declared missing, but in
seeing brave souls move forward to buy the first tickets, moves lemming-like into line as the such a way as to discount their claim and to chide them for spoiling the ticket selling show.
talker continues: "Now, don't push, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. There's room inside
for everyone, including the family dog if you happen to have brought Fido along, and the
ON THE INSIDE
show won't start until you're all safely inside. Just watch the speed of that ticket seller! Say,
here's a show in itself. Just see how fast he can sell those tickets!" The talker has two purposes There are two basic physical layouts for the human oddities sideshow. One is the "pit."
for talking up the ticket seller's speed. One is to get people in line so they can see for Typically, this is a small (eight- or ten-foot square) canvas enclosure where human oddities
themselves how fast he is. The other, hardly surprising perhaps, is to assist the ticket seller in are exhibited and do a "pit show." Spectators stand around the four sides and look down. The
bilking the crowd by practicing "short cake." Patrons will be short changed by the ticket seller, other layout is the "platform show." Customers walk up to see the human oddities, sometimes

IJ2 IlJ
 '1 RONALD E. OSTMAN f ~ PHOTOGRAPHY AND PERSUASION r-

traversing a ''walk over bally." Circuses and carnivals generally find that this more elaborate
setup does more business, because the customers themselves are on view from the outside.
Sometimes, it takes customers to "take" customers (bring in cash from a performance). As a
final ploy to bilk patrons, the most spectacular of the promised events sometimes are available
for viewing only if an additional fee is paid once inside and once the regular show is
concluded. This is the "blowoff' and might feature, for example, a naked fat lady or a viewing
of the private parts of a "half-and-half" (hermaphrodite). The blowoff event is never promised
in advance and is suggested only after the patron has had his or her appetite whetted for a
"special" that is not part of the regular show.
On the outside, the talker judges when the crowd inside has thinned sufficiently to begin
to attract a new crowd. "It's never over. It's never out. Round and round the sideshow goes,
when we'll stop, nobody knows. What's that young man? You say, 'What's that hole in the
platform?' There's no trapdoor in the platform, young man. You want the people to see the
hole in the platform? Well, if you want to see it, folks, you'll have to come in nice and close."
(Pause.) "Thanks for coming in real close, folks. But I told you, son: It's not a trapdoor. No,
it's just a knot hole. But thanks for coming in close, because we have an amazing show here
today."

THE DEMISE OF THE SIDESHOW

With the death of the large traveling circuses and the death throes of the smaller carnivals in
the late 1950s, coupled with growing sentiment against public exhibition of those deemed
"less fortunate," the old sideshow seen in figures 9.1 through 9.9 is largely extinct. For awhile, 9.10. Norfolki Virginia, March 1941. West Main Street World Fairs Freak Museum entrance. Photo
the economics were such that relatively stationary "museums" of the same basic content (see by John Vachon. U.S. Farm Security Administration Collection, Prints and Photographs Division,
fig. 9.10) were able to survive in larger population centers. With the museum, the old talker Library of Congress.
had disappeared, replaced by window displays, neon signs, and "point of purchase" exhibits
promising "living oddities," "big acts," and "all alive freaks" to capture patrons' interest. States at once. I have a feeling that if we don't do it this year, it may blow away by next" (Fern
Essentially, however, the days of human oddities attractions were over. and Worth 1985, 130).

Most freaks never felt themselves to be outcasts, surely not monsters. Some considered
NoTE
themselves quite "special" or "touched by God." In the latter 20th century, however, 1. The talkers' quotes are taken, with slight modifications, from McCullough's (1957) book on
public sympathies largely turned against the exhibition of the human eccentricities, and Coney Island. Many circus and carnival troupers found themselves at Coney Island from time to time.
laws were passed in many states barring the display of humans. As the same time, many Other talkers' quotes stem from Durant and Durant (1957) and Ogden (1993). Still others are from
circuses were moving into arenas or, at the very least, abandoning their sideshows due to the author's imagination.
escalating costs. Although some indoor shows continued to carry a sideshow for a few
years, by the time John Ringling North made his historic 1956 announcement that the REFERENCES

days of the tented circus were over, the heyday of the "freak show'' was already a part of Becker, Samuel L., and Churchill L. Roberts. 1992. Discovering Mass Communication. New York:
the circus's past." (Ogden 1993, 167) HarperCollins.
Coleman, Allan D. 1977. The Grotesque in Photography. New York: Ridge Press and Summit Books.
To the end of the exhibition of a long cast of human oddities stretching over centuries, Durant, John, and Alice Durant. 1957. Pictorial History of the American Circus. New York: A. S. Barnes.
Fern, Alan, and William Worth. 1985. "Taking Photographs of the History of Today." In William
some would say, "Good riddance.)' Others, however) look back at that era and see positives. Worth, ed., Russell Lee's FSA Photographs of Chamisal and Peiiasco New Mexico. Santa Fe: Ancient
The FSA and other documentary photographs remain to inform us of a common cultural City Press.
event experienced with some degree of humor and affection by many past generations of Fiedler, Leslie. 1978. Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self New York: Simon and Schuster.
Americans. Stryker perhaps said it best in a letter to Russell Lee in October 1937: "But I Guimond, James. 1991. American Photography and the American Dream. Chapel Hill: University of
know that you and I share an urge alike, that is, a desire to photograph the whole United North Carolina Press.

IJ4 IJS
 ~ RONALD E. OSTMAN ~

McCullough, Edo. 1957. Good Old Coney Island: A Sentimental journey into the Past. New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons.
McElvaine, Robert S. 1993. The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941. New York: Times Books.
McKennon, Joe. 1980. Circus Lingo. Sarasota, Fla.: Carnival Publishers.
Mitchell, Michael. 1979. Monsters of the Gilded Age: The Photographs of Charles Eisenmann. Toronto: PAI&T III
Gage.
Ogden, Tom. 1993. Two Hundred Years of the American Circus: From Aba-Daba to the Zoppe-Zavatta
Troupe. New York: Facts on File.
Sears, Stephen W., Murray Belsky, and Douglas Tunstell. 1975. Hometown US.A.: America at the Turn
ofthe Century. New York: Barnes and Noble.
Stott, William. 1986. Documentary Expression and Thirties America. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Thompson, C. J. S. 1931. The Mystery and Lore ef Monsters: Wi"th Account ef Some Giants, Dwarfs and
Exhibiting Corporeal Freaks
Prodigies. New York: Macmillan.
Zakia, Richard. 1993. "Farm Security Administration (FSA)." In Leslie Stroebel and Richard Zakia,
eds., The Focal Encyclopedia ofPhotography. Boston: Focal Press.
 'T'EJW

Of Men, Missing Links, and Nondescripts:

The Strange Career of P. T. Barnum's
"What is It?" Exhibition
JAMES W. COOK, JR.

For some days past, all the brick piles in the City-which, by the way
are neither few nor far between-have been postered with a pertina-
cious query, printed in extremely interrogative type and to the effect:
"What is It?" The public knowing by long experience that an answer
would be vouchsafed in due time, waited, and on Monday received light
from Barnum's Museum. The proprietors of that establishment, it
seems, have secured what they are pleased to term a nondescript.
-New York Times, 5 MARCH 1860

Over the course of his long nineteenth-century career as showman, P. T. Barnum employed a
wide range of exhibition strategies, each conceived with one grand design: to seize the public's
"curiosity," to make people look, think, wonder, and talk about his productions-and, above
all, to pay him for these privileges. 1 During the early 1850s, this considerable promotional
energy focused on the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, whom Barnum hoped to convince
New Yorkers was both the world's greatest soprano and the very model of virtuous Victorian
womanhood. The goal here, as he later explained, was to consolidate public opinion around a
particular set of cultural values, to locate the European star's extraordinary, but as yet unheard,
vocal talents within a nexus of aggressively advertised, generally agreed upon claims of
character. 2 As was often the case, Barnum's offering proved enormously persuasive: before a
single note had been sung, thousands of New Yorkers cheered Lind's arrival at the docks and
followed her every move around the city. 3
On numerous other occasions, however, Barnum went to great pains not to tell his audience
what to think, opting instead to maintain a highly visible, self-effacing silence in the middle
of heated popular controversy. Was Joice Heth (1835) the 161-year-old nurse of George
Washington or simply an elderly African-American woman who told amusing stories? Did
the Feejee Mermaid (1842) prove the existence of a long-rumored mythological creature or
merely demonstrate some artisan's skillful fusion of monkey and fish? Was the Colorado
Giant (1878) a petrified example of prehistoric man or a recently manufactured piece of
plaster, planted in the ground suspiciously near the showman's Western property? Again and

IJ9
 '1 JAMES W. COOK, JR.~

again, Barnum circulated stories supporting both positions, feigned ignorance on his own
behalf, and deferred to viewers for answers. These perplexing questions were, as his ubiquitous
advertisements insisted, "for the public to decide." ,,
'
It was this second, nondidactic mode of "exciting" popular curiosity-the carefully pro-
duced, deliberately unsolved visual riddle-that Barnum turned to once again in February
1860, as he put into place what was perhaps the most complex, daring, and (to our eyes at
least) disturbingly cruel enterprise of his long tenure as manager of the American Museum:
the exhibition, or rather series of exhibitions, that appeared under the banner, "What is It?"
(fig. 10.1). Even for the self-proclaimed "Prince of Humbug," the timing of this debut was
remarkably bold. Coming only three months after the publication of Darwin's Origin of
Species, Barnum promoted his new, dark-skinned performer as a possible "missing link''
between man and animal-an intriguing, though potentially heretical, idea in late antebellum
America. Yet, as both the showman and his audience clearly understood, such complicated
"scientific" questions also quickly spilled over into even more controversial questions of racial
definition, politics, and property. If man was perhaps descended from animals, what were the
implications of suggesting that the "proof'' of this descent had the face of "a full blooded
African?" 4 Did such proof ultimately affirm the "brutishness" of those with dark skin, and
thus the legitimacy of their political and economic subjugation? Or did it establish instead a
fundamental commonality- at least on some abstract, prehistoric level-between "What is
It?" and the thousands of white New Yorkers who flocked to see him? What, if any, political
function might these playful public deliberations about race and human definition have served
during the first months of 1860, as a whole host of equally complex and racially charged
"sectionalist" controversies pushed the country closer and closer to full-blown warfare?
Precisely because of its proximity to these interconnected theological, scientific, legal, and
political debates, "What is It?" carried the potential for generating both lucrative public
excitement or, if handled recklessly, intense public condemnation. Barnum thus chose his
terms carefully. The figure that appeared at the American Museum, he explained to New
Yorkers, was simply "indescribable"-neither ''man" nor "monkey," a creature demonstrating
characteristics "animal" as well as "human," "civilized" as well as "brutish." It was, as his
relentless stream of promotional materials insisted, a nondescript: a "living curiosity" in need
of more precise classification, yet remarkably resistant to the management's "best efforts" to
do so. While numerous previous American Museum promotions had banked on such winking
seductions, this new attraction elevated the showman's calculated imprecision to new heights.
In both its name ("What is It?") and its ingeniously evasive classification-type ("nondescript"),
Barnum's early 1860 hybrid both literally and figuratively begged the public to fill in the
blanks.

"WHAT IS IT?": THE ACTORS, BARNUM'S CHARACTER, ITS CATEGORY

Perhaps the most disturbing feature of the eighty-year history of "What is It" is that we
simply do not always know with certainty who was standing on the exhibition platform, or
what this person might have thought or said about his career as "nondescript." Any history of
the exhibition thus to some extent perpetuates Barnum's caricature: what we see in retrospect
10.1. An artist's representation of "What is It?" and his white, middle-class audience. Unlike later
is a manufactured image-a character called uWhat is It?" -rather than the actual human "freak'' productions, "What is It?" was considered perfectly appropriate for family viewing, even for
beings who embodied these fictions. We do know at least two different men performed the well-dressed Victorian New Yorkers such as these. Currier and Ives lithograph, circa 1865. Courtesy of
role: Hervey Leech, a New York actor who played the character briefly in London in 1846; Hertzberg Circus Collection and Museum, San Antonio, Texas.
 iI
f
;1 JAMES W. COOK, JR.
~ OF MEN, MISSING LINKS, AND NONDESCRIPTS f- I
and William Henry Johnson, a mentally retarded man from New Jersey, who seems to have
friend of his comes in, and goes up to the cage, and says, 'How are you, old fellow?' The thing
been sold or rented into Barnum's service around 1860.
was blown up in a minute. The place was in an uproar. It killed Harvey {sic} Leach, for he
Leech, according to most accounts, was born in Westchester County, New York, ~~ _1804
took it to heart and died." 9 Given Mayhew's working-class sympathies and propensity for
and worked a number of show business jobs under the theatrical nom de guerre Signor
sensationalism, this may be nothing more than the first installment in a long trail of "What is
Hervio Nano." Both this Italianate title and contemporary portraits suggest that Leech was
It?" apocrypha. 10 Yet there is no denying the final result of Leech's London tour: within six
probably Caucasian. According to a newspaper article from 1847; his only "remarkable"
months of the incident, he was dead at the age of forty-three. As was so often the case with
physical feature was the size of his legs, which were unusual_ly small m proport10n _to t_he rest
"curious" nineteenth-century bodies, Leech's remains were eventually transferred to a museum
of his powerful body: "This extraordinary cripple ... exh1b1ts the very rare combmat10ns of
display case_l1
perfect symmetry, strength, and beauty, with a great amount of deformity. The head 1s
The details of William Henry Johnson's tenure are even harder to nail down with any
remarkably fine in form, and the expression intelligent and benign; the chest, shoulders, and
precision. Numerous publicity photographs suggest that he was a short, African-American
arms form a perfect model of strength and beauty.... In the place of legs there are two limbs,
man with a sharply sloping brow line, though as one writer observed at his funeral, out of
the left about 18 inches from the hip to the point of the toes, the right about 24 inches from
costume there was really nothing particularly exceptional or unique about his head. 12 We also
the same points. The feet are natural." 5 Such an "arrangement," this author suggested,
know that Johnson played the character for decades before his death in 1926, and that most
gave Leech "double power" between his feet and hands, and allowed him to demonstrate
early twentieth-century observers, including many long-term Barnum employees, described
"extraordinary feats ofleaping."
him as the "original What is It?" from the 1860s, a theory bolstered by two early Mathew
It also allowed him to play numerous "monkey" characters in the imaginary space of the
Brady portraits that seem to be the same man who appears in much later images of the
mid-nineteenth-century stage: "Jocko, the Brazilian Ape" at the Chatham Theater in New
character (fig. 10.2).13 If Barnum hired other "What is It?" actors during the early 1860s
York; "Bibbo, the Patagonian Ape" at Palmo's; an "Ape" of unspecified origin at the Bowery
Theater. His most successful and enduring role, however, was the "Gnome Fly," a kind of
dramatic triptych that debuted at the B0wery Theater in January 1840 and required Leech to
transform himself first from the gnome "Sapajou" into a "baboon," and later-through a
"wonderful flight, in magnificent costume ... from the ceiling, back of the gallery, to the back
of the stage, a distance of 250 feet"-into a "blue-bottle fly." 6 Barnum, who was then
working as a New York theatrical manager, must have heard a great deal about the new
production; indeed, one imagines the young showman mesmerized by the strangeness of
Leech's performance, his mind racing with ideas about future schemes for the diminutive star.
Whatever the precise circumstances, by August 1846 a deal had been struck between Barnum
and Leech for the showman's second European tour. Leech acquired a "hair dress" from a
New York wigmaker and "stained" his hands and face. Barnum rented a room in London's
"Egyptian Hall," and citizens of the British capital began to read advertisements about a
strange, new American curiosity set to open. 7
The exhibition, which consisted of Leech standing in a cage, grunting, jumping, and eating
raw meat, lasted less than a half hour before being exposed by a rival showman, who, in spite
of Leech's elaborate "disguise," immediately recognized the well-known American actor and
entered the cage to greet him. In the broad span of Barnum's volatile but mostly successful
career, it was a minor incident, one of many quick failures with relatively little financial
damage. During the next fourteen years, he kept the unrealized scheme filed away, perhaps to
be used again when the right moment presented itself. Meanwhile, he laughed about the
escapade in the 1855 edition of his autobiography and professed total ignorance about who
might have been behind it. 8
For Leech, however, this botched impersonation seems to have had a more lasting impact.
According to a "sidewalk strongman'' interviewed by Henry Mayhew for his 1861 history of
the "London Poor," Leech never quite recovered from the embarrassment of public exposure: 10.2a, b. Mathew Brady's early portraits of William Henry Johnson as "What is It?" Note the various
"That 'What is It,' at the Egyptian Hall killed him. They'd have made a heap of money at it, ways-the fur suit, Johnson's shaved head, the walking stick, the exotic backdrop~in which these
if it hadn't been discovered. He was in a cage, and wonderfully got up. He looked awful. A images visually reinforce and produce Barnum's caricature. Circa 1865, by Mathew Brady. Courtesy of
Meserve Collection, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

I42
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 1 JAMES W. COOK, JR. i; 1 OF MEN, MISSING LINKS, AND NONDESCRIPTS f-

before coming upon Johnson, no contemporary photographer or writer noted the change in Barnum never simply rehashed the tired wares of his competitors, never limited himself to
personnel. permanently fixed or one-dimensional characters. For this particular exhibition, in fact, he
Less clear is how Johnson even ended up in Barnum's employ, or how much control he developed three separate inflections. The short-lived London character was said to have been
might have had over his sixty-year service with Barnum's museums and circuses. The only discovered in "the wilds of California," where "for the last 10 months it has been with a tribe
clue from the showman himself appears in an early 1860 letter, where he simply noted: ''A of Indians." In New York, by contrast, Barnum shifted the character's "habitat" to "the
certain museum proprietor in St. Louis-I don't know his name-saw a queer little crittur African jungle" and gave him a new nickname, "the Man Monkey." Around the turn of the
exhibiting in Phila. a few months since. I have since secured it, and we call it 'What is It?' " 14 century, this persona, too, was modified. Though the actor, costume, and older "missing
Whether this was in fact Johnson, or what exactly Barnum's methods for "securing" his link" rhetoric remained consistent, promotional materials added a less geographically specific
performer included, remain hard to pinpoint. Years later, a woman claiming to be the moniker ("Zip"), as well as a more fantastic place of origin ("the land beyond the moon").
Johnson's sister told reporters that he grew up in Bound Brook, New Jersey (a small town Visual representations of the character nicely illustrate these shifts. The somewhat con-
about halfway between Philadelphia and New York), and at the age of four "was sold into the torted feet depicted in an 1860s Currier and Ives lithograph (fig. 10.3), for example, suggest
circus side-show by his parents in need of funds." 15 Such a transaction would have been those of an animal, with but two large toes. The upper portion of the body, however, appears
consistent with Barnum's other dealings for "human curiosities"; during the 1830s and 1840s, human, or at least something close to what a white, antebellum New York artist might have
for example, both Joice Heth and Tom Thumb were similarly "sold" into their roles as imagined a "wild African'' to look like. As in the Brady photographs from the same period,
professional entertainers. Johnson, moreover, was a young, African American at a time when the character stands alone before a wooded background, hunched over a bit and carrying a
Northern blacks enjoyed few political or legal protections, and he appears to have suffered supportive stick, as if just now learning how to walk upright. These antebellum images
from a mental disorder called "microcephally'' -all of which would indicate he probably had suggest a biological work in progress: "man'' on top, "monkey'' on the bottom. By 1908,
little control over his entrance into show business. 16 According to one obituary, for nearly ten however, the jungle motifs and Darwinian themes were beginning to disappear from the
years Johnson "had almost to be forced to mount the platform." 17 character's promotional materials (see fig. 10.4). Though Johnson's fur suit and bald head
Sadly, however, neither Barnum's inhumane treatment of his performers nor the various remain prominently featured, he now stands before a plain, white background, smiling and
attitudes and prejudices behind this treatment were particularly unusual for their day. Indeed, shrugging his shoulders, as if to evoke-through comic body language rather than context-
both as a popular museum manager and as a white, antebellum New Yorker, Barnum's his categorical imprecision.
handling of the entire "What is It?" episode placed him squarely within the ideological Much of this flexibility in the character's construction, one suspects, followed the prevailing
mainstream of his social milieu." The more relevant question here seems to be not simply tides of public opinion. In London, for example, Barnum probably designed his "Wild Man
whether "What is It?" was a product of racism or to what degree, but how- and to what end? of the Prairies" production with the hope of capitalizing on the same enthusiasm for things
How did Barnum's new exhibition fit within the aesthetic conventions of earlier, similar kinds Western that had carried George Catlin's American Indian exhibit to enormous success at the
of racially inflected carnival and museum characters? What did Barnum offer to mid-century Egyptian Hall only a year or two before. Yet it is also easy to exaggerate, or at least
New Yorkers that they could not receive elsewhere in the city's wealth of theaters and overemphasize, this kind of simplistic, one-to-one influence on Barnum's production schemes.
exhibition rooms? Writing to Moses Kimball two weeks before the London opening, Barnum seems to have
1
One good place to begin answering these questions is with the "savage man" or 'Homo been largely uninterested in his new character's geographic or racial details. These he threw
Ferus" character, an old and complicated figure in Western culture that "What is It?" seems off quickly and carelessly, focusing instead on two other issues-the character's more basic
to simultaneously grow out of and supersede. Much like Shakespeare's late sixteenth-century hybrid status, somewhere between man and animal, and his desire to pitch the exhibition in
island-dweller, Caliban, for example, Barnum located all of his character variations in some such a way as to encourage public debate about this hybridity: "The animal that I spoke to
exotic, vaguely sketched, aboriginal context. 19 While Shakespeare's "monstrous" creature you & Hale about comes out at Egyptian Hall, London, next Monday, and I half fear that I
dwelled alone in an unspecified spot in the "stormy Bermoothes," the 1860 "What is It?" was will not only be exposed, but that I shall be found out in the matter. However, I go it, live or
said to have been captured in "the interior of Africa," where it had simply been "living in a die. The thing is not to be called anything by the exhibitor. We know not & therefore do not
tree." 20 Similarly,"tlie most frequent costume for "What is It?" -a suit of black hair covering assert whether it is human or animal. We leave that all to the sagacious public to decide. The
most of the perforriter:s body-followed in the tradition of eighteenth-century European bills & advertisements will be headed as follows: 'What is It?' Now exhibiting at Egyptian
carnival "savages" such 'as "The Black Hairy Pigmy from Araby," which employed fur as a Hall &c. &c. found in the forests of California &c. &c." 23 Whether his "animal" came from
1
multidimensional signifier for non-Western geography (''Araby''), race/ethnicity ("Pigmy"), the "forest" or the 'prairie," "California" or "Araby," seeffis, in the larger scheme of things, to
and physiological proximity to non-Western animals ("Black," "Hairy"). 21 Even the character's have been a secondary concern. At the very core of Barnum's new character idea was simply
various titles were partially recycled. Whereas Charles Willson Peale presented an orangou- the desire to create a fundamentally liminal creature ("the thing is not to be called anything
tang as "The Wild Man of the Woods" at his Philadelphia Museum in 1799, Barnum offered by the exhibitor"), onto which numerous geographic, racial, and cultural templates could be
Leech to Londoners as "The Wild Man of the Prairies." 22 applied, each according to the contingencies of the showman's transatlantic exhibition sched-
Yet, as this subtle transmutation of Peale's anthropoid ape also clearly demonstrates, ule and the vagaries of shifting, contemporary public curiosity.

I44 I45
 1 JAMES W. COOK, JR. f ~ OF MEN, MISSING LINKS, AND NONDESCRIPTS~

Significantly, it is at this very moment-as Barnum is searching for the right language to
describe his new character-that the term "nondescript" first appears in the English language
as a noun defining "a person or thing that is not easily described, or is of no particular class or
kind." 24 For two centuries previously, the word had referred rather to a lack of description, a
thing or person not yet described. Thus, a hitherto unknown but recently discovered species
might have been labeled in eighteenth-century scientific discourse as a "nondescript" - until
it received official classification. This, of course, had resonance for Barnum's character-in-the-
making: it is precisely the kind of new and previously unseen animal or species he is trying to
describe. By the first decades of the nineteenth century, however, the word was also taking on
a distinct, secondary meaning: the more liminal sense of resisting classification, or straddling
descriptive boundaries. So while the older definition of "nondescript" provided Barnum with
a means of capturing the novelty of "What is It" - his pristine status as the aboriginal
inhabitant of some far-off land-the term's newer, secondary meaning offered a subtle
linguistic tool for talking about this aborigine's visual and behavioral ambiguities.25
Barnum began to use the term publicly in 1849, sometimes to describe new animal
attractions such as the ((Woolly Horse" ("Col. Freemont's Nondescript," the "ambiguous
quadruped"), which debuted under an assistant's charge in Philadelphia; on other occasions it
specified a particular category of museum display, as in the lengthy title of a guidebook from
the same year: Sights and Wonders in New York; including a description cf the mysteries, marvels,
10.3. "What is It?" in its most elaborate and fan- phenomena, curiosities, and nondescripts, contained in that great congress ef wonders, Barnum's
tastic version of the missing link theme. Almost Museum. 26 This title may have been referring to any number of American Museum exhibits-
every feature of Johnson's body has been trans- his orangoutang, for example, or perhaps the flying fish, or "Ornithoryncus" (duck-billed
formed to suggest a kind of hybridity betvveen platypus)-all of which had been hailed previously by scientists as possible intermixtures of
man and monkey. Currier and Ives lithograph,
species and had appeared in natural history collections for quite some time (e.g., in Peale's
1860s. Courtesy of the Shelburne Museum,
Shelburne, Vermont, photograph by Ken Burris. 1799 "Wild Man of the Woods" exhibit). 27 What Barnum was actually innovating here was
10.4. During the early twentieth century, promo- not so much the basic idea of the exotic hybrid, but rather the more precise language necessary
tional images of "What is It?" abandoned the to emphasize and differentiate this theme of "intermixture" from the thousands of other, less
African jungle settings and walking stick in favor categorically uncertain "curiosities" (stuffed eagles, fossils, ethnic artifacts, automata, rare
of a more clownish persona, with no specific geo- coins) that filled the rest of his hundreds of museum display cases.
graphic context. Johnson's promoters also added To move from nondescript horses and flying fish to nondescript people, however, represented
a new name-"Zip"-reminiscent of a famous
a significant conceptual leap, one Barnum appears not to have fully undertaken until the
minstrel show character. 1908 photograph. Cour-
tesy of Hertzberg Circus Collection and Museum, American debut of "What is It?" in 1860. Above all, it required far more attention to
San Antonio, Texas. "manners" and "actions" than Barnum had attempted in any of his previous liminal produc-
tions. In the 1849-50 "Woolly Horse," for example, liminality remained mostly a function of
ambiguous surfaces and complicated physical markings: "This most astounding of all flesh is,
In many ways, then, the character "What is It?" developed much like Leech's "gnome fly," in size, like the ordinary Horse; but exhibits portions of the Buffalo, Camel, Deer, Elephant,
transmutating across time and space from the "Wild Man of the Prairies" into the African and [is] covered with FINE CURLY MATTED SILK of the colour of camel's hair. He has not the
"Man-Monkey," and then, as a kind of final act, into the early twentieth-century circus star, mane or the tail of the horse, but the tail of the Elephant' Old trappers were ignorant of such
"Zip." Barnum's aesthetic innovation, however, was not limited to these variations on the an animal." 28 Of the behavior of this astounding creature, Barnum noted only that it "bounds
Homo Ferns theme. Almost simultaneously, he began to refine the broader conception of twelve or fifteen feet high"; how exactly "old Woolly" ate, ran, or slept-or which "animal" in
physical and cultural hybridity upon which the "savage man'' and so many other standard his "ambiguous composition" had produced such remarkable "bounding" skills-Philadel-
nineteenth-century "freak'' characters were based. Just as he decided not to call his "What is phians were left to ponder for themselves.
It?" "anything," he also chose to position this liminal creature outside, or in opposition to, the By contrast, the "What is It?" campaign of1860 wove such ambiguous physical descriptions
very idea of social categorization. In his best, most equivocal dime museum bluster, Barnum into a far more complex package, one equally dependent on "habits" and "features." "The
pronounced his new character a "nondescript." curious creature is two thirds [theJ size of Man. Laughs, but can't speak," noted one of
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-;1 JAMES W. COOK, JR. f ~ OF MEN, MISSING LINKS, AND NONDESCRIPTS f-

Barnum's ads in the New York papers. 29 Exclaimed another: "Looks like a Man! Acts Like a dehumanizing ways-to glide seamlessly between straightforward physical description and
Monkey!" 30 Though his "natural position'' was "on all fours," the creature could, with effort gross cultural caricature, and thus to alternate between the guises of armchair biologist and
and the careful guidance of his "trainer," slowly assume the natural, bipedal position "of political juror-without even acknowledging who, exactly, they were talking about.
man"-an important distinction from the rest of "brute creation," which, by_ definition, is Of course, tb say as much is to beg a far trickier and more audience-oriented kind of
wholly incapable of"cultivation'' or "reform." Yet, other aspects of his behavior simultaneously question: Why was such pseudoscientific obfuscation and cultural double-speak even neces-
distanced him, as if due to some deeper, atavistic urge, away from "mankind." "When he first sary? Why not simply come out and attach these racialist stereotypes and categorical distinc-
came," noted Barnum's exhibition program in a series of rapidly shifting qualifications, "his tions to their usual African-American targets, as was so commonly practiced in virtually every
only food was raw meat, sweet apples, oranges, nuts, &c., of all of which he was very fond; other corner of white, Northern, mid-nineteenth-century urban popular culture? Certainly,
but he will now eat bread, cake, and similar things, though he is fonder of raw meat, or that no contemporary minstrel show audience had any problem at all identifying the convenrional
which, when cooked, is rare." 31 Faced with Claude Levi-Strauss's famous anthropological caricatures ofblackface as "Negro," nor did they require a deracialized rhetorical space to talk
choice between 11the raw" and "the cooked" (and, by implication, "nature" versus "civilization"), about the "brutishness" of the Sambas and Jim Crows that routinely appeared on the
old "habits" often appear to have gotten the best of "What is It." 32 antebellum Northern stage. Indeed, such deliberate character abstraction would have been
Similarly, the "animal" portions of his body- at least in Barnum's grossly exaggerated largely antithetical to the whole project of the antebellum minstrel show, which was con-
caricature-seemed to push "What is It?" back into the trees: structed in large part to define, reify, and essentialize a certain set of physical and cultural
attributes as authentically "Negro," at least in the eyes of those Northern non-negroes who
The formation of the head and face combines both that of the native African and of the regularly performed and went to see them. 36
Ourang Outang. The upper part of the head, and the forehead in particular, instead of Barnum, by contrast, appears to have been offering up something a bit different (and a bit
being four or five inches broad, as it should be, to resemble that of a human being, is Less riskier perhaps) during the winter of 1860: a staged hybridity in many ways more cruel and
Than Two Inches! ... The ears are set back about an inch too far far humanity, and about dehumanizing even than the minstrel show's brand of racial caricature (instead of "blackface"
three fourths of an inch too high up. They should form a line with the ridge of the nose on "white," what might be termed "bruteface" on "black"), as well as a new form of cultural
to be like that of a human being. As they are now placed they constitute the perfect head double-entendre (not simply white men playing with "blackness," as in the minstrel show, but
and skull of the Ourang Outang, while the lower part of the face is that of the native an actual African-American man playing a "nondescript"). All of this seems to have been
African. 33 designed to absolve the showman of any definitional agency in the whole matter, or at least to
place the final act of definition in the hands of his audience; rather than actually say what
For every "human'' feature that could be discerned in the character's "formation," Barnum "What is It?" was, Barnum only offered possibilities. But in so doing, he also seems to have
counterposed an equally "brutish" trait, each designed alternatively to link and mark distance offered something else: an arena in which the process of human definition itself was becoming
between "What is It?" and his audience of armchair physiologists. more ambiguous and fluid, more prone to manipulation and experimentation; a place where
As disturbing as these descriptions seem today (especially given the fact that Barnum was New Yorkers could freely associate and signify identity in all sorts of ways, some of them even
probably describing a mentally retarded boy from New Jersey), they did represent a new level quite controversial and transgressive.
of aesthetic subtlety vis-a-vis the typical, mid-nineteenth-century "wild man'' production. For
example, an 1850 ad in Philadelphia had promised "The Wonder of the World at Last" - THE PouT1cs OF NoNDESCRIPTION
"To be seen alive, the Bush Negro, or Wild Man of the Woods . ... This creature seems to be
the connecting link between the brute and human species, and it is difficult [to determine] to Consider the function of "What is It" as late antebellum political discourse-a function that,
which race it belongs." Barnum thoroughly reworked this caricature, however, on one hand at least initially, seems almost antithetical to Barnum's well-known public credo of con-
adding layers of descriptive detail, on the other making any "determination'' of the detail's structing "harmless amusements" for all kinds of "honest Republicans." 37 Yet, as Eric Lott
ultimate meaning harder to establish. 34 Though "What is It?" walked naturally on all fours, it has demonstrated recently, Barnum was a serious player in the "sectional controversies" of the
could be trained to stand on two. The top half of its head was clearly "too small for humanity," 1850s, especially in his politically charged decision to run H. J. Conway's version of Uncle
yet the lower part of its face was just as clearly "that of the native African." Tom's Cabin in direct competition to the more famous (and now canonical) George Aiken
Above all, Barnum never used the word "negro" -not even a modified, more ambiguous production. 38 Only a few decades earlier-following the Missouri Compromise of 1820-
version of the term, like "Bush Negro"-to describe his character. Rather, he offered a kind such direct public discussion about slavery's moral legitimacy remained largely unheard of on
of categorical stand-in: a racially undefined persona that included clear physical signifiers of the New York stage. While the melodramas and minstrel shows of the 1830s and 1840s had
"blackness," but allowed public discussion of this "blackness" to take place in a kind of lots to say about "race" and African-American "degradation," they usually did so in the same
abstracted, liminal space. 35 Or to put it a bit more directly: by positioning his dark-skinned manner as most antebellum politicians: without specifically addressing the potentially volatile
Museum character as "nondescript" rather than "Negro," Barnum provided white mid-century political repercussions of African-Americans' legal status in the South or West. 39
New Yorkers with an arena in which to talk openly about black people, often in brutally As this tenuous national silence began to unravel during the late 1840s and early 1850s,

I49
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~ JAMES W. COOK, JR. I, 1 OF MEN, MISSING LINKS, AND NONDESCRIPTS f

however, New York theatrical managers quickly followed suit, using different adaptations of Missouri slave, became the focus of a national dialogue on the intricacies of African-American
Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel as a battleground for either endorsing or opposing abolitionist political identity. The chronology of Barnum's exhibition parallels Scott's long-running legal
ideas-though often, like the novel itself, with subtle intermixtures of both positions. battle almost exactly. Both began rather quietly in 1846 (the same year, intriguingly, as the
Whereas Aiken's National Theater production offered Uncle Tom as a "sentimental," tear- Wilmot Proviso; a controversial piece of early sectionalist legislation that ushered in the
soaked tragedy, designed to provoke sympathy for its Christ-like protagonist and the "pathos" political crises of the 1850s) and drifted out of public consciousness for over a decade,
of his unjust plight, Barnum's version highlighted "slaves singing blackface choruses," a returning with a bang just before the Civil War. Both returns, moreover, were played out
difference in racial representation that infused the play with a more "comic," ridiculing tone. 40 within the context of bitterly fought presidential campaigns, in which the nagging question
Of the latter production, which actually began with a full-blown minstrel routine, William of how to define the legal status of African Americans in the Western territories emerged as
Lloyd Garrison's Liberator vehemently complained: "Barnum has offered the slave-drivers the the central point of partisan contention. 46
incense of an expurgated Uncle Tom. He has been playing a version of that great story at his Whereas Scott's lawyers described their client as a "quasi-citizen," born a slave but seem-
Museum, which omits all that strikes at the slave system, and has so shaped his drama as to ingly emancipated by his temporary residence in two free states, Barnum offered "What is
make it quite an agreeable thing to be a slave." 41 It?" as the world's first quasi-man, born a "brute" in the African jungle, but now beginning to
Such complaints, of course, expressed a strongly partisan and probably minority position; take on various "human," more "civilized" features during his stay in New York. In both
other Northern press commentators were far less critical of Barnum's racial politics and even ideological arenas, the theoretical problem confronting white jurors boiled down to one of
defended them as appropriately evenhanded. But that is precisely what made this particular innate qualities versus environmental impact. Was the African brutishness of "What is It"
theatrical rivalry so engaging: unlike his earlier Lecture Room theatrical successes (e.g., simply intrinsic, or did it somehow fade away when removed from its original context? Was
The Drunkard, a popular temperance melodrama), Barnum was now constructing public Scott's identity as slave defined forever by his African ancestry, or did it instead fluctuate as
entertainments that aggressively courted sectional c~ntroversy-indeed, that made this kind he moved across the jurisdictions of different states in the Western portion of the country?
of controversy their principal drawing card. As Lott explains, "the Uncle Toms Cabin plays Not surprisingly, the actual African-American men at the center of these public debates
institutionalized the social divisions they narrated. Sectional debate henceforth became theat- quickly became secondary to the larger categorical groups they represented. In much the same
rical ritual, part of the experience of Uncle Tom." 42 way that Chief Justice Robert B. Taney decided to use Scott's appeal for freedom as an
Barnum's foray into sectional politics did not end with Conway's controversial adaptation opportunity to offer partisan opinion on the legal history of all American Blacks, Barnum's
of Uncle Tom. By the time "What is It?" made its 1860 American Museum debut, in fact, audiences responded to "What is It?" as a test case through which to speculate on the basic
Barnum was offering two other, equally provocative entertainments upon which New Yorkers humanity of "wild Africans" in general.
could express sectional opinions: a collection of artifacts from John Brown's raid on Harper's In both cases, however, the rhetorical route toward judgment was lined with sharp turns
Ferry (including a wax statue of the radical abolitionist himself); and a production of Dion and equivocations. Just as historians now still argue over the intplications of the Taney
Boucicault's The Octoroon, which told the tragic story of a mixed-blood Louisiana free woman, Court's split vote and stinging opinion that African Americans had been "excluded" from the
courted by the son of a wealthy white judge, but ultintately sold into slavery to save her family Declaration oflndependence-perhaps a ruling on "Negro citizenship," perhaps a recision of
from financial ruin. 43 According to a New York Tribune review, a number of "touchy students the Missouri Compromise, perhaps nothing more than the reversal of an earlier state court
from the South" had initially tried to block the play's opening in Philadelphia; the "excite- decision freeing Scott-it is often hard to tell exactly what the New York press ruled on
47
ment," explained the author, "fully parallels the enthusiasm that was excited here by the same "What is It?" except perhaps that he represented a "lower order ofbeing." In its first review,
play, and the best seats are all taken a week in advance." 44 Joseph Jefferson, star of The for example, the New York Herald described "What is It?" as "a most extraordinary freak of
Octoroon, recalled a similar pattern, noting that this combination of heated debate and packed nature, consisting of a creature supposed to belong to our ourang outang species" -a remark-
houses seemed to grow out of the play's ability to provoke public support for both sides of the ably ambiguous evaluation, on one hand suggesting the character's proximity to a familiar
controversy: 'When Zoe, the loving octoroon, is offered to the highest bidder, and a warm- simian reference point, yet simultaneously designed to pull this analogy back towards human-
hearted Southern girl offers all her fortune to buy Zoe, and release her from threatened ity with the more inclusive pronoun ''our." Later on, the Herald reviewer waffled again,
bondage ... the audience cheered for the South; but when again the action revealed that she arguing that "What is It?" has "all the appearance of a human being," only to assert a few
could be bartered for, and was bought and sold, they cheered for the North, as plainly as lines below that "the formation of its hands, arms, and head are those of an ourang outang"
though they said, 'Down with slavery.' " 45 (this time without the inclusive semantics). "A cloud of doubt and uncertainty," the article
Was Barnum's "What is It?" exhibition an extension of this deliberately provocative though concluded, "hangs about the exhibition room." 48 A reporter from the Sun moved in the
ambiguous "sectionalist" cultural program-one built, like The Octoroon, around a politically opposite interpretive direction, going to great initial pains to explain what was physically
slippery cultural representation of hybrid black identity? In many ways, certainly, "What is different about ''What is It?" from a "typical" African-American man: "the ears are far too
It?" provided a kind of exhibition-room analog to one of sectionalism's defining events: the high and too much back for a negro; the arms are several inches too long in proportion, and
landmark Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), in which Scott, a former the jaws and teeth are entirely animal." Yet, the review's final analogy made it clear what kind

ISO ISI
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of human being he thought "What is It?" most closely resembled. "Dan Rice in his palmiest
r ~ OF MEN, MISSING LINKS, AND NONDESCRIPTS f

Of course, both "What is It?" inflections involved some attempt to create a vertical, racially
days," noted the author, "never could produce a heartier Jim Crow laugh than this creature defined social order: either an evaluation of out-and-out degradation within an immutable
gets out on the slightest occasion." 49 racial hierarchy, or a somewhat less rigid verdict of partial degradation that allowed for small
Other 1860 New York commentators repeated and expanded this "cloud of uncertainty" ad degrees of paternalistic reform. At this point, though, we would do well to think more
nauseam, providing one lengthy description after another of the hybridized grin (deemed specifically about what kind of social blueprint was being drawn from such calculated cultural
both "idiotic" and "friendly"), posture ("exceedingly awkward" yet nonetheless "erect"), precar- equivocations. After all, given the timing of this exhibition-right in the middle of Lincoln's
ious bi-pedal walk (sometimes "elderly" or "animal," on other occasions "child-like" or "sport- 1860 run for president-as well as the presence of a controversial slavery melodrama right
ive"), and temperament ("not at all vicious," but also "enjoying a distinguished reputation for next door, it seems at least a little surprising to find absolutely no overt references to the
ferocity''). 50 All of which simply suggests that the New York press treated "What is It?" much "peculiar institution'' in Barnum's exhibition room, or even any implied discussion of the
like any other contemporary black person: as a kind of hybrid being whose "true" identity possible function of "What is It?" as a "worker" in the service of white society. Though quite
depended upon the circumstances and contexts of conversation. 51 "What is It?" was docile consistent in their efforts to use this caricature as an instrument for establishing racial
enough to demonstrate the complete control of his trainer, as well as ferocious enough to superiority, Barnum and his viewers also consistently avoided at least one of the most common
demonstrate the need for such control; savage enough to imply genetic inferiority, but civilized ideological weapons of antebellum white supremacism: the notion, usually propagated by
enough to inspire evolutionary hope for the future; strange enough to become a museum proslavery theoreticians, of a basic "negro predisposition'' for agrarian labor. Whereas George
curiosity, yet also familiar enough to be routinely compared to ordinary African Americans. Fitzhugh, for example, routinely crafted images of African Americans as "natural," ''produc-
Here, in other words, was much the same nineteenth-century pattern of racial objectifica- tive," and ''happy" field workers requiring the paternalistic control of a slave economy,
tion and contradictory labeling described by W. E. B. Du Bois as "double consciousness," in Barnum's Northern brand of racial paternalism made little if any reference to physical ability
this case staged as a form of popular visual entertainment: a "dark body'' whose "twoness" was or productive capability. 58 On the contrary, his advertisements were quite insistent about the
both created and imposed "through the eyes of others"; a "soul" measured "by the tape of a fact that "What is It?" could barely walk or stand up, let alone perform exhausting manual
world that looks on in amused contempt and pity." 52 The precise equation of "contempt" and work.
"pity" rendered by 1860s New Yorkers, however, was far from predetermined. Indeed, as How, then, are we to explain the ideological utility of this cultural phenomenon: a mode of
nineteenth-century racial caricatures went, the figure of the nondescript was a remarkably public discourse clearly shaped by the sectional controversies of the 1850s, yet also lacking
flexible ideological tool. Did Barnum's hybrid simply reinvent a much older brand of Euro- any clear references to slavery; a hybrid caricature of blackness which easily absorbed both
pean racism common during the earliest days of the African slave trade, one that, as Winthrop hard-line and reformist visions of a white dominated, racially determined social hierarchy, yet
Jordan has demonstrated, equated "blackness" with the "savage," the "low," the "ape-like," and which also remained staunchly uncommitted to either ideological position? Did such forms
then used this differentiation as the basis for social subjugation? 53 Certainly, this seems to be of evasiveness somehow make "What is It?" less political than The Octoroon, which offered a
the case in one typical review from the Courier and Inquirer, which makes a seamless leap of readily identifiable social problem (the impact of chattel slavery on a racially mixed woman)
logic from conventional nineteenth-century racial stereotypes to a coldly dispassionate verdict and context (a Louisiana plantation, on the verge of dissolution)? The answer, it seems to
of inhumanity: "The head is shaped like that of a monkey, but the face is more like that of an me-and I intend absolutely no evasiveness on my part here-is both yes and no: yes in the
African negro of the lower order. The creature moves along with a shuffling gait very much sense that Barnum and his New York audiences seem to have used "What is It?" as a tool for
like an elderly negro .... It has been pronounced by naturalists as a specimen of the connect- consensus-building, one that allowed for spirited public discussions about the racial bound-
ing link between man and monkey." 54 Likewise the "joke" that appeared in Frank Leslie, aries of "humanity'' without specific reference to any of the dangerous subtexts normally
Illustrated Newspaper: "The 'irrepressible conflict' still rages in the Zoological world as to fundamental to such discussions (e.g., the Christian ethics of slavery as an institution); and no
what the 'What is It?' is. Some people think it has too much intelligence for a nigger, and not in the sense that this activity of building consensus around caricatured abstractions of "black
enough for a monkey." 55 brutishness" was itself deeply political, since it served to maintain and justify the North's racial
On other occasions, however, Barnum's caricature served as the basis for establishing a caste system, even as the institution of slavery was finally being abolished from American
subtly different kind of racial categorization, one that presumed that even the "lowest order" society.
of African contained and was capable of basic, universally shared "human" qualities. A writer What Barnum seems to have been particularly adept at representing and promoting
from the New York Tribune, for example, lauded "the brightness of its eye, and intelligent through the figure of the nondescript were the various, points of ideological overlap on racial
response to the words and motions of the person in charge," which "at once relieve it of the matters which connected the antebellum North's diverse political factions. 59 From Northern
imputation of imbecility." 56 Other commentators similarly focused on the propensity of Whigs and Republicans, he took the moderate or "soft racist" notion of paternalistic reform,
"What is It" for rapid physical and cultural development- "like a child just learning," which posited that Africans would benefit from the ameliorative influence of Anglo-Saxon
according to the New York Express-which, for a moment at least, seemed to undermine or culture (evidenced in this case by the shift from a quadrupedal to bipedal stance, and raw to
at least temper those very same racialist hierarchies constructed by American Museum viewers cooked food), as well as a fixed social order that allowed for charitable guidance from on high
to establish the subhuman status of "What is It" in the first place. 57 (symbolized by Barnum's white trainer-always above his black student, yet aiding his

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gradual uplift). From Northern Democrats, Barnum took the "hard racist" notion of biological cates; and, finally, use this new brand of caricature to provoke a public "controversy'' about the
competition, which posited the existence of intrinsic physiological differences between blacks terms-rather than the existence-of Northern society's deeply entrenched racial hierarchy,
and whites (demonstrated by measurements of the facial angle of "What is It," and lack of one that allowed for vigorous debate over the degree, causes, and mutability of ''African
speech), as well as a more egalitarian vision of white society within which Africans needed to brutishness," yet also (precisely because of the highly circumscribed quality of the questions
be aggressively confined to the lowest rungs (articulated through the ventriloquist voice of being posed) appealed to white artisans and abolitionists alike.
unnamed "naturalists," who were said to have simply "ruled" upon the subhuman status of
Barnum's "creature"). 60 NOTES
1. For help with this chapter, I would like to thank Lawrence W. Levine, Margaretta Lovell, Patrick
"What is It?," in other words, expressed-or more specifically, embodied-virtually all of
Rael, and Rita Chin.
the disparate strands of white Northern racialist thought common before and during the Civil 2. P. T. Barnum, Struggles and Triumphs (New York: Viking Penguin, 1981), 184.
War. But he also embodied something else: the deep contradictions and ideological slippages 3. For a discussion of Lind's manufactured "celebrity," see Peter Buckley, "To the Opera House:
within Northern ideas about race. Horace Greeley's New York Tribune, a Whig-supported Culture and Society in New York City, 1821}--1860," (Ph.D. diss., State University of New York at
paper with consistent antislavery leanings, railed against other newspaper reviewers' attempts Stony Brook, 1984).
to condemn "What is It?" to "imbecility," but also routinely described the man playing this 4. New York Herald, 2 March 1960, 7.
5. London Times, 27 April 1847.
character, William Henry Johnson, as an "animal." 61 Benjamin Day's Sun, a Democratic 6. George C. D. Odell, Annals of the New York Stage (New York: Columbia University Press, 1928),
organ, predictably emphasized the "small brain," "exceedingly awkward walk," and "Jim Crow 4:368.
laugh" of "What is It" but could also remark-like Greeley's New York Herald reporter- 7. Wemyss' Chronology of the American Stage from 1752 to 1852 (New York: William Taylor, 1852), 92;
upon its "bright and intelligent eyes." 62 None of these odd ideological intermixtures could P. T. Barnum, The Life of P T Barnum, Written by Himself (New York: J. S. Redfield, 1855), 346;
compare, however, to the incongruity that took place during a "Freedman's Society" benefit London Times, 29 August 1846.
8. Barnum, Life, 346; RichardAltick, Shows of London (Cambridge: Belknap, 1978), 266-67.
held at the Cooper Institute in 1864. Though designed to raise money for recently emanci-
9. Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor (London: Charles Griffin, 1861-62), 3:111.
pated slaves and presumably attended by at least a few orthodox abolitionists, Barnum 10. In 1852, Wemyss wrote that "poor Leach" [sic] was "maltreated" and died soon afterward-
"contributed" to the cause by offering "What is It?" as an entre-act entertainment-a decision which led subsequent late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century theater historians to conclude that
that, according to the New York Tribune, left the Cooper Institute audience in "an almost Leech was actually attacked by the crowd at Barnum's exhibition. As Richard Altick has argued,
continual roar of laughter" and "much gratified." 63 however, this was probably not the case. Wemyss's Chronology of the American Stage, 92; Altick, Shows of
That such "laughter" and "gratification" could have taken place at all at a Freedman's London, 266-67.
11. London Times, 27 April 1847; George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle, Anomalies and Curiosities of
Society benefit (and that Barnum, one of the great judges of nineteenth-century public
Medicine (New York: Bell, 1896), 266.
opinion, seems to have had few misgivings about pairing this act and audience) only reinforces 12. "Zip Grins in Death, Mask Off at Last," New York World, 29 April 1926, 17.
a troubling paradox long ago uncovered by historians of abolitionism: even those white 13. "Zip, Barnum's Famous 'What is It?' Freak Dies of Bronchitis in Bellevue; his Age Put at 84,"
Northerners most deeply involved in the crusade to dismantle slavery often questioned the New York Times, 25 April 1926, 1. The Brady photographs are undated, but the fact that they are in
full humanity; not to mention the full equality; of their beneficiaries. 64 The contrast here with the carte-de-visite format virtually guarantees that they were taken in the 1860s. A magazine article by
Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt states that the collection is from the "middle 1860s." "Barnum and Brady,
Barnum's earlier Uncle Tom, Cabin production and its strongly partisan press reception is
Pictures from the Collection of Frederick Hill Meserve," Colliers, 29 April 1944, 21.
striking. Now, instead of noting abolitionist outrage and condemnation from the Liberator, 14. P. T. Barnum to Sol Smith, American Museum, 4 April 1860. Reprinted in A. H. Saxon, ed.,
New York writers commented only on the Cooper Institute audience's unqualified "amuse- Selected Letters of PT Barnum (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983), 104.
ment." 15. This information appears in a somewhat unreliable article from the New York World, 29 April
This shifr in reception, I would argue, had less to do with abolitionism itself-which as an 1926, 8. At least parts of the story, however (that Johnson had a sister named Sarah Vanduinne and was
born in Bound Brook), are confirmed by a number of other sources. See, e.g., "Many Circus Folk at
ideological posture remained mostly unchanged over the course of the decade-than Bar-
Zip's Funeral," New York Times, 29 April 1926, 48, which states that both Vanduinne and a brother,
num's increasing skill at weaving together the common threads of white Northern racism, as Theodore Johnson, attended their sibling's funeral in Bound Brook. Robert Bogdan (Freak Show,
well as eliding any potentially volatile partisan differences contained therein. Like the compet- Presenting Human Oddities far Amusement and Profit [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988], 293)
ing Uncle Toms Cabin productions that had dominated New York popular entertainment notes a grave for Johnson in Bound Brook as well as a plaque claiming the town as his birthplace.
during the mid-1850s, "What is It?" reflected the era's deeply conflicted racial politics. By 16. Bogdan, Freak Show, 134,293. ,
1860, however, Barnum seems to have devised a strategy with which not only to include, but 17. This again is from the woman who claimed to be Johnson's sister, Sarah Vanduinne. New York
also placate all Northern sides of the sectionalist debates in a single entertainment offering: World, 29 April 1826, 17.
18. Leon Litwack, North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 179()-1860 (Chicago: University of
first, position this offering's "blackness" somewhere between the conflicting racial stereotypes Chicago Press, 1961), 15-17. A. H. Saxon, P T Barnum: The Legend and the Man (New York:
and social blueprints espoused by the leading political parties; second, remove slavery from Columbia University Press, 1989), chaps. 1 and 6.
the discussion altogether, and define the African-American object of discussion as something 19. Leslie Fiedler, Freak: Myths and Images of the Secret Self(New York: Anchor, 1979), 259. The
else-a nondescript-so as not to offend the more delicate sensibilities of antislavery advo- term "Homo ferus" comes from the eighteenth-century European naturalist Linneaus.

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20. New York Herald, 19 March 1860, 1. 49. Qgoted in New York Herald, 1 March 1860, 7.
21. Altick, Shows ofLondon, 265. 50. New York Times, 5 March and 7 April 1860; Sunday Times, 25 February 1860; New York Herald,
22. David Rodney Brigham, "A World in Miniature: Charles Willson Peale's Philadelphia Museum 28 February 1860; New Yo1"k Evening Post, Sun, and Express (no dates), reprinted in New York Herald, 1
and Its Audience," (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1992), 589. and 2 March 1860; Commercial Advertiser, Courier and Inquirer (no dates), reprinted in New York
23. P. T. Barnum to Moses Kimball, Brighton, England, 18 August 1846. Reprinted in Saxon, Herald, 16 March 1860; Tribune, 27 and 29 February and 12 March 1860; Frank Leslie) Illustrated
Selected Letters of PT. Barnum, 35-36. Newspaper, 3, 10, and 24 March 1860. . . .
24. Oxford English Dictionary, 2d ed., s.v. "non-deocript." 51. Ronald T. Takaki, Iron Cages: Race and Culture tn Nineteenth-Century America (New York:
25. The OED's earliest reference for this second sense of "non-descript" is from 1811: "The House Oxford University Press, 1990), esp. chap. 6.
contains ~bout 2~0 cour~try gentlemen, 120 courtiers [etc.]. The rest are non-descripts." 52. W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches (1903; reprint, New York: Fawcett,
26. Philadelphia Public Ledger, 22 December 1849, 3. The guidebook was published in New York by 1961), 17.
J. S. Redfield. 53. Winthrop Jordan, White over Black (New York: W.W. Norton, 1977), 29---32.
27. Ramona Morris and Desmond Morris, Men and Apes (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966). 54. Qgoted in New York Herald, 16 March 1860, 7.
28. Philadelphia Public Ledger, 21 December 1849, 2. 55. Frank Leslie) Illustrated Newspaper, 24 March 1860, 257.
29. New York Herald, 8 March 1860, 1. 56. New York Tribune, 29 February 1860, 7.
30. New York Herald, 15 March 1860, 1. 57. New York Express, quoted in New York Herald, 1 March 1860, 7. . .
31. This program is reprinted in Bernth Lindfors, "P. T. Barnum and Africa," Studies in Popular 58. Takaki, Iron Cages, 124; George Fitzhugh, Sociology of the South; or, the Failure of Free Society
Culture 7 (1984): 21-22. Barnum also frequently used this text in ads, e.g., New York Herald, 19 March (New York: Burt Franklin, n.d.).
1860, 1. 59. My argument here draws from Saxton, The Rise and Fall of the White Republic, parts 1 and 2. The
32. Claude Levi-Strauss, The Raw and the Cooked· Introduction to a Science ofMythology, vol. 1, trans. terms "hard" and "soft" racism are his.
John Weightmann and Doreen Weightmann (New York: Harper and Row, 1969). 60. For an analysis of cultural "'ventriloquism," see Michael Denning, Mechanic Accents (London:
33. New York Herald, 19 March 1860, 1 (my emphasis). Verso, 1987).
34. Philadelphia Public Ledger, 30 April 1850. 61. New York Tribune, 29 February 1860, 7; 12 March 1860, 7. For a discussion of the politics of the
35. My use of this term has been heavily influenced by Eric Lott's important study, Love and Theft: antebellum "penny press," see Alexander Saxton, "Problems of Class and Race in the Origins of the
Blackface Minstrelsy and the Working Class (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993). "Blackness" in Mass Circulation Press," American Quarterly 36, no. 2 (1984): 211-34.
Lott's conception refers not to some aspect of African-American culture or physiology, but to white 62. Qgoted in New York Herald, 1 March 1860, 7.
projections, prejudices, and fantasies about these things; it is, as Lott explains, "not innate but produced, 63. New York Tribune, 28 January 1864, 8.
a cultural construction" (36). 64. Martin Duberman, ed., The Antislavery Vanguard· New Essays on the Abolitionists (Princeton:
36. Lott, Love and Theft; Robert Toll, Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth-Century America Princeton University Press, 1965).
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1974); and Alexander Saxton, The Rise and Fall of the White
Republic: Class Politics and Mass Culture in Nineteenth-Century America (London: Verso, 1990).
37. For a more detailed discussion of the mid-century social meanings of "What is lt"-including
the character's relation~hip to Darwinism, polygenesis, and Victorian respectability-see my "Masters
of lliusionism: A History of Victorian America and its Puzzling Visual Culture" (Ph.D. diss., Univer-
sity of California, forthcoming).
38. The discussion that follows is a somewhat abbreviated version of the argument in Lott's final
chapter of Love and Theft, "Uncle Tomitudes: Racial Melodrama and Modes of Production."
3~. There are numerous books on the emergence of "sectionalism" before the Civil War. See, e.g.,
David Potter, The Impending Crisis (New York: Harper and Row, 1976); and Kenneth Stampp, America
in 1857: A Nation on the Brink (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).
40. Lott, Love and Theft, 213-33.
41. Liberator, 16 December 1853. Qgoted in Lott, Love and Theft, 218-19.
42. Lott, Love and Theft, 223.
43. On the John Brown materials, see New York Times, 2 January 1860, which promised a "Wax
Figure of Ossawatomie Brown. Two Spears From Harper's Ferry. Link of the Shackles That Were Cut
by Coppic and Cook. Autograph Letter from John Brown." Boucicault's text is reprinted in Peter
Thompson, ed., Plays by Dion Boucicault (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984).
44. New York Tribune, 2 March 1860, 7.
45. Odell, Annals of the New York Stage, 7:213.
46. For a f~~sed treatment of this enormously complex event, see Don E. Fehrenbacher, Slavery,
Law, and Po!ttics: The Dred Scott Case in Historical Perspective (New York: Oxford University Press,
1981); and Starnpp, America in 1857, especially chap. 4.
47. Fehrenbacher, Slavery, Law, and Politics, 173; Stampp, America in 1857, 93-98.
48. New York Herald, 28 February 1860, 2.

I57
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I /4 AZTECS, ABORIGINES, AND APE-PEOPLE~

great deal. to do with the historical moment in which that person finds himself or. herself
ELE-VEJW frea!Zect oy hlS~;h~r -QWll :or anol:lletcultifre: - ·- . .- -··
In an effort t~ come to a deeper understanding of the relation between cultures and the
process of freaking, this chapter examines the curious context in which one small freak
Aztecs, Aborigines, and Ape-People: Scfence and show-the ''Atzteeken' in the Hamburger Dom photograph 2 -which ran from the early
1850s to the first decade of the twentieth century came into contact with the German
Freaks in Germany, 1850-1900 scientific community, and more particularly that community's leaders among the members of
the Berlin Anthropological Society (Gesellschaft far Anthropologie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte}.
NIGEL ROTHFELS Of course, neither the show nor the anthropologists existed in carefully sealed specimen
bottles, and in order to clarify their relation we must look to other shows and larger cultural
Microcephalics must necessarily represent an earlier developmental state concerns in Germany and in the West more generally.
of the human being ... ; they reveal to us one of the milestones which
the human passed by during the course of his historical evolution.
-CARL VOGT (1867)
Some fifty years before the Hamburger Dom postcard appeared, a small-tlctavo pamphlet was
published entitled An Illustrated Report of the Important Expedition to Central America from
Which Resulted the Discovery of the Idol-Worshipping City ofiximaya in a Completely Unexplored
Region. The illustrated brochure related the story of a group of Mexican and "Yankee" bandits
who managed to locate the hidden city of Iximaya and its temple cult in Central America.
Despite unforeseen dangers, the desperados succeeded in abducting two "lilliputian' beings
known as "Bartola" and "Maximo," believed to be the last descendants of an unusual race of
A 1905 postcard of the "Hamburger Dom" -the traditional Christmas fair for Hamburg and people worshiped by the inhabitants of Iximaya. Perhaps not surprisingly, and despite great
its surroundmgs-shows a muddy street full of men and women before a series of freak-show risk and expense, the young children were brought to Europe to be exhibited as anthropologi-
boot~s running along the left of the view. 1 The photographer's primary interest appears to be cal phenomena of the highest interest, that is, as Aztecs. 3
the life of the street itself; the figures milling about in dark overcoats on a grey and wet winter The true origins of the '½ztecs" "Bartola'' and "Maximo" will probably never be known.
day are the first to attract our attention. The booths are removed from the public space; they Most of the scant history surrounding the two most famous microcephalics in the history of
fo.'m the backdrop, the sideshow. However fascinated the photographer may have been by the the freak shows begins with their exhibition in 1849 as children in New York. We know that
ftanene of the street, _the story of this scene nevertheless seems to rest at least as much in the especially in the early years of their tours many believed the pair could in fact have been
street's frame, the closed rooms of the freak shows. representatives of a lost race of Aztecs. This argument was bolstered by resemblances between
" As faces turn: crowds gather before the tents to see the wonders of humanity: "the largest," the physical appearance of "Bartola" and "Maximo" and certain ancient Central American
the most amazing," "something never seen before!" The signs read: "Live! The Largest and drawings and sculptures. In 1856, for example, Carl Gustav Carus, one of the first German
the Smallest People in the World!" "The Atzteeken are Here!" "Frederke, the 15-Year-Old scientists to examine the children, formulated an argument still heard thirty and even forty
.
Pomeranian Colossus, Live!" Within the context of a carnival, these signs seem ordinary. Part years later that favorably compared the physiognomy of "Maximo" and "Bartola" to sculptures
of the task of this volume, however, is to seek out the lives behind the signs and to understand found in Chiapas. 4 While some observers found the purported history of the ''Aztec" children
them as both extraordinary and ordinary. Most of those lives will nevertheless remain hidden plausible, most remained skeptical of the idea that the pair were the offspring of some lost
in the historical record. Still, it remains posslble to gain glimpses into the experiences of civilization. The great Johannes Muller, for example, is said to have insisted in one of his last
especi:µly the. '."ore celebrated freaks, people who appear, paradoxically, both remote and lectures on pathological anatomy in 1857 that the children were born to parents of mixed race
somehow familiar. The paradox stems from a certain continuity in freakmaking over the last still living in San Salvador. A travelogue of 1854, moreover, argued that the "Aztecs" were no
couple of centuries. Despite Franz Kafka's sense in 1929, for example, that along with many more than the twin children of lnnocento and Martina Murgos, who lived in the town of
other unusual performers, the "hunger artists" had lost their place in European culture, neither Tocoro in the Department of San Miguel. According, to the travelogue, a Spaniard named
the aestheticization of hunger nor the hunger artists themselves have disappeared. Nor have Ramon Selva convinced the mother to let him take the children to America; instead, however,
the sword swallowers, dwarfs, giants, tattooed men and women, Siamese twins, contortionists, he exhibited them in cities throughout Central America and then sold them to an American
and the armless and legless somehow vanished from our cultures. They still exist, they are still entrepreneur who took them to Europe. 5
. "freaked:" and some still pe_rform, albeit on such new venues as the daytime talk show. Despite The rest of the actual record of the pair's life experiences can sadly be summed in a handful
the contmu1ty of freakmaking in Western history, however, it is important to understand that of sentences. Their shows in Europe began in 1853. They were presented in the fairs and
freaking has a historical frame-tl1<:_precise cultural interpretation of an unusual person has a panoptica of the larger cities. They were shown to royalty and scientists at every opportunity.
--~----·~~---------------- -----·--· ~--
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11.1. Stripped of costume and props, "Bartola" (a) and "Maximo" (b), the ''Aztecs," are pathologized in
these clinical photographs. Reproduced from Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschqft far Anthropologie,
Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte 33 (1901): 349, 50.

They were ''represented" by numerous figures over the next sixty years. Despite early claims
that the two were siblings, they were married in 1867 under the names of "Maximo Valdez
Nunez'' and "Bartola Velasquez." Through the many records of their bodies-from both
scientific and souvenir photographs, such as those presented here (figs. 11.la and band 11.2),
to the careful measurements of all their features-the curious and mundane physical aspects
of the two have been preserved. "Maximo" died in 1913; the year of death for "Bartola'' is
unknown.
Despite the paucity of information about the actual lives of "Bartola" and "Maximo,"
however, they occupy a particularly important and almost unique place in the scientific and
cultural history of nineteenth-century Germany. Precisely because they were microcephalic,
because of the time of their discovery, and, in th; ~;~:a;-·be~-~use ·
of their dis_covery in C_entral 11.2. "Maximo" and "Bartola," the ''Aztec Children," as presented in the entertainment
America, the bodies of '(Bartola" ~nd "Maximo" became for many-especially among the discourse. Courtesy of the Ron Becker Collection, Syracuse University Library, Department
-s,Xentific community-the preeminent site on which to formulate and debate the-technical of Special Collections.

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-;I NIGEL ROTH FELS 1,-

and phjlosophical features of two of the most important scientific theories of the period:
, evolution and recapitulat~on.

Although the arrival of the ''.Aztec Children'' in Europe in the early 1850s preceded the great
surge of excitement in the idea of evolution, that idea was soon to become a major component
in the enfreakment of a whole range of individuals, including the "Aztecs." With such
sensational discoveries as the Neanderthal Man-one of the most important freaks of all
time-in a cave outside Dusseldorf in 1856, and even more importantly, the publication in
1859 of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, which was eagerly received by German scientists,
the idea of evolution gained a scientific and popular currency in Germany that contrasts with
reactions in other Western countries. Broad sectors of the public and scientific community
became fascinated with what the theory of natural selection suggested about the development
of man from nonhumanoid species, as well as with what it implied about the origins of races
and cultures. 6 Recalling the acceleration of interest in evolutionary theory in Germany,
anthropologist Carl Stratz noted in 1904 that "the various more primitive human races were
examined for their resemblance to apes, ... a list of pithecoid (ape-like) characteristics of
man was compiled, and the missing link-the last connecting link between human and ape-
was sought after-with enthusiasm." 7 Looking back from our standpoint, it is important to
recognize that the idea of a missing link made remarkably clear sense in the late nineteenth
century. Because evolutionary theory suggested a continuity between different life forms, it
was argued that creatures might be found who represented earlier stages in human develop- 11.3. "Krao, the Ape Girl." Courtesy of Harvard
Theatre Collection, The Houghton Library.
ment, who were, in some sense, "lost in time." Along with enthusiasm for the theory came,
of course, a certain willingness to stretch the idea of what a missing link might be. Whereas
unusual people with certain alleged "animalistic" characteristics had always found a place in the brochures describing "Krao" (fig. 11.3) detailed the formidable efforts of the impresario
collections of human oddities, in a cultural environment increasingly saturated with the Farini to bring one of the ape-people living in the forests of Laos to civilization. Having
discourse of evolution, these people became easily defined as "missing links" between human heard that a family of"hairy" people from Laos were being kept by the king of Burma, Farini
and other animal forms on an increasingly fluid chain of being. sent an agent named Carl Bock to obtain one or more of the people for exhibition. Having
To be sure, the scientific community and the "educated" tended to frown on claims by the little luck convincing the king, however, Bock organized an expedition to Laos to capture
exhibitors of "savages" and "ape-men'' that the freaks were in fact the much-theorized missing some of the ape-people for himself. Predictably, Bock claimed to have seen a whole tribe of
links. The bourgeois magazine Die Gartenlaube, for instance, ran an article in 1888 entitled the people living in tree-huts deep in the forest who fed on rice and raw meat. While he was,
"The 'Savage' Human," which clarified for the public that while scholars had until recently in the end, unable to capture any of these ape-people, Bock did eventually succeed in
widely believed that some sort of prehumans might be found, anyone familiar with current convincing the king to allow the export of "Krao," but only on the condition that she be
research must discount stories that "ape-people," "men with tails," or such creatures as the adopted by Farini.
infamous "One-Leggers" who, it was claimed, could run and jump with remarkable profi- Despite the fact that the scientific judgment of "Krao" argued squarely that she was far
ciency through their native forests, would or even could be found. Despite educated skepti- from any "ape-girl" or "missing link," but rather "a typical Siamese" suffering from a patholog-
cism, however, the popular and scientific interest in "missing links" rarely abated. ical condition noted in representatives of diverse races,9 "Krao" continued to be known as the
The reception of the famous "ape-girl," "Krao" (1876-1926), is in many ways typical of "missing link'' in the most respected and educated circles. Like 'Julia Pastrana, the Girl with
how individuals were freaked as "missing links" in the period. Die Gartenlaube's article briefly the Ape Face," who died in 1860 shortly after giving birth, but whose body continued to be
recalled the history of the child "undoubtedly familiar" to all its readers: "One day, a few years exhibited well into the twentieth century, 10 _the spectacle of "Krao" - her enfreakment-was
ago, stunned Europeans read in the daily papers that an 'ape-child' - a girl of 7 to 8 years a _combination qffact and fantasy. When the facts fell short of the fantasy, they were largely
old- had been captured in the forests of Laos and would begin a tour through Europe. In ignored. Although the most respected anthropologists of the day, including Rudolf Virchow
the reports, it was explained that from this extraordinary race an entire family had been and.Max-Bartels, clearly diagnosed "Krao" as suffering from a rare but known pathology, the
captured, but because the father died of cholera in Laos and the ruler of the land forbade the Zoological Gardens in Frankfurt-a virtual bastion of educated, bourgeois respectability-
exporting of the mother, the child was being brought alone." 8 The larger story circulated in exlii~it~d "Krao" in 1884 and 1894 as "The Missing Link." Posters for the shows reveal the
 ,1 NIGEL ROTHFELS ~ ~ AZTECS, ABORIGINES, AND APE-PEOPLE~

pervasive narrative of evolution: the hairy child-indeed, much hairier than she was in real that evidence, the most impr,,ssiv<>,-Virch0wwnd<1<l<>d,.was-th?ile<>ple's-"astonishing..c0Jlac_ity
life-is drawn against a jungle background. For the 1884 exhibit, for example, a life-size to withstand every disadvantage of weather (despite a. completely inadequate cosrn,IIle), .an
poster of "Krao: The Missing Link'' shows a hair-covered child, wearing only a loin cloth and ability which has not even been closely paralleled by a11)'.otherpeople oftheEarth,.with .the
metal bracelets, surrounded by verdant jungle growth as a lizard crawls through the grass at possible exceptlo~= 9[tb.t K=chadals." 16. Reg,µ-cllng .the cultural accomplishments _of the
her feet. "Fuegians,"-liowever, Virchow had little to say, believingthat suchobservations were at qest
As popular as the exhibits of such individuals as "Krao" were-the shows at the Frankfurt anecdotal and lacking in·s~ience. Nevertheless, d~spite both a number of his own conclusions
Gardens stand today among the most memorable of the zoo's nearly 150-year history 11 -and ;~d-the general sCieiltific discourse surrounding the "Fuegians" since Darwin's observations-
as much as "Krao" and others form a significant backdrop to the success of the ''Aztecs," it is which suggested that the people were the lowest of human forms yet discovered- Virchow
important to recognize that the ''Aztec" exhibit stems from a parallel but slightly different argued that the "Fuegians" in no way represented some form of transitional stage between ape
tradition: the exhibition of foreign peoples and cultures. Based on the ancient practice of and man. Rather, he concluded, the people "could have progressed further if the adversity of
returning home from exploits in foreign lands with captives and representatives of conquered their environment had not repressed them so much that they remained at the lowest level of
peoples, the display of foreign individuals and cultures only accelerated with the explorations social life." 17 Behind Virchow's insistence rested the active debate about the evolutionary
of the early modern and modern period. By the nineteenth century, most cities of Europe had status of "primitive peoples." Were they only different in appearances from European races, or
hosted regular exhibits of "strange" peoples, including the almost traditional appearances of were the differences deeper and more important? On the whole, the popular perception of the
Sub-Saharan Africans, Moors, Sarni, and other Old World peoples, as well as such new "Fuegians"-a perception rooted in the way the "savages" were displayed and enfreaked-
arrivals as Native Americans, Inuit peoples, and South Sea Islanders. In the second half of tended to focus on deep differences between them and Europeans. Typical articles describing
the nineteenth century, both the frequency and diversity of the shows of"exotic" peoples grew the "Fuegians" noted loose social structures, an absence of a "feeling of shame," "crude"
steadily. Whereas in the early decades of the century, a show of "Eskimos" could still be methods of food preparation and cooking, and a lack of "civilized" standards of cleanliness.
counted among the unusual, by the Jin de siecle the most important organizer of such shows in According to an 1881 article by Heinrich Steinitz in Die Gartenlaube, for example, the "poor
Europe, the firm of Carl Hagenbeck, was touring multiple "people shows" each year, with wretched creatures were stunted in their growth; they had smeared their ugly faces with white
groups from tropical or temperate climates through the summer and others from Arctic and paint, their skin was dirty and greasy, their hair tangled, their voices dissonant." Marking the
Antarctic lands through the winter. 12 The public and scientific interest in the shows of people cultural contrasts, Steinitz concluded for many scientists and the public at large (using
varied, of course, according to time, the group exhibited, and even the individuals in that Darwin's words from the Journal of Researches [1839]) that in "viewing such men, one can
group." Nevertheless, among the most consistently popular exhibitions in the latter half of hardly make oneself believe that they are fellow creatures and inhabitants of the same
the century in Germany were those that focused on "primitive" peoples, who could, like world." 18
"Krao," somehow be freaked as evolutionary ancestors of modern Europeans.
The 1881 "Terra de! Fuego" exhibit presents a classic case. Trying to explain the massive
public interest in the four men, four women, and three children who comprised one of Carl While evolutionary theory propelled the search for individuals such as "Krao," and even whole
Hagenbeck's most notable exhibits, Hagenbeck's early biographer, Heinrich Leutemann, quite peoples such as the "Fuegians," who could somehow be construed as representing links in
typically concluded in 1887 that through the display, the public "could still see the human as human evolution, a corollary to evolutionary theory, focusing on the idea of recapitulation
he had been imagined, pushed back into the incalculable past, at the very beginning of his elaborated by German scientist Ernst Haeckel, began to shift the focus of evolutionary
existence as human, after he had, that is, completely left the ape behind." 14 While most of studies. Rather than looking to "primitive" peoples such as the "Fuegians" to find the
Hagenbeck's shows relied on elaborate parades, the staging of wild and exciting performances precursors of modern man, Haeckel argued that every creature carried its entire evolutionary
(such as exotic dances by Singhalese women, Sarni migrations, the milking of horses by history within itself. More precisely, Haeckel's famous "biogenetic law" of 1866 argued that
Kalmucks, and Somali camel races), the "Fuegians" simply sat quietly, walked around the during the process of an individual organism's development from embryo to adult, it rapidly
grounds, and prepared their food on an open fire without the use of pots. The public, despite retraced the path of its genetic heritage ("that [its] ontogeny [was] a concise and compressed
the apparent mundaneness of these activities, was staggeringly enthusiastic. In Paris more recapitulation of [its] phylogeny, conditioned by the laws of heredity and adaptation''). 19
than 50,000 people visited the show on one Sunday, and at the Berlin Zoological Gardens, Of course, by the time Haeckel', biogenetic law was unleashed, theories of recapitulation
"in order to avert the earlier wild scenes of the rush of the public, a large stage some four feet had already had a long and fairly complicated history on the continent. Their origins in
in height had to be erected upon which the Fuegians were situated." 15 Most of the public was Germany reached back to the biological studies of the Naturphilosophen, gracefully described
clearly more than satisfied with simply gazing upon these apparently obviously "primitive by Stephen Jay Gould as "a group of late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century biologists
people." [who] combined a progressivist view of nature with the romantic thought then current in
Fulfilling a traditional responsibility of testing the claims of the exhibitor, the chair of the philosophy and literature" producing a system of ideas with "an uncompromising develop-
Berlin Anthropological Society, RudolfVirchow, insisted in his 1881 lecture titled ''About the mentalism and a belief in the unity of nature and its laws." 20 Under the leadership of Lorenz
Fuegians" that every day new evidence proved the "authenticity'' of the "Fuegians." Among Oken and, more importantly, J. F. Meckel-whose 1811 essay, "Sketch of a Portrayal of the

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Parallels that Exist between the Embryonic Stages of Higher Animals and Adults of Lower displayed an "apelike" cranial morphology that suggested a race somehow part human and
Animals," remains one of the central pre-Haeckelian statements of the theory-recapitulation part ape. As I have noted, however, despite some initial acceptance, the German scientific
had a strong presence in German biological thought until nature-philosophic (or physio- community seems to have generally greeted this idea with disbelief. Virchow, for example,
philosophic) approaches fell into disfavor around the middle of the century. Among the after seeing an" exhibition of the "Aztecs" in 1891 at Castan's Panopticum in Berlin, noted the
French as well, recapitulation had been championed for decades. Some of the most significant "negative effect" of the presentation made by the pair's manager and added that "we have
work was produced in the 1820s and 1830s by Etienne Serres, who importantly expanded his been convinced for decades that these 'Aztecs' are [simply] microcephalics, and the recent
studies into the field of teratology, arguing that malformations could be explained as either a exhibition has only strengthened that determination." 25
deficiency or an overabundance of life force leading to either the arrested development or But if few were convinced that the ''Aztecs" were truly Aztecs, or that the real pre-
overdevelopment of body parts. 21 Nevertheless, it is with Haeckel that recapitulation and Columbian Aztecs were so severely limited in their cranial capacity, many others could
evolution were combined in their most popular form, which remained powerfully convincing nevertheJess argue that the "primitive" crania of "Bartola" and "Maximo" were the specific
for decades. result of a developmental arrest, and that, therefore, the skulls and brains of the ''Aztecs"
While evolutionary theory directed attention to peoples somehow "lost in the past," corresponded to the mature development of an ape, even if a very primitive ape. The most
recapitulation theory led scientists to consider the possibility of finding two kinds of individu- thorough presentation of this position was Carl Vogt's exhaustive 1867 study of microcephal-
als, born of apparently "normal" parents, who could be seen as embodying the evolutionary ism, About the Microcephalics or Ape-People, which on one hand built extensively on the
past of man: (1) those whose entire embryological development remained fixed at a certain teratological arguments of Meckel and Serres, while contributing on the other a firm belief in
point and who, therefore, represented the mature form of an evolutionary predecessor of the evolution of man from ape-like creatures, if not some extant species of ape. In this
modern man; or (2) those whose embryological development remained fixed only in certain remarkable work, which was discussed by members of anthropological societies throughout
parts, and who, therefore, represented a blend of evolutionary creatures, or what anatomist Germany for decades after its publication, Vogt attempted to survey all known materials
Carl Vogt described in 1867 as "a mixed being ... in which a notable combination of different about microcephalics, examining both living examples and the skulls, drawings, and models
types is fused into a whole." 22 According to this line of reasoning, because the complete housed in museums and pathological institutes.
phylogenetic history of the human was both present and recapitulated in the development of Vogt's central conclusions were that microcephalism was a "partial atavistic" reappearance
an individual, atavistic traits-that is, characteristics from the prehistory of modern man- of an earlier state of human evolution caused by an arrest in the development of the fetus's
iii",, could reasonably be expected to reappear in individuals who, for whatever reason, suffered a skull resulting in the formation of an ape-like cranium and brain, which, according to Vogt,
:, certain developmental arrest or fixation. Expanding on an idea explored by Serres by adding explained the limited capacities of the microcephalics. Vogt writes, "the intellectual abilities
an evolutionary "look and feel," Vogt, for example, concluded: "We know so far that characters [of the microcephalic] are those of the ape in every respect, from the expressions of will to the
passed on latently can reappear after generations, after even very significant periods, even after understanding of external objects, to comprehension, to articulated language (which is in no
geological epochs, and that in their reappearance they can modify only parts or even the way used by these creatures to express their thoughts, but exists rather only as a product of
I'
entire organism.'' 23 imitation as with talking animals)." Referring to a monument supposedly erected by Frederick
For Vogt and many of his colleagues, microcephalism provided the classic case for exploring the Great to a much-admired woman that had read "Corpore femina, intellectu vir," Vogt
the validity of recapitulation and the importance of arrested developments, and the most substitutes the pithy description of microcephalism: "Corpore homo, intellectu simia." He
famous microcephalics of the period were the "Aztecs." "Bartola'' and "Maximo," consequently, concludes that the examination of microcephalics presents a body of evidence that leads
became a repeated fixture in the investigations of anthropologists across Germany. The two backward through time to the "common ancestor of the primates, from which we as well as
were measured in every possible way: their skulls (twenty-eight separate measurements by the apes have descended." 26
RudolfVirchow in 1877 to be expanded upon in later examinations) were compared to those In response to Vogt's startling conclusions, Virchow, who was always an opponent of far-
of apes; their hair, cropped peculiarly to further the theatrical presentation of difference, was reaching conclusions (including evolutionary theory), argued that the microcephalic could not
compared to that of all the known races; eye and skin colors were compared on charts represent an atavistic recurrence of the mature form of an extinct species or race simply
prepared by the various anthropological societies; the scientists discussed the vocalizations, because the microcephalic could in no way be considered fit for the struggle for survival. "If a
expressions of will, and potential reproductive capability of the pair. In the end, however, developmental arrest," he concluded in 1867, "creates such a helpless, absolutely useless
neither the statistical information ascertaining ear height, forehead width, or distance from individual, such as a microcephalic, an individual which in its functioning in no way even
eye to eye, nor the comparative indices derived from these data, such as head length to head approaches the ape, but rather which presents an absolutely pathological, a purely ill appear-
breadth, could validate or deny Vogt's more speculative assertion that the ''Aztecs" might ance, then I am not in the position to find therein proof that a primordial form has been
somehow represent 'one of the milestones" of human evolution. 24 brought to light." 27 Ten years later, and after his second extensive examination of "Bartola"
1

As "milestones" the ''Aztecs" could potentially qualify under two separate arguments. On and "Maximo," Virchow reached the same conclusion: "One cannot maintain that the human
one hand, if they were truly what their promoters claimed them to be-descendants of an was ever at a state for which the microcephalic could be an analog, otherwise humanity would
apparently "primitive" people-then the two last survivors of the lost race of the Aztecs have become extinct before the beginning of history." 28 At the root of Virchow's critique was

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~ NIGEL ROTHFELS f ~ AZTECS, ABORIGINES, AND APE-PEOPLE~

the recognition that although one could forcefully maintain that many human malformations No earlier year has brought to us such a wealth of exotic and unusual people as this last.
were the result of developmental arrests suffered by the embryo, it did not necessarily follow Here in the Society we have seen Dualla from Cameroon and Negroes from the West
that these arrested states either paralleled or actually embodied the forms of ancestors or Coast of Africa (they call themselves Dahome), Melanesians and Tagals, Lapps and
lower creatures. 29 "Aztecs." The most fantastic monstrosities have stepped before us: a heteradelphic
If Virchow's 1877 conclusions have something seemingly final and incontrovertible about Indian, xiphodymic Italians, a bearded woman from North America, a prematurely
them-and, indeed, as chair of the Berlin Anthropological Society his judgments tended to mature girl from Berlin-in short, each of our members, while also being at home, was
be accorded great respect- one nevertheless needs to explain why both the ''Aztecs" them- able to complete his anthropological observations with personally experienced memo-
selves and the arguments about them continued to attract scientific attention through the ries.31
beginning of the twentieth century. The scientific photographs of "Maximo" and "Bartola"
reproduced here, for example (figs 11.la and b), come from the 1901 Transactions ofthe Berlin Rather than grouping the "Aztecs" among the ''fantastic monstrosities" seen at the Society-
Anthropological Society-twenty-five years after Virchow's most extensive assessment of the including such other sideshow freaks as the conjoined twins known as "Laloo" ("heteradelphic
pair and thirty-five years after he formulated the major contours of his critique. The two Indian''), the also conjoined twins Giovanni and Giacomo Tocci ("xiphodymic Italians"), and
photographs, typical of the hundreds of "scientized" records of freaks and "exotic peoples" the bearded woman, Miss Annie Jones-Virchow places "Bartola" and "Maximo," despite all
appearing in the publications of the Society and its members, present "Bartola'' and "Maximo" his conclusions over the years, at the end of a list of remarkable, if also freaked, cultures.
stripped of all narratives of their lives; they are simply objects of scientific interest. But what, By placing the ''Aztecs" with the freaked cultures instead of with the "fantastic monstrosi-
in the final analysis, was the interest? It is clear, for example, that enthusiasm for Vogt's ties," Virchow and his colleagues 32 participated in the enfreakment of "Bartola" and "Max-
explanation of microcephalism, as an arrested embryological development atavistically reveal- imo" as living Aztecs. Their doing so stems, it seems, from the essential role that storytelling,
ing a protohuman morphology, had more or less been discarded by the late 1880s. Still, as or the narrative of enfreakment, has always played in creating the wondrous, monstrous, or
Virchow himself noted in 1891, the "appearance [of the Aztecs] has [nevertheless] something historical out of the simply unusual. Thinking back on the photograph of the Hamburger
unusual about it, which arouses further penetration into their history, and no researcher has Dom, for example, we must remember the presence of the signs "The Atzteeken are Here!"
been able to resist this attraction." 30 The "Aztecs," then, continued to intrigue German and "Frederke, the 15-Year-Old Pomeranian Colossus, Live!"; we must recognize that before
scientists because they remained somehow "unusual." audiences, including the scientists, saw "Bartola" and "Maximo," they had already been
The precise nature of that unusualness remains difficult to ascertain. We know that while repeatedly told by newspapers, friends, colleagues, signs, and, of course, the impresarios the
the Berlin Anthropological Society had many opportunities to study, measure, and debate elaborate story of Aztec temples deep in Central America and the strange people who
over microcephalics during the latter half of the century, these efforts were usually applied to inhabited strange regions of the earth.
continued debate about the '½.ztecs." At one point, for example, Virchow became convinced Indeed, the importance of the history of "jungles" and "strange peoples" in assessing the
that a microcephalic race called the Chua might exist in the Punjab region of India, but he reception of the "Aztecs" should not be underestimated. As we have seen, the '½.ztecs" shared
turned his discussion of the Chua upon its relevance to the ''Aztecs." In the end, it appears with "Krao" and the "Fuegians" foundation narratives that emphasized the remoteness and
1
that researchers maintained an interest in the "Aztecs" over other microcephalics for two primitiveness of the areas in which they were discovered. 'Krao," though obtained from a
primary reasons. First, because "Bartola" and "Maximo" lived much longer than the other court in Burma, was an alleged representative of a race of ape-people living in the trees of
microcephalics studied, it was logically argued that they presented a unique opportunity to Laos; the "Fuegians" were inseparably connected to the extr~mely isolated and inhospitable
investigate how aging affected the physical and intellectual capacities of microcephalics. But islands off the southern tip of South America-a land where, it could easily be imagined,
curiosity about the processes of aging is only part of the story. Primarily, the "Aztecs" time itself could somehow have remained frozen. Similarly, the "Aztecs" were framed by the
remained interesting to the scientific community for the same reason that they remained so story of lost civilizations, temple cults, and architectural ruins thickly shrouded by prehistoric-
for the public at large: the idea of two children found in a temple in the middle of the jungle looking vegetation in an area of the world closed off from European cultures. To be sure,
who were the last survivors of their ancient race. That idea, told in a fantastic story of freaks did not actually have to be found in a lost corner of the globe to be constituted as
adventure and discovery, involving great risk and contact with "primitive" cultures, and related missing links. Those freaks like "Krao" who suffered from the excessive hirsuteness of
in a largely theatrical set with costumes, bizarre hair styles, and constant guidance by the hypertrichosis, for example, were almost uniformly presented as missing links despite their
impresario, was what made the ''Aztecs" different from the other microcephalics brought to origins. Thus, although "Jo-Jo the Poodle Man'' (1870--1903) was discovered in Russia, far
the Society, and that story served as the underlying theme in all studies of the pair. Even from any primeval jungles, it was quickly alleged that he had been captured in the ancient
though scientist after scientist sought to disprove the tale of the "last surviving" Aztecs, Russian forests. Similarly, the Englishman who came to be known as "Rham-a-Sama" (born
"Bartola" and "Maximo" remained the "Aztecs," embodying the idea of primitives from deep around 1860) had, despite the claims of impresarios, little if any background in jungle
in the Central American jungle. Thus, in his year-end report to the Berlin Anthropological environs. 33
Society in 1891, Virchow enthusiastically states: The case of "Lionel the Lion Man" (fig. 11.4) presents the exception that proves the

z68

i
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 ;,i NIGEL ROTH FELS~ /4 AZTECS, ABORIGINES, AND APE-PEOPLE f

Virchow himself did, that the "Aztecs" remained unusual for reasons beyond their microceph-
alism. Just as the broad range of associations generated in the period by such ideas as
"primeval," "jungle," "ancient," "ruins/' and "lost civilizations" constitute a crucial backdrop to
the theories of evolution and recapitulation, these associations played a vital role for both the
public at large and the scientific community in the entreakment of the ;,Aztecs'' as the "missing
links."

NOTES
1. The photograph is reproduced in Carl Thinius, Damals in St. Pauli. Lust und Freude in der Vorstadt
(Hamburg: Christian, 1975), 121.
2. It has remained impossible to determine whether the 1905 show of ''Aztecs" pictured in the
postcard presented the ''Aztecs" "Bartola" and "Maximo" discussed in this article. Due to the success of
the original exhibit, there were a series of imitators who claimed to present ''Aztecs," including the
"Last Female Aztecs" and ''Assra, the Dwarf Aztec." See Hans Scheugl, Show Freaks and Monster:
Sammlung FelixAdanos (Cologne: M. DuMont Schauberg, 1974), 105-8.
3. This summary of the brochure is taken from Robert Hartmann, ''Azteken," Verhandlungen der
Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte 23 (1891): 278-79. Hartmann's lecture
of 21 February 1891 discussed the then almost forty-year-old brochure in order to lay the groundwork
for the Society's visit to the Aztec show on 7 March. The visit was discussed in the next meeting of the
Society on 21 March in a lecture by RudolfVirchow, who noted that the pamphlet brought to attention
by Hartmann was still being sold it the exhibit.
4. Carl Gustav Carus, "Ueber die sogenannten Aztekenkinder," Berichte der Akademie in Berlin,
Mathematisch-Physikalische Classe (Berlin, 1856); and "Die Azteken," Berichte Uber die Verhandlungen
der Kg/. Siichsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Mathern. phys. Classe I (Leipzig, 1856).
5. Hartmann, ''Azteken," 279.
I
11.4. "Lionel, the Lion-Faced Boy." Courtesy of 6. For an idea of the popular-scientific form that evolutionary theory took in Germany, see the I
Harvard Theatre Collection, The Houghton Li- remarkable novel by David Friedrich Weinland, Rulaman: Naturgeschichtliche Erzahlung aus der Zeit des
brary. Hahlenmenschen und des Hahlenbilren (1878; Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags Anstalt, 1986).
7. Carl H. Stratz, Naturgesch£chte des Menschen: Grundriss der Somatischen Anthropologie (Stuttgart,
1904), 15.
importance of the jungle narrative. Born Stefan Bibrowski in 1890 in the Russian-speaking 8. "Der 'Wilde' Mensch," Die Gartenlaube 88 (1888): 874.
Polish city ofWilezagora, "Lionel" began touring as a freak when only a child. He was a main 9. Ibid., 874.
attraction with Barnum and Bailey in the latter years of the century but spent most of his 10. Scheugl, Show Freaks, 35.
career in Europe, eventually dying in either 1930 or 1932 in Italy. "Lionel," however, was 11. See Christoph Scherpner, Von BUrgern far Burger: 125 ]ahre Zoologischer Garten Frankfort am
Main (Frankfurt am Main: Zoologischer Garten, 1983).
rarely cast as a missing link. Despite posters that enfreaked him with a pride oflions, most of
12. In 1883 and 1884, for example, Hagenbeck's "people shows" included groups of Araucanians,
the surviving pictures of "Lionel" show him attired in upper-class or even aristocratic clothing Australian Aborigines, Singhalese, and Kalmucks. For an introduction to the Hagenbeck shows, see
in stately and educated poses. One studio photograph, for example, which captures well much Hilke Thode-Arora, Fur /Unftig Pfennig um die Welt: Die Hagenbeckschen Volkerschauen (Frankfurt am
of the aura surrounding him, pictures "Lionel" bare-chested, wearing highly decorated leg- Main: Campus, 1989).
gings and holding a book, while reclining on one elbow upon an elaborate cushion. 34 Such a 13. Clearly, the ideas behind such shows as the "Cameroon Show" of 1886 (set against the backdrop
pose with its air ofluxurywas simply an impossibility for an "Ape-Girl," "Aztec," or "Fuegian'' of the acquisition of Cameroon as a German protectorate in the winter of 1884-85) and the ''Amazon
Corps" of 1891 (a fantasy production of the legend of a female army in Africa featuring "a dozen
whose identity was so closely tied to the nonhuman. brown-skinned beauties in fantastic costumes of shells and corals-otherwise, however, practically
In the final analysis, the only way to explain the prominent place that "Bartola'' and naked" [Thinius, Damals in St. Pauli, 35]), span a broad range of interests, even while both shows
"Maximo" came to assume in the scientific culture of Germany in the second half of the focused on African peoples.
nineteenth century is to recognize that the particular form in which they were enfreaked by 14. Heinrich Leutemann, Lebensbeschreibung des Thierhilndlers Carl Hagenbeck (Hamburg, 1887), 62.
that culture was the result of a series of both scientific and nonscientific interests. The 15. Die Neue Preussische (Kreuz-) Zeitung, 18 November 1881.
16. RudolfVirchow, "Uber die Feuerlander," Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft far Anthropologie,
particular morphology that the "Aztecs" presented led scientists to debate the evolutionary
Ethnologie und Urgeschichte 12 (1881): 375. For an introduction to RudolfVirchow, see Manfred Vasold,
and recapitulationary significance of the pair. However, to understand the continued scientific Rudo!f Virchow: Der Grosse Arzt und Politiker (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags Anstalt, 1988).
enthusiasm for the pair after their microcephalism had been accepted, we must recognize, as 17. Virchow, "Uber die Feuerlander," 385. Heinrich Steinitz, "Die Feuerlander," Die Gartenlaube 81

IJO
 ~ NIGEL ROTHFELS f

(1881): 732-35, however, noted French articles appearing about the group that agree_d with earlier
reports that the "Fuegians" were "repulsive creatures standing still at the very begmnmg of human
culture if one can even use such a term with them" (732).
18. Steinitz, "Die Feuerlander," 734.
19. Ernst Mayr, The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1982), 474.
The "Exceptions That Prove the Rule": Daisy and
20. Stephen Jay Gould, Ontogeny and Phylogeny (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977), 35.
21. Meckel, it should be noted, also applied the idea of developmental arrests to explain certain Violet Hilton, the "New Woman," and the Bonds of
teratological phenomena. For a clear presentation of the development of the "recapitulation debate," see
Mayr, Growth of Biological Thought, 469-76; and Gould, Ontogeny and Phylogeny, especially 33-166. Marriage
See also Frank Sulloway, Freud, Biologist of the Mind: Beyond the Psychoanalytic Legend (New York: Basic
Books, 1979). Freud, of course, popularized recapitulation further with both his discussion of the
ALLISON PINGREE
mental life of children replaying various stages in human development and his use of fixation and
regression to describe mental disturbances in adults.
22. Carl Vogt, "Ueber die Mikrocephalen oder Affen-Menschen," Archiv for Anthropologie 2 (1867):
268.
23. Ibid., 274. Vogt's argument for the appearance of "atavistic" characteristics was not in any way
bizarre or extreme; indeed, it was widely regarded at the time as a demonstrable fact. In The Origin of
Species, Darwin, for example, discussed what he termed "reversion~" .to exJ:>lain the reappear~nce of
characteristics in domestic breeds that clearly derived from the ongmal wild stock. D1scussmg the
manifestation of leg bars and shoulder stripes among domestic horses and asses, he concluded at one
point, "I venture confidently to look back thousands on thousands of generations, and I see an animal To vaudeville crowds of the late 1920s, Daisy and Violet Hilton (fig. 12.1) presented a
striped like a zebra, but perhaps otherwise very differently constructed, the common parent of our
remarkable sight. The teenage girls with long, dark ringlets and fancy dresses danced, sang,
domestic horse ... , of the ass, the hemionus, quagga, and zebra" (The Origin of Species by Charles
Darwin: A Variorum Text, ed. Morse Peckham [Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1959], and played the saxophone, seemingly unimpeded by the fact that made them famous: they
317). For only the most recent chapter in this line of reasoning, see Brian K. Hall, "Atavisms and were- conjoined twins, fused together at the base of their spine. 1 Born in 1908 in England,
Atavistic Mutations," Nature Genetics 10 (June 1995): 126-27. Daisy and Violet were trained in performance arts early on and were exhibited in different
24. Vogt, "Ueber die Mikrocephalen," 277. parts of the world from the time they were three (Drimmer 1991, 54). After coming to
25. Virchow, "Ober die sogenannten Aztek.en und die Chua," Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellscheft America in 1916, they became vaudeville sensations, earning up to five thousand dollars a
for Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte 23 (1891): 371.
26. Vogt, "Ueber die Mikrocephalen," 276-78.
week and hobnobbing with such figures as Harry Houdini, Eddie Cantor, and Bob Hope.
27. "Referate," Archiv for Anthropologie 2 (1867): 503. Virchow is here arguing along a line developed The twins eventually made their way to Hollywood, where they appeared in two films, Tod
to confront the early recapitulationists. Browning's Freaks (1932), and Chainedfor Life (1951).
28. Virchow, ''Ueber Microcephalie," Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft for Anthropologie, Ethno- The allure that these joined twins held for their early twentieth-century American audience
logie und Urgeschichte 9 (1877): 288. Virchow's first examination of "Bartola" and "Maximo" was in worked at many different levels; according to Robert Bogdan, spectators wondered such
1866.
things as how the twins "performed such normal activities as walking and sitting.... Did
29. Virchow shared this analysis with his great antirecapitulationist predecessor Karl von Baer. For a
discussion of von Baer, see Gould, Ontology and Phylogeny, 52-63. they feel the same emotion? When one was touched, did the other sense it? How similar were
30. Virchow, "Ober die sogenannten Azteken und die Chua," 370, emphasis mine. they in personality and taste? ... How intertwined were their bodies? Could they be sepa-
31. Virchow, "Verwaltungsbericht fur <las Jahr 1891," Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschcifl for rated?" (1988, 201).
Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte 23 (1891): 869_- . . . . Similar questions have intrigued the observers of conjoined twins in a variety of cultural
32. Virchow lamented in 1901 that the ''Aztecs" contmued to be discussed by his colleagues m raaal contexts. For centuries, scientists, physicians, and philosophers in the Western world have
terms. See Virchow, "Die beiden Azteken/' Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschqft for Anthropologie,
Ethnologie und Urgeschichte 33 (1901): 348-50.
been both plagued and fascinated by conjoined twins' confounding mathematics of per-
33. Scheugl, Show Freaks, 35. sonhood-the fact that they are both more than one yet not quite two. Teratological studies
34. See ibid., 40-41, for illustrations. ranging from Ambroise Pare's On Monsters and Marvels (1573) to George M. Gould and
Walter L. Pyle's Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine (1897) include extensive taxononnies of
various types of "in-betweenness" -of bodily absence and overabundance (of arms, legs,
heads, genitals, etc.). As with other corporeal anomalies, the fleshy link between conjoined
twins provokes a variety of emotional responses, from wonder to confusion, curiosity to pity,
amusement to awe, and most of all, an intense desire to contain and interpret. More
specifically, a survey of teratological treatises reveals that conjoined twins pose a most literal
 1:
',,
Ti
I
-,1 ALLISON PINGREE,;
~ THE "EXCEPTIONS THAT PROVE THE RULE" f-
I
The decades before and after 1920, the year when women achieved suffrage, were fraught
with heated debates about women's roles in marriage, motherhood, politics, and employment.
If

And such issues were certainly at play as American audiences viewed the Hiltons; Bogdan
claims that marriage in particular was a "constant issue in full public view" for Daisy and
Violet, and was one of the main sources of their "publicity," for it "titillated the general public.
Being normal meant establishing nuptial ties, yet the intimacies of marriage were allowed
only under the most private circumstances-to which, of course, joined twins had no access"
(1988, 201).
A brief exploration of some of the changes fueling these debates over women's roles will
show more clearly how and why representations of the Hiltons were so charged with cultural
meaning. In The Grounding efModern Feminism, Nancy Cott explains that in the early 1900s
the increase of "women's new experiences in public, organizational, and occupational life
marked one of the ways in which the outlines of twentieth-century America were already
taking shape" (1987, 22). For example, while only 35 percent of all those in college in 1890
were women, by the 1920s, a full half of that group were (Cott 1987, 148). Moreover,
between the 1870s and 1920s, while about 10 percent of all American women did not marry,
of those who graduated from college 40 to 60 percent did not (Smith-Rosenberg 1985, 253).
In short, the "noticeable growth of single women's employment outside the home, the
diversification of living patterns and family relationships that implied, and the emergence to
social concern of a new type of woman leader, educated in college and perhaps graduate
school and trained to analyze social problems, set the stage for a new era in the woman
movement" (Cott 1987, 22).
The "new type of woman leader" to whom Cott refers is frequently described as the "New
Woman," a term, as historian Carroll Smith-Rosenberg explains, originally coined by Henry
12.1. Daisy and Violet Hilton. Courtesy of the Hertzberg Circus Collection and Museum, San James. Smith-Rosenberg uses the phrase to refer to "a specific sociological and educational
Antonio, Texas. cohort of women born between the late 1850s and 1900" who, in "rejecting conventional
female roles and asserting their right to a career, to a public voice, to visible power, laid claim
to the rights and privileges customarily accorded bourgeois men" (1985, 176). Indeed, the
challenge to the borders of personal identity by placing a multiplied self where there is usually
New Woman "constituted a revolutionary demographic and political phenomenon. Eschewing
only one, and by questioning where individual agency begins and ends. . . marriage, she fought for professional visibility, espoused innovative, often radical economic
Such concerns are particularly pressing in the American cultural context. Not surpnsmgly,
and social reforms, and wielded real political power" (245). Not surprisingly, the New
America has long been transfixed by conjoined twins, beginning with the so-called "original''
Woman-often educated at women's colleges-frequently spent more time in the company
Siamese twins Chang and Eng, whose popularity here in the early to mid-nineteenth century,
of women than men, and derived much of her own delight and empowerment there; in some
widely promo;ed by P T. Barnum among others, was s~ vast that the country of their origin,
cases, these female-to-female relationships had an erotic component, while others remained
Siam now is used to connote all joined twins. 2 ConJomed twms arrest the attent10n and • more platonic. Smith-Rosenberg claims that such a "loving world of female bonding and
imagination of the American _public because they embody both a .national fantasy and a traditional female familial concepts" worked to the New Woman's great advantage, allowing
national nightmare. T_J,at is, the prospect of merged selves corporealized m coniomed twms her to "forge a network of women reformers and social innovators into a singularly effective
both reflects a democratic- lffiperative-where all selves are in a sense the same, mterchange- political machine" (255).
~ble self-and imperils the stability of unique selfhood so stressed by American individualism.
Another development in the 1920s and 1930s that similarly challenged traditional roles of
But the case of Daisy and Violet provoked even more particularized and. histoncally
women in and outside the home was an increased emphasis on "companionate marriage." The
grounded responses in the American populace observing them. When the Hilton sisters
label, originated by Judge Ben Lindsey of Colorado, contained several components: birth
emerged as celebrities, certain questions dominated t~e cultur~ landscape~question~ :hat control; divorce by mutual consent for partners who had no children, with no automatic
applied very readily to the twins themselves. That is, dramatic changes m the political, alimony payments to the divorced wife; and a program dedicated to educating "youth and
economic, and domestic circumstances of women m the early twentieth century created a
married couples in the art of love, the laws of sex and life, to equip them better for the
highly controversial environment for a figure that was doubly female. serious duties of marriage and parenthood" (Lindsey 1930, 195). As Cott explains, though

'74 I75
 1 ALLISON PINGREE f ~ THE "EXCEPTIONS THAT PROVE THE RULE"~

conservatives very much opposed such notions, others supported them since they located the exhorts the woman to yield, for "a wife who will not surrender ... is, from a man's point of
family as a "specialized site for emotional intimacy, personal and sexual expression, and view, not a wife at all" (170). To intensify his argument he draws on the vivid imagery of
nurture among husband, wife, and a small number of children" (1987, 156). Those advocating conjoined twins: "Feminists, note this well! It is the double-headedness of the modern
the companionate mode saw Victorian marriage as "hierarchical and emotionally barren, American family which is causing it so frequently to split down the middle, ... The heads
based on dominance and submission," and preferred an "ideal of intimate sexual partnership, are at war with each other. The house divided against itself does not, we observe, stand"
in which female sexuality was presumed and marriage was valued for eliciting the partners' (170). Herein, Carey extends his rhetoric about the "unnaturalness" of women's independence
individuality as well as for uniting them'' (157). The companionate marriage, then, was by imaging a marriage of equals as a freakish, conjoined set of bodies. Indeed, instead of
"symmetrical" instead of a "system of domination that imprisoned women's individuality'' invoking such a bond as a harmonious symbol of married life, he uses it to critique contempo-
(158). rary developments in female emancipation, portraying them as monstrous.
Because of both the rise of the New Woman and the popularization of companionate Even though Carey does not mention Daisy and Violet directly, they certainly possess
marriage, close relationships between men and women-and between women and other many of the characteristics he most fears in women. At a variety of levels, the Hiltons'
women-were seen very differently by the turn-of-the-century American public than by celebrated union raises contested issues regarding women's power, voice, earning capabilities,
previous generations. Even as companionate marriage gave women some measure of greater and their right and ability to be "on their own," separate from and outside of marriage and
equality within the home, marriage also came to be seen much more as ''normal," ''natural," the home. The twins were beautiful and flaunted that beauty for their own ends; they were
and socially necessary; Lindsey's model, moreover, implied that a woman's economic place (for most of their lives) single; they were never burdened with child rearing; and most
still was within the home (Cott 1987, 157-58). Predictably, female friendships were now importantly, they were very financially successful, becoming among the highest-paid perform-
more suspect; whereas in earlier decades-when male authority was less in question-close ers in vaudeville and Hollywood during their career. They were women joined together,
female bonds were seen with impunity, now "same-sex relationships came to be suspected as seemingly happy without men, just as the New Woman was with her feminist sisters. Indeed,
alternatives to women's relationships with men, and therefore threats to existing sexual and the twins had the potential to be seen in the same way that Smith-Rosenberg describes the
social order" (159). Moreover, the concrete emerging reality of "unmarried women's earning New Woman, as a "condensed symbol of disorder and rebellion'' (1985, 247).
power" provoked a "specter" of "women who had no evident male partners or guides" (159). It is, of course, a great irony that the twins would be seen as reflections of the new,
Similarly, as Smith-Rosenberg (citing Havelock Ellis) explains, the New Women, "unmarried, independent woman when neither Daisy nor Violet ever was "free" -in physical terms-for
career-oriented, politically active, often lovingly involved with one another," were criticized as a day of her life. Yet it was precisely their attachment to each other, rather than to a man, that
"selfish," "'unnatural'" and androgynous and/or lesbian (278). made them so threatening, and made their image more haunting to a conservative male
Representations of such radical changes in women, and of men's responses to them, took audience than other female "freaks" who also might have been earning lots of money. That is,
many forms. In 1928, Henry Carey published an essay in Harper's claiming that "woman's the conjunction of Daisy and Violet, one that literally and symbolically approximated the
emancipation'' was a ''threat to family life"; while this argument was a predictable one, the marriage bond, was precisely what made them so profitable and so dangerous. The power
title Carey chose was not: "This Two-Headed Monster-The Family." 3 It is striking indeed behind the image of Daisy and Violet was that they were both permanently single because
that Carey symbolizes domestic and marital transgression through the corporeal anomaly of they were permanently doubled. They were already each other's "other half''; their bond thus
conjoined twins. · superseded, and rendered unnecessary, the companionate, heterosexual spouse. Indeed, instead
In particular, Carey lays down two grievances: first, women's "financial independence," of being fused in marriage to someone else, they were each fused to each other, and that very
which creates an 1'unnatural" erosion of men's "authority'' by turning things "upside-down"; fusion-the "monstrosity" they displayed-was the key to their financial independence and
and second, women's attitudes reflecting "the craze for independence" associated with the thus to the economic power that Carey saw as a threat to marriage.
"feminist movement and its egocentric doctrines" (Carey 1928, 165-66). Arguing that" 'the Representations of the twiI1s, __cc,nstructed mostly_ by wen, resp9t1Q.e_ci...!<>_this power in
very essence of feminine love lie[s] in the idea of surrender'" and that men seek women who yaric,11,9_,..ays._Some attempted to cc,11trc,lit,_either by using_tl,e conjimction as.a p[ay[ufs~bpl
will give themselves "with that completeness which alone can call forth [their] single-hearted as
_<:>fharmonious marriage or by representing the i:w,ii, espoµsiµg be!iefs,hat ,.<,mnteracted the
and unselfish devotion'' (169-70), he maintains that a "woman's chief function on this planet" ttrnds. towai:~ "'l)Illell~ ind"JJ_e_11d.e_nc!',, Through normalizing narratives that used th.e ·~ns'
is to "attract and hold a man, with the object of reproducing and educating children. Man's bond to reaffirm traditional women's roles, such representations strove to transmute them into
job has always been to feed the family. It is not natural that the role of woman should be so safer feminine figures and to contain the chaos that their threatening bodies presented. Other
suddenly modified" (167). Indeed, he argues that if a woman "does her duty by the race" and representations depicted the dangers that the twins' bond presented in a more straightforward
raises her children "with tender care," then "she has all the career that she needs, and her way, imaging them as domineering and emasculating. In short, the twins were used both as
outside interests will then take their proper place as hobbies or pastimes" (169). containers or embodiments of cultural danger, as well as symbolic representations of solutions
In addition to this division of labor, another crucial element in Carey's model of an to that danger.
acceptable family is that the deciding vote, in the case of a difference of opinions, always lies Always, though, these representations betrayed a deep awareness of how, as a symbol, the
with the man. Presenting a typical scenario of a disagreement between husband and wife, he twins' bond represented the power of women united together, and of how, as a concrete

q6 '77
 -lj ALLISON PINGREE If ~ THE "EXCEPTIONS THAT PROVE THE RULE"~

commercial fact, the bond ensured that the twins were independent, financially prodigious
women. Indeed, for most of their performing years, th~ J:Iilton sisters embodied a threatening
substitute for marriage, ironically, by enacting and hteralizing the very things that conservative
marital norms of the time advocated. The twins could not be governed by a husband because
they were already physically fused to each other; they were unable to enter a companionate
marriage because they already were _each other_'s own symmetrical "companions"; and they
undermined the distinction between public and private by constantly witnessing each others'
lives, and by inverting their own intimate bond into economic advantage. The bodies of Daisy
and Violet simply concentrated, onto one corporeal site, much broader cultural debates about
gender, domesticity and power.

Two years before Carey published his article and six years after American women received the
vote, Daisy and Violet performed on vaudeville a playful, lighthearted song that parallels their
relationship with that of a heterosexual couple, and thus normalizes their potential danger.
From the outset, "Me Too" (written by Harry Woods, Charles Tobias and Al. Sherman)
presents itself as being about male-female romance; the cover drawing (fig. 12.2) boasts a
young woman in the foreground and her well-dressed suitor in the sporty convertible behind
her. She is drawn as shapely and high-heeled-flirtatious yet also demure; the lyrics reveal
that "[i]n a bathing suit she looks great." This energetic romance leads up to marriage in verse
two: "Got a ring and a horse and a horse and a ring / And we're ready to go / Giddyap!
Giddyap! Giddyap! Giddyap! / Oh the parson will know I That I don't care I don't mind / 12.2. "Me Too" with the Hilton Sisters, "San An-
tonio's Siamese Twins." Courtesy of the College
Anywhere that she goes you'll find / Ho Ho! Ha Ha! ME TOO." Moreover, many lines
of Physicians of Philadelphia.
imply that this marriage will be a companionate one: "She loves the things I do / Morning,
noon and night/ I'm right in her sight/ She can't get away/ .... I do what she does / And
she does what I do / And I'll tell you right now / That I don't care I don't mind / Anywhere spiritual cord between us than between other human beings" and that "[heterosexual married]
that she goes you'll find / Ho Ho! Ha Ha! ME TOO." Likewise, the affluent speaker treats love can only complicate the business of!iving for us" (13). Thus, they conclude, "there is no
his sweetheart to an elaborate vacation ("She wants to go to Europe / So I said 'Honey, that's way for either of us to find happiness that others find in marriage" so instead, "we are merely
O.K.' "). In short, when the assumed speaker of "Me Too" is male, the song is a model for a spectators" (14). Such descriptions are exactly the kind of thing that, when spoken by
companionate marriage: man and woman enjoy the same things and go places together; independent women, would have threatened traditional marital patterns; they invoke feminist
satisfied as a consumer of sex and material goods, the woman plays her proper role as the "sisters" bonded together by a "spiritual cord," in lives not "complicated" by men and marriage.
wife. But such an admission is rare in the pamphlet; rather, the rest transmutes Daisy and Violet
However, the other image on that same cover-that of Daisy and Violet-reminds the into representatives of more traditionalist norms, decrying the views that such feminist sisters
audience of a different prospect altogether. That is, when sung by Daisy and Violet, the lyrics would hold. It reads in part like a handbook on American girlhood, sketching out model
take on a different meaning-one of two women, rather than a man and woman, joined feminine conduct and appearance. For example, it claims that the twins "radiate happiness"
together. By putting into their mouths this heterosexual script, the Hiltons' promoters could and have "all the joy that comes to those who really love to make other people happy";
attempt to reduce the threat the twins posed of two young women who go everywhere similarly, the twins "have a home development that is both interesting and instinctive . ...
together-with no man in sight-and thoroughly enjoy themselves. _ [They] love to sew, get meals, cook, sing, dance, swim, ... romp, raise pets, play tennis, golf,
A similar vacillation between revealing the transgressive sides of the Hiltons and attemptmg handball, go to the theatre, the movies, read good books and converse with cultured people."
to contain those threatening elements emerges in a variety of publicity material on the twins. Daisy and Violet, the text claims, are "stimulated by higher ideals and nobler aspirations"
One such example is an early pamphlet (circa 1926), Souvenir and Life Story of San Antonio's than common girls (3). Moreover, the pamphlet places an unquestioned emphasis on the
4
Siamese Twins, written most likely by Myer Myers, the twins' domineering manager. At one necessity, timelessness, and "naturalness" of marriage as an institution: "That the thoughts of
point, the pamphlet relates that the sisters share an intense bond-one that could easily girls, budding into womanhood, turn naturally to marriage, has been a theory of mankind
evoke what many feared about the New Woman and her female friendships: Daisy and Violet since the dawn of the ages, and it has been a theory borne out by facts. It is human nature,
supposedly claim that they have decided never to marry, explaining that there is a "closer that's all" (12).

I79
 ~ ALLISON PINGREE~ ~ THE "EXCEPTIONS THAT PROVE THE RULE"~

The text's most overt appropriation of Violet and Daisy as advocates for traditional roles which the twins' physical conjunction collapses the border between public and private-
for women comes when it presents them as purportedly "speaking for themselves"; therein, be~e~n external, masculinized realms of politics, enterprise, and spectacle, and intimate,
they offer direct injunctions on the proper role and behavior of women: feminize~ realms o'. domesticity-upon which the ideology of traditional marriage depends.
One~ agam, the article attempts to cast the problem in a humorous light by focusing (through
We do not care much for women in business, in offices. We believe in the so-called descnpt10n and a photograph) on a clever gimmick the twins have devised to ensure privacy
bromide that "woman's place is in the home." ... [W]e believe that the career of every m courtship: a phone booth with a wall that slides up and down, so that one twin can have a
woman is marriage, or should be. It seems to us that Nature meant the race to go on, or secret conversation by phone while the other waits outside.
men and woman [,ic} would not have been created in the first place. We seem to feel But such attempt~, of course, were really a fiction of privacy, since any romantic attempt
that a woman who puts marriage behind her for the sake of a business or artistic career would always be witnessed-and thus participated in-by both twins. Indeed, Jack is
is not doing her allotted task. (13) constantly confounded in his attempt simply to be alone with Daisy:

Such advice-strongly reminiscent of Carey's rhetoric-is startling, coming as it does from Next to murder, love-making is about the most personal and exclusive job in the world.
two women whose lives were spent in continuous employment and who themselves eschewed All t~e world may love a lover, but lovers don't want anyone in on the loving. The
marriage. The text attempts to explain this bizarre juxtaposition by having the twins claim, que~tton at once arises as to how Mr. Lewis managed to woo and win Miss Daisy, with
"'We are the exceptions that prove the rule'" (13). the mseparable Miss Violet always welded to her....
Such defenses of marriage and domestically inclined women, of course, beg the question of . As many a man learns to his cost, courtship is impossible while a girl's young brother
their necessity: if the value of traditional female roles were not in question, such moralizing is hovering_ about the room. However, that can always be fixed. The suitor whispers a
most likely would be superfluous. It seems that Myers, intuiting the latent threat that the few words m the ear of the grinning boy, a piece of silver changes hands and the young
twins pose, forms them into mouthpieces of the conventional norms that must have seemed nmsance abates himself. But millions could not bribe Violet to go away, because it would
endangered by current cultural debates regarding marriage and women's power. By framing be death to both.
the Hiltons as the "exceptions to girls in everyday life," he could advocate certain traditional
standards for what that "everyday life" should be. Violet's never-ending presence appears again and again in the article, in terms that reveal an
Another publicity article, written in the early 1930s, reflects many of the ways in which the underlying anxiety: "Thus far he has managed to walk that tightrope without a slip, but what
twins posed a threat to conventional marital roles and similarly moves between identifying the about the honeymoon and later more prosaic days of married life? In all the literature of the
dangers the twins present and attempting to contain them. U_11Jike Jhe_souvenir_booklet, world there is not a word of advice on how to manage a bride when her sister is present on all
which claims that the twins will not marry, "One of the Hilton 'Siamese Twins' to be occasions_-" ~n the e~d,_ despite its comic twists and gimmicks, this article betrays the intensity
Married" explor~s vvlia.t might happenif they di_d. Announcing the engagement of Daisy to of the twms threat m its extreme and often violent language. ·
Jack Lewis, a young orchestra leader from Chicago, the article presents Jack as the protagonist Such a threat was made abundantly clear in the responses that Daisy and Violet received
in a melodrama, facing challenge after challenge in his love quest. Each impediment arises when they attempted to get married in actuality. The representations of those marriages (as
from the unchanging fact of the twins' bond, and the representation of each confrontation we~ as of their foiled marital attempts) reflect the way in which, once again, the twins'
reveals the complications that the twins present. For example, the article implies that the con1unct10n eroded the boundary between the public and private and was thus met with
marriage could become a "two against one" relation, with Daisy and Violet ganging up on moral outrage.
Jack-and winning: "Anyone can see that if Violet disliked Jack he would have no chance at Violet and Daisy each had engagements with different men that were broken off for various
all." An image of double monstrosity follows, revealing the implicit power the twins wield reasons through the years, yet each eventually married-Violet in 1936 and Daisy in 1941.
over the male suitor: "Presumably, if Jack ever comes home at an unholy hour, he will face an Of the frustrated attempts, those made in 1934 for a marriage between Violet and Maurice
angry double figure in a nightgown. Many a husband has faced just such a double menace, Lambert, a bandleader, were the most adamantly opposed. In fact, Violet and her beau went
but he can always make the double figure turn into one by closing one eye. Jack cannot do to twenty-one different states and were refused in all of them for essentially similar reasons:
this. He may expect the left half of the apparition, which is Daisy, to stretch out a hand and "on moral grounds"; "on ground that bride is a Siamese twin''; on "the question of morality
in a terrible voice, say: '. . . . I wish to speak with you.' " Even if, as a result of such and ?ecency''; as "a matter of public policy." 5 Even when they did each marry, neither
domination, Jack wants a divorce, the article warns that such efforts will be in vain: "It would mar~iage lasted more than a few weeks or months-Violet's because it was staged for
be hopeless to contest her divorce because Daisy has an eye-witness to corroborate every act publicity reasons alone (taking place before 100,000 people at the Texas Centennial celebra-
of her life who was present at all of her conversations." While such descriptions undoubtedly tion in Dallas), and Daisy's because her new husband moved out after ten days, claiming: "'I
could cause a chuckle in readers, they nonetheless bespeak the underlying threat that the guess I JUSt am not the type of fellow that should marry a Siamese twin .... As far as being a
twins represent. bridegroom under such conditions is concerned, I suppose I am what you might call a
Even more dangerous than the prospect of the overly powerful, doubled wife is the way in hermit'" (Drimmer 1991, 54). Thus, in both the article describing Daisy and Jack's engage-

r8o I8I
 ~ ALLISON PINGREE~ ~ THE "EXCEPTIONS THAT PROVE THE RULE" f"

ment and in public responses to other marriage attempts of the Hiltons, there emerges a keen rounded them, for on the palimpsest of theirb9dies were written the contradictory messages
awareness of the ways in which as a doubled wife, Daisy and Violet may wield too much of a culture at war ;;_th. itself about women. By repli~ating, literalizi~g,. and thus suppla,nting
power, and of the ways in which their conjunction fundamentally destroys the adamantly the marriage c_ontract, their fleshy bond kept then1_ single, facilitated their education and
defended boundary between public and private. cultural training, and, most importantly, earned them large fortun~s that guaranteed them a
What is presented as a dangerous possibility in "One of the Hilton 'Siamese Twins' to be plac~_:is- career women. The twins' particuhr form _of aberration perfectly embodies what
Married" becomes an actuality in Browning's film Freaks. Although the twins appear in only many by then had come to_fear: that a wom;n's body might not be able to be controlled; that
a few scenes of the film, the events depicted there resonate strongly, given the cultural context heterosexual, companionate marriage might not be the only form of intimate "bonding"
in which they appear. One scene in particular focuses on the transgressive and dangerous between two people; and that the division between public and private might not be so clear
aspects of the twins in marriage. Daisy has recently married Roscoe, a fellow circus performer after all. Despite a host of attempts-futil~ as they were-to master this enigmatic figure,
who stutters frequently and who dresses up as a woman for his act; Daisy and Violet are th~ !_Ill•~ of Daisy and Violet remained, like the New Woman, a ;ymbol of "disorder and
making the bed in their small bungalow, and upon hearing Violet mocking him ("Oh, well, if ~~hellion." · -. -
he's going to say anything, let him say it. Don't let him p-p-p-uh for an hour"), Roscoe enters.
The ensuing dialogue depicts an uneasy back-and-forth movement of a husband fighting to NOTES
maintain control of the married female body-where it will reside and what actions it will 1. I would like to thank for their invaluable assistance with this chapter the following people:
pursue: Meredith McGill, Vincent Tompkins, and the other members of the Harvard History and Literature
Writing Group; Gretchen Worden, Tracy Fessenden, and Richard Canedo; and the staff of the
Hertzberg Circus Museum (San Antonio, Texas).
ROSCOE: Say, you're going to d-d-d-do as I say. Imjthe b-b-boss of my home. 2. For my analysis of the cultural uses and representatioriS of Chang and Eng, see ''.America's
VIOLET: Half of it, you mean .... Come on, Daisy, let's get out of here. 'United Siamese Brothers': Chang and Eng and Nineteenth Century Ideologies of Democracy and
ROSCOE: Oh no she d-d-don't, she's going to stay right here. Domesticity," in Monster Theory: Reading Culture, ed. Jeffrey J. Cohen (Minneapolis: University of
VIOLET: Come on, I gotta go. Minnesota Press, 1996).
ROSCOE: (as the twins exit) Aw, pahooey, you're always using that for an exc-c-c, for an exc-c-
3. I am indebted to Cott (345n. 27) for introducing me to this article.
4. A full analysis of Daisy and Violet's relationship with Myers-which I lack the space to do here-
c, for an alib-b-i. would further enrich my argument about the twins' engagement of issues of women and power.
According to many accounts, until the twins were twenty-three, Myers (who was their guardian as well
In this scene, Violet embodies many frightening aspects of the New Woman: she speaks as their agent) kept them in "virtual 'bondage,' " giving them none of the money they earned and never
out, goes where she wants, and is not regulated by a husband. She implies that a man can, at letting them out of his sight except to attend their voice lessons. Finally, in 1931, the twins caught the
best, be in control of only "half" of his house-himself. Tellingly, in a previous scene Violet sympathetic attention of an attorney, who helped them escape Myers's domination in a highly publi-
cized court trial in San Antonio (Vasquez 1969).
has confronted Roscoe's male authority by taunting sarcastically, "her master's voice is calling"
5. See "Bars License to Siamese Twin," New York Times, 26 January 1935, 13; "City Bars Wedding
when Roscoe beckons to Daisy; by the end of the above scene, it is all too apparent how little of Siamese Twin," New York Times, 6 July 1934, 19.
"mastery" Roscoe truly has.
Likewise, in a scene soon following the domestic quarrel, after Violet accepts a marriage REFERENCES
proposal she and her fiance suddenly kiss with great passion; Daisy-who until then has been
Bogdan, Robert. 1988. Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit. Chicago:
oblivious to them as she reads a book-looks up in surprise, closes her eyes, and relishes the University of Chicago Press.
erotic pleasure right along with her sister. Such a sequence serves, once again, to reveal the Carey, Henry 1928. "This Two-Headed Monster-The Family." Harpers Monthly Magazine. January,
frightening prospects that the twins pose-prospects such as women sharing simultaneous 162-71.
sensual enjoyment, or husbands unable to control altogether when, where, and how their Chainedfor Life. 1951. Dir. Harry Fraser. Classic Pictures.
wives experience sexuality. Cott, Nancy F. 1987. The Grounding efModern Feminism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
In short, the creators of Freaks spell out in no uncertain terms the threatening impotence Drimmer, Frederick. 1991 [1973]. Very Special People: The Struggles, Loves and Triumphs of Human
Oddities. New York: Citadel.
men could feel when confronted with these joined women. Placed as a representative of all Freaks. 1932. Dir. Tod Browning. Metta-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures.
husbands, Roscoe is emasculated directly, through Violet's rebellions, and in more subtle Gould, George M., and Walter L. Pyle. 1897. Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine. Philadelphia: W.
ways-linguistically through his stuttering and visually through his female circus act. These B. Saunders.
emasculations, combined with the twins' undifferentiated sexual pleasure, ultimately comment Lindsey, Benjamin B. 1930 [1928]. "An Answer to the Critics of Companionate Marriage." In Twenty-
not only on Daisy and Violet, but also on other types of single, yet united, women. Indeed, four Views ofMarriage. Ed. Clarence A. Spaulding. New York: Macmillan.
"One of the Hilton 'Siamese Twins' to be Married." Newspaper article, c. early 1930s. Hertzberg Circus
the scenes involving the Hiltons condense the gender politics drama playing itself out in
Collection, San Antonio Public Library, San Antonio, Texas.
America at the time the film appeared. Pare, Ambroise. 1982 [1573]. On Monsters and Marvels. Trans. Janis L. Pallister. Chicago: University
In the end, the popular reception of Daisy and Violet Hilton reflects mostly what sur- of Chicago Press.

I
 4 ALLISON PINGREE fi-

Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll. 1985. Disorderly Conduct: Visiom of Gender in Victorian America. New York:
TIIII&TEEJW
Oxford University Press.
Souvenir and Lift Story of San Antonio's Siamese Twins, Daisy and Violet Hilton. Publicity pamphlet, c.
1920s. Hertzberg Circus Collection, San Antonio Public Library, San Antonio, Texas.
Vasquez, Juan M. 1969. "Siamese Twins 'Bondage' Trial Packed Courtroom." San Antonio Express. 8
January, 8-D. Cuteness and Commodity Aesthetics: Tom Thumb
Woods, Harry, Charles Tobias, and Al. Sherman. 1926. "Me Too." New York: Shapiro, Bernstein and
Co. and Shirley Temple
LORI MERISH

A 1994 issue of the New Yorker contains an article entitled "Ethnicity, Genetics, and Cute-
ness." 1 Parodying The Bell Curve's racist pseudoscience, author Bruce McCall presents his
"findings" in such statements as the following: "Fifty-two percent of white Americans in our
meticulous study included the word 'dimples' in their definitions of cuteness, while a similar
number of African Americans did not" (about which McCall queries, "are federally funded
dimple-awareness programs the answer?"). McCall satirizes the scientific pretensions of such
I !
studies by emphasizing the empirical elusiveness of their objects of analysis; cuteness is, for
McCall, plainly a cultural, rather than a biological, phenomenon. But the ludicrousness of
efforts like The Bell Curve to naturalize social differences is driven home by McCall's selection
of a criterion of evaluation that is apparently, for him, trivial and culturally meaningless. 2
In her powerful first novel about the impact of mass culture on African Americans, The
Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison suggests that while "cuteness" is certainly a culturally specific,
rather than organically based, phenomenon, the values it expresses are by no means trivial in
their political significance nor in their social or psychological effects. Set in a working-class
urban black neighborhood in the 1930s and 1940s, The Bluest Eye tells the story of three
young girls-two sisters, Frieda and Claudia, and their friend, Pecola-whose coming-of-
age requires a complex negotiation with the dominant icons of white America. In Morrison's
account, cuteness is a culturally marked aesthetic: specifically, the "cute" is an aesthetic marked
by race, class, and gender, as well as by sexuality. In The Bluest Eye, cuteness is principally
embodied by Shirley Temple and the "big, blue-eyed Baby Doll[s]" that Frieda and Pecola
adore: as the narrator notes, "Frieda and [Pecola] had loving conversations about how cu-ute
Shirley Temple was." But Claudia resists Shirley's "cuteness," principally because she sees that
cuteness is a marker of racial distinction, and because she recognizes that cultivating the
"proper" aesthetic response to Shirley would entail psychological alienation and self-hatred.
As Claudia asks about the blue-eyed baby doll, "What was I supposed to do with it? Pretend
I was its mother?" Instead of responding to the cuteness embodied in "big-blue-eyed Baby
Dolls" as Frieda and Pecola do, with maternal desire-specifically, with preservative love and
 4 LORI MERI SH f- i1 CUTENESS AND COMMODITY AESTHETICS f-

protective cherishing (as we shall see, the culturally sanctioned response to the "cute")- synthesized: the cute is identified as part of the "family," indeed part of the self; the pleasure
Claudia responds with what Morrison terms "unsullied hatred," expressing her rage by of the cute involves "recognizing" it as such. The aesthetics of cuteness thus generates an
"destroy[ing] white baby dolls"; these "same impulses," Morrison suggests, could have led her emotional response in accord with what Mary Ann Doane has described as a commercial
to "axe" little white girls. The construction of cuteness as an aesthetic value that constitutes a structure of"feffiinine" consumer empathy, a struchl.re that blurs identification and commodity
marker of racial distinction is driven home in the scene where the girls' neighbor Maureen desire. Putting a feminist twist on Walter Benjamin's formulations, Doane sees a convergence
Peal, whom Morrison terms a "high-yellow dream child," gives explicit voice to what Claudia between the intimate, emotional address of commodities and certain "feminine," empathetic
merely suspects: Claudia describes how "Safe on the other side of the street, [Maureen] structures of feeling. Grafting commodity desire onto a middle-class structure of familial,
screamed at us, I am cute! And you ugly! Black and ugly black e mos. I am cute!" 3 expressly maternal emotion, the cute naturalizes women's proprietary longings-a fact grasped
In The Bluest Eye, Morrison is chiefly concerned with two aspects of cuteness: the symbolic by early market analysts such as Carl Naether, who recommended that advertisers picture
properties and qualities that define the cute in a white supremacist culture (white skin, blond children in their ads so that women's maternal sentiments could be "transferred" from child
hair, blue eyes); and the culturally specific ways in which consumers or spectators learn to to commodity. The aesthetics of cuteness courts consumer empathy, generating a structure of
"recognize" and "value" the cute. Morrison is especially concerned with the ways in which emotional response that assimilates consumption into the logic of adoption. Thus, the special
appreciating cuteness becomes a normative aesthetic response. As a young girl, Claudia says relevance of cuteness to one particular commodity: the doll. 6 (The Cabbage Patch dolls
she "hates" Shirley Temple, Morrison writes in Claudia's voice, because Claudia "had not yet literalized this structure; their owners filled out "adoption papers.")
arrived at the turning point in the development of my psyche which would allow me to love Below, I examine the significance of an aesthetics of cuteness for what Pierre Bourdieu calls
her" (BE, 19). Claudia's resistance is specifically a refusal to "love" the cute-that is, to feeling a "sociology of taste." 7 What counts as cute is surely important; as Morrison suggests,
the culturally specified normative emotions. By hating Shirley Temple, Claudia is refusing to cuteness is an aesthetic category saturated with racial, as well as class, meanings. It is also a
perform her inclusion in the community of those who "recognize" cuteness: she refuses to historically, as well as a nationally, specific aesthetic: the cute appears to have emerged as a
participate in the ritual of emotional display that transformed a little girl, Shirley Temple, distinct cultural style in late nineteenth-century America. According to the Oxford English
into the pop culture phenomenon of "America's Sweetheart." In an important sense, Claudia Dictionary-which defines the word "cute" as " 'pretty, charming' and 'attractive in mannered
resists the forms of emotional tutelage and emotional performance that have been principal way'" -the modern significance originated in "U.S. colloquial and School-boy slang" during
disciplinary features of middle-class sentimental culture since the mid-nineteenth century. 4 the second half of the nineteenth century; many of the entries from the period contain the
Claudia's resistance to feeling the power of the cute is a resistance to a generalized (and phrase "what the Americans would call 'cute.'" Like nineteenth-century sentimentalism, with
racialized) maternal response. That the cute demands a maternal response and interpellates its which it is closely allied, cuteness is a highly conventionalized aesthetic, distinguishable both
viewers/consumers as "maternal" is indicated by the most common synonyms of "cute": by its formal aesthetic features and the formalized emotional response it engenders. It is
"adorable," and "lovable." Claudia's question about the blue-eyed baby doll, "What was I generically associated with the child, both in terms of the formal property of smallness or
supposed to do with it? Pretend I was its mother?" is thus entirely apt: the cute always in "miniatureness" (miniatures are often called cute) and in terms of the specific features of cute
some sense designates a commodity in search of its mother, and is constructed to generate figures (e.g., the numerous anthropomorphized animals-such as Garfield, Winnie the Pooh,
maternal desire; the consumer (or potential consumer) of the cute is expected, as Claudia and the Care Bears-in television commercials and children's books, cartoons, videos, and
recognizes, to pretend she or he is the cute's mother. Valuing cuteness entails the ritualized toys): cuteness is usually designated by roundness of form and thickness of limbs; roundness
performance of maternal feeling, designating a model of feminine subjectivity constituted and flatness of face; largeness of eyes; and especially by largeness of head in proportion to the
against those (ethnic, class, or national) Others who lack the maternal/sentimental endow- body-all attributes of the human infant. Because of its association with childhood, cuteness
ments (and aesthetic faculties) to fully appreciate the "cute." The Hallmark store, as much as always to some extent aestheticizes powerlessness: often cute figures are placed in humiliating
the art museum and the opera, is a site for the interpellation of gendered/class/racial subjects, circumstances, such as Winnie the Pooh with his snout stuck in the beehive, or Love-a-Lot
a site in which those identifications are inscribed on citizens' very bodies. Bear in The Care Bears Movie, who stares disconsolately out at us with a bucket of paint
Claudia's resistance to feeling the power of the cute is a refusal to accede to these culturally overturned on his head. What the cute stages is, in part, a need for adult care.
specific identifications, to take on a new (maternal) body. But Morrison's insights into the But the chief social power of cuteness is exercised as a drama of socialization. Drawing
phenomenology of cuteness don't end here. Morrison also realizes that appreciating the cute- affective force from the Victorian sentimentalization of childhood, cuteness enacts the funda-
loving the "adorable" as culturally defined-entails a structure of identification, wanting to be mental ambivalence of the child in a liberal-capitalist order: as at once consenting "subject"
like the cute-or, more exactly, wanting the cute to be just like the self Appreciating cuteness and property "object." 8 Evoking an ideal of maternal or benevolent ownership, cuteness stages
expresses the double logic of identification, its fundamental inseparability from desire: it a problematic of identification that centers on the child's body. This problematic involved
bespeaks a "presumption of identification" that is, in the words of Doris Sommer, "appropria- anxieties about the cultural "ownership" of the child, and the racial identifications of children,
tion in the guise of an embrace." 5 Assimilating commodity desire into a struchl.re of familial, that were acutely felt in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a period of massive
expressly maternal emotion, the cute generates an aesthetic response mediated through famil- immigration into the United States along with renewed nativist concern with racial "purity"
ial resemblance. Maternal desire becomes the vehicle through which being and having are and the transmission of Euro-American culture. 9 Focusing on the child-the privileged locus

I86
 1 LORI ME RISH fa- 1 CUTENESS AND COMMODITY AESTHETICS fa-

for the transmission of culture and the ("uncivilized") Other in that culture's midst- cuteness of a particular relation between adult and child, simultaneously establishing the "innocence"
represents lines of interpersonal, intergenerational identification, promoting affective bonds of of the child and the "civility" of the adult spectator. Cuteness is thus a realm of erotic
social affiliation and cohesion. Specifically, cuteness engenders an affectional dynamic through regulation (the, containment of child sexuality) and "protection'' from violence and exploi-
which the Other is domesticated and (re)contextualized within the human "family." Cuteness tation.
aestheticizes the most primary social distinctions, regulating the (shifting) boundaries between This sphere of protection is marked by class and race, as is evident in The Bluest Eye. Some
Selves and Others, cultural "insiders" and cultural "outsiders," "humans" and "freaks." bodies, Morrison makes clear, are positioned outside the realm of sentimental protection,
fu public, mass cultural event, cuteness activates an erotics of maternal longing: "exposure" within the sphere of economic/sexual exploitation and violence. While Claudia rejects cuten-
in the public sphere generates an appropriative desire to "rescue" the cute object by resituating ess's maternal erotics, Pecola identifies with Shirley Temple as a strategy to stave off sexual
it within a properly loving and appreciative (i.e., affectionally normative) familial context. 10 abuse and incest. Pecola correctly sees in Shirley Temple's cuteness an alternative to the
Associated with the figure of the child and coded as a "feminine" cultural style, the cute seems historical sexualization of African American women's bodies. Pecola's fantasy-that she
to have emerged in conjunction with the rise of the woman consumer in the late nineteenth possesses the "bluest eyes''-constitutes an individual, psychological solution to a social
century. Indeed, the emergence of cuteness as a commercial style in the second half of the problem, and thus represents in Morrison's novel a form of madness.
nineteenth century activated a structure of feminine spectatorship and identification and Signaling the boundaries of cultural desire, cuteness is thus a regime of emotional as well
helped constitute a feminine consumer public. as physical discipline. For example, rage is not usually considered an emotion compatible with
Cuteness's preoccupation with Otherness is especially evident in the historical identification the cute, nor are certain physical processes (such as defecating or vomiting). For its spectators,
between the "cute" child and the "freak." After outlining some generic attributes of the cute, I cuteness stages the assimilation of the Other ("uncivilized" child and/or "freak") into middle-
trace a nineteenth-century genealogy of cuteness th.at begins with commercialized spectacles class familial and emotional structures. As a performance aesthetic, cuteness can serve to
of midgets (or "litrle people") such as Charles Stratton ("Tom Thumb") and Lavinia Warren. mediate the subject's relationship to ritualized forms of social control: it can constitute a
In the performances of these diminutive prodigies, the cute emerged as a site for feminine highly theatrical way of enacting familial allegiance and choosing the compelled, displayed,
identification as well as a strategy for domesticating (the) Otherness (of "freak," of child), and erotically objectified body.
annexing the Other to the Self. I then tum to a central cultural site where the aesthetics of
cuteness has been constituted and displayed: that site, as Morrison so deftly understood, is
Shirley Temple. FREAKS AND (CHILD) PRODIGIES: HISTORICIZING CUTENESS
Morrison's Claudia experiences her rejection of the iconic status of Shirley Temple as a sign
of her own freakishness: it renders her, to family and friends, "incomprehensible." Refusing to
THE CuLT OF THE CHILD: ANATOMIZING CuTENEss
identify with the aesthetic standard exemplified by Shirley, Claudia finds herself banished
Cuteness is an aesthetic that mobilizes proprietary desire, a peculiarly "feminine" proprietary from the sphere of maternal protection generated by the cute. Comparing her own situation
desire that equates to a moral sentiment: the desire to care for, cherish, and protect. The cute to "little white girls' " like Shirley Temple, Claudia wonders, "What made people look at
contains within its address an invitation to ownership: hence, the particular relevance of them and say, 'Awww,' but not ... me?" Situated beyond the reach of maternal recognition,
cuteness in certain arenas where ownership is negotiated and established (such as adoption, Claudia resides in a realm of "disinterested violence," a realm that she finds intolerable. She
pet ownership, and so on). Morrison acknowledges this dynamic when she describes the ultimately takes "refuge" from sentimental banishment by succumbing to "love" for Shirley,
11
"magic" that cute white girls" worked on women, noting in particular the "possessive gentle- though she herself assesses this emotional "conversion'' as signaling "adjustment without
ness of [women's] touch as they handled them" (BE, 22-23). Cuteness's maternal aesthetics is improvement" (BE, 22-23). Strikingly, Morrison depicts cuteness as an aesthetic that polices
especially evident in the modern cult of the cute child. The modern cult of the cute has clear the boundaries of culture, generating forms of cultural identification (sentimental love) and
antecedents in the Victorian cult of the child; but as a post-Victorian category, the cute is disaffection ("disinterested violence"). The social field in which these energies emerge is not
secularized, divested of the moral seriousness and spiritual sanctity with which Victorian static but rather is constantly being transformed: in Morrison's account, cuteness can operate
cliildhood was endowed. The emotional appeal of the cute is emptied of the sense of mystery to construct cultural differences (differentiating appealing child from unloveable "freak") and
and unknowability-the limits to (earthly) possession-with which the Victorian child was deconstruct those same distinctions (repositioning the "freak'' within the human family).
surrounded. As a strategy for managing the radical Otherness of the child, cuteness is thus intimately
The cute child, unlike the Victorian sacred child, is pure spectacle, pure display. What is bound up with the history of the "freak." There are obvious parallels between child and freak:
lost in this idealization of the cute is sexuality and the danger of its power: what is lost is the both are liminal figures, residing on the boundaries that separate the "fully human'' from the
desire of the Other, absorbing that Otherness into the logic of the Sarne. 11 Cuteness performs "less-than-human." 12 That "cute" child and "freak" are reciprocally defined is supremely
the de-sexualization of the child's body, redefining that body from an object of lust (either evident in the film E.T., which constructs an identification between child and freak (only the
sexual or economic) to an object of "disinterested" affection. Staging the disavowal of child children can communicate with E.T.) in order to position the freakish extraterrestrial as a
eroticism and the sublimation of adults' erotic feelings toward children, cuteness is the sign (cute) monster to be adopted. The monstrosity of the "alien'' E.T. does not diminish but

I88
l ~ LORI MERI SH f

rather intensifies his cuteness-in part because his desire for "home" (as well as his docility)
renders him sentimentally recuperable, available to assimilation within normative domestic
~ CUTENESS AND COMMODITY AESTHETICS f

ridiculed the pretensions of the "low" to the status and privileges of the "high." Charles
Stratton (Barnum's General Tom Thumb), for example, performed imitations of Napoleon
and affectional structures. Bonaparte and Revolutionary War soldiers and marched around the stage dressed as a soldier
As the example of£. T suggests, the categories of "cute" and "freak'' have historically been waving a ten-inch sword and performing military drills, though his most famous battle was
mutually articulated. Indeed, the cute child can be situated in a historical lineage that extends fought with 01,een Victoria's poodle. 19 As the nineteenth century's most famous midget
from Hellenistic times through the Middle Ages and Renaissance when dwarfs and midgets performer, Tom Thumb particularly exemplified the blurring of the categories of adult and
were kept as accoutrements of court life, entertainers, and pets. In the eighteenth century child: in the words of Neil Harris, Tom Thumb was the "perfect man-child, the perpetual
such figures were put on display in public taverns and at carnivals and circuses; by the boy" whose success rested not only on his size but on his "truly childlike benevolence." 20
1840s, these exhibitions were consolidated in the commercialized spectacles known as "freak Similarly, the "little 01,een'' Lavinia Warren was described in promotional literature as a
shows." 13 Tellingly, a popular term for ('freak show" was "kid show." 14 Midgets-a term "woman in miniature": "Her size is that of a child, her language that of an adult." Attempting
reserved, in general usage, for perfectly shaped and proportioned "little people" -were espe- to conjure Lavinia's image through the medium of print, a "true-life" pamphlet about her and
cially popular in these shows, as well as in popular theater and, later, vaudeville. 15 In Stratton aims to inspire the reader's "fancy" to evoke an image of the "charming woman'' that
nineteenth-century popular culture, there was a productive exchange between the cute child's defies conventional categorization, being neither child nor adult but rather both at once: "The
performance and the midget's commercial display: part of the pleasure of watching precocious reader may choose from his lady acquaintances a sparkling woman, with dark hair and black
child and "little person'' perform derived from how they unsettled, in a contained but dramatic eyes, symmetrical figure and soft voice, and, in his imagination, reduce her to the dimensions
fashion, the conventional boundary between child and adult. This interplay between the above named .... Or he may reverse the picture, and select a child of perfect mold, with a
categories of cute child and "little person'' was regieytered by drama critic Laurence Hutton. finely-arched brow, dimpled cheeks, large, lustrous eyes, a nicely chiseled mouth, a rich
Commenting in 1890 on the "Infant Phenomena" of the American stage, Hutton observed harvest of hair, and somehow endow her with all the [intellectual and moral] attributes of
that entertaining and precocious children occupy "the neutral ground between the amateurs womanhood." 21 This interplay of categories suggests why the "Tom Thumb Wedding"
and the monstrosities, without belonging to either class." 16 The history of freakish spectacles (uniting Charles Stratton and Lavinia Warren, held in February 1863 in New York City's
of "little people" is embedded within the performance of the cute child. Grace Church) became a ritual performance among children; W. H. Baker published The
Complaining of the conventional comparison between little person and child, Lavinia Tom Thumb Wedding in 1898 as part of the series Baker's Entertainments for Children. 22
Warren (a Barnum exhibit and one of the nineteenth century's best-known midget perform- What Bogdan terms the aggrandized mode of presenting "little people" such as Tom
ers) describes in her autobiography a visit from presidential candidate Stephen A. Douglas Thumb structured Shirley Temple's performances (informing, in particular, the penchant for
while she was touring the South: "He expressed great pleasure at again seeing me, and as I dressing her in uniforms). In both these spectacles, cuteness derived from the merger of two
stood before him he took my hand and, drawing me toward him, stooped to kiss me. I different representational modes (and their corollary emotional structures): the mock heroic,
instinctively drew back, feeling my face suffused with blushes. It seemed impossible to make in which the pretensions of the "low'' were satirically mocked; and the sentimental, in which
people at first understand that I was not a child; that being a woman I had the womanly the powerless were sympathized with and pitied. The continuum from prodigious midget to
instinct of shrinking from a form of familiarity which in the case of a child of my size would cute child was registered in an industry rumor, reported in a story by Graham Greene, that
have been as natural as it was permissable [sic]." 17 The desire to touch little people of all ages, Shirley was a thirty-year-old midget, married to a dwarf, with a seven-year-old child of her
evinced by Douglas and invoked by Warren as "natural," constitutes a form of "petting" that own. (Greene was subsequently sued by Fox and Shirley's parents.) 23 Greene's ironic charge
conflates person and domestic animal; it also bespeaks the erotic and proprietary dynamic was not entirely without basis: baby impersonators, a staple of vaudeville acts, were quickly
essential to the structure of the cute child. Like the cute child, the little person (like all absorbed into cinema, from the midget crook in infant drag (played by Harry Earles) in Tod
"freaks") is culturally positioned as an object, not a subject. But unlike other freaks, the little Browning's The Secret Three, to Franz Ebert, a midget whose picture was used for years on
person-by virtue of her identification with the child-could be drawn into the cute's baby foods and baby powder. Implicitly registering this affiliation between child star and
structure of maternal proprietorship and "protection''; invested with sympathy denied most freak, the Academy chose Shirley to present a special Oscar and seven "dwarf" Oscars to Walt
other freaks, she could be drawn more completely into the realm of the "human." Disney for his first feature-length animation, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, at the
In his fine book on the history of the freak show in the United States, Robert Bogdan Academy Awards ceremony in 1938. The citations for her own special Oscar, awarded in
describes the "high aggrandized style" (e.g., assigning exhibits titles such as "General," 1935, similarly played upon her diminutive size: "There was one great towering figure in the
"Princess," and "Count," and exaggerating their skills) that has characteristically been used to cinema game in 1934, one artiste among artists, one giant among troupers." More recently, a
present midgets. Devised by showmen like P. T. Barnum, the style made exhibited little biographer, Robert Windeler, has described her as "a kind of midget folk heroine." 24
18
people seem, in Barnum's term, "diminutive prodig[ies]." Much like the "overblown titles" There was indeed something "freakish'' about Shirley Temple's prodigious capacity to
(such as "senator," "colonel," "Prince," and '~polio") assigned black comic figures in minstrelsy absorb, apparently without effort, what her roles required. As Time recorded the popular
and vaudeville, as well as print culture, the high aggrandized style used in conjunction with Temple mythology, reiterated in numerous magazine articles between 1934 and 1939, "Her
little people made comic capital out of the blurring of "high'' and "low''; in particular, it work entails no effort. She plays at acting as other small girls play at dolls. Her training began
. ---------------------
;i LORI MERISH f 1 CUTENESS AND COMMODITY AESTHETICS f

so long ago that she now absorbs instruction almost subconsciously. While her director
explains how he wants a scene played, Shirley looks at her feet, apparently thinking of more
important matters. When the take starts, she not only knows her own function but frequently
that of the other actors." There were other popular legends: that since birth Shirley had never
awakened at night; that she refused to take a bottle and had to be fed with a spoon at three
months; that she spoke at six months and walked at thirteen; that she was a genius with an
IQ of 155. These legends recall the rhetoric surrounding Tom Thumb: one promotional
pamphlet, for example, stated that his full-sized parents had three other ordinary-sized
children, and that "there is nothing in his history ... which furnishes the slightest clue to the
astonishing phenomena" of his "miniature features and frame." 25 Similarly, Shirley Temple
testimonials-on the order, as one critic notes, of evangelical "witnessings" -imbued the
child star with an aura of the miraculous. Adolphe Menjou, registering the uncanny quality
of Shirley's prodigious talent, reportedly testified, "That Temple kid scares me. She knows all
the tricks .... She's an Ethel Barrymore at four." And from photographer Tony Ugrin, who
made her still pictures: "I wanted to reach out and touch her as she went by. I could hardly
believe she was real." 26 Testimonials such as these return us to the original definition of the
term "prodigy": monster, freak.

"CuTENEss" AS FEMININE SPECTACLE: THE ToM THUMB WEDDING

The structure of maternal sentiment activated by the cute child performer also organized the
exhibition of midgets. Leslie Fiedler invokes the process whereby "little people" were divested 13.1. "The Fairy Wedding Group" by Mathew Brady. Courtesy of Historical Collections, Bridgeport
of their ancient aura of the sacred and magical during the nineteenth century and domesti- Public Library.
cated, converted into objects of compassion and pity: There was "something sacred and
otherworldly about dwarfs and midgets" in ancient civilizations such as Egypt, where gods peculiar and touching interest," one account notes, was evident from "the snatches of feminine
like Ptah and Bes were "portrayed in the form of dwarfs .... Even after they had become gossip, in which small sized adjectives and diminutive ejaculations were profusely employed."
buffoons and court pets in the Middle Ages and Renaissance there still clung to them an Similarly, the New York Times-which ran a full-page article on the event-describes a
aura of the magical." According to Fiedler, the Victorian era "complete[d] the process of "forore of excitement ... an intensity of interest in the feminine world of New York and its
demythification by converting them into public exhibits, subjects for medical study, and neighborhood" generated by "the loves of our Lilliputians." The Times estimates that there
occasions for pity-like orphans, abused animals, or the deserving poor." Although they, like were "twenty thousand women in this City yesterday morning up and dressed an hour and a
all "freaks," were known as "curiosities," the curiosity engendered by midgets was tempered by half before their usual time, solely and simply because of the approaching nuptials of Mr.
sympathy. As Neil Harris has noted, unlike other freakish spectacles in Barnum's museum, Stratton and Miss Warren .... Fathers were flattered, husbands were hectored, brothers were
the audience's sympathies were (partially) with the exhibited "little people": "Crowds identi- bullied and cousins were cozened into buying, begging, borrowing, in some way or other
fied with [them], rather than against [them]." 27 Like the cute child's body, the bodies oflittle getting tickets of admission to the grand affair." 29
people have been the site of a particular kind of erotic investiture, engendering in their viewers Barnum's official pamphlet of the event, A Sketch of the Life, Personal Appearance, Character
the dynamic play between similitude and difference, identification and appropriative desire. and Manners of Charles S. Stratton, reinforced the Times's view of the union of "the Loving
The structure of empathy undergirding the midget's exhibition is quite evident in promo- Lilliputians" as a feminine spectacle and amusement, one that marked out a cultural space for
tional and journalistic literature about Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren. One pamphlet on a feminine audience and challenged the strictures surrounding feminine public spectatorship:
the "charming little woman" Qyeen Lavinia notes, "While we look upon giants with awe, "ladies stood on tip-toe, some daring ones of small stature actually mounting the seats, so
perhaps admiration, we approach this petite piece of humanity with love, and make a pet of eager in their pleasurable excitement to see, that they overlooked the possibility of being
her in spite of ourselves." 28 Indeed, the best-known example of the domestication of the seen." 30 In an era when most commercial amusements were designated for men, and when
midget to which Fiedler refers is the 1863 Tom Thumb Wedding, a public ritual that "respectable" women were relegated to public invisibility, the Tom Thumb Wedding-per-
absorbed the magic traditionally associated with little people by securing them within conven- haps capitalizing on the categorical instability of the event as both wedding and commercial
tional social structures (fig. 13.1). Literature surrounding the wedding emphasized the ex- exhibit-presented the possibility of an explicitly feminine style of commercial entertainment.
pressly feminine appeal of the ceremony and its participants: the fact that the marriage was "of Building on ideologies of women's "natural" sympathy for children, the exhibition of "Loving

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 ~ LORI MERI SH~ ~ CUTENESS AND COMMODITY AESTHETICS~

Lilliputians" configured sympathy as the basis for feminine extradomestic consumption. another out of his chair. She is always saved from severe punishment, however, by a chastened
Carving out a space for feminine mass spectatorship, the Tom Thumb Wedding helped and benevolent-because utterly charmed-patriarchal authority. Shirley is perhaps never
organize cuteness as a mass cultural style. cuter than when she matches tempers with her curmudgeonly grandfather (played by Lionel
Like the singular performances of General Tom Thumb, the Tom Thumb Wedding Barrymore) in The Little Colonel, or when, with her legendary pout, she wags her finger and
delighted its viewers because it looked like children imitating adults, thus assimilating the "freak" commands him to behave himself. These films simultaneously emphasize the female child's
into a familial and familiar structure of domination and hierarchy. This sense of child-play vulnerability and powerlessness before the law and establish the benevolence of legal authority.
informed the audience's response to the Tom Thumb Wedding: describing the Strattons as a Shirley's association with a reconstructed, sentimentalized "law" is apparent in her founding,
"mimic miniature of Adam and Eve," the Sketch notes the audience's amusement when the in the mid-1930s, of the Shirley Temple Police Force; visitors to her film sets, such as Eleanor
minister addressed the couple during the exchange of vows, "you take this woman," "you take Roosevelt, left wearing a Shirley Temple Police Force badge. J. Edgar Hoover reciprocated by
this man." 31 Cuteness devolves from such ritualized mimicry when an audience's sympathies making Shirley the "first woman G-man" of the FBI. 33
are with the actors: staging the "low" imitating the "high" in a controlled, nonthreatening Domesticating the Otherness of little people entailed a curtailment of desire, especially
way, the cute transforms transgressive subjects into beloved objects. sexual desire. This was apparent in literature from the Tom Thumb Wedding: the couple
Like the appeal of the Tom Thumb Wedding, Shirley Temple's cuteness derives from a were described as "smiling twins," as siblings rather than mates, though fascination with the
combination of precocity and powerlessness. The cute Shirley is marked as derivative, a sexuality of "little people" resurfaced in the titillating speculation about whether or not the
miniature reproduction of the adult whose mimicry extends biology into behavior. Spouting couple would have children. 34 Similarly, Shirley Temple's construction as "innocent" required
the hard-boiled dialogue ("Aw, lay off me'') of her gambling cohorts in Little Miss Marker, not so much the absence of sexuality as its active disavowal. Shirley Temple films are in fact
performing imitations of Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson in Stowaway, and, especially, copying replete with. sexual references. In particular, these films flirt with illicit sexuality, especially
her dance steps from teacher/partner Bill Robinson ("Bojangles"), Shirley enacts the funda- pedophilia and (father-daughter) incest: in several films-Poor Little Rich Girl, Dimples, and
mental ambivalence of mimicry: her precocity both instates her resemblance to adults and her Curly Top, to name a few-Shirley's relationship with her father (or father-figure) has overtly
crucial difference from them. The cute transmutes the radical Otherness of the child-the incestuous overtones. Poor Little Rich Girl, for example, contains a truly remarkable scene in
difference of "unsocialized" child from "socialized" adult-into a matter of scale. That which Shirley lovingly sings to her handsome father (played by Michael Whalen) of her
Otherness is thus both acknowledged and repressed. In the cute's structure of mimicry, the desire to marry him while she caresses him and cuddles in his lap. In keeping with her
negation of difference is displaced from the spectator to the performer: the desire for sameness mission to "melt hearts," Shirley courts her spectator's desire, charming and disarming most
is here performed as Shirley's desire. 32 In her performances, Shirley enacts her dependence on adult men in her films: watching these films, the question of how long it would take Shirley
adults, both representationally (insofar as the adult is the "original" she imitates) and literally to end up on the lap of a particular male actor became a running joke. Staging cuteness as a
(insofar as her performance calls attention to the physical limits, especially the smallness, of mini-seduction met not by sexual violence or assault, but by protective care these films
her body). Her size is crucial in defining her acts as cute: her diminutive physical stature reinforce a primary mythology of patriarchal "civilization" in place since the late eighteenth
literalizes her subordinate status. In her movies she mainly appears with adults, especially century. That the overtly sexual scenarios and references in Shirley's films did not scandalize
during performance sequences, in order to visually emphasize scale. The domestication of the 1930s audiences suggests less the fabled "innocence" of those times than the structure of
"miniature" begun by the Tom Thumb Wedding was completed by Shirley Temple, whose sexual disavowal in which the cute Shirley was embedded.
films, in narrative and spectacle, ritualize the (re)containment of the cute within familial
structures.
CUTENESS AND MODERNITY
This process of domestication is evident in the cute spectacle's preoccupation with the law.
::1 The Tom Thumb Wedding, for example, counters the "freak's" transgression of biological law Constructed by mid-century events such as the Tom Thumb Wedding, the aesthetics of
[i11:
with the imposition of cultural law. Focusing on the marriage ceremony, the primary site in cuteness achieved mass cultural expression in the late nineteenth century. Indeed, the cute-
:11 middle-class culture where the body is inscribed by law and situated within a nexus of social coded as a "feminine" cultural style-appears to have emerged in conjunction with the
ii and property relations, the Tom Thumb Wedding enacts the translation of the physical body "feminization" of commercial amusements, especially vaudeville and, later, cinema. Absorbing
I' into the social body. Similarly, Shirley Temple's cuteness is linked with the transgression and materials from minstrelsy and the circus; the variety show originated in male spaces, such as
benevolent recuperation of patriarchal law. This preoccupation with the law is signaled in her saloons and clubs, in the middle of the century. In the late 1880s and the 1890s, the variety
i1
films by her frequent association with the military within the narrative and in her dance show became institutionalized in entertainment halls and reached out (as cinema would later
I, numbers, where she is often costumed in military garb. All Shirley's films are about transgres- on) for a more "respectable" and female clientele. Starting in the late 1880s, vaudeville
Ii sion: in Curly Top, for example, she breaks all the orphanage rules (including the rule against
bringing her pet horse and duck into the house); in Rebecca ofSunnybrook Farm, she defies her
managers, aiming to expand their audiences, "refined the acts, the audiences, and theatres in
order to attract respectable women into hitherto dangerous male environments." "Vulgar"
11
I
strict aunt in order to perform in a popular radio show; in The Littlest Rebel, she displays her stage language and actions were censored, ethnic humor was toned down, and acts borrowed
Confederate loyalties by taking aim at one Yankee officer with her slingshot and knocking from the circus and minstrelsy, such as animal acts and blackface, were adapted to meet the
i
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I
I9S

Ill
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1 LORI MERISH f; 1 CUTENESS AND COMMODITY AESTHETICS f;

standards of "family entertainment." In particular, acts were desexualized: for example, black- neglects her. Pretending to be the fictional orphan Betsy Ware, the heroine of her favorite
face acts were purged of their overt sexual content and sexual play, and African Americans storybook, Shirley tries out two foster families-she stays briefly with an Italian working-
were presented as asexual buffoons. Coinciding with the feminization of vaudeville was a new class family, th.en with a couple of vaudeville performers-before landing back in her properly
vogue in child performers, such as the McCoy sisters, the Putnam sisters, Lucie and Vinie appreciative familial home (minus her overly stern nanny, a working-class surrogate ''mother,"
Daly, Johnny and Bertha Gleason, the Taylor Twin Sisters, and the blond and "doll-like" who is evidently impervious to the girl's charms). By the film's conclusion, the cute Shirley has
Kitty Bingham. 35 Writing of the "public craze" with child stars following ten-year-old Elsie managed familial and corporate mergers, apparently affirming the benevolence of patriarchal
Leslie's 1890 success in "Little Lord Fauntleroy," a writer for Mumseys Magazine described domesticity and patriarchal capitalism: she facilitates a union between her father and a new
how "little Lord Fauntleroys sprang up on every side, and every new play produced had its wife, and she manages a corporate merger between her father's soap company and his rival's,
child interest.... In no country has the child of tender years been permitted to hold so bringing them together in one big happy family.
important a place on the stage as in the United States." 36 Films like Poor Little Rich Girl enact, as well as thematize, the property dimension of the
In the last decades of the nineteenth century, cuteness as cultural fantasy was engendered cute. Shirley's cuteness is particularly featured in spectacles of tap-dancing and singing, which
through the feminization of vaudeville as well as in other mass cultural sites, such as often disrupt and work against the film narrative. Highlighted in performance sequences, her
advertising and popular magazines, especially women's magazines. With the arrival of the cuteness is thus directed at spectators both within and without the film's narrative. This
screen halftone in the 1890s, advertisements began featuring cute commodity trademarks crossing of diegetic or narrative levels is activated by the conventional scenario of maternal
such as the Gold Dust Twins, the Uneeda Biscuit girl, and the Campbell Soup kid, while absence, a scenario intertextually reinforced through narrative repetition: since within the
middlebrow women's magazines like the Ladies' Home Journal and Harpers Bazaar ushered in film's diegesis the space of the mother is empty, the viewer is invited to "occupy" that space. 39
the cute as pictorial style and staple of the feminine vernacular. The widespread use of the The appeal to the maternal proprietary fantasies of the consumer is especially evident in the
term-and perhaps its vogue-was suggested by an article from in the June 2, 1900, issue of scenes in many of her films depicting a sleeping Shirley. Placing the film viewer in the
Harpers Bazaar, "When the Nestlings Come," which opens with the following sentence: position of parent, voyeuristic shots of Shirley sleeping draw their emotional resonance from
"The first word that comes to the mind as we look at photographs of bird babies is 'cute.' " A the cute child's "innocence" as well as her vulnerability and objectification.
few issues later, the term appears in an article on "The First Indian Baby Show," a competition Significantly, it is only after publicly displaying her cuteness, usually on stage and/or the
for the "cutest" boy and girl organized by a white woman teacher (and judged by other white radio (though it can also take place in the dining room of the orphanage, as in Curly Top),
women) at the Kiowa Mission School. In print as in visual culture, the cute was closely linked that Shirley's appeal is recognized and fully appreciated. Underlining the essential theatricality
with childhood and exemplified the new fascination with childhood and its "charms" featured of the cute, this narrative structure illuminates the dynamics of cuteness in a mass commodity
in popular magazines at the turn of the century. Picking up on these trends, writers and market. As one writer for her films noted, "Shirley's capacity for love was indiscriminate,
columnists titled the new century "The Century of the Child." 37 extending to pinched misers or to common hobos ... it was a social, even a political force on
By the mid-1920s, the modern cult of the cute was translated to the cinema, resulting in a a par with the idea of democracy or the constirution." Spreading her power to "melt hearts"
wave of film comedies featuring cute children. The epitome of the cute child during this through the national market, Shirley Temple exemplified the elevation of cuteness into a
period, Shirley Temple appeared in a number of films notable for foregrounding the fantasies national aesthetic. 40
of (maternal) ownership inspired by the cute. (Acknowledging the operability of such fanta-
38
sies, one critic described Shirley's films as an "assault upon the nation's maternal instinct.")
CUTENESS AS RACIALIZED STYLE: SHIRLEY TEMPLE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF
Shirley's films are quite straightforward about the vulnerability of children and their social
CUTE (WHITE) GIRLHOOD
construction as property; these films are principally concerned with the ease with which
children can pass from beloved domestic property to commodities, from the security of Shirley's position as cute child prodigy was anticipated by "little people" such as Tom Thumb
domestic ownership to the exigencies of the marketplace. Typically, Shirley's characters start and Lavinia Warren, who inspired in their audiences a mixture of fascination and proprietary
out as orphans or, nearly always, motherless little girls, and the telos of her films is directed desire. But the freakish Otherness at the heart of the cute is particularly registered in Shirley's
toward finding good parents and a good home; this at times requires chastening existing intimate connection with racial Others. Shirley's ties to racial Otherness are featured in
fathers, but usually requires finding a brand new (foster) father and mother. She is positioned several films, particularly those about the" Old South, The Littlest Rebel and The Little Colonel
as a commodity in search of an owner, and her cuteness is her only security in that search; it Indeed, embedded within her song-and-tap-dance numbers are historical traces of Jim Crow
ensures that she will find a good mother/father, someone who can fully appreci,ate her. In performances and resonances of a Sambo-like obsequiousness in her always-ready smile and
Shirley Temple movies, as elsewhere, the cute is always shopping for a mother (or maternal- effort to please. This racial doubling of Shirley's body is rendered explicit in those scenes
ized father), and for a properly sympathetic maternal proprietary response. Typically, Shirley in which she is paired with Bill Robinson ("Bojangles") as dance partner. References to
circulates among possible parents/owners, often ethnically and class marked individuals, antebellum "Jim Crow'' and the history of slavery complicate the structure of feeling (of
before settling in with a properly warm, and properly rich, white family. maternal cherishing) the cute works to construct, exposing the forms of power and coercion
In Poor Little Rich Girl, for instance, Shirley's mom has died, and her businessman father at its core.
 ~ CUTENESS AND COMMODITY AESTHETICS~
~ LORI MERI SH~

Cuteness as a comic theatrical style available to children was intimately bound up with the especially for blacks like "Uncle Billy." Here, Shirley is the granddaughter of Colonel Lloyd,
history of race. The comic child in nineteenth-century America was a racialized construction, a temperamental widower whose Confederate loyalties have led to his estrangement from his
a fact evident when one considers the cultural icon, Uncle Tom, Cabin-phenomenally daughter, Elizabeth, and her Yankee soldier husband. When Shirley's parents set upon hard
popular as novel, play and, later, film. Harriet Beecher Stowe presents the minstrel sprite times, they return to a cottage on Lloyd's plantation, where Shirley (in the old Colonel's
Topsy as a comic figure and foil for the pious, spiritualized, and deeply serious Little Eva (a words, "the spitting image of your mother") proceeds to win her grandfather's heart and
role Shirley Temple would adapt in Dimples). Mass culture in the late nineteenth century reunite the divided family.
featured an iconography of blackness, derived from plantation humor, that depicted African In both films, the restoration of the (white) family depends upon a reconfiguration of race
Americans as comical, inept, and childlike. Some of the first commodity trademarks-such relations. Familial crisis occasions the parental ministrations of the black servants and Shirley's
as the Gold Dust Twins and the Pears Soap children-recycled racial stereotypes, featuring (re-)positioning in black kinship structures. In The Littlest Rebel, Shirley is "adopted" by
black kids with cute features (e.g., large round heads and eyes, chubby limbs). These African- "Uncle Billy'' after her mother's death and her father's imprisonment, while in The Little
American comic figures, however, usually bore explicit traces of the grotesque or the threaten- Colonel she is cared for by "Mom Beck'' (Hattie McDaniel) and befriended by her grandfa-
ing: in particular, they were often depicted with exaggerated grins or teeth. By the 1930s, ther's servant, Walker (Robinson). This racial reconfiguration entails the "blackening" of
blonde, blue-eyed Shirley Temple would purge the cute of its unsettling racial resonances, Shirley, a symbolic process literalized on two occasions. In The Littlest Rebel, Shirley-
performing an absorption and domestication of comic styles associated with "blackness" and attempting to hide from the Yankees-blackens herself with shoe polish in order to disgnise
the black child performer. Shirley's cherubic, dimpled smile mimes, even while it tames, the herself among the black children; and after watching a black riverside baptism in The Little
exaggerated, painted grin of minstrelsy. Even that epitome of cuteness, Shirley's famous "O Colonel, Shirley is literally "blackened" when she performs the ritual with two black playmates
my goodness!" expression -her face momentarily frozen with wide saucer eyes and pursed in a mud puddle. This racial hybridization is spectacularly evident in Shirley's scenes with Bill
lips extruding in an affectionate kiss-should be seen as a racialized style, Robinson. Certainly, these scenes reinforce racial stereotypes and affirm the racist identifica-
Noting the frequency with which Shirley Temple movies included African-American tion- of African Americans with children that dates back to slavery. But by constructing
characters, Donald Bogle writes that the child star "occupied a unique position in relation to visual equivalences between Shirley and Bojangles, these scenes also problematize Shirley's
I
[African Americans] in films .... Blacks appeared so often in her important films that there "whiteness" and underscore the racial ambiguities of the cute child.
was an inside industry joke that a Temple picture was inco\µplete without at least one As surrogate father, Bojangles is presented in The Littlest Rebel and The Little Colonel as
darky." 41 Shirley Temple films are preoccupied with issues of racjal Otherness, and most of Shirley's tutor; and it is significant that what he teaches Shirley is tap-dancing- a cultural
her films feature African-American characters. (Notable exception's ' include Stowaway, in form with African-American roots. This racial lineage is rendered explicit in the finale of
which Shirley plays the daughter of missionaries in China who are killed by bandits, and Dimples, where Shirley, surrounded by a minstrel troupe in blackface playing tambourine and
' massacre.) The
Susanna of the Mounties, in which Shirley plays the only survivor of an Indian bones, dances the "Juba" -a dance developed during slavery in the Caribbean islands and
trend began when Shirley appeared as a three-year-old in Baby Burlesks, a series of one- Southern United States, which evolved into the soft-shoe shuffle and the tap dance. Popular-
reelers that satirized adults and adult movies. In Kid 'n Africa (1932), a satire of Trader Horn ized by a black performer known as "Juba'' (William Henry Lane), and adopted by black and
and Tarzan and His Mate, Shirley plays Madame Cradlebait, a missionary sent to "civilize" white minstrel performers throughout the nineteenth century, the Juba featured shuffiing the
Africans. She is captured by cannibals and put in a large pot to boil until she is rescued by feet to a chosen rhythm. 42 In Shirley Temple films, the scenes of tutelage with "Bojangles"
Tarzan (whom she later marries). enact visual symmetries and a process of interracial mirroring and identification-a dynamic
But the play with racial Otherness is rendered most explicit in the historical films about captured in the famous staircase dance for The Little Colonel (fig. 13.2).
the Old South. Like many films from the period, The Littlest Rebel and The Little Colonel In The Littlest Rebel and The Little Colonel, the tap-dancing "Poor Little Rich (White)
present nostalgic portraits of plantation life. The plot lines- of these two films are strikingly Girl" is shadowed by the presence of black America. The alignment of the cute Shirley
similar: in both, Northern males intrude to disrupt the harmonious, interracial world of the with the body of the African-American male evokes the history of slavery and its coercive
Southern plantation; both end with images of national reunion. In The Littlest Rebel, Shirley appropriation of the body-a body forced to work, to reproduce, and, at times, to sing and
plays Virginia ("Virgie") Cary, motherless daughter of Captain Herbert Cary (John Boles), a dance, at the white master's will. By constructing an equivalence between female white child
Confederate spy who escapes from the Yankees aided by Colonel Morrison, a Yankee whom and black male slave, these scenes render ambiguous the fantasies of benevolent ownership
Shirley has charmed and who has a daughter "just [Virgie's] age." When Cary is recaptured and familial assimilation endemic to the cute, disrupting and denaturalizing the identificatory
and sentenced to death, Shirley, accompanied by the house slave "Uncle Billy" (Robinson), structures in which the cute child is enmeshed. The racial doubling of Shirley's body extended
visits President Lincoln to intervene on her father's behalf. Cary and Morrison receive into her political career: as U.S. ambassador to Ghana, Shirley Temple Black was occasionally
pardons, and the final scene depicts Shirley being toasted by a group of Yankee and Confeder- "mistaken for an actual American black, thanks to her California-based suntan ... and her
ate soldiers, whom she entertains with a rendition of "Polly Wolly Doodle." The Little Colonel [by-then] dark hair and eyes." 43
is set after the Civil War's end (the opening title reads "Kentucky in the 70s"), but the
plantation system seems to have survived intact: emancipation evidently has changed nothing,

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.;j LORI MERISH 1,- ~ CUTENESS AND COMMODITY AESTHETICS f-

tenuousness of the cute's hold on us; it bespeaks the need to compulsively rehearse the most
basic social forms to ensure their idealization and transmission. Haunted by its own freakish-
ness, the cute ineluctably points to other possibilities of embodiment, other forms of subjectiv-
ity and desire.

NOTES
1. I am grateful to Scott Dykstra, Anne Goldman, Kate McCullough, Susan Jarratt, Victoria Smith,
and especially Rosemarie Garland Thomson for their helpful suggestions on this chapter. Thanks, also,
to Ann Cvetkovich for chairing the 1994 M.L.A. Conference panel on "Feelings" at which I first
presented this work.
2. Bruce McCall, "Ethnicity, Genetics, and Cuteness (Addendum to Recent Fearless Findings),"
New Yorker, 5 December 1994), 152. I am indebted to Jane Garrity for calling my attention to this
article.
3. Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (New York: Plume, 1993), 20, 19, 22, 62, 73. All further references
are to this edition, cited in the text as BE. Claudia's identifications are resistant in significant ways: for
example, in refusing to mother white baby dolls (and in her and Frieda's symbolic "adoption" of Pecola's
child), she rejects the "black mammy" position and stereotype.
4. Richard Brodhead, "Sparing the Rod: Discipline and Fiction in Antebellum America," Representa-
tions 21 (1988): 67-96. '
5. Doris Sommer, "Resistant Texts and Incompetent Readers," Poetics Today 15:4 (Winter 1994): !1

543. For an extended analysis of the complex psychic processes of identification and the highly unstable
"identification/desire opposition'' in psychoanalytic theory, see Diana Fuss, ldentiji,cation Papers (New !i
York: Routledge, 1995). l
6. Mary Ann Doane, The Desire to Desire (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989); Carl
Naether, Advertising to Women (New York: Taylor, 1928). Ij
7. Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the judgment of Taste, trans. Richard Nice l'!
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984).
8. In the late nineteenth century, the popular conception of the child as the "natural property" of the I
'I
13._2. The staircase tap dance with Bill Robinson from The Little Colonel (1935). By permission of parent appears in narratives of white child slavery (in which children appear as "capital" through which .'I'
Shule}'. Temple Black and Twentieth Century Fox. Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts adults satisfy their "horrible cravings"), and in accounts of child abuse published by the newly formed
and Sciences. national netvvork of child protection and anticruelty societies. "White Child Slavery," Arena 1 (April
1890): 589-603. For a sociological summary of the reconstruction of the child from an "object of use"
to an "object of sentiment" betvveen 1870 and 1930, see Viviana A. Zelizer, Pricing the Priceless Child
CUTENESS AND CULTURAL OTHERS (New York: Basic Books, 1985).
9. For an extended analysis of the "negative associations of childhood" with racial Others and an
Emphasizing that what is "often referred to as a 'freak of nature' " is actually a " 'freak of "atavistic savagery" in nineteenth century literature and anthropology, focusing on the British national
culture,' " Susan Stewart observes, "We find the freak inextricably tied to the cultural other- context, see Cora Kaplan, "'A Heterogeneous Thing': Female Childhood and the Rise of Racial
the L1tde Black Man, the Turkish horse, the Siamese twins ... , the Irish giants." Accounts Thinking in Victorian Britain," in Diana Fuss, ed., Human, All too Human (New York: Routledge,
of pygmies, Stewart notes, can be found in Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus, and Ovid, and thus 1995), 168-202.
10. Helping to articulate maternal desire within the public sphere, cuteness emerged alongside a
date back _to. the West's earliest encounters with other traditions. Nineteenth-century exam-
Progressive Era political rhetoric that utilized women's domestic identities, especially their identities as
ples of rac1al1zed freaks include Admiral Dot, the "North Carolina Twins" Millie and Chris- mothers, as a means of moral authority enabling their entry into political discourse and the political
tine, and Zip the Pin Headed Man-all of whom, like Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren sphere as such. Paula Baker, "The Domestication of Politics: Women and American Political Society,
were employed by Barnum. 44 ' 1780-1920," American Historical Review 89 (June 1984): 620-47.
In Shirley Temple films, the essential freakishness of the cute child is expressed by her ties 11. Susan Stewart, On Longing (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), 123-24.
12. Susan Stewart identifies the constitutive liminality of the freak: "the physiological freak represents
to. racial Otherness as fully as by her status as prodigious "little person." Signifying and
the problems of the boundary betvveen self and other (Siamese tvvins), betvveen male and female (the
ammatrng _the forms of familial sentiment through which the child is socialized and incorpo- hermaphrodite), between the body and the world outside the body (the montsre par excts), and between
rated withm culture, cuteness domesticates Otherness in a double move through which that the animal and the human (feral and wild men)." Ibid., 109.
Otherness 1s at once affirmed and denied. But the very banality of cuteness-its (mass) 13. Robert Bogdan, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Pr<pt (Chicago:
product10n and display in a whole range of commercial contexts-suggests the fragility and University of Chicago Press, 1988).

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 ~ LORI MERISH ~ 1 CUTENESS AND COMMODITY AESTHETICS~

14. Leslie Fiedler, Freaks: Myths and Images if the Secret Se!f(New York: Anchor, 1978), 31. 41. Donald Bogle, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blach in
15. On the politics of these terms, see Joan Ablon, Little People in America: The Social Dimensions o/ American Films (New York: Continuum, 1994), 46.
Dwarfism (New York: Praeger, 1984). 42. Marian Hannah Winter, "Juba and American Minstrelsy," in Chronicles of the American Dance
16. Laurence Hutton, Curiosities ofthe American Stage (New York: Harper and Bros., 1891), 253. from the Shakers ta Martha Graham, ed. Paul Magriel (New York: Da Capo, 1978), 39-63.
17. Countess M. Lavinia Magri, The Autobiography if Mrs. Tom Thumb, ed. A. H. Saxon (Hamden, 43. Windeler, Films if Shirley Temple, 104.
Conn.: Archon, 1979), 44-45. 44. Stewart, On Longing, 109-10.
18. Bogdan, Freak Show, 150.
19. Joseph Boskin, Sambo (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 108; Bogdan, Freak Show,
150--51.
20. Neil Harris, Humbug: The Art if P. T. Barnum (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973), 50-51. Tellingly,
Barnum characteristically referred to Tom Thumb as "my dwarf."
21. A Sketch if the Lift, Personal Appearance, Character and Manners if Charles S. Stratton (New York:
Samuel Booth, 1874), 8.
22. Stewart, On Longing, 119.
23. Robert Windeler, The Films if Shirley Temple (New York: Citadel, 1978), 35.
24. Ibid., 27, 13.
I
25. "Peewee's Progress," Time, 27 April 1936, 42; Sketch, 4-5.
26. Windeler, Films of Shirley Temple, 32. Shirley's "freakishness" was compounded by her racial
ambiguity; see below.
27. Fiedler, Freaks, 48; Harris, Humbug, 49.
28. Sketch, 8-9.
29. Ibid., 14; "The Loving Lillipurians," New York Times, 11 February 1863, 8.
30. Sketch, 15 .
• 31. Ibid., 25, 23.
32. Magazine articles from the period described children's natural propensity (or "instinct") to imitate
adults; the Time story on Shirley, for example, referred to "a clever child's natural aptitude in imitating
her elders." "Peewee's Progress," 42.
33. Windeler, Films if Shirley Temple, 13, 38.
34. Sketch, 17.
35. Lewis Erenberg, Steppin' Out: New York Nightlife and the Transformation of American Culture,
1890-1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), 67-68.
36. Arthur Hornblow, "The Children of the Stage," Mumsey} Magazine (October 1894): 33.
37. Harper} Bazaar, 25 August 1900, 1037-41; "The Century of the Child," Harper} Monthly
Magazine 119 (August 1909): 434-38.
38. Frank Nugent, review of Dimples, New York Times, 10 October 1936, 21.
39. This crossing of diegetic levels was reinforced by the proliferation of commodities bearing the
name or image of Shirley Temple, especially the Shirley Temple doll, which gave material shape to
audience fantasies of intimate possession. Through the mass reproduction of Shirley's body, the Shirley
Temple doll extended the structure of maternal emotion activated by the cute, positioning Shirley as
national property. Patricia R. Smith, Shirley Temple Dolls and Collectibles (New York: Crown, 1977).
40. Anne Edwards, Shirley Temple: American Princess (New York: William Morrow, 1988), 76.
During the Depression, the cute was articulated within the dominant ideology of economic reform. In
his groundbreaking essay, "Shirley Temple and the House of Rockefeller" (in American Media and Mass
Culture: Left Perspectives, ed. Donald Lazere [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987], 164-77),
Charles Eckert argues that Shirley Temple's sentimental appeal helped justify the conservative ideology
of private charity to meliorate national economic conditions. For Eckert, Shirley Temple is a middle-
class incarnation of the small, waif-like charity kids who filled the nation's magazines, and her films
enact the Depression's "official ideology of charity" in narrative form. Interestingly, the role of the cute
child in publicly recuperating by "maternalizing" capitalists was anticipated by Lia Graf, a "plump, well-
proportioned" midget performer in the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus, who in June 1933
was suddenly set onto the lap of J. P. Morgan while he was testifying before the Senate Banking
Committee. Reports of the episode stated that the financier seemed, for once, avuncular and quite
human. Fiedler, Freaks, 85.

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Exhibiting Cultural Freaks
 F'OU:O'T'EEJW

Ethnological Show Business: Footlighting the Dark

Continent
BERNTH LINDFORS

Ethnological show business-that is, displaying foreign peoples for commercial and/or educa-
tional purposes-has a very long history in Europe, and it became an increasingly common
form of enterprise after advances in navigational technology half a millennium ago put
Europeans in touch with human communities all over the globe. As the world shrank, traffic
in all kinds of exotic goods grew. One reads of live Eskimos being exhibited in Bristol as early
as 1501, of Brazilian Indians building their own village in Rouen in the 1550s, of"Virginians"
on the Thames in 1603, and of numerous other native human specimens from the New
World, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands being conveyed to European cities and
towns as biological curiosities in the centuries that followed. 1 In a sense, this trade in odd
human bodies was little different from an earlier practice that has continued right up to
modern times: the commercial exhibition of lusus naturae-human and animal freaks, dead
or alive. There appears to be a healthy natural interest in unusual and unnatural beings.
Indeed, the stranger the creature, the stronger the draw.
By the end of the nineteenth century ethnological show business had grown into a major
form of public entertainment in the Western world. The Wild West shows of Buffalo Bill
Cody, the foreign spectacles and sideshows of the Barnum and Bailey Circus, and the national
displays at various world's fairs and colonial exhibitions are examples of gigantic international
enterprises that catered to this insatiable appetite for savoring the wonderful variety of the
human species. The whole wide world was now available for scrutiny-for a small fee. The
armchair traveler was in his heyday.
In an interesting essay in a book entitled Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of
Museum Display, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Girnblett makes the point that

Exhibitions, whether of objects or people, are displays of the artifacts of our disciplines.
They are for this reason also exhibits of those who make them, no matter what their
ostensible subject. The first order of business is therefore to examine critically the
conventions guiding ethnographic display, to explicate how displays constitute subjects
 ~ BERNTH LINDFORS f -1 ETHNOLOGICAL SHOW BUSINESS~

and with what implications for those who see and those who are see~ .... The question
is not whether or not an object is of visual interest, but rather how interest of any kind is
created. All interest is vested. 2

It is in this reflexive context that I would like to look at the conventions governing the
exhibition of Africans in the British Isles in the nineteenth century, a century that opened
with extensive European· exploration of the African continent and closed with wholesale
European expropriation of that continent. This was the same era that saw the abolition of one
system of economic exploitation-the slave trade-and the concurrent institutionalization of
another-imperialism. In such a century, how were African peoples represented to the British
public? In whose interest was it to see them this way? What subliminal messages lurked
beneath the skin of these exhibitions?
Let's start with one of the most notorious :figures-namely, Saartjie Baartman, a San
woman who was exhibited in London in 1810-11, billed as the "Hottentot Venus" (fig. 14.1).
The name was a joke, for in physique she little resembled any European notion of classic
beauty. Like many San women, she had steatopygia, a greatly enlarged rump, which appears
to have been the single feature of her anatomy sensational enough to bring out crowds to see
her. She had been conveyed to England from the Cape by a Boer farmer and a British naval
surgeon who had first tried to sell an interest in her to an antiquarian who owned a museum
of art and natural history. When this deal fell through, she was put on display in a hall near
Piccadilly Circus, which, according to a London Times reporter, had

a stage raised about three feet from the floor, with a cage, or enclosed place at the end of 14.1. Poster of "Sartjee, the Hottentot Venus."
it; that the Hottentot was within the cage; that on being ordered by her keeper, she came Courtesy of the British Library.
out, and that her appearance was highly offensive to delicacy.... The Hottentot was
produced like a wild beast, and ordered to move backwards and forwards, and come out She was extremely ill, and the man insisted on her dancing, this being one of the tricks
and go into her cage, more like a bear in a chain than a human being.... She frequently which she is forced to display. The poor creature pointed to her throat and to her knees
heaved deep sighs; seemed anxious and uneasy; grew sullen, when she was ordered to as if she felt pain in both, pleading with tears that he would not force her compliance.
play on some rude instrument of music. ... And one time, when she refused for a He declared that she was sulky, produced a long piece of bamboo, and shook it at her:
moment to come out of her cage, the keeper let down the curtain, went behind, and was she saw it, knew its power, and, though ill, delayed no longer. While she was playing on
seen to hold up his hand to her in a menacing posture; she then came forward at his call, a rude kind of guitar, a gentleman in the room chanced to laugh: the unhappy woman,
and was perfectly obedient.... She is dressed in a colour as nearly resembling her skin ignorant of the cause, imagined herself the object of it, and as though the slightest
as possible. The dress is contrived to exhibit the entire frame of her body, and the addition to the woes of sickness, servitude, and involuntary banishment from her native
spectators are even invited to examine the peculiarities of her form. 3 land was more than she could bear, her broken spirit was aroused for a moment, and she
endeavoured to strike him with the musical instrument which she held: but the sight of
Some of the spectators accepted this invitation by touching her rump and searching for the long bamboo, the knowledge of its pain, and the fear of incurring it again, calmed
evidence of padding or some other artifice beneath her skimpy, skin-colored dress. A woman her. The master declared that she was as wild as a beast, and the spectators agreed with
who saw the show reported that "one pinched her, another walked round her; one gentleman him, forgetting that the language of ridicule is the same, and understood alike, in all
poked her with his cane; and one lady employed her parasol to ascertain that all was, as she countries, and that not one of them could bear to be the object of derision without an
called it, 'nattral. 'This inhuman baiting the poor creature bore with sullen indifference, except attempt to revenge the insult. 5
upon some great provocation, when she seemed inclined to resent brutality, which even a
Hottentot can understand. On these occasions it required all the authority of the keeper to It is clear from these remarks that not everyone in the audience found this kind of
subdue her resentment." 4 entertainment amusing. Within a few weeks, letters of protest began to appear in the London
Another spectator told a similar tale of what had transpired on the night he had seen her press complaining not only of the degraded nature of the exhibition but also of the state of
perform: servitude in which the woman apparently was being kept. 6 Since slavery had recently been

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 1 BERNTH LINDFORS r, 1 ETHNOLOGICAL SHOW BUSINESS f

abolished in Britain, why was the keeper of this unhappy woman being allowed to profit from
her misery? Such a display was both immoral and illegal.
Members of the African Institution decided to take the matter to court, but the case was
dismissed after the Hottentot Venus, interviewed in Low Dutch, testified in behalf of her
managers, saying she had freely consented to exhibit her person in England, was earning good
money, and wanted the show to go on. 7 There was some doubt that she fully understood the
nature of the contract she had entered into, but the presiding magistrate at the Court of the
King's Bench felt he had no alternative but to release her into the care of her keeper.
What most impressed ordinary people about this case was not the high conscience of the
gentlemen of the African Institution who had brought the action, but the low cupidity of the
Hottentot. Her insistence upon her right to make a spectacle of herself, like any profit-
minded dwarf or giant in the exhibition trade, became the subject of countless jokes, cartoons, 14.2. "The Bosjesmans going through the war-
and newspaper doggerel. Here is a sample from a ballad that began to circulate after the court dance under the direction of Mr. J. S. Tyler." The
ruled that she could return to the stage: Sportsman's Magazine, 10 May 1847.

Oh have you been in London towne, conceptualized as little better than an animal, the Hottentot Venus remains even today a
Its rarefies to see: potent symbol of Africa's supposed degraded backwardness. Cuvier compared her to a monkey
There is, 'mongst ladies of renown, and an orangutan, 10 scientifically dehumanizing her and her kind. It was this sort of biological
A most renowned she. slur that reinforced European beliefs that Africans were closer to the lower order of brutes
In Piccadil!ie streete so faire, than to human beings.
A mansion she has got; Essentially the same reaction was registered a generation later when a group of five
On golden letters written there, "Bosjesmans)' (i.e., San)-two men, two women, and an infant-were exhibited for five years
"The Venus Hottentot". throughout Europe (fig. 14.2). One of the first notices of their arrival in Liverpool in 1846
But you may ask, and well, I ween, stated that the Bosjesmans showed "how very nearly sentient beings may sink to, or rather
For why she tarries there; have never risen above, the condition of animals endowed with reason to guide or govern
And what, in her is to be seen, their instinctive propensities .... They are supposed to belong to one of the numerous tribes
Than other folks more rare. of their benighted country which have not yet emerged from absolute barbarism." 11
A rump she has, (though strange it be,) Aside from their diminutive size and odd features (which did not include pronounced
Large as a cauldron pot, steatopygia), what appears to have made the Bosjesmans particularly fascinating to British
And this is why men go to see spectators was their rudimentary life style: they owned very few possessions, used only the
This lovely Hottentot. 8 simplest tools, built no permanent structures, and wore hardly any clothing. All these traits
could have been traced to the fact that they were a hunting and gathering people and therefore
Saartjie Baartman's story does not have a happy ending. For the next few years she appears had no need for possessions or paraphernalia that would impede their mobility, but the British
to have continued performing at fairs, festivals, and rented halls throughout the British Isles, interpreted a lack of things as a lack of culture and thought less of the Bosjesmans as a result.
and in 1814 she finally wound up in Paris, where she excited the attention of professional Commentators tended to agree with the oft-quoted assessment offered by the learned traveler
zoologists as well as sightseers. When she died there in 1815, her body was dissected by Dr. M. H. C. Lichtenstein that "there is not perhaps any class of savages upon the earth that
Baron Georges Cuvier, the leading naturalist of his day, who promptly published a scientific lead lives so near those of the brutes as the Bosjesmans;-none perhaps who are sunk so low,
paper on the peculiarities of her posterior and private parts. 9 He also arranged for various bits who are so unimportant in the scale of existence; -whose wants, whose cares, and whose
of her body-brain, skeleton, skull, body hair-to be preserved for further scientific scrutiny, joys, are so low in their nature;-and who are consequently so little capable of cultivation." 12
and he made waxen molds of her genitalia and plaster casts of her body, one of which stood In short, the Bosjesmans were presumed to be an utterly hopeless lot.
on display in Case 33 at the Musee de !'Homme until as late as 1982. So Saartjie Baartman Yet, the very extremity of their "degradation" made them all the more interesting to British
has had a career in science as well as in popular culture, having been reified not only as a audiences, for whenever these visitors deviated even slightly from accepted standards of
comic figure of outlandish voluptuousness, but also as a durable set of physiological reference cultivated behavior, their "foolish" actions were construed not only as further proof of Bosjes-
points in biometric discourse. For scientist and lay person alike, she became a somatic man barbarity, but also as clear confirmation of British cultural superiority. The more different
cliche, a coarse stereotype of female primitivism. Because she was displayed, treated, and the Bosjesmans appeared, the more comfortable the British felt. It was when the "savage"

2IO 2II
 ;1 BERNTH LINDFORS~ ;1 ETHNOLOGICAL SHOW BUSINESS f;-

betrayed some sign of common humanity that the "civilized" expressed surprise and a little feature [being] some inarticulate clicks and clucks." 23 The Glasgow Examiner reported that
concern. John Bull did not fancy seeing himself reflected in this monstrously misshapen such language consisted of "a series of clicks stuck together in some curious philological way,
mirror. to represent their few and simple ideas." 24 The Manchester Express called it "rude and harsh
One can find this kind of British cultural prejudice displayed quite openly in statements in the extreme" 25 ; the Dublin Warder said it was "an unintelligible jargon" 2 6; and the Plymouth
made by newspaper reporters about the Bosjesmans' most undeniably human characteristic- Times found it "so imperfect that its sounds can hardly be rendered in writing by any syllables
their language. The Bosjesman phonological system happens to contain a set of implosive we can frame." 27 The Bosjesmans obviously were not simply a hopeless lot; their ridiculous
consonants, commonly called "clicks," which do not exist in the English phonological system. language betrayed them as a singularly inarticulate hopeless lot.
Since "well over 70 percent of words in Bushman languages begin with a click consonant," 13 Some commentators were unwilling to consider them better than dumb brutes. London's
this is a very prominent feature in Bosjesman speech. The number and variety of these click Morning Post asserted that "They belong . . . to the lowest class of humanity; and the
consonants, complicated still further by subtle vowel colorings and significant variations in power of speech being excepted, there are many of the inferior animals possessing a greater
tone, make Bosjesman languages, according to a contemporary authority, "from the phonetic development of the higher faculties than this savage specimen of human kind." The only
point of view ... the world's most complex languages." 14 All of this complexity was lost on example cited to support this dismissive generalization was the beaver, who "possesses the
Victorian British auditors, who heard only the unfamiliar clicking and popping noises and faculty of constructiveness to a very marked extent." The rest of the article was devoted to
drew their own conclusions. illustrating the "marked resemblance" between the Bosjesman and the baboon, orangutan,
The greatest temptation was to compare these sounds to those made by nonhuman chimpanzee, and monkey.28, A reporter for the Cork Southern Reporter also felt that in their
creatures. The Liverpool Mail said that "their language-if the singular sounds by which their "brutelike indistinctness of language" as well as in a number of other traits, the Bosjesmans
conversations are conducted can be termed a language-completely puts our alphabet hors de "come so near the Monkey tribe, as to make us almost question their humanity." 29
combat. It is not unlike the chirps of birds, and is supposed to consist of about twenty words, Of course, a number of journalists were quite prepared to give the Bosjesmans the benefit
whose meanings are varied by the pronunciation." 15 The Liverpool Chronicle reported, "It is a of the doubt, principally because these grotesque children of nature were able to speak a
perfect novelty to hear them talk, their language resembling more the 'click' of turkeys than language, albeit a simple and somewhat beastly tongue. But no reporters of that day believed
the speech of human beings." 16 The Birmingham Advertiser described the phenomenon as a that a Bosjesman's rudimentary linguistic competence made him the intellectual equal of a
"singular compound of inharmonious articulations, copiously interspersed with a kind of chirp European. That would have been carrying liberal ideas much too far. A correspondent for the
or click ... and bearing no remote analogy to the babel of the smaller birds and animals in a Observer put it this way: "Their distinguishing characteristic ... as men is the use oflanguage,
menagerie." 17 Other papers drew comparisons to "the clucking of a hen," 18 "the chucking of but besides that they have little in common-either those now on view, or their brethren in
fowls or the motion of machinery," 19 or the sound "used by ostlers to urge their horses." 20 the bush-with that race of beings which boasts of a Newton and a Napoleon-of a Fenelon,
The Spectator offered the fullest and most perceptive linguistic description of the clicks, but a Milton, and of Dante." 30 No one would dare to attempt to make monkeys out of such
concluded with an unflattering comparison: distinguished men.
The arrogant ethnocentrism underlying British responses to the Bosjesmans appears to
Three of the consonants, we observed, consisted of these sounds-the noise made by have been typical of European attitudes toward African peoples during the age of imperialism,
the lips in slightly kissing, as when you kiss your hand; that made by smacking the tip of but sometimes it is shocking to come across racist remarks made by Victorian gentlemen one
the tongue against the palate, as you do when tasting a flavour, or as some women do might otherwise have assumed to be among the most enlightened observers of the human
when they express petty vexation; and the clucking noise made with the hinder part of scene. David Livingstone, for example, speaking specifically of the Bosjesmans, noted that
the tongue against the palate to urge a horse or assemble poultry; these three sounds, "the specimens brought to _Europe have been selected, like costermongers' dogs, on account
especially the two former, are consonants of rather frequent occurrence. A vowel sound, of their extreme ugliness. That they are, to some extent, like baboons is true, just as these are
often repeated, resembles the French eu, but uttered from the chest with the coarse sing- in some points frightfully human." 31 Charles Dickens, in a humorous essay devoted to
song drawl of a boy driving away birds. The language is as rude and undeveloped, in debunking the romantic myth of the Noble Savage, had equally uncomplimentary things to
sound at least, as the physical conformation of the people (who as adults] are undevel- say of this troupe of mini-savages:
oped children, stricken with senility while their forms are still immature. 21
Think of the Bushmen. Think of the two men and the two women who have been
There was a similar tendency in other papers to associate unusual phonology with a lack of exhibited about England for some years. Are the majority of persons-who remember
adequate physical, mental, moral, cultural, and/or linguistic development. The Era described the horrid little leader of that party in his festering bundle of hides, with his filth and his
the Bosjesman language as "wholly incomprehensible, for nobody can interpret it.... Their antipathy to water, and his straddled legs, and his odious eyes shaded by his brutal hand,
words are made up of coughs and clucks-such as a man uses to his nag-anything more and his cry of "Qy-u-u-u-aaa!" (Bosjesman for something desperately insulting I have
uncivilized can scarcely be conceived." 22 According to the Manchester Guardian, this language no doubt)-conscious of an affectionate yearning towards that noble savage, or is it
was "singularly barren, exceedingly harsh and unpleasant to the ear ... its most remarkable idiosyncratic in me to abhor, detest, abominate, and abjure him? I have no reserve on

2I2 2IJ
 ~ BERNTH LINDFORS~
r -;1 ETHNOLOGICAL SHOW BUSINESS~

this subject, and will frankly state that, setting aside that stage of the entertainment without the bill it would be difficult to distinguish the expression oflove from the gesture
when he counterfeited the death of some creature he had shot, by laying his head on his of martial defiance. 34
hand and shaking his lefr leg- at which time I think it would have been justifiable
homicide to slay him-I have never seen that group sleeping, smoking, and expectorat- In his essay, Dickens elaborated on each of these scenes by emphasizing the Zulus' comically
ing round their brazier, but I have sincerely desired that something might happen to the picturesque barbarity. Here, for example, is how he described their preparations for battle:
charcoal smouldering therein, which would cause the immediate suffocation of the whole
of the noble strangers. 32 When war is afoot among the noble savages-which is always-the chief holds a
council to ascertain whether it is the opinion of his brothers and friends in general that
Here, in a voice which has come to be regarded as quintessentially Victorian, is one of the the enemy shall be exterminated. On this occasion, after the performance of an Umseb-
first overt suggestions in England of a final solution to the Bosjesman problem. Such euza, or war song-which is exactly like all the other songs-the chief makes a speech
genocidal urges, of course, had already been translated into action in the Cape, where British to his brothers and friends, arranged in a single file. No particular order is observed
and Boer settlers had felt compelled to deal ruthlessly with such small, ugly, possessionless, during the delivery of this address, but every gentleman who finds himself excited by the
monkeylike, clicking, clucking savages. The visceral reactions of Dickens and other spectators subject, instead of crying "Hear, Hear!" as is the custom with us, darts from the rank and
to the Bosjesmans were only a confirmation and validation of attitudes that guided British tramples out the life, or crushes the skull, or mashes the face, or scoops out the eyes, or
colonial policy. breaks the limbs, or performs a whirlwind of atrocities on the body, of an imaginary
When ridiculing the notion of the "Noble Savage," Dickens did not confine his remarks to enemy. Several gentlemen becoming thus excited at once, and pounding away without
the San. In fact, his principal target was a larger troupe of South African performers who had the least regard to the orator, that illustrious person is rather in the position of an orator
been transported to London in 1853 by A. T. Caldecott, a prosperous merchant from Natal. in an Irish House of Commons. But, several of these scenes of savage life bear a strong
These thirteen "Zulu Kaflirs" turned out to be a profitable speculation, for they attracted huge generic resemblance to an Irish election, and I think would be extremely well received
crowds and even won an invitation to appear before Q,,een Victoria and her children at and understood at Cork.
Buckingham Palace. What helped to make this exhibition more popular than other ethno-
graphic displays was the fact that it was an extremely dramatic performance, not a static Dickens followed this up with a paragraph playfully suggesting other parallels between the
sideshow. The performers acted out incidents said to be typical of Zulu life and did so with ceremonies of the noble savage and the practices of civilized man in Europe, but he returned
great fervor. The advertisement placed in the London Times on the day the show opened to his main theme in his concluding statement: "My position is, that if we have anything to
stated that the exhibition would illustrate "in an extensive and unexampled manner this wild learn from the Noble Savage, it is what to avoid. His virtues are a fable; his happiness is a
and interesting tribe of savages in their domestic habits, their nuptial ceremonies, the charm delusion; his nobility, nonsense ... and the world will be all the better when his place knows
song, finding the witch, hunting tramp, preparation for war, and territorial conflicts." 33 To him no more." Here we are back at the genocidal imperative. Dickens did not explicitly
explain some of the scenes, Caldecott's son served as an interpreter and master of ceremonies, advocate that Zulus, Bosjesmans, and other non-Western peoples be physically exterminated;
lecturing briefly on Zulu customs and traditions before they were enacted on the stage. he may have been too much of a gentleman for that. Instead, he recommended that they be
The earliest review of the "Caffres at Hyde-Park-Comer" (as they came to be called) "civilised off the face of the earth" -in other words, subjected to cultural, not literal, genocide.
appeared in the Times two days after the premiere. It is worth quoting at length because it is But this may have been only a manner of speaking. Dickens was intent on demolishing a
typical of the response of British theater critics to this novel entertainment: romantic myth of the nobility of uncivilized mankind, and if he employed verbal overkill to
accomplish his purpose, he was only behaving as he may have imagined a proper, pragmatic
Eleven men, with a woman and a child, are assembled into a company, and instead of Victorian should to destroy a pernicious illusion. A few laughs at the expense of the Zulus
performing one or two commonplace feats, may be said to go through the whole drama would do his English audience a world of good.
of Ca.ffre life, while a series of scenes, painted by Mr. Charles Marshall, gives an air of The Zulu Kaflirs of 1853 were only the first in a long procession of Zulu performing
reality to the living pictures. Now the Caffres are at their meal, feeding themselves with groups to appear in the British Isles in the following years. Their novelty value increased
enormous spoons, and expressing their satisfaction by a wild chant, under the inspiration during the Anglo-Zulu wars when regiments of Cetewayo's warriors twice massacred British
of which they bump themselves along without rising in a sort of circular dance. Now the troops in pitched battles. Such proven prowess in combat generated a great deal of curiosity
witchfinder commences his operations to discover the culprit whose magic has brought in Europe and the United States about these fierce, courageous, and militaristic people.
sickness into the tribe, and becomes perfectly rabid through the effect of his own Circus entrepreneurs tried to take advantage of this curiosity by recruiting Zulus for their
incantations. Now there is a wedding ceremony, now a hunt, now a military expedition, shows. P. T. Barnum even went so far as to offer O!,ieen Victoria's government $100,000 for
all with characteristic dances; and the whole ends with a general conflict between rival permission to exhibit the captured Cetewayo for five years, a petition that did not amuse the
tribes. The songs and dances are, as may be expected, monotonous in the extreme, and Q,,een. 35 A rival showman outdid Barnum by putting on display three of Cetewayo's nieces

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(whom he billed as the chief's daughters, true "Zulu princesses"), 36 a baby, another Zulu prefer Nature to Art. Nature, it has been said, is pulling up on Art; but she has still a long
chief, and twenty-three warriors who had surrendered to British authorities in South Africa; way to go before she produces savages who are equal to the other for show purposes." 42
it has been reported that "their arrival in London was greeted by over one hundred thousand That most circus showmen preferred Art to Nature is evident in their use of the term
people on the docks and as far up the street as the eye could reach." 37 Other showmen could "Zulu," which in American circus jargon gradually expanded its field of reference to include
not ignore such palpable signs of popularity, and soon spears, shields, feathers, and war paint any Negro who participated in the "spec." 43 A black laborer or musician employed by the
could be found in abundance in every sideshow and even in circus "specs," or opening circus could earn a "Zulu ticket" (a credit slip for more pay) by donning a costume and
pageants. parading around the hippodrome track in the grand opening pageant. "Zulu" thus became
Needless to say, many of these Zulu performers were frauds. More than one circus veteran synonymous with artifice and disguise. Pseudo-Zulus proliferated, emerging as a stock charac-
has commented on this in his memoirs: "I recollect at the time of the Zulu war how one ter type that eventually entered the standard vocabulary of ethnic imagery projected by such
showman conceived the idea of exhibiting a number of Zulu warriors. There was only one powerful media as Hollywood films.
drawback-not a single Zulu was at that moment in the country. But drawbacks do not exist In the nineteenth century British notions of Africanness acquired a resonance that radiated
for the born showman and a party of ordinary niggers were easily made up into Cetewayo's to other parts of the Western world, where they often became amplified into grotesque
savage soldiery." 38 An American showman recalled, caricatures that took on a life of their own, perpetuating themselves as durable stereotypes of
barbarism. It may have served British colonial interests to portray subjects in Africa as freaks
In the side show we had a big negro whom we had fitted up with rings in his nose, a and savages, but these negative oversimplifications and distortions also served the vested
leopard skin, some assegais and a large shield made out of cow's skin. While he was interests of those in the New World who sought to deny basic human rights to black people.
sitting on the stage in the side show, along came two negro women and remarked, "See It was one thing for Dickens to lampoon what he construed as the eccentric ignobilities of
that nigger over there? He ain't no Zulu, that's Bill Jackson. He worked over here at the Zulus. However, the circus entrepreneurs who employed poor old Bill Jackson and others
Camden on the dock. I seen that nigger often." Poor old Bill Jackson was as uneasy as if of his kind to "act Zulu" took ethnological show business to a new extreme of theatrical
he was sitting on needles, holding the shield between him and the two negro women. misrepresentation, using a real victim to promote a patently false mythology that to a large
Fortunately for him, about this time the audience was called to another portion of the extent was responsible for his victimization. The Hottentot Venus, the Bosjesmans, the Zulu
tent. 39 Kaflirs, and all the other true and false Africans who literally gave body to such lies were
unwitting collaborators in their own exploitation, agents of their own dehumanization. Put-
But in the years following the war authentic Zulus became more plentiful in both Britain ting them in the footlights in this fashion was one method of ensuring that in the Western
and the United States, and fewer Bill Jacksons had to fill their sandals. The program for mind, Africa would remain unillumined, an irredeemably Dark Continent.
Barnum's show at Madison Square Garden in April 1888 advertised "Two Real African
Zulus," 40 and a naturalist writing in 1885 on ethnographic exhibitions at dime museums NOTES
declared that 1. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, "Objects of Ethnography," in Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and
Politics of Museum Display. ed. Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
The idea that the Dime Museum Zulus were manufactured to order is false. There have Institution Press, 1991), 402.
been Zulus. These are not, as some of the journalists have wickedly insinuated, Irish 2. Ibid., 434.
3. London Times, 26 November 1810, 3.
immigrants, cunningly painted and made up like savages. They are genuine Zulus; and 4. Mrs. Mathews, Memoirs of Charles Mathews, Comedian (London: Richard Bently, 1839), 4:137.
though we need not believe the lecturer's statement that they fought under Cetewayo at 5. A Constant Reader, "The Female Hottentot," Examiner, 14 October 1810, 653.
lsandhwalo [sic}, and displayed prodigies of valor in order to free their country from 6. See, e.g., Morning Chronicle, 12 October 1810, 3, and Examiner, 28 October 1810, 681.
British rule ... there is no doubt that they would prove terrible enemies in battle. 7. For an account of these proceedings, see Bernth Lindfors, "Courting the Hottentot Venus," Africa
Looking at their leaps and bounds, and listening to their yells and whistles and the (Rome) 40 (1985): 133-48.
8. Broadside reprinted in R. Toole-Stott, Circus and Allied Arts: A World Bibliography, 1500-1962
rattling of their assegais against their shields, no one can wonder that English cavalry
(Derby: Harper, 1962), 3:334.
horses were at first afraid to face them. 41 9. Memoires du Museum d'Histoire Nature/le 3 (1817): 259-74.
10. Q,,toted in Percival R. Kirby, "The Hottentot Venus," Africana Notes and News 6 (1949): 60.
Some showmen were afraid to face them, too, and found it more convenient to continue to 11. Liverpool Mail, 14 November 1846, 3. . . .
employ pseudo-Zulus who could be more easily controlled and disciplined. When James 12. Q,,toted on page 19 of History of the Bo,,jesmans, or Bush People; the Aboriginals of Southern Africa
(London: Chapman, Elcoate and Co., 1847), a pamphlet sold at later s~ows. M. H. C. Lichtens_tein's
Lloyd engaged a dozen bona fide tribesmen for a show that toured Ireland, he found that
Reisen im sudlichen Aftika in den Jahren 1803, 1804, 1805 and 1806 (Berlin, 18H-1812), first published
"their wildness [in performing dances] was disturbingly genuine; this being one of the in English translation in London (1812-1815), was subsequently reissued m English by the Van
disadvantages encountered by showmen who, with more honesty than aesthetic perception, Riebeeck Society in Cape Town (1928-1930).

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13. Anth~ny Traill, ."~he Lan~ages of the Bushmen," in The Bushmen: San Hunters and Herders of FIFTEEI'W
Southern Africa, ed. Phillip V. Tobias (Cape Town and Pretoria: Human and Rousseau, 1978), 138.
14. Ibid., 139, my emphasis.
15. Liverpool Mail, 14 November 1846, 3. Cf. Liverpool Courier, 18 November 1846, 6; and Dublin's
Saunders's News-Letter, 16 December 1847, 2.
16. Liverpool Chronicle, 5 December 1846, 5. Ogling Igorots: The Politics and Commerce of
17. Birmingham Advertiser, 6 May 1847, 2.
18. Midland Counties Herald, Birmingham and General Advertiser, 22 April 1847, 63. Exhibiting Cultural Otherness, 1898-1913
19. Glasgow Examiner, 24 June 1848, 2.
20. Douglas Jerrold} Weekly Newspaper, 22 May 1847, 636. Cf. Dublin's Evening Packet, 28 December
1847, 3. CHRISTOPHER A. VAUGHAN
21. Spectator, 12 June 1847, 564.
22. Era, 6 June 1847, 11.
23. Manchester Guardian, 10 March 1847, 5.
24. Glasgow Examiner, l July 1848, 2.
25. Manchester Express, 9 March 1847, 3.
26. Warder, 22 January 1848, 5.
27. Plymouth Times, 3 August 1850, 3.
28. Morning Post, 19 May 1847, 6.
29. Cork Southern Reporter, 17 February 1848, 2.
30. Observer, 21 June 1847, 6.
31. David Livingstone, A Popular Account of Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa
Of all the distorted images of the Philippines offered for public consumption in the first years
(London: John Murray, 1875), 35.
32. Charles Dickens, "The Noble Savage," Household Words, 11 June 1853, 197-202. All quotations of the United States's colonization of the islands, none proved more popular-or more
are from this source. difficult to manage-than that of the Bontoc Igorots. Introduced corporeally to Americans
33. London Times, 16 May 1853, 4. under the auspices of the nascent field of anthropology, the animists from the remote
34. London Times, 18 May 1853, 8. mountains of Northern Luzon quickly achieved prominence far out of proportion to their
35. Irving Wallace, The Fabulous Showman: the Life and Times of P T Barnum (New York: Knopf minority status, drawing huge crowds eager to see the scantily clad "dog-eaters" in the flesh.
1959), 111. '
36. A po~ter foryv. C. Coup's Unit:d Monster Shows at the Great Paris Hippodrome in Chicago in
The Igorots' exotic religious rituals and reputation as fearsome headhunters fed a ravenous
public hunger for displays of cultural difference affirming Americans' sense of remove from
1881 advertise~ "Pnncess Amazulu, King Cetewayo's Daughter and Suite." A newspaper advertisement
for the _same c1rcus the following year bills "Zulu Princess Amadage, daughter of King Cetewayo, and the spectre of "savagery." As misleading stand-ins for the Christianized (and thus, inconve-
her maids of honor"; these women were also said to be "the only Female Zulus who ever left Zululand niently, aheady "civilized") majority of Filipinos, the Igorots played an important political role
and the only genuine Zulus in America" (Circus World Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin). in the debate over the United States's embrace of missionary imperialism. As objects of
37. William Cameron Coup, Sawdust and Spangles: Stories and Secrets of the Circus (Chicago: Stone
1901), 166. ' cultural otherness, they exemplified the fluid symbiosis between the cultural project of anthro-
38. Thomas (Whimsical) Walker, From Sawdust to Windsor Castle (London: Paul, 1922), 130. pology and the freakmaking machinery of exhibitionary commerce. As show business sojourn-
39. George Middleton, Circus Memoirs, as Told to and Written by His Wife (Los Angeles: George ers, they achieved fame but not fortune-a bitter bargain given the nature of their notoriety
Middleton, 1913), 69. and the hardships many endured.
40. Program for P. T. Barnu_m with Great London Circus, Madison Square Garden, 17 April 1888 The Igorots' renown reached its peak at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis and was
(Dyer Reynolds Circus Collection, Memphis State University).
sustained in a series of publicly and privately managed displays at official expositions and
41. J. G. Wood, "Dime Museums as Seen from a Naturalist's Standpoint" Atlantic Monthly 55 (June
1885): 760. ' carnival sideshows through the following decade. So powerful did the Igorots' image prove
42. Samuel McKechnie, Popular Entertainments through the Ages (London: Sampson, Low, Marston, that the very government that had put them onstage lost control of the trope and was forced
n.d.), 210. to make extraordinary efforts, including the arrest of former colonial officials, to put the genie
43 .. For this information I am grateful to the late Robert Parkinson, formerly Research Director of back in the bottle. The tale of the Igorot sideshows and the scientists and shady operators
the C1rcus :7Vo~ld M1:1seum, ~araboo, Wisconsin. The words are defined in a glossary appended to Esse who brought them before a receptive public has at its core the tension between education and
Forrester O Bnen, Circus: Cinders to Sawdust (San Antonio: Naylor, 1959), 260.
exploitation, a tension exacerbated by the inconsistent stance of a government playing an
obscurantist culture card in the service of a larger imperial game. As an aesthetically arresting
culture untouched by Spanish Catholicism and thus eligible for American-style transforma-
tion, the Igorots stood outside of the colonial power structure. As anthropological freaks, they
were dehumanized, and thus in some important ways depoliticized. They were, in short,

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perfect subalterns for a colonial power reluctant to acknowledge its baser motives and eager to American supervision. The civilizing mission, a standard justification for establishing control
"discover" fresh frontiers of all kinds. over-and expanding onto the lands of-non-European Others, was the reason cited by
At St. Louis, the lgorots were presented in the context of the aptly dubbed Philippine President William McKinley when he reluctantly declared U.S. intentions to retain the
Reservation, encompassing a diversity of ethnic groups from across the sprawling archipelago. Philippines following the quick and relatively painless Spanish-American War. Paternalism
Though the colorful denizens of the Gran Cordillera were featured prominently in advertise- remained the primary moral stance favoring the colonial project as it came under criticism
ments and fair publications, it was public demand, not government promotion, that placed from a broad coalition of anti-imperialists.
them at the head of the list of the huge fair's attractions. That demand was fed by newspaper Despite clever public relations and rhetoric designed to appeal to the liberty-loving Ameri-
reports and fumbling public relations efforts that called prurient attention to the exhibit. can people, few Filipino voices found sufficient amplification through popular media to
Underlying all the hullabaloo was an enduring American fixation on wildness. counter the barrage of inaccurate stereotypes. The absence of a voice in the United States was
The popular appeal of "wild peoples" at the turn of the century arose amid a discourse of all the more glaring for Filipino ethnic minorities. Aside from the sad, emblematic tale of the
American self-identification influenced by Darwinism, the closing of the continental frontier, bow-and-arrow-shooting Igorots sent to their deaths in the first wave of battle against the
concerns about the nation's fast-diversifying ethnic composition, and a national longing for Americans on February 4, 1899, the "wild people" largely receded from popular consciousness
order exemplified in part by the rise of anthropology and ethnology. In the case of the for the rest of the bloody war. 3
Philippines, the high profile of the "wild peoples" trope owes much to the work of a young Interest in lgorots was revived in 1903 with the first publication of what would become a
ornithologist named Dean C. Worcester. Qyick to see the demand for authoritative literature signature feature of National Geographic: photographs of bare-breasted women. The shirtless
on the newly acquired islands, the ambitious University of Michigan zoology professor Tagbuana and Negrito women shown in the photos had little connection with the accompa-
converted photographs and field notes from 1887-89 and 1890-92 into The Philippine Islands nying articles about the eradication of dise.ases and the discovery of a potential hill station for
and Their People in 1898. This comprehensive tome, which propelled Worcester into a unique colonial bureaucrats, but decontextualized images were not at all uncommon as editors
4
position of power as the only man to serve on the first and second incarnations of the adjusted the balance between scientific interest and popular appeal in favor of the latter.
Philippine Commission, laid emphasis on the exotic. Worcester's scholarly focus on fauna and A similar blurring of education and entertainment took place on another front. Growing
flora predisposed him to train both his camera and his analysis on the natural realm, rather popular demand for spectacle and display met government desires to commemorate progress
than human affairs. The "non-Christian tribes," who had resisted Spanish colonization for in a series of fairs and expositions, each greater than the next as cities vied to assert themselves
three centuries, fell outside the prevailing definition of 1'civilization" and thus within Worces- symbolically as full-grown regional centers. Borrowing a page from international expositions
ter's broad conception of nature. Son of a missionary and a man of keen commercial instincts, in Paris at which Polynesian and Senegalese villages were re-created, Chicago's Columbian
Worcester was to trade on images of wildness throughout his long career as a colonial official Exposition in 1893 introduced visitors to the world through national theme villages on the
and traveling Philippines expert. 1 Midway of Pleasure. The commercial display of the alien Other may have reached its
Worcester was not alone in recognizing the appeal of the "savage" image. The simultaneous apotheosis in the shapely form of F ahreda Mahzar, a Syrian belly dancer billed as "Little
rise of photography and anthropology in the last years of the nineteenth century accounts for Egypt, the Darling of the Nile," whose performances created a "hootchy-kootchy" dance
much of the interest in images of primitivity, but the visual emphasis on physical and cultural show craze foreshadowing the less intentionally erotic appeal of the underdressed lgorots a
difference was widely expressed in popular media as well, often without regard for context. decade later.
Editorial cartoons routinely depicted Filipinos, along with Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and Expressions of interest in displaying Filipinos emerged as early as the 1898 Omaha
Hawaiians, as black-skinned, nappy-haired pickaninnies, usually being disciplined by the tall, Exposition, at which a few Filipinos made a brief appearance late in the fair's run, and the
pale, top-hatted patriarch in the striped pants, Uncle Sam. As an easily differentiated sub- 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, to which permission for a display of live Filipinos
grouping of Filipinos whose appearance and primitive weaponry evoked classic American was denied by the solicitor of the treasury. In 1899, France, refusing to acknowledge Filipinos
images of Indians, Igorots provided an image imbued with the extra power of photographic as Americans, denied an application to include Filipinos in the U.S. display at the Paris
"reality." In 1898, New York Sun correspondent Oscar King Davis's popular eyewitness Exposition. 5
account of U.S. soldiers' first contact with the Philippines, Our Conquest, in the Pacific, made By 1904, however, U.S. control of the Philippines was established and plans were made for
no mention of such peoples, yet the slim selection of photographs accompanying the text an extensive Philippine Exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis. Uniting
were primarily devoted to loincloth-clad tribesmen holding spears or aiming arrows. The Jefferson's vision of an expanded America with the still controversial embrace of overseas
Sears catalog for Fall 1900 boasts a drawing of Igorot spearmen in its advertisement for empire represented by the colonization of the Philippines, the exposition was a critical forum
stereoscopic slide packages. Other examples abound in a variety of media almost from the for the promulgation of a new imperial agenda. Determined to eclipse the shining example of
outset of the encounter. 2 Chicago's White City, the organizers of the fair staged the grandest event in history. Huge in
The misrepresentation of the broader Philippine polity inherent in the focus on "savages" scale and ambition, it incorporated everything from the Western Hemisphere's first Olympic
served an official agenda. Differentiating Filipinos from Americans as starkly as possible Garnes to a Congress of Races. Contending for attention were re-creations of the battles of
served to bolster claims that "natives" were incapable of self-government and thus required Manila and Santiago Bay, magnificent art and industry pavilions, a Department of Anthropol-

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~ CHRISTOPHER A. VAUGHAN f 'j OGLING IGOROTS ~

15.1. The Igorot Village was the most popular attraction of the entire 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.
The scanty dress of the Igorots was a principal reason: When an imminent government order to put
pants on the Igorots was made public, daily crowds of five thousand at the site immediately doubled as
the public rushed to see the "savages" in a "state of nature."

15.2. Fairgoers mingled with the Igorots on display in St. Louis, reveling in what appeared to be an
ogy of unprecedented scope, and the rough-and-tumble of the Pike, which was a street of unmediated encounter with humanity's wild nature. The feast dance celebrated the consumption of dog
stew-an Igorot delicacy and a source of boundless fascination for Americans titillated by displays of
amusements featuring Chinese and Irish villages, Cairo Street, reenactments of battles from
culinary "savagery."
the Boer War, and the ever-popular hootchy-kootchy dancers. By all accounts, however, the
most popular attraction of the 1904 World's Fair was the Igorot Village (fig. 15.1). Mounted
to display the fruits of the United States's recent embrace of colonial empire, the sprawling, candy of the previous decade and body-piercing and stronger substances today. Known for a
forty-acre Philippine Reservation featured separate exhibits for tribes from throughout the tradition of headhunting, the Igorots were unlikely to put such skills on display outside the
archipelago's more than seven thousand islands. The "civilized" Visayans, despite offering context of battle, but their public consumption of Man's Best Friend may have raised thoughts
hourly theatrical and orchestral performances-concluding with "The Star Spangled Banner," of cannibalism (fig. 15.2). Indeed, before they even arrived, newspaper articles heralded their
sung in English by the entire village-went relatively ignored in comparison to the Igorots, unusual hankering for canine cuisine. The Igorots exacerbated the consternation of conserva-
whose ceremonial dances, near-nakedness, and daily consumption of dog stew captured tive readers with their unabashed joy at the prospect of consuming daily what was usually a
headlines and the entertainment dollars of fairgoers. Gate receipts at the Igorot concession delicacy reserved for special occasions. The St. Louis Humane Society, citing a local ordi-
nearly quadrupled the total for the Visayans and tripled that of the colorful Moros. 6 nance, condemned the practice but was shouted down by a broad assortment of voices
The nomadic Negritos, who were held up as even more primitive than the Igorots-and representing both producers and consumers of the most popular show in town. Included
thus bound for extinction-did not generate one-third the revenue or attention paid to the among the defenders of dog-eating was the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which wondered, in a
natives of the Mountain Province, in large measure because the lgorots presented image tongue-in-cheek front-page headline, whether it was "the beef trust, speaking through the
traders with more sensational material. Cigar-smoking women, tattooed members of both humane society, that would rob the Irrogote [sic] of his cherished dog meat?" The paper's
sexes, dances celebrating the cooking of dogs-the violation of taboos surrounding diet and clumsy foray into cultural relativism was undermined by the cartoon above the article, which
the display of the body can be seen as an extension of the hootchy-kootchy dances and cotton depicted a bewildered, club-wielding Igorot, thick-lipped and earring-clad, being warned off

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a prospective meal of poached pooch by a bespectacled, top-hatted Humane Society killjoy. make prominent the savageness and barbarism of the wild tribes either for show purposes
The delicious appeal of what was widely seen as savage dietary perversity helped to build the or to depreciate the popular estimate of the general civilization of the Islands. I hope you
novelty value of the Igorots to the point where an average of five thousand people a day were will at once take steps to comply with the President's wishes. You should put more
visiting the re-created Bontoc village early in the fair's run. 7 clothing on the Igorrotes and wild tribes and at the gate put signs showing how small a
Fair publicity managers were not shy about promoting the dog-eater angle: part of the population the Igorrotes and other wild tribes are. 10

About the time the World's Fair City is waking at early morning, one hundred bare- The government's late-dawning concern for proportionality and context gave rise to high-
limbed Igorot often sacrifice and eat a dog on the Philippine reservation. At the same level haberdashery before the day was out. "I think that short trunks would be enough for the
hour, scarcely two hundred yards away, a bugle sounds reveille, and four hundred well- man, but that for the Negrito women there ought to be shirts or chemises of some sort,"
trained soldiers in the blue of the United States Army hustle from their tents. These are Taft's next telegram suggested. The policy grew firmer the next day: "President still thinks
the Philippine Scouts. The yells of the dog-dance have scarcely ceased before the blue that where the Igorrote has a mere G string that it might be well to add a short trunk to cover
line is formed for roll call, and the Philippine soldiers stand at attention beneath an the buttocks and the front .... Please look into the feasibility of putting short trunks on the
American flag, while a Philippine band plays an American air. All of these people live Igorrotes." Edwards passed the command to the Igorot Village manager, Dr. Truman K.
on the same island in the Philippines. The Igorot represent the wildest race of savages, Hunt, through Philippine Exposition Board member Gustavo Niederlein, adding that pro-
the scouts stand for the results of American rule-extremes of the social order in the moters should "allow no child to go naked. This will be the best compromise until we see
islands. 8 how the matter works out, and fancy the G string can then be restored." 11
Edwards's prediction that the cover-up would not be sustained was born out, but little
The conscious and exaggerated presentation of difference was in common currency at St. could any of the officials have known the magnitude of the reaction the awkward trouser
Louis, where fair organizers' anxieties about besting Chicago's commercial success tipped the policy would bring. When word got out that the Igorots would soon be wearing Western
ethical scales in favor of popular appeal. At the same time, national political leaders pressed garb, a flood of protests arrived from prospective fair patrons anxious to visit the exhibit
for displays projecting an official image Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett has identified as "a before the change. Whether motivated by prurience or a hunger for authenticity, the voice of
utopian national whole that harmoniously integrates regional diversity." The rhetorical linkage the people was loud and clear in favor of more skin. An editorial entitled "Dog-Eaters in
oflgorots and proto-American Scouts through geographical proximity served such ends, even Pants" took an aesthetic tack: "The putting of pants on the Igorrote imputes a decided want
if the public relations strategy was inconsistently pursued. Officials charged with presenting of culture to the War Department of this, our glorious Empire. It is doubtful art, to say the
the Philippines in the best possible light deflected complaints of sensationalism onto consum- least. The Igorrote was not half bad, or not much more than half, when we found him. But
ers of the alien images. "The advertising departments have avoided official mention of [dog- pants will make him a fright. Draping Venus is as nothing to the crime of creating a scarecrow
eating] and have endeavored to call attention to the more worthy characteristics of the out of a beautiful live savage.... Putting pants on the Igorrote is cruelly incasing him in a
natives," went the disingenuous company line. "It is not true that the savages have been capsule to render him less unpalatable." 12
unduly exploited at the expense of the more dignified exhibits, but no amount of emphasis on The contradictory position of the government was evident to all. Courting public approval
the commercial exhibits, Constabulary drills and Scouts parades has distracted attention from of the imperial venture through commercial ethnographic display, no matter how scientific
the 'dog-eaters' and 'head-hunters.' " 9 the rubric, entailed releasing official control to the forces of the marketplace. St. Louis Post-
Generalized concerns about the balance between savagery and civilization in the Philippine Dispatch editor G. S. Johns put it bluntly: "What do we all go out to the World's Fair for to
exhibit grew specific after complaints about abbreviated Igorot attire reached Washington. see? The frank savagery of unaccommodated manhood or the symbol of shamefaced civiliza-
Fearing anti-imperialist Democrats would have a field day calling attention to images of half- tion?" In a letter to Philippine exhibit publicity chief Herbert S. Stone, Johns twisted his
naked Filipinos in a presidential election year, President Theodore Roosevelt's ordinarily argument to align science and propriety: "To put pants on them would change a very
sharp sense of public relations failed him. On June 23, 1904, the War Department's man in interesting ethnological exhibit which shocks the modesty of no one into a suggestive side-
charge of Philippine matters, Colonel Clarence Edwards, received a telegram from the office show. It would give the public that consciousness of immodesty which is the original sin." 13
of Secretary of War William Howard Taft, the former governor of the Philippines, stating: Johns's blithe suggestion that the government would be the promoter of prurience neatly
deflected responsibility away from his newspaper, which profited from every controversy it
The President has heard severe criticism of the Igorrotes and wild tribe exhibit on the could report or concoct. Within days, under the glare of suddenly aroused national attention,
ground that it verges toward the indecent. He believes either the Igorrotes and wild the Post-Dispatch was gleefully making journalistic hay from the story. Beneath a large cartoon
tribes should be sent home or that they should be more fully clad. He thinks scouts and featuring Taft, trousers in hand, chasing a reluctant Igorot, the top headline proclaimed,
the constabulary should be given more prominence and that everything possible should "Whoop! How the People Rush to See The Igorrotes Before They Put the Pants On."
be done to avoid any possible impression that the Philippine Government is seeking to Subheadings quoted letters from the public-" 'Dear Governor, Please Write and Say What

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~ CHRISTOPHER A. VAUGHAN IC ~ OGLING IGOROTS IC

,I
is the Last No-Pant-On Day' "-and asserted that paid admissions at the Igorot Village, tion, the visual, olfactory, and tactile aspects distinguishing the Igorot Village from other
spurred by just such concerns, had doubled from five thousand to ten thousand within twenty- exhibits overwhelmed formal elements privileging the perspective of professional presenters.
I, four hours. Writer Clark McAdams waxed poetic: Whether influenced directly by official fair literature or not, however, fairgoers operated
within an established frame of reference. The attire, diet, and headhunter image of the Igorot
Blessings on thee, little man, Living on the Eden plan, lent themselves perfectly to the trope of savagery. The village's remote location, near the
In thy unaffected way, Drawing thousands every day. furthest edge of the fairgrounds, may have contributed to the sense of distance from civiliza-
Wild as winds, and free as air, You're a winner at the Fair. tion. The backdrop-an "authentic" village inasmuch as it had been constructed by the
Ah, is that the monthly draft? No, it is a note from Taft. Igorots themselves-played an important part in completing the mental picture of savagery
Of what pressing circumstance Does he write? The Igorrotes! They must for which fairgoers apparently sought affirmation. 17
wear pants! The St. Louis World's Fair was a self-consciously definitive event for the world's newest
The Igorrotes must wear clothes! Impossible! Ten thousand No's! colonial power. The presentation of a clear contrast between American civilization and the
Four billion nits! Twelve billion Can'ts! Great Cesar, anything but pants! 14 savagery its new policies purported to eliminate was as crucial to the construction of a new
American identity as the technological advances that made the imperial advance possible.
In seeking to control the image, the government had run smack against the very impulse The Igorots occupied a space between the Negritos-seen as completely "wild" and thus
that drew crowds to walk past two miles of exhibits showing off the latest technological and understood to be doomed in a world with no more place for wildness-and the "civilized"
artistic achievements. A public exposed to a quantum leap in mediated experience over the groups whose Anglo-Saxon apogee was being established in the United States. Their freakish
preceding decade had seized the opportunity to confront directly, in what seemed to most an predilections, in American eyes, offered an appealing duality. Clearly possessed of dignity and
unmediated encounter, the savage Other. Erecting a thin cloth barrier between admission- a culture long pre-dating any American traditions, the Igorots posited an alternative existence.
paying customers and the image they had come to see was a policy doomed to extinction. By Yet their lack of material wealth and "degraded" diet and appearance offered security for
July 14, a barrage ofletters from the public-many orchestrated by local newspapers-helped fairgoers bent on defining themselves against a dialectical opposite. The Igorot image served
convince Washington that federal interference in local standards of decency was a losing to enhance self-identification with "advanced" society by confirming Americans' distance from
proposition. Citing a face-saving report of nonembarrassment from the fair's Board of Lady "backwardness." 18
Managers, Edwards reported that the president was willing to "abide by their judgment" and While the Louisiana Purchase Exposition represented a mixture of ideological and eco-
allow loincloths to prevail. 15 nomic imperatives, the Igorot freak shows emanating from it followed a decidedly commercial
"The Philippine Reservation, though two miles from the Lindell entrance, was plainly the path. Citing "the general desire on the part of the people of the United States who did not
Mecca for a majority of the Sunday tourists," one newspaper reported. "Great crowds were get to visit the St. Louis World's Fair to see the Igorrotes," the renowned midway impresario
seen on the paths leading to the Walled City and the Cuartel, and once the crowds reached Edmund A. Felder proposed a two-year tour that would send the musically inclined Visayans
the scene of Oriental interest they remained there." Complaints from the less popular to the best vaudeville houses and the Igorots to Coney Island, state fairs, and the 1905 Lewis
Philippine exhibits about the predominance of the Igorots were tempered by the knowledge and Clark Exposition in Portland. While boasting to Edwards that he had ample capital to
that most of the crowds in their sector of the fairgrounds had likely come to witness the stage such an extended display, Felder proposed to divert some of the proceeds from the
tattooed bodies and dog-eating of the Igorots, and that some might stay on for, say, a glimpse shows into trail-building and police functions in the Cordillera. Where those diversions
of the exotic Bagobo or a tune from the refined Visayans. 16 would come from was not left entirely to the imagination. "It is the generally expressed
The Igorots were in competition not only with other Filipino displays, after all, but with opinion," he wrote, "that the lgorot as an individual has no need of money." 19
the ethnographic exhibits staged by the Department of Anthropology- Patagonian "giants," That was the operating principle cited by Hunt when he was charged by some Igorots with
Japanese aboriginal Ainu, Central African Pygmies, and American Indians, including Geron- improperly withholding their wages. The former lieutenant governor of Lepanto-Bontoc
imo and Chief Joseph-not to mention the elaborate pavilion of ascendant Japan and the disputed the charges and managed to retain control of much of the village's considerable
centrally located and well-promoted Pike. To have prevailed as the public's favorite, the revenues until the end of the year, when Carson Taylor was appointed to take over as banker
Igorots had to present something unique. Dog-eating certainly qualified, but it was the to the Filipinos. Asked to turn over the funds he was holding, Hunt said there were none.
perceived overall authenticity of the Igorot Village that elevated the exhibit above the rest: Despite Hunt's financial chicanery, he remained in a strong position to continue promoting
Here, fairgoers decided, was "true" savagery, with all the trimmings. the Igorot phenomenon after the fair, in large measure due to the support of Worcester, who
Set apart from the showmanship of the Pike and the static ethnography of W. J . .McGee's asserted that "Dr. Hunt thoroughly understands the handling of such people'' and should be
Anthropology Department, the Igorot Village was what Kirshenblatt-Gimblett calls an in allowed to import more Filipinos.2°
situ exhibition, a site of detailed display in which the "realness" of the ethnographic object Edwards expressed concerns that shorn of the context provided by their village and the rest
allows the observer an active interpretive role. Though accompanied by ample explanatory of the Philippine Reservation, such a display would create "false public opinion as to the
literature, a hallmark of the contrasting style Kirshenblatt-Gimblett terms in context exhibi- intellectual advancement, social development and political ability of the people of the Philip-

227

I,
 ;1 CHRISTOPHER A. VAUGHAN~ ;1 OGLING IGOROTS ~

pine Islands generally." Expressing his ambivalence with a telling metaphor, Edwards wrote: concession to another official body unlikely to have been granted to a private concern -was a
"I rather deprecate the idea of taking these people to Coney Island and giving the people of boon to the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition. The Igorots arrived six weeks before the end
the United States the idea that the majority of the people of the Philippines are similar to the of the fair, became a top draw on the Trail, and won several awards. 24
Igorrotes and Negritos, in the same way I would rather deprecate the idea of having Apachee Though it was placed squarely in the midst of the blatantly commercial operations of the
{sic} Indians traveling around to represent Americans." The Colonel then backed away from Trail, the Igorot Village was touted officially as an "educative and ethnological" display, even
his concerns, however: "I must admit they have done so, with Buffalo Bill, and it has not hurt as it clearly bore signs of unscientific cultural tampering. Schneidewind bragged in a letter to
us abroad, and possibly might do no harm in the case of the Filipinos." 21 Worcester that "at least a dozen of the men and boys can now sing in English about 15
Ignoring for a moment the absurdity of a direct comparison between the well-established American popular and patriotic songs, and this is an especially well received feature of the
international image of the United States and that of its new, culturally eclectic colony, exhibit." While diluting the cultural integrity of the exhibit, the promoter laid claim to
Edwards's willingness to sanction the jettisoning of the exhibit's context raises a key question: improved verisimilitude in the area of dog-eating by reducing the incidence of such feasts: "It
If the purpose of the Philippine Reservation was, as stated, to illustrate the civilizing progress is believed that they have but a small part in the life of the Igorrotes and that they give a
possible under American stewardship by contrasting Igorot and Negrito with Philippine degraded impression of these fine people to the American public." While peddling pious
Scouts, what purpose would be served by the unbalanced post-fair presentation of Igorots sentiments to the government, Schneidewind was promoting his show at its next venue, Los
proposed by Hunt and Felder? The question was to trouble the official guardians of the Angeles' Chutes Park, as "The Call of the Wild." To assure that the call was heard loud and
Filipino image for years, but a hands-off policy with regard to the private exhibition business clear by Angelenos, handbills urged readers to visit the "Head-Hunting, Dog-Eating Wild
generally prevailed. Quickly capitalizing on the Igorotcraze, Felder, Hunt, and anthropologist People From the Philippines!" They did so in droves.25
Samuel M. McGowan founded the International Anthropological Exhibit Company to stage Given the only slightly more restrained promotional language employed by the government
a national exhibition tour of Filipinos. In the midst of the St. Louis Fair, the company struck at St. Louis, such rhetoric probably did not prejudice the government against the FEC. The
ii
a deal with the planners of the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, company's back-channel cultivation of official approval, on the other hand, together with the
Oregon, for a Philippine Exhibit consisting of Igorot, Visayan, and Negrito displays on the various awards and commendations sought and received in Portland, may have helped cement
Trail, Portland's version of the Pike. 22 its advantage over the renegade operation of Hunt, whose tour had been marred by the deaths
In addition to foreshadowing the erosion of the barrier between education and entertain- of Igorots in New Orleans and Seattle. Such concerns would soon prove vital, for a clash of
ment that so tenuously prevailed at St. Louis, the arrangement violated the War Department's interests awaited in both operations' next destination, Chicago. 26
plan to return the Filipinos to their homes following the World's Fair. That stricture was The transition of the Igorot display from government control to private management
already unraveling in the face of strong public demand for more Filipino shows and the proved relatively benign in the case of the FEC, though it took a pay raise to convince
willingness of most of the Filipinos to extend their exhibition work. The famed Philippine mutinous Igorots to go to Chicago's Riverview Park instead of home to the Philippines in
Constabulary Band booked performances across the country. The Visayans accepted an June 1906. Hunt's road show, however, was fast confirming many of the government's worst
invitation to the New York Art Exhibition at Madison Square Garden following their St. fears about losing control of the Igorots. Official concerns were no longer focused so much on
Louis stint. The Filipino midgets, Juan and Martina de la Cruz, parlayed their status as the the issue of the tarnished Filipino image as on who controlled such images and the conse-
world's smallest adult humans from a reasonably successful place on the Pike to an extended quences for American prestige. When Hunt, who had been importing Igorots without Bureau
stay in the United States as the stars of the traveling Filipino Midget Theater. The Igorots oflnsular Affairs knowledge and staging "dog-eater" exhibitions across the country, turned up
remained the group most coveted by promoters, however, and Hunt had the inside track. 23 across town at the San Souci amusement park in Chicago, Schneidewind and Felder, abhor-
In March 1905, Hunt contracted with fifty Igorots to come to the United States for one ring head-to-head competition with a "pirated" Igorot troupe, played their trump card: They
year, promising each a fifteen-dollar monthly salary plus all expenses paid. When disputes asked for a federal inspection of the competition, asserting that Hunt's shoddy operation
arose within the partnership, Hunt left the company, offering the Lewis and Clark Centennial 'might be "confounded in the public mind" with their own. 27
an Igorots-only exhibit to replace the initially proposed mix of Filipinos. Felder countered by Inspections of the competing operations revealed FEC's to be bonded and humane, while
lining up a new partner, Richard W. Schneidewind, who after being fired from his mail clerk Hunt's was found illicit and "atrocious." The Igorots, quartered in tents beneath the loop of
job in Manila for smuggling found work arranging cigar exhibits for Neiderlein at St. Louis. the roaring San Souci roller coaster, complained of embezzlement and abuse at the hands of
Their Filipino Exhibition Company (FEC) struggled with government reluctance to allow Hunt, who in turn claimed to be holding their money so that they would not lose it. Hunt's
more Igorots to leave the Philippines. Portland's fair managers, mindful that Hunt's Igorots myriad maneuvers to evade seizure of his Igorot "property'' complicated matters: Rounding
would draw far more crowds than Felder's suddenly uncertain mix, favored Hunt's bid. Hunt, up Hunt's troupes for transport back to the Philippines took weeks. Some were pursued to
however, pulled out, instead signing a contract with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Canada and returned to Chicago, where they were integrated into Schneidewind's opera-
Elks for a nationwide series of carnival appearances. Faced with the prospect of being unable tion.28
to deliver the much-advertised Igorot Village, Portland officials appealed to Taft to relax his Legal proceedings among Hunt, his partners, various Igorots, and the government extended
opposition to allowing a second Igorot troupe into the United States. Taft's approval-a into 1907, by which point Hunt had been jailed, freed after a mysterious judicial reversal in

228 229
 -;j CHRISTOPHER A. VAUGHAN If ij OGLING IGOROTS fi-

Memphis, and hounded as a fugitive. In response to a 1907 inquiry about Hunt's whereabouts
from his wife, Else, in New York, Edwards reported the entrepreneur's latest disappearance
following his release from jail in Memphis, his potential extradition to New Orleans to face
more embezzlement charges, and his correspondence while in the Memphis jail "with his wife
in Louisville, Kentucky." Hunt's escapes were said to have been aided by the Elks. 29
For the U.S. government, Igorot exhibitions had gone from hot product to hot potato in
less than two years. In the Philippines, protests over the misrepresentation of Filipinos were
constant. At a time when the United States sought to soothe the still-raw wounds of the
Philippine-American War, in part by staging the first National Assembly elections in 1907,
the Igorot freak shows were an embarrassment and a hindrance to peace and political
development. 30 15.3. Ceremonial Igorot dancers occupied a
It was against this backdrop that the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition was staged in prominent position at the head of the South Pay
1907. No Igorots were included, by very conscious choice. "Much of the good impression that Streak, the busy midway of the 1909 Alaska-Yu-
should have remained with the thousands of visitors to the Philippine exhibit [at St. Louis] kon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle. Promoters ig-
nored government warnings against emphasizing
was lost or at least prejudiced by an unfortunate arrangement of the native Filipinos who were the "savage" spectacle, applying an academic ve-
a part of the Philippine Reservation," argued the president of the Philippine Exposition neer to the exhibit by offering college anthropol-
Company at Jamestown, William A. Sutherland, who noted the underrepresentation of "the ogy courses in "The Growth of Cultural Evolu-
civilized or Christianized races" and the stiff competition from "well-advertised" concessions tion Around the Pacific." From the private
where the "tom-toms" were "going at all hours, and which made much of the uncouth habits collection of Eric Breitbart.
of certain of the tribes . ... As a consequence, to many the word 'Filipino' became synonymous
with 'Igorot, Moro, Tinguiane, Bagobo' and the like." Commercially, the Jamestown fair was For all their continued popularity, the public presentation ofigorots by 1908 had become
far less successful than St. Louis or Portland. Still, Sutherland could not please the Filipinos: old hat. Their appearance in the private sphere, however, was cause for comment and even
In Manila, La Igualdad condemned the display of any Filipinos, Igorot or not. 31 alarm. McRae arranged crowded housing for his group of thirty-six in a rooming house
Diplomatic considerations meant little to the promoters of the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific described by a local real estate agent as part of a neighborhood filled with "a very refined
Exposition in Seattle. Aware of the intense interest the Igorots had created at Portland four group of tenants." The appearance of cheroot-puffing old women and children "wearing little
years earlier, Schneidewind and Felder ignored the warning of the BIA's Frank McIntyre that else beyond a cheerful smile and a look of contentment" aroused neighbors to cries of
"too much prominence should not be given to the Igorots as they are a side show and are not "scandalous!" and "simply shocking!" The Evening Telegraph fed the fire with its story of the
truly representatives of the Filipino people." The profitable Igorot Village was located right at "invasion'' of the street by "Uncle Sam's Igorot headhunters." To landlord Edward Potter,
the head of the fair's midway, the South Pay Streak (fig. 15.3). An academic veneer was however, it was the other way around: Extra curtains had to be hung to avoid the intimidating
applied, however, by Cambridge anthropologist Alfred C. Haddon, who used the exhibit to experience of neighbors gathering around the yard to gawk at the Igorots, whose cultural
offer a University of Washington summer school course, "The Growth of Cultural Evolution tradition teaches that it is impolite to stare. 34
Around the Pacific." 32 After McRae's troupe ended its summer on Coney Island in 1909, the U.S. government
Whether presented as ethnological specimens or freaks, Igorots were turning up across the tightened Philippine emigration controls to prevent more exhibits. Even the well-connected
United States. Writing to a citizen complaining of Igorots in his "respectable" Philadelphia Schneidewind had to struggle mightily to gain permission to transport a band of Igorots to
neighborhood, McIntyre lamented that while "the government has discouraged in every Europe in 1911. In 1913, finding no more buyers for his hitherto hot commodity, he
legitimate way that it could the bringing of Igorots to the United States," jurisdictional abandoned them in Ghent, Belgium. Nine had died, some of starvation. The rest were sent
limitations made it impossible to end the popular practice. In 1908, former soldier, teacher, home to obscurity, never again to occupy the profitable, dehumanizing freak show stage. 35
and Philippine Constabulary Captain John R. McRae brought a group of Igorots to Europe, The powerful act of the gaze functions on many levels, from the invasive stares trained on
then to the U.S. East Coast. The Philadelphia North American treated the Igorots both as the shy Igorots in Edward Potter's backyard to the kaleidoscopic spectacle of a dog-stew fest
creatures of nature-"lithe and graceful as panthers"-and as actors depicting themselves, in staged for a paying crowd at a World's Fair. Salient throughout America's decade of staring at
situ: "The habits and customs of the little brown people from across the Pacific are reproduced savages, however, was a process of discovery intimately linking Self and Other. In the face of
with fidelity and accuracy in detail." Dubbing them "head-hunters" (at that point no heads record-breaking immigration from nontraditional regions that challenged the myth of shared
had been taken for years) the newspaper recited the standard elements of the popular trope to Anglo-Saxon ethnicity, the presence of a markedly differentiated Other made possible the
stimulate attendance, throwing in a coupon for public school students as extra incentive. 33 task of defining on cultural grounds a new collective Self. Entering a new epoch of accelerat-

230 2JI
 ~ CHRISTOPHER A. VAUGHAN~ ~ OGLING IGOROTS I,

ing change in which their own identities would inevitably undergo fundamental alteration, 21. NARA RO 350, File 10622; Col. Clarence Edwards to Civil Governor, Philippines, 19 January
1905, RO 350, File 13431-3.
Americans proved eager for the chance to confront a trope they saw as a negative image of
22. Robert Rydell, All the World} a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions,
iiiI, themselves-the Other in which so much had been invested in redeeming. 1876-1916 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 194.
,j
Of course, the Igorot freak shows and anthropological exhibits of the early twentieth 23. NARA_ RO 350, File 10000/24, 25,26, 33; RO 350, File 9639/37, 55. Promoted as twenty-seven
century involved more than just the gaze. Human beings and their cultural trappings were and twenty-rune ,~n~hes tall on the _letter?,ead of Evans & F~ley,_ their Des Moines-based promoters in
collected, like baskets and buttons, or bugs in a jar, for the study and more often the 1906, the same midgets of all midgets were by 1911 bemg billed on G. W. Fairley', letterhead as
amusement of curious Westerners intoxicated by images of freaks. Under the respectable tw"enty-?ne and twenty-four inches tall. Their appeal, alas, had also shrunk, and Fairley was reduced to
~eseec~1~~ th~ gover~ent on behalf of"the little man," who had been cheated of his savings by a full-
cover of science, laymen could participate vicariously in an elite activity-ethnology as
sized Filipma m Mobile, Alabama. NARA RO 350, File 10622.
entertainment. Although some may have straddled the fine line between the two, seeking 24. NARA RO 350, File 13847/40; Rydell, All the Worlds a Fair, 195-96; RO 350 Files 9957
upward mobility in an age of increasingly stratified cultural hierarchy, for most the corollary 2388/3,7; 13431/9. ' '
benefits of ogling Igorots-breaking loose from Victorian strictures, indulging an informa- 25. NARA RO 350, File 13431/9; Advertising Brochure in RO 350, File 13431/3.
I
tion-age craving for novelty, celebrating American power, sophistication, and whiteness- 26. NARA RO 350, File 13431/21.
27. NARA RO 350, File 13431/10; RO 350, File 13431/20.
were more than enough motivation to take a walk on the wild side. 36
28. NARA RO 350, Files 13431/24, 25, 47; 13847/9, 11; RO 350, File 13847/11 12 22 23· 37
39, 52. ' ' ' ' '
NOTES
29. NARA RO 350, File 13847/4, 37, 40, 52, 61, 138,187; File 9640/45.
1. Dean C. Worcester, The Philippine Islands and Their People (New York: Macmillan, 1898). 30. NARA RO 350, File 13847/9; RO 350, File 15000/3.
2. Sears, Roebuck and Co. Consumer; Guide, Fall 1900 (Northfield, Ill.: DBI Books, 1971), 218. On 31. NARA RO 350, File 15000/1, 2.
the role of photography, see Elizabeth Edwards, ed., Anthropology and Photography, 1860-1920 (New 32. NARA RO 350, File 16030/20; Rydell, All the World; a Fair, 197.
Haven: Yale University Press, 1992); Oscar King Davis, Our Conquests in the Pacifi,c (New York: 33. NARA RO 350, File 11761/10; North American, 13 November 1908, in RO 350 File 11761/9
14. ' '
FrederickA. Stokes, i899).
3. "The Third Battle of Manila," Literary Digest 18 (1899): 180. 34. Evening Telegraph, 11 December 1908, in NARA RO 350, File 11761/11.
4. "Benguet-The Garden of the Philippines," National Geographic 14 (May 1903): 203-10. 35. McRae later made a career promoting "The Wild Man of Borneo." NARA RO 350, File 13431/
5. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., Record Group 350, File 54, 56; Troy Times, 7 and 8 November 1913; New York Sun, 6 November 1913.
1157/1; Outlying Possessions Exhibit, Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, N.Y. (Arts and In- 36. On the importance of collection and display as key processes in the foimation of Western
dustry Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.), Box 52, File 26; NARA RO 350, File id~ntity, see James ~~ord, "On Collecting Art and Culture," in The Predicament of Culture (Cam-
,, 1190. bridge: Harvard ~mvers~ty Press, 1988). On the redrawing of cultural boundaries at century's turn, see
Ii 6. Report of the Philippine Exposition Board (Microfilm Reel 159, No. 3, National Museum of Lawrence W. LeVJ.ne, Highbrow Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America (Cambridge:
11,:
American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.), 26-30. Harvard University Press, 1988).
I'
r' 7. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6 April 1904, 1.
I
8. The Philippine Exhibition Souvenir Guide (St. Louis, 1904).
9. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, "Objects of Ethnography," in Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine,
eds., Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution Press, 1991), 389; Report of the Philippine Exposition Board, 33.
10. NARA RO 350, File 9640/3.
11. Ibid.
12. St. Louis Republic, 28 June 1904; NARA RO 350, File 9640/13.
13. NARA RO 350, File 9640/18.
14. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3 July 1904; NARA RO 350, Filer 9640/27.
15. NARA RO 350, File 9640/13.
16. NARA RO 350, File 9640/1.
17. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, "Objects of Ethnography," 388-90.
18. The use of "wildness" in opposition to "civilization" serves to authenticate the cultural self in the
same manner as other constructions based on dialectical antithesis (such as heresy:orthodoxy and
madness:sanity). See Hayden White, Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism (Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1978), 150-52.
19. Edmund A. Felder to Col. Clarence Edwards, 22 December 1904, 24 December 1904, NARA
RO 350, File 13431-3.
20. A. L. Lawshe to Col. Clarence Edwards, 15 October 1904, NARA RO 350, Folder 9640/32;
Jester to Edwards, File 9640/33; Report of Harry C. Lewis to Edwards, 30 December 1904, RO 350,
File 9640/38

232 23.J

l'
1,

-"
71 " WHAT AN OBJECT HE WOULD HAVE MADE OF ME!" f

time, pointedly rejecting prevailing interpretations of them as subhuman barbarians, canni-

bals, and heathens. But this noble effort ultimately breaks down, and Tommo flees in a panic
over the discovery of what he presumes is cannibalism. The result, Melville shows, is the loss
of a moral and epistemological center of gravity for both the narrator and his audience.
"What an object he would have made of me!": Writing at a time when race had become the central issue in American political and social
life, Melville seeks the roots of prejudice, the cause and effect of perceived difference among
Tattooing and the Racial Freak in Melville's Typee human beings. Typee dramatizes the encounter with racial difference through the adventures
of a would-be anthropologist who at first appears to be a modern cultural relativist out of
LEONARD CASSUTO place and time, but who eventually shows his true colors-or rather his "true color." When
he betrays a fear of blackness, Tommo ultimately shows himself to be more like his nine-
It is not unsurmised, that only when extraordinary stimulus is needed, teenth-century American peers than he prefers to admit.
only when an extra strain is to be got out of them, are these hapless Melville uses several potent symbols to signal Tommo's position in the web of Western
'Gees ennobled with the human name.
1
-HERMAN MELVILLE, "THE GEES"
belief and practice, but the most important of these is the facial tattoo. Such Typee adorn-
ment-which Tommo dramatically refuses-becomes the literal marker in his mind between
"normal" (linked to whiteness and American identity) and "freak," a liminal figure who is
foreign and black. Typee expresses the multiple connections among the heyday of abolitionism,
the glaring and newly exploitable weaknesses in slavery ideology that the movement reflected
and fed off of, the proslavery activity that rose in response to abolitionism, and the rise of the
freak show-all of which appeared in the United States at about the same time. The freak
show entered American society when institutionalized racism became the subject of increased
A friend of mine who prides himself on being tolerant told me recently about a private social scrutiny and public debate and the socially constructed barriers separating black from
embarrassment he had experienced over a few months a couple of years ago. One of his gay white came under increasing attack. Tattooing in Typee embodies this tension, acting as a
male friends had taken to kissing him by way of greeting, and the practice was inwardly code for racial difference that visibly lioks color to freak status.
repulsing him. My friend took this as a test. He challenged himself to become more open to It was no accident that the freak show was known in the circus trade as a "Nig Show," and
such intimacies, and essentially forced himself to overcome his upset and distaste at being Melville crystallizes the significance of that nickname in Typee. 3 The freak show- and
kissed by another man. By dint of his considerable effort, the experience eventually became especially its tattooed members, black and white-brought physical anomaly, the racial other,
familiar to him and his feeliogs of distress went away. My friend told me this story with a and the racial freak (a nonwhite "primitive") together under the tent. The existence and
certain amount of pride-which seems justified-but learning such tolerance isn't always as continuing popularity of the racial freak suggests that the freak show drew most of its power
simple as it was for him. Sometimes the beliefs of a whole culture are arrayed against the from the psychic energy generated by a racially divided society. Tommo's fear in Typee of
effort to be open-minded-as they were in pre-civil rights Mississippi, for example, against becoming a racial freak thus stands as an individual manifestation of an increasing tension
any white person who might have been inclined to treat African Americans as friends or that permeated American culture generally in the 1840s, a tension linked to the unraveling of
equals. Racist acculturation in the Jim Crow South put insidious pressure on such well- the racial distinctions central to American social organization and the meaning of being
meaning people to adopt local prejudices and public practices such as wiping one's hand after "white."
shaking hands with a black man. 1 When the beliefs and traditions of an entire society dictate
against tolerance, even defending it becomes exceedingly difficult, let alone practicing it. In RESISTING THE GROTESQUE
the end, talking the talk is usually easier than walking the walk.
Typee, Herman Melville's 1846 novel of an individual's encounter with a radically different Once he finds himself among the Typees, Tommo compares his own customs with theirs in
culture and its customs, shows how difficult it is to rise above the beliefs of one's own group, an unusually fair-minded way for his time. 4 Though the study of "exotic" cultures was
and how elusive the ideal of open-minded human equality can be when those beliefs are catching on in the United States when Melville wrote Typee in the mid-1840s, anthropology
challenged. Based closely on Melville's own experience in the Marquesan Islands, Typee did not enter the social sciences until the next century. In its place evolved a nineteenth-
features a narrator, Tommo, who jumps ship in the Marquesas, eventually finding himself century science called ethnology that claimed the study of alien cultures as its province. By
among the Typee tribe. 2 Despite the notorious Typee reputation for cannibalism, Tommo 1850, ethnology was firmly established; its methods were hierarchical, relying on a scale of
brings the best of intentions to his relations with them. He consciously seeks to understand humanity ranging from "primitive" to "civilized." In contrast to such assumptions, Tommo's
their customs and appreciate their lives from their perspective, not his own. In particular, he egalitarian practice at first resembles that of the twentieth-century ethnographer, somehow
seeks to avoid the Western attitudes toward Polynesians that were prevalent during Melville's practicing an early version of cultural relativism before anthropology was invented. 5 Aware of

235
2 34
 ~ LEONARD CASSUTO IS- ~ "WHAT AN OBJECT HE WOULD HAVE MADE OF ME!" f

his natural Western bias, Tammo keeps his bearings and makes adjustments, such as when he that if he had been marked as a Typee, he would cease to be a person at all in his own
realizes that the Typees have their own eating etiquette even if they don't use silverware. He (American) eyes.
even keeps his composure when he sees men with green skin, remarking simply that they gain Tamma's reaction to the threatened tattooing suggests that deep down, he has always seen
that strange cast when their tattoos start to age. the Typees as "objects." But he also sees them and interacts with them as fellow humans. By
What is crucial here-and also remarkable-is that Tammo resists the urge to react to embedding this unarticulated, unconscious conttadiction within Tamma's mind, Melville
these phenomena as grotesque. Instead of allowing visceral revulsion to take hold, he deliber- shows just how human objectification works-and fails. Tammo has divided Typees and
ately distances himself and examines things rationally. Green men are therefore described to Westerners into distinct categories and ranked the Typee category below his own, as a race of
us with nearly the same dispassion as the thatch of the native huts might be. The narration is "objects." On the other hand, Tammo wants human company, and he readily embraces the
explicit (scaly skin, folded flesh, bald and puckered heads, etc.) but the narrator himself seems society of the Typees. As he shows in his relationships with Kory-Kory, Fayaway, and others,
unfazed. the Typee are people whom he can respect, even love. (The true test of "belonging" to a
Melville's strategy is to incite the grotesque while showing Tamma's own seeming immu- culture may be the ability to fall in love with one of its members.) The Typee thus become
nity to it. But Melville shows that for all of his skill and balance, Tammo fails to master his freaks in Tommo's eyes: now objects, now humans, in constant transit between the two
experience. He occasionally reveals his suppressed alarm with seemingly ofthand comments. categories.
He refers to the green men at one point as "repulsive looking creatures" (12/93), 6 for example, Tommo's exclamation is most obviously an expression of rage, but it is also an intimate
a description that betrays some buried Western value judgments. These suppressed values confession. Tammo is declaring who he is by reviling against who-or what-he is not. His
eventually fl.are up and overwhelm his generous openness, and as he falls from the pan- dramatic refusal to be tattooed is the first of a series of contextual links to the American
cultural heights he betrays all of the judgments he thought he had been avoiding. Two Typee culture of his day, marking a trail that leads to one of nineteenth-century America's fastest
practices in particular combine to push him off his high perch: tattooing and cannibalism. growing public attractions: the freak show.
Tattooing will be my primary focus here. Tammo fears becoming a freak in part because he fears becoming a physical oddity, but
Initially, Tammo seems quite comfortable with the Typee practice of extensive tattooing. also because that he knows what happens to such anomalies: they are displayed before the
He speaks of it as though it were removable decoration, a set of "simple and remarkable ... eager eyes of others. 7 Indeed, the freak show was-and is, in the few that still exist-a
ornaments" (11/78). He even calls the tattooing on one warrior "the best specimen of the carefully bounded form of human display that purported to spotlight the edges of humanity
Fine Arts I had yet seen on Typee'' (18/136). But everything changes for Tammo when the itself. These edges were populated by human anomalies that included people with odd bodies,
tribe's tattoo artist, Karky, wants to tattoo him. When the tattooist examines his face, Tammo but also people from odd-that is, non-Western-cultures.
calls it an "attack." Fear takes over: "When his forefinger swept across my features, in laying But Tammo is already an anomaly with an odd body who is displayed before the populace.
out the borders of those parallel bands which were to encircle my countenance, the flesh fairly As an untattooed adult man, he appears as a kind of freak to the Typees. If facial tattoos
crawled along my bones. At last, half wild with terror and indignation, I succeeded in would make him look like a freak in his own eyes, they serve precisely the opposite function
breaking away from the three savages" (30/219). From that point forward, says Tammo, for the Typees themselves. To the Typees, Tammo would appear less like a foreign "object" if
continuing demands to tattoo him made life a "burden." he wore tattoos than if he did not. Without tattoos, Tammo is a "non-Typee," a freak of sorts
11 Melville makes clear that Tammo fears his face will be "ruined for ever" (30/220). This in the eyes of the group. With them, he would embody normality-for them. Tamma's fear
,,
111
judgment shows how alien to him the Typees remain. Tamma's diction suggests that if he of losing his status as a "normal" American contrasts with his fear of becoming a "normal"
I were tattooed, his face would not be his own any longer; it would be a "ruined" representation Typee. These multilayered Melvillean ironies inform the author's deeply nuanced evocation of
of him. It follows that Tammo still sees himself with Western eyes, as a Westerner-but if one of antebellum America's fastest emerging cultural institutions, and the complicated
Ii he were tattooed, his identity would be materially changed from ''American'' to "Typee." His motivations behind it.
11
early description of his valet Kory-Kory is therefore telling: he compares the native's striped Freaks and freak shows are the visible artifacts of an attempt to cast a group of humans
! :
facial tattoos to prison bars (11/83). This simile implies that if Tammo were tattooed in this outside of the human category, but the fetishistic attention that they received serves alone as
''
Ii
way, he would become a kind of a prisoner himself, an American captive within Typee society ample evidence of the failure of that attempt: if freaks were truly nonhuman, after all, they
with no choice but to become Typee. would have been held in zoos, not displayed on special stages that served as liminal "freak
Nor does his fear end there. One remark of his is particularly telling; it gives this essay its spaces." And they would not have been displayed in ways that consciously evoked the
title, and will become the fulcrum for much of the argument that follows. It is a direct reminder of the humanity that they possessed all along ("armless wonders," for example,
admission of the source ofTommo's terror: "What an object he [Karky] would have made of performed everyday human tasks such as writing or sewing for their audiences). 8 As Leslie
me!" (30/219). This observation-made after his escape and return to the United States- Fiedler eloquently puts it, "The true Freak . . . stirs both supernatural terror and human
shows that Tammo is concerned not simply with crossing the border separating American sympathy, since, unlike the fabulous monsters, he is one of us, the human child of human
from Typee, but also with slipping over the one separating human being from thing. He feels parents, however altered by forces we do not quite understand into something mythic and

236 2 37
 li

ij LEONARD CASSUTO f 1 "WHAT AN OBJECT HE WOULD HAVE MADE OF ME!" f

I
mysterious, as no mere cripple ever is." 9 The simultaneous attraction (or curiosity) and
repulsion (or fear) of freaks results from the combination of both of these psychic vectors.
Freaks are pushed out of the realm of humanity and held within it by the same exhibit.
This dynamic instability underlay Americans' fascination with the freak show, even as the
same tension between human and nonhuman was undermining the ideology of American
slavery (which held people to be property). Tommo's panic draws its force from all of these
oppositions. In depicting Tommo's fear in these terms, Melville provides an indirect and
typically prescient analysis of the racial tensions of 1840s America, and he shows that these
tensions feed on the ambivalence created by the freak.

THE TATTOOED FREAK

'fl1"' pfo11•11rC;Q( bl'itlg TulluocJ w, mn11 J.m;•r• ,,
llu,lbu .,1,0 \hmu11h d1e ~pcmlinn g(lea; '
Melville wrote about freak displays in a short 1847 parody of P T. Barnum contained in a The hntd~b!(IN nud lrnuh!,,• pnur ~11i/or~ t.urc
10 U7. being- <'nd nwn.- 01111 """!!"" •lwr,.
series of sketches about Zachary Taylor, "Authentic Anecdotes of 'Old Zack.'" This brief .~here m,tl,iui;. hui wrc!cbetlu""~ 11,.. nrincr• dn4, ,'f
__l':" ~l~ _•_her ~•Kh_fot comf"rh fell behind.
spoof shows Melville's full awareness of the attraction of human curiosities and the consequent 'rl.iN •'at1,rt!..••~Pi:cm'~(o/

popularity of early museum culture. Tattooed sailors, as Melville certainly knew, were sidewalk .JA.IIES F. O'CONNELL
Tim C_EI.F,Ul!A'rlm 'rAT1'00ED MAN,
~"•",fO<Af"'"'J !"'"• ;,,,c"~ """"~•< ~ .. o,(,,,.. «ft!,, l.!oof.r,\;,,
exhibits whose popularity can be dated back to the early nineteenth century.11 When the M(H

freak show came to public prominence during the decades leading up to the Civil War,
tattooed people quickly emerged as a popular exhibit that shortly became a freak show staple.
Demand for them grew throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth (when the
market became glutted after the World War II). All freaks are elaborate social constructions,
as Robert Bogdan has shown, and tattooed people were no exception. The typical exhibit
featured the decorated person on display, with the tattoos serving as the basis for a wild story,
usually concocted by the promoter and written up in a pamphlet offered for sale, containing a
detailed account of how he became a marked man.
Tattooed men (tattooed women were not exhibited until after the Civil War) generally told
fantastic tales of kidnap and captivity in which their tattoos were forced upon them as torture
or punishment by barbaric savages. The English sailor John Rutherford was the first to ply
his trade as a tattooed man. First displaying himself in 1828, he told an outlandish story of
capture by primitives, six years of captivity, compulsory marriage to the chief's young daugh-
ter, and forcible tattooing of his body by tribespeople. Eventual exposure of the true story (a
much more pedestrian affair) would ruin much of his appeal, but his invented tale gained 16.1. Broadside advertising appearance of James
long life in a different way: it became a narrative paradigm for those who followed him.
12 F. O'Connell, "The Celebrated Tattooed Man,
Who was, for a period of six years, living amongst
Such stories of tattooing branched from the broader category of "survival literature," which
the natives of the Island of Ascension." Courtesy
was itself a branch of travel writing. Survival literature first appeared during the eighteenth of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library
century; its dominant themes, as Mary Louise Pratt notes, were sex and slavery. 13 The tattoo Rare Books Room.
narrative exploited the conventions of survival literature, with the actual tattoo acting as a
symbolic conflation of these two main themes.
The first tattooed man exhibited in the United States was James O'Connell (fig. 16.1), who at the time of Typee. 14 His entrepreneurial acumen inspired many imitators, and the tattooed
made his circus debut in the mid-1830s. O'Connell sold a book (written in 1836 by a man became a freak show institution.
ghostwriter) and a pamphlet (later adapted from the book) that told a hair-raising story of Neither Rutherford nor O'Connell were tattooed on their faces, unlike the Polynesian
adventures aboard ship and in exotic lands, which featured- as Rutherford's story did- his natives who were also on exhibit in freak shows at the time. By showing Tommo's dread of
forced tattooing. O'Connell claimed that he was made to submit to tattooing by Micronesian facial tattooing, Melville equates white tattooed freaks with such native exhibits, and so raises
island maidens, with custom dictating that the final tattooist become his wife. O'Connell's the stakes of the cultural game-even as he anticipated the evolution of the tattooed freak.
story, and especially the pictures on his body that went with it, made him a financial success The next famous tattooed exhibit, from the 1870s onwards, was "Captain Costentenus,"

238 239
 ;1 LEONARD CASSUTO f -"
-'I " WHAT AN OBJECT HE WOULD HAVE MADE OF ME!"~

whose face was tattooed (along with his entire body). Not surprisingly, Costentenus also told enact his own desires and rise as high as his initiative might take him. 18 As a tattooed man,
a fantastic, fabricated story of coercion, with his tattoos allegedly being a three-month torture Tommo's horizons would be necessarily limited. He sees this as a threatened loss of his
and punishment at the hands of either Chinese or Burmese barbarians, depending on which nationality itself: "I should be disfigured in a manner as never more t-0 have the face to return
version of the story one consults (fig 1.4). Many more tattooed freak show acts followed the to my countrymen'' (30/219). Second, the possible loss of will and social mobility threaten
popular example of Costentenus, mostly variations on the standard story of capture and forced Tommo's self-image as quasi-modern anthropologist. If marked as a Typee, he would perma-
tattooing, until the popularity of the tattooed woman widened the story possibilities begin- nently become a Typee-no longer able to pass in and out of cultures as he now does. In
ning in the 1880s. 15 effect, Tommo fears being imprisoned inside the narrative of a freak show exhibit pamphlet.
Typee appeared just at the time when the tattooed man was becoming a familiar freak show He fears being catalogued and characterized by scientists of his day (whose judgments were
sight and his story a conventional tale of suspense, adventure, and unique torture. Melville prominently featured in such pamphlets), and he fears being permanently slotted in a space
imparts full awareness of this to Tammo, and with it a notable ironic ambivalence. Tommo's where he feels he does not, and cannot, belong. 19
own story feints toward coercion, effectively threatening to become the kind of account of Tommo's fear of losing control points to the freak's passivity before the spiel of the carnival
forced tattooing that was told by countless tattooed freaks. In fact, Tommo's story-which, talker, who guides the spectator's gaze and therefore controls the terms of the display. The
unlike his face, he chooses to display publicly-could even be read as a tattooing narrative, carnival talker creates the human oddity as a grotesque freak by instructing the audience on
minus the tattooing. Even though Tommo recoils from the tattooing itself, Typee embraces how to look at the exhibit. Mercy Lavinia Warren, the thirty-two inch wife of the famous
the stories that surround the American display of the practice. In writing and selling his story midget General Tom Thumb, declared, "I belong to the public" 20 -a thought that would be
of near-tattooing, Melville flirts, through Tommo, with the role of tattooed freak, suggesting particularly upsetting to Tommo, who wants so badly to believe he belongs to himself alone
16
that part of Tommo is attracted to it, just as he is partly attracted to being a Typee. But that he creates an illusion of himself as a pan-cultural man, a temporary member of whatever
Tommo finally forbids himself such equivocation when he realizes what he risks by it: national group suits his fancy. In doing so, he represses his American cultural membership, his desire
membership, class membership, racial membership, and as a result, human membership as he to be a Typee, and his curiosity about what it might be like to be a tattooed man.
understands it. The spectacle of the tattooed freak clearly embodies great and disturbing fears for Tommo,
Indeed, the generic story of captivity and forcible tattooing reflected on the teller in two but even this is not what frightens him most. His greatest fear arises from comparison with
important ways that would have terrified Tommo. First, it portrayed the tattooed freak as another group of tattooed people who were displayed at freak shows: the racial freaks. More
someone without will, as one who had been unable to prevent his body-his most personal than anything, Tommo fears becoming one of them.
space-from becoming indelibly marked. Tattooing thus stands as an immediately visible
reminder of a failure of will. Ironically, tattooing was actually one of the few ways that an THE RACIAL FREAK
able-bodied person could voluntarily become a freak, yet the conventional exhibition of sucl,
people invariably made this decision appear involuntary. Such paradox further suggests the Virtually all freak shows displayed non-Westerners in full native regalia, with South Sea
crucial importance of volition to the construction of the tattooed freak. The role of women in Islanders as frequent subjects of this treatment, along with Africans. (The first Polynesian
the standard narrative also underscores this theme. Women are closely implicated with viewed in the United States was a tattooed man, whose 1774 exhibit antedated the institution-
the coercive aspects of the standard tattooing narrative, with forced marriage frequently alized freak show.) 21 The continuing popularity of such displays reflected an American
accompanying forced tattooing. (In O'Connell's case, the two are conflated, with the female fascination with the other side of the world at a time when it could not easily be reached. It
tattooist literally marking him-against his will-as her husband.) This reversal of gendered was standard practice to exhibit non-Westerners in freak shows as primitive humans or
power relations figures the tattooed man as a woman, and the bodily violation of tattooing as "missing links," with diorama displays of rudimentary foreign or jungle backdrops. 22 Such
a figurative form of rape. At a time when the gendered spheres of American society were racial freaks were among the most popular acts in freak show history.
moving apart, the tattooed freak- as well as the fear of becoming one that Tommo shows in Racial freaks were not physically anomalous within the context of their own culture-that
· · 17 is, there was nothing "odd" about their bodies in the eyes of their own peers. Instead, it was
Typee-taps into a deep well of anxiety over m ale power and sexual mtegnty.
Second, tattoos mark their bearer as someone without social mobility. Tattooed people are their simple presence in the United States, among people who lived differently, that served as
freaks, and because the tattoos are permanent, so is the class status of the person marked with the basis for their display. Allegations of cannibalism usually provided the rhetorical leverage
them. Thus, if an unmarked man can normally live anywhere he likes, facial tattoos would to place them in this liminal space. Cannibalism was a hot issue in the nineteenth-century
turn him into a tattooed freak with a single vocation and a single location, with the freak show United States as it was in Typee, a source of national fear and fascination and one of the most
merging the two. Tattooing thereby knocks the rungs out of the American ladder to success, important American symbols of un-civilization. In connection with scientific discourses of
the climbing of whicl, ostensibly translates hard work into socioeconomic improvement. the day, it was the key to turning "exotic" into "primitive" and "atavistic." Though some South
These unpleasant possibilities underlie Tommo's fear of being tattooed because they Sea Islanders practiced cannibalism, the trnth was less sensational than such labels would
threaten to erase the primary coordinates by which he locates his sense of self. First, they imply. Cannibalism has always and only been ritual (as Peggy R. Sanday says, it is never "just
violate his own expectations of himself as an American citizen, a free man who can, in theory, about eating"), and only certain members of certain South Sea Islands societies practiced it.

240 24r
 1 LEONARD CASSUTO"" -,1 "WHAT AN OBJECT HE WOULD HAVE MADE OF ME!"~

But these facts mattered little to Americans unaccustomed to distinguishing among groups of relates his own experience to slavery on a number of occasions. First, the lack of will inherent
dark-skinned people, and not at all to freak show promoters, who had no particular use for in the generic tattooing narrative-where the author has his tattoos "forced" upon him-
facts when a salacious story could be invented instead. As a result, all South Sea Islanders implies an ac~al slavery that was indeed written into most of the narratives. Second,
were labeled as cannibals, and loose allegations of cannibalism became the means of relegating descriptions of Tammo as a kind of slave frame Typee: he renders the sailor's lot as a kind of
them to a lower position on the chain of being. Not surprisingly, Barnum was the first to slavery and his own final escape from the Typees as the thwarted sale of a captive. 27
bring these "cannibals" to the freak show.23 Melville manipulates these descriptions to evoke the genre of the slave narrative. The
Tattooing was the visible symbol of cannibalism and all of the beliefs that went with it at allusions would have been topical; Melville wrote and published Typee during the height of
that time. Tattooed tribes were considered to be cannibalistic tribes, and tattooing itself was popularity of fugitive slave narratives. Further, Melville incorporates many of the conventions
seen as a sign of atavism and a physical marker for the presence of cannibalism. Naturalists of the fugitive slave's discourse both to underscore Tamma's portrait of himself as a slave and
(the early equivalent of biologists) and ethnologists saw tattooing as the "ultimate sign of to shorten the distance between the faraway Marquesan Islands and the United States of
primitiveness," and the notorious Cesare Lombroso would cite tattoos-along with dark America. In the first case, Tommo recounts how he had "made up my mind to 'run away' "
skin-as signs of criminality a few decades later. 24 Such beliefs helped to make tattooed from_ a life in which his "tyrannical" captain/master neglects the sick and starves the healthy,
islanders among the most marginal of all freaks-and the anticipation of being grouped with meet.mg any protests with "the butt-end of a handspike" (4/20-21). This passage encapsulates
them is a major source of Tamma's terror at having his face marked. the fugitive slave narrator's conventional description of his cruel treatment in slavery. In both
For Tammo, this amounts to a fear of being black The possibility oflabeling and displaying cases, the account of mistreatment is meant to justify the decision to escape. When Tommo
non-Westerners as barbaric, subhuman creatures-as freak show promoters did-lay in their prepares to jump ship, he takes precautions to avoid being captured-the "ignominious" fate
color as well as their habits; their dark skin made it possible to exile them to the edges of the of a runaway slave (5/30). While he waits to get away from the Typees at the book's end, he
human category as it was defined in America. The importance of color to the creation of witnesses a bargaining session for himself, in which his life is valued in terms of cotton cloth
racial freaks rests on the confluence of ethnological analysis of racial freaks with the various gunpowder, and a musket, articles of "extravagant value" (34/249-50). This scene matches'
pseudoscientific results of both pre- and post-Darwinian racial science. The ethnological another conventionalized passage in the slave narrative, in which the slave describes his own
scrutiny of native peoples and cultures took place in the larger context of numerous intertwin- sale, underscoring the incongruity of exchanging a human being for money.
ing nineteenth-century scientific debates over the species and origins of the "races of man." Freak shows also depended on such dealings in human flesh-but instead of selling
Together, these early studies amounted to a concerted scientific enterprise dedicated to differentiated bodies, freak shows sold the privilege of gazing upon them. Broadly speaking,
demarcating immutable racial categories and demonstrating the innate inferiority of non- these spectacles helped Americans establish the coordinates of who "we" were by showing
whites. Early scientists buttressed their racialist conclusions with evidence from fields like what "they'' were-thereby establishing what "we" were not. 28 Many cultural tensions have
phrenology (which compared the skulls of "lower races" with those of higher animals), the been offered as causes of the growth of the freak show, including urbanization, industrializa-
related field of craniometry, and naturalism (which combined taxonomy with biblical study to tion, immigration, and the early pressure to define national identity in post-Revolutionary
!I
i' produce the doctrine of "polygenesis," which held that there had been a separate creation of America. But color was arguably the primary determinant of the dominant "we" of nine-
I different Adams and Eves of different races, who had developed separately and at different teenth-century America (as it may stilt be today). It follows that the American freak show
i rates). Evolutionary thought before and afrer Charles Darwin trafficked heavily in throwback rose in response to racial tension, and that its most important purpose was the deflection of
imagery, with "inferior races" being presented in both freak shows and scientific publications racial anxiety onto a class whose difference was (to the viewer) apparently undeniable and
as unevolved humans or "missing links." Reginald Horsman documents the exhaustive and literally spectacular.
highly convoluted attempts to construct racial difference for social ends by an early scientific Racial difference was less reliable than the odd body as a measure of such difference. The
establishment that built its reputation for empirical rigor on the foundation of racialist analysis long (and ongoing) history of racial science-and its proliferation during the decades before
of freaks (both racial freaks and human oddities), blacks, and Native Americans. 25 the Civil War-reflects the fact that racial otherness is a construction that requires constant
Racial "science" and freak show pamphlets grow from the same root, with one emphasizing maintenance, remaining difficult and slippery. For proponents of such inequality, this was a
the narrative of pathology (a rational account of "how it got that way") and the other the source of constant concern. Freak shows reflect this anxiety-on both sides of the Mason-
narrative of wonder (an emotional response to a spectacle of compromised humanity). 26 The Dixon Line-in a reified form. 29 Though they did not spotlight race directly, freak shows
early study of the cultures of native peoples was part and parcel of the discourse of racial refracted it through the prism of physical anomaly, supported by an underlying premise of
inferiority, and the goal of nineteenth-century science was the same as that of the freak show: human inequality. Little wonder, then, that the popularity of freak shows exploded immedi-
to construct and scrutinize the edges of humanity. Thus, the discussion of tattooing and ately after the Civil War, when racial anxiety and ideologies of inequality persisted even
cannibalism in Tommo's time was part of a larger discussion about race-and Tommo's fear though slavery did not. Freak shows did not truly dwindle in America until the 1940s.
of being tattooed is essentially a fear oflosing his color. Tammo hints at this fear at different Though various reasons have been offered for the decline (increased communication, the
points in Typee. Consider, for example, his telling aversion to having "my white skin" marked popularity of socialistic thinking which sought to minimize differences among people, the
(30/219). Of course, being black in antebellum America usually meant being a slave. Tammo medicalization of human anomaly), it is, I think, no coincidence that the civil rights move-

243
 ~ LEONARD f- -""
CASSUTO ~ WHAT AN OBJECT HE WOULD HAVE MADE OF ME!"~

ment started to make itself felt around that time, with its social and legal successes making show expressed "contradictory impulses" that made it an "index of racial feeling" in both the
naked attempts at human objectification harder to sustain in mainstream society. 30 North and the South. In other words, the freak show expressed what Eric Lott calls "the
Freaks were a more secure receptacle than race for American "not-me" for three main raaal unconscious,"_ implicating cross-cutting desires for difference and superiority-but it
reasons. First, exposure to them was temporary, so that freaks (unlike blacks) always stayed also expressed a" deslfe for sameness by identifying freaks as fellow humans. These opposing
unfamiliar. Second, the viewing of freaks was highly structured in a way that was possible deslfes fuel the attraction-repulsion complex that the freak show evokes. 31 By linking tat-
precisely because it was temporary. This structured viewing experience could be manipulated toomg and blackness,_ and blackness and freak shows, Melville forges a signifying chain in
to underscore the ideology of difference, while racial encounters (which could happen any- Typee that le_a~s revealingly back into the racial unconscious. Following it, we may understand
time) could not be so regulated. The freak show was consistently and primarily mediated by ~e dark ongms of the American freak show, and an important source of its powerful,
an enormous show business emphasis on difference, an emphasis that, in the small performa- martrculate ~ff~ct. When Melville published Typee in 1846, his book appeared before a
tive doses in which it was presented, overwhelmed the truth of the situation: that these readmg public mflamed by racial conflict-and frequently amused by human oddities. In his
were simply people displaying themselves before other people. Third, freaks, unlike blacks, first novel Melville shows that, for Northern and Southern readers alike, the two were deeply
I represented no threat-sexual, economic, or otherwise-to dominant white culture. Their and intimately related.
display took place at a socially marked physical distance from "us" as a safe spectacle, with the
:,11
freak being a socially designated receptacle for the desire for recognized dominance from the
NOTES
designated other.
Many_o~ the ideas in this essay received their first airing as part of a panel at the 1993 American Studies
Tommo fears the distorting hyperexotic presentation of the exotic that is typified by the
Assoa~tion Confe~~nce. I would like to thank Lawrence Buell, the panel's respondent, for his useful
freak show, but his irrational, deeply felt fear of being tattooed similarly reflects the racial suggestions for revision.
ideology that makes the freak show possible. Tommo's reaction to the Typees as "object[s]"
shows Melville's awareness that ethnologic thinking is not underpinned by "logic" at all, but 1. For a striking example of this malignant acculturation, see David Halberstam, October 1964 (New
rather by deep fear, motivated in racialism, that "they" are the same as "us." Though he argues York: Random House, 1994), 221-22.
2. Charle~ R. Anderson was th~ first to expose Typee as a fiction rather than a factual travel narrative,
throughout his narrative that the Typees are essentially the same as Westerners, Tommo's
the l~tter bemg a label that Melville actually encouraged (Melville in the South Seas [New York: Dover
panic proves that he never really believed it. Publications, 1966]).
3. Bernth Lindfors, ''Circus Africans," Journal of American Culture 6, no. 2 (1983): 10. Robert
~ogd~ argues that the presentation of racial freaks served to justify slavery and helped to sustain
Freak shows filled a gap that they did not create. This space, between the desire for absolute mequ~1ty after the war (Freak Show: Pre:e~ting Human Od1ities for Fun and Profit [Chicago: University
racial difference and the fact that none exists, was wide and deep in a culture that relied on ~f C~1cago Press, 1988], 187, 197). This 1s true as far as 1t goes, but, as I will suggest, it also rather
simplifies the cultural work of the freak show. The freak show, like the minstrel show. is a site of racial
such difference for its very organizing principles. The gap was occupied by fetishizing
c~nfl.ict, not ?f _resolutio~. It represented_fears and ~~eties at a time when the ideology of inequality
practices like blackface minstrelsy, displacing strategies like plantation fiction and Sambo tried to sustain itself agamst powerful soctal and political forces that threatened to erode it.
stereotyping, empirically driven attempts at denial like racial pseudoscience-and also by 4. Tommo's 1openness has attracted a lot_ of critical attention over the years. See especially T.
freak shows. The freak show thus stands as both a cultural symptom and a cultural tool. It W~ter ~erberts Marque~an E~counters: Melville and the Meaning of Civilization (Cambridge: Harvard
was a symptom of a need (for hierarchy, for difference, for a feeling of superiority) and a tool Umvers1ty Press, 1980), m which he describes Tommo's perspective as that of a "beachcomber" one
who seeks to enter different cultures at will. '
deployed-unsuccessfully-to meet that need. Freak shows were a performance of one kind
5. Ethnology filled a social need for inequality that cultural anthropology does not. The social and
of imaginary difference in an effort to assert another. legal mstltu~ons of the antebellum United States were racially and hierarchically organized, and the
Given that the United States has always been a racially obsessed society, why did freak study of native cultures_ naturally followed suit. The nineteenth-century study of "exotic" cultures thus
shows arise precisely when they did? If their primary function was to deflect racial anxiety, supported the assumptl~n~ of the Western culture that sponsored it. Not until the early twentieth
then what was raising that anxiety to levels that would create a need for freak shows in the cen~ were the essentialist ~lanations of mid-nineteenth-century ethnology finally demolished,
United States more than a decade before the Civil War? The answer, as Melville suggests in paVIng the way for cultural relatIVIsm to enter and make anthropology recognizable to the modern eye.
See_ Carl N. Degler, In Search of Human Nature: The Decline and Revival of Darwinism in American
Typee, is that the 1840s was a key decade in the history of American race relations, a time Social Thought (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 59-211.
when American society was dividing along racial issues that would, in less than a generation, Thou~h current scholars~ip ri~htly ques:ions the detachment of the cultural anthropologist and calls
turn into battle lines. In just a decade or so, abolitionism had grown from a tiny group of the prac~ce of cultural relatIVIsm Into quest10n, the modem anthropologist has more self-awareness and
agitators into a national social and political movement of transformative power. This antislav- clearl~ tnes harder to examine ~ative cultures on ~heir own terms than her nineteenth-century counter-
ery force, aided by the recalcitrance of the Southern opposition, quickly matured into a part did. _For recent self-analysis of anth~opological and ethnographic practice, see, e.g., the work of
juggernaut of popular opinion and political activity, leading directly up to the Civil War. J~es Cliffor~, Re1:ato ~saldo, and Clifford Geertz. As an implicit critic of his narrator, Melville
hims~lf ~ccup1es ~Is amb1v~ent perspective in the structure of the novel. It is yet another aspect of
It was this racially divided American society of the 1840s that nurtured the freak show, Melville s extraordinary prescience that Typee can be said to predict both the rise of modem cultural
'
, I
which quickly took root and thrived in its troubled soil. Like blackface minstrelsy, the freak anthropology and its practitioners' subsequent criticism of their own practice.
,,I
244 245
 ~ LEONARD CASSUTO r, ~ "WHAT AN OBJECT HE WOULD HAVE MADE OF ME!"~

6. Herman Melville, Typee (1846). Ed. Harrison Hayford, Herschel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle Seas (New York: W. W. Norton, 1980), 18-19. For a brief account of Barnum's exploitation of
(Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press; Chicago: Newberry Library, 1968), chapter 12, 93. "cannibals,'' see Bogdan, Freak Show, 178-79.
Future citations will be given parenthetically within the text by chapter and page. 24. See Bogdan, Freak Show, 241-43; and Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (New York:
7. John Evelev precedes me to this point in his interesting biographical reading of Typee, "'Made in W.W. Norton, 1981), 123-43, esp. 129.
the Marquesas': Typee, Tattooing, and Melville's Critique of the Literary Marketplace," Arizona Quar- 25. See Reginald Horsman, Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-
terly 48, no. 4 (1992): 21. His focus on Tommo's threatened tattooing and potential freak status Saxonism (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981), esp. chaps. 7 and 8; and Gould, The Mismeasure
centers on the "conflict between Melville's romantic rejection of an objectifying mode of literary ofMan, chap. 2. Though Darwin did not publish The Origin of Species until 1859, evolutionary thought
representation''-represented in the novel by Tommo's refusal to be written on by Karky-and was familiar and popular during the decades before the dramatic introduction of his theory of natural
Melville's "desire to find a place and succeed within that same system," as illustrated by his real-life selection, and these ideas, frequently intertwined with religious dogma, informed much early racial
willingness to make various changes necessary to sell his book and make a name for himself. science. (Because natural selection, with its lack of teleology, did not meet with universal acceptance,
8. Racial freaks, whom I discuss below, were exhibited the same way, but what was "normal" for them racial science continued more or less unabated after Darwin, albeit with some new vocabulary.)
(clothing, food, cultural practices) was not seen that way by their audience-which was, of course, the Horsman focuses on phrenology and Gould on craniometry as roots of polygenesis; these early
point. "sciences" overlapped conceptually with "teratology,'' or the study of monsters, an early approach to the
9. Leslie Fiedler, Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), taxonomy of freaks documented by Bogdan.
24. 26. This dichotomy is drawn from Thomson's analysis of the freak show in her forthcoming Aberrant
10. Herman Melville, ''Authentic Anecdotes of 'Old Zack,' " in The Piazza Tales and Other Prose Bodies. Stephen Greenblatt compares this experience of wonder to "ravishment, ... an overpowering
Pieces, 1839-1860, ed. Harrison Hayford, Alma A. MacDougall, G. Thomas Tanselle et al. (Evanston, intensity of response [to] ... something amazing" (Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World
Ill.: Northwestern University Press; Chicago: Newberry Library, 1987), 215, 218-19, 225. Melville [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991], 16).
mocks Taylor's heroic reputation by imagining Barnum-making entreaties to display in his museum a 27. Robert S. Levine has noted the analogy that Melville makes between the sailor and the slave. See
tack from the general's saddle, his pants, and finally Taylor himself. Barnum promises that Taylor would Conspiracy and Romance: Studies in Brock.den Brown, Cooper, Hawthorne, and Melville (Cambridge:
enjoy treatment commensurate with that accorded Tom Thumb. Cambridge University Press, 1989), chap. 4.
11. Bogdan, Freak Show, 241. 28. For a brief discussion of some of these possible causes, see Bogdan, Freak Show, 10. I am mainly
12. Ibid., 242. drawing on a more sustained discussion in Thomson, Extraordinary Bodies.
13. Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation (London: Routledge, 29. Eric Lott has recently shown how blackface minstrelsy reflects the racial anxieties of the Northern
1992), 86. working class before the Civil War (Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class
14. O'Connell exhibited himself at circuses and museums (including Barnum's) from at least the [New York: Oxford University Press, 1995]). My argument is similar, focusing on a different cultural
rnid-1830s until his death (probably in the mid-1850s). Saul H. Riesenberg carefully documents practice.
O'Connell's life in "The Tattooed Irishman," Smithsonian Journal of History 3 (1968): 1-17, an 30. For speculation on the decline of freak shows, see Bogdan, Freak Show, 62-68 and passim; and
examination that exposes many inconsistencies in O'Connell's own account, and from which my own Fiedler, Freaks, 16.
summary is largely drawn. For a brief overview of O'Connell's career, see Bogdan, Freak Show, 242-43. 31. Lott, Love and Theft, 4, 5. Not surprisingly, minstrelsy enjoyed its greatest popularity during the
15. Bogdan, Freak Show, 243-46, 250-51. period 1846-54 (ibid., 9), coeval with the heyday of abolitionism and Southern plantation fiction-and
16. In noting this ambivalence, Evelev places it within the context of Melville's conflicted view of with Typee. "For a time in the late 1840s,'' says Lott, "minstrelsy came to seem the most representative
fame, financial success, and the capitalist market system that defined and housed these goals ("Made in national art" (ibid., 8).
the Marquesas," 26, 35).
17. The popularity of tattooed women effectively drove tattooed men out of the freak show business
(Bogdan, Freak Show, 251-52), and Carol J. Clover's gender-based analysis of horror movies, Men,
Women, and Chain Saws: Gender and the Modern Horror Film· (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1992), chap. 2, offers a clue to why. Clover argues that the protagonist of slasher horror films is
invariably female-Clover calls her the "Final Girl"-because her gender enables the (predominantly
male) audience for such movies to identify with her fear and anxiety through a socially acceptable (i.e.,
female) receptacle for those emotions. In other words, the Final Girl refracts male fear through a female
character because it is considered "acceptable" for women to scream and cry. It is more than possible
that the tattooed woman deflected male fears (and desires?) in the same way.
18. I am indebted to Rosemarie Garland Thomson's description of the way the freak generally
embodies a lack of will in Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Literature and
Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996).
19. For the narrative conventions of a freak show pamphlet, see Bogdan, Freak Show, 19.
20. Ibid., 161.
21. Ibid., 178.
22. Ibid., 106. The scenery got more involved as the practice became more popular over time.
23. Peggy Reeves Sanday, Divine Hunger: Cannibalism as a Cultural System (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1986), 3. For a discussion of the sensational aspects of South Seas cannibalism in
nineteenth-century America, see Gavan Daws,A Dream ofIslands: Voyages of Seif-Discovery in the South

2 47
 ~ THE CIRCASSIAN BEAUTY~

8 El "V El J"W T El El J"W do so if you think they are pretty and will pass for Circassian slaves. But in any event
have one or two of the most beautiful girls you can find, even if they cost $4000 or
$5000 in gold .... If you don't find one that is beautiful & possesses a striking kind of
beauty, why of course she won't draw and you must give it up as a bad job.... If she is
The Circassian Beauty and the Circassian Slave: beautiful, then she may take in Paris or in London or probably both. But look out that
in Paris they don't try the law and set her free. It must be understood that she is free. 5
Gender, Imperialism, and American
Barnum's instructions tell us several things. The legendary beauty of the Circassian woman or
Popular Entertainment girl bought in the slave markets of Constantinople supposedly constituted the primary appeal
for American audiences of the freak more commonly known as the "Circassian Beauty";
LINDA FROST Barnum notes this when he advises Greenwood to be sure to obtain a girl or woman who will
"draw." Barnum is likewise quite prepared to engage in slave trafficking in order to win sucl,
an entertaining prize, a practice he supposedly opposed in his own country at this time; "look
out that in Paris they don't try the law and set her free," Barnum warns Greenwood after
clarifying the amount Greenwood should spend on the "Beauty''-as much as four or five
thousand dollars in gold. 6 The fact of the Circassian Beauty's slave status was represented
somewhat differently once she appeared on the American Museum's stage, but it remained a
constitutive part of her performative identity as a freak exhibit. And it is precisely this
By early 1856, P T. Barnum had gone bankrupt; the year before, he had sold his collections performativity that Barnum's message further reveals; he tells Greenwood to go ahead and
at the American Museum to John Greenwood, Jr., his former manager, who also traveled for hire one or two women if he can't actually buy any, but only if he thinks "they are pretty and
Barnum to procure the "oddities and amusements" for which Barnum was by this time will pass for Circassian slaves." The Circassian Beauty was in fact a complex and contradictory
famous. 1 (On March 24, 1860, Barnum would buy these properties back and, as A.H. Saxon figure in nineteenth-century American popular culture, a woman who represented far more to
puts i1:, announce "his solvency from the stage of the Museum.") 2 In a letter written during the consumers of that culture than just the "striking kind of beauty'' with which Barnum
this time to the Massachusetts legislator and dentist Dr. David K. Hitchcock, Barnum first seems most concerned here. 7
alludes to his financial frustrations, and then proceeds to talk about one of the Museum's In response to Barnum's requests, a Circassian Beauty was finally procured for the museum
latest endeavors: 3 and put on exhibit sometime in 1864. But the woman's regional origin and the circumstances
by which she was obtained are a matter of some historical dispute. Zalumma Agra, alleged
Greenwood in getting up the "Congress of Nations" wants two beautiful Circassian daughter of a Circassian prince and fugitive from a country caught in the land struggles of
slaves. I have written Mr. Brown, our consul in Constantinople, about it, but it struck the Crimean War, had, as the story goes, never actually been sold into the slavery of the
me that you could perhaps manage it through your young dental Turk [Hitchcock's Turkish harems, but was rather about to be sold when Greenwood arrived on the scene to
student] .... He wants to hire 2 beautiful Circassian girls & their mother or father or "rescue" her. He then went on to "rescue" Zalumma from savagery by overseeing her education
some other protector for 1 to 2 years. I suppose they would have to be bought, then give and assuming the role of both guardian and tutor. So goes the Barnum tale; according to
them their freedom and hire them, making contract through U.S. consul. Will you tell Robert Bogdan, there is an alternative story:
me whether it is feasible to get them & do what you can to aid Greenwood in the
matter? According to an unpublished version by John Dingess, a contemporary of Barnum,
For my own part, I have renounced business & care forever. 4 Greenwood returned from his trip empty handed. A few weeks after his return a young
woman came to the museum looking for work. She had bushy hair but nothing remark-
II
,I Nothing apparently came of this request, just as nothing came of Barnum's claim to have able enough to make her a museum attraction. Disappointed by Greenwood's lack of
"renounced business" forever. In May of 1864, Barnum wrote of the matter again to Green- success, but still bent on getting a Circassian, Barnum saw in her the possibility of
11 wood, who was then in Cyprus. This time, Barnum clarified the value of the figure he sought: creating his own Circassian, and he hired her. A Turk, residing in New York, was
consulted as to appropriate dress and name, and in a short time the girl appeared at the
I still have faith in a beautiful Circassian girl if you can get one very beautiful. But if museum in her silks as a full-fledged Circassian. 8
they ask $4000 each, probably one would be better than two, for $8000 in gold is worth
about $14,500 in U.S. currency.... You can also buy a beautiful Circassian woman for Bogdan claims that Barnum's presentation of the Circassian Beauty "launched the prototype
$200 [$2000?], do so if you think best; or if you can hire one or two at reasonable prices, of a self-made freak," what he calls "a creation that wove the history of science together with

2 49
 r
~ LINDA FROST f ~ THE CIRCASSIAN BEAUTY f

tales of erotic intrigue from Asia Minor, current events, and a good portion of showman Recollections of P. T. Barnum of Greenwood's attempt to obtain a Circassian woman for show
hype." 9 Circassian Beauties sprang up at dime museums and sideshows following Barnum's at the museum highlights the otherness of Eastern and specifically Turkish culture that
presentation of Zalumma, and they were to continue as a freak mainstay until the beginning undergirded the Circassian Beauty as an exotic and compelling figure. The steamer on which
of the twentieth century. Greenwood sailed to Constantinople also carried the harem of a Turkish pasha; one day while
Bogdan places the Circassian Beauty within the "exotic mode" of freak performance, sitting on deck, Greenwood made the mistake of offering his hand to help one of the women
highlighting the way in which the Circassian, like such freak exhibits as the "Wild Men of step over a fence erected to separate the harem's members from the rest of the travelers. He
Borneo," were touted as examples of the primitive, inaccessible, and preferably dangerous lives was "immediately seized by two of the Pasha's attendants, violently shaken, and taken to task
I. lived either geographically or chronologically far away from white middle-class America. in Turkish for daring to offer to touch the hand of one of his Excellency's women." 12 Saved
Particular aspects of the popularly circulated story of the Circassian Beauty were likewise by an English- and Arabic-speaking Greek acquaintance, Greenwood was, according to
emphasized in her performance; she was not only beautiful, but also a kind of cultural Barnum, lucky not to have been 1'bastinadoed, or even bowstrung." 13 This incident even
ambassador for a humble, mountain farming people at the mercy of the tyrannical Russians, merits an engraving in Barnum's text, an image that seems to resonate with the next and final
with whom the Circassians were at war, and the "primitive" Turks, who dealt in the trade of episode of Greenwood's search for the Circassian Beauty. In the illustration, a veiled woman
their women. The Caucasus region in which Circassia was located also had a special signifi- in flowing robes stands on a partition above the other travelers as if put on display like a slave
cance to pseudoscientific, anthropologically minded Americans. The German anatomist Jo- in the marketplace. Greenwood is held by two of the pasha's thugs while the harem's lord
hann Friedrich Blumenbach introduced the term Caucasian when he argued, based on his stands in the background, his mouth an elongated "o." The helpful Greek stands to the left,
measurements of skulls obtained from Caucasus, that Caucasus was the "origin not only of hands open in a supplicating manner. 14
Europeans, the Caucasian type, but of all humans." Given that such monogenist thought held Having narrowly escaped this difficulty, Greenwood puts himself in further danger by
that humans supposedly "degenerated in appearance" as they dispersed throughout the world, "posing" as a slave-buyer and touring the slave markets of Constantinople. As Barnum tells it,
Blumenbach and his followers believed that "the purest and most beautiful whites were the Greenwood dressed in Turkish costume and learned a few Turkish words in order to gain
Circassians, one tribe of the Caucasian region of Russia, a mountainous area on the Black Sea access to the marketplace. Nevertheless, he "ran a risk of detection many times every day,"
close to Turkey, then the Ottoman Empire." 10 Racial superiority to some degree concretized although he did manage to see "a large number of Circassian girls and women, some of them
the Circassian Beauty's beauty, making her the whitest, racially "purest" specimen of a human the most beautiful beings he had ever seen." 15 Barnum here plays up the exoticism of the
woman to be found on earth." environment from which his Circassian Beauties originated by highlighting the danger posed
Part of the contradiction of the Circassian Beauty resides in her not-quite-but-almost slave to Greenwood by his own naturalized cultural practices, behaviors as simple and mundane to
status. The celebrated fact of the Circassian slave's racial purity is sustained in spite of the evil the American reader as helping a woman step over a fence. Moreover, the danger that
and dark Turk who desires her. On one hand, the image of the Turk echoes a primitivity that surrounds Greenwood masquerading as a Turk-something evidently terribly difficult for
the Northern popular press attributed to an array of opposing forces at home: the Confederate him to do despite the fact that he is there to engage in the same slave-buying practice as the
who not only maintained the slavery of a colonized and oppressed people, but also "barbari- other Turks-further heightens the sense of intrigue surrounding the Circassian women
cally" killed and maimed Union soldiers in the Civil War then being fought; and the African- themselves as they move, mysteriously veiled, through a society largely invisible to the
American whose free movement in white, Euro-American culture not only threatened white Western male eye. Throughout his description of this incident, Barnum plays up the qualities
dominance of resources and their use, but the hegemonic definition of what it actually meant of Orientalism that Edward Said argues were in fact distilled in Western thought during the
to be an American. The unsullied purity of the Circassian Beauty therefore seems in part to nineteenth century: the Orient's "sensuality, its tendency to despotism, its aberrant mentality,
represent a Northern anxiety about racial mixing, particularly in regard to the anticipated its habits of inaccuracy, its backwardness." 16 It is significant that even while Greenwood does
effects of emancipation. In her role as a symbol of endangered-yet-rescued whiteness, the not here apparently win the prize he practically risks his life to obtain, he is able to see "a large
Circassian slave mirrored Northern whites' representations of the white American woman number of Circassian girls and women," an experience of victorious cultural penetration given
herself, potentially endangered by the "dark" and savage forces suddenly "unleashed" in the the protected and isolated nature of the harem. Greenwood's gaze is passed on to the audience
South. Miscegenation as a concept and as a term came into being in the nineteenth century via the freak exhibit itself, and it is this transaction that the freak performance depends upon.
and was ubiquitous in popular texts of the time. Furthermore, the question of who actually Of course, it was the controlled viewing of this figure that made money for Barnum and
physically portrayed and embodied the Circassian Beauty complicates this issue of representa- other showpeople during this time. And that viewing was controlled not only by the money it
tion so that the Circassian Beauty becomes an overdetermined signifier of the dominant cost to see the Beauty herself, but also by the showman/manager who cast the audience's
cultural concerns of Victorian America, embodying notions of colonial ambition and Orien- viewing of the freak within a particular context. Barnum published a freak history of one of
talism, the superiority of the United States and Manifest Destiny, the position of women his Circassian Beauties in 1880 called Zoe Me/eke: Biographical Sketch of the Circassian Girl.
within Victorian America and the cult of True Womanhood, the purity of the white race and The freak history was a chapbook-in this case, just sixteen pages long-in which the freak's
the sexualization of the African-American woman. identity, place of origin, capabilities, and manner of procurement were all discussed in relative
The story Barnum tells in the autobiographical Struggles and Triumphs; or, Forty Years' detail, and it probably reflects much of what the showman actually said during the freak's

250 25I
 ~ LINDA FROST f;- 1 THE CIRCASSIAN BEAUTY~

time on stage. Designed to complement the showman's presentation and introduction of the power, and the eyes brightened by no ray of genius, its luster.' What more can be said in the
freak to audiences, freak histories and freak portraits were sold at exhibitions, and proceeds behalf of this lovely Circassian girl?" (6).
from their sale in part went to the freak performers. The pamphlet provides biographical The history continues to expound not only on Zoe, but on Circassia and how "its women
information on Zoe Meleke, a historical context of sorts detailing Circassia's political difficul- are as beautiful ~s houris," and how "the slave markets of Turkey have long been an emporium
ties to which Zoe falls victim, and an explanation of her loss of Arabic and gain of excellent for the sale of these lovely but unfortunate creatures, to supply the seraglios and harems of the
English skills (something perhaps better explained by Zoe's probable American, not Cir- Sultans and his subjects" (8). Practically invisible to the people of the West, Circassia is, the
cassian, background), as well as the writer's personal beliefs on women's education and social author assures us, merely a diamond in the rough: "The steady onward march of civilization
statusY It is an intriguing and confusing document. Clearly intended to arouse the patriotic will probably reveal ... amid the spurs and slopes and glades of the mountains of Circassia,
spirit of the reader, Zoe Me/eke indicates more of the politicized tensions that undergird the another Golconda, another Potosi, another California, or all combined; and argosies, bearing
signification of the Circassian Beauty. untold wealth, the product of her womb, may, even within the present century, be plowing
Zoe is presented to the American people as an entity-spiritual perhaps, but certainly the waters of every clime" (9). Much of the Circassian Beauty's attraction seems to lie in the
delectable-to be consumed: ''Among the most charming attractions offered to the American potential for gain locked within Circassia's as yet uncolonized (at least by Western forces)
people of the present day, as a most chaste and delicate curiosity, is a young and beautiful territories-the "product of her womb." But the Circassian Beauty herself is described as the
native of Circassia." 18 Almost all freaks were pet.formative, not simply in their construction most promising of the as yet largely unrealized natural resources Circassia has to offer: "the
as, say, "missing links" when they were actually microcephalic, but because they also performed Circassian Girl, who is now a refined, intelligent and Christian woman, might have been
various acts of skill or amusement; "armless wonders" would cut paper dolls out in front of enrolled upon the scroll of humanity, in company with the great mass of her countrywomen,
their audience with their toes, and Tom Thumb and the "giants" in Barnum's employ would as the beautiful but ignorant habitat of a Pagan's harem'' (11-12). When Mr. Long, Zoe's
stage David and Goliath battles. Zoe's particular talents are not so clearly defined in her Western rescuer and guardian and Barnum's Circassian connection, is exalted for his re-
! I
"history," but it is stressed that she is proficient in those "charms" that amplify "female beauty deeming work with her and the author notes that "visitors have come by the scores to see this
i and intellect"; she writes articles for publication, is "affable and pleasing in conversation," and Circassian beauty," one wonders to what this beauty actually refers (14). Is it the beauty of the
I
is not only "naturally of a high order of intellect," but "thoroughly refined by education and Circassian woman or the beauty of the barbarian "civilized" into Christianity and Western
classical culture" (2, 4). What begins to make Zoe stand out seems not so much to be her culture that fascinates her numerous fans and onlookers? What, if anything, is the difference?
recent affiliation to a life of enticing if immoral sensuality and power, but rather her rapid Although America had not yet entered the global colonizing movement in which Britain,
assimilation into American culrure and Western civilization. "She expresses her preference for Spain, France, Holland, and other European countries were vigorously active (and would not
America over Europe," Barnum's anonymous write_r informs us, "and thinks the people of the do so until the turn of the century), the dominant Euro-American force was involved in
United States are the most prosperous and free in the world" (3). Freedom here is defined in several such battles within its own boundaries: the move to obliterate and exterminate the
terms of American prosperity and how "far in advance of all the other nations of the world in Native American tribes throughout the country, the struggle to maintain power over the
modern improvements" America is, particularly "in the application of steam to ships-to newly freed African-Americans, and the fight to maintain economic and political dominance
railroad cars, and to all kinds of machinery; in the invention of works of art, of the telegraph, over the growing immigrant population. All of these struggles invariably invoked the rhetoric
and the great progress in agriculture" (3). of colonization, of Manifest Destiny and the racial superiority of a "civilized" white American
America is "free" not only because of its technological improvements, but also because of populace. This rhetoric was (and is) gendered, which complicates our understanding of it.
its attitude toward women. While "it was long before the intellectual rights of women were While the Circassian Beauty superficially appears to highlight some kind of celebration of
acknowledged" and "frivolity and other feminine faults were favorite themes for satire with emancipation, of release from a bondage both sexual and spiritual in nature, her immediate
the writers of the age of Charles the Second," Barnum's author assures us that this is no alignment with a powerfully colonialist, paternalistic force-a Greenwood who would buy
longer the case: "The flippant invectives on the sex, of which the writers of a former age such a girl if possible, a Long who would civilize and cultivate her to an agreeably American
indulge, would no longer be tolerated in society.... To no class is mental culture of more taste, or a Barnum who would exhibit her as a consumable entertainment commodity-
importance than to woman" (5). The writing becomes more and more rhetorically heartfelt effectively reinscribes the colonial force from which she has supposedly been rescued. The
and dogmatic as it progresses in this vein, the (presumably male) author carefully qualifying Circassian Beauty as a freak is rescued from first Russian and then Turkish oppression only to
that while women should be educated to protect them from the "horrors of melancholy," he be realigned with a new American colonizer; she, in fact, chooses this colonizer, welcoming
does not "mean that women should be eminent linguists and mathematicians. The education her own "refinement" and reshaping herself into an acceptable mate for him. Not only does
I wish them to receive would be confined to the bestowing upon them powers of thought, Zoe's story, told as it is by this Barnum author, discount the possibility of the Circassian
and treasures for thought" (6). By the end of this passage, not only has he made a case for the Beauty as some kind of celebration of liberation, it in fact recasts her cage in the form of
selective education women should receive and why, but he has also illustrated the benefits Zoe American Victorian womanhood; rather than an exotic, sensuous harem dweller, Zoe is
has undoubtedly gained by leaving her uncivilized Circassia behind and accepting America now-thankfully, we are assumed to understand-"a most chaste and delicate curiosity."
mto her heart-and head: "'The face that is the index to no mental excellence will lose its Slavery and colonial activity are at the heart of a story written by "Lieutenant Murray"

252
11
~ LINDA FROST" ~ THE CIRCASSIAN BEAUTY"

(Maturin Murray Ballou) called The Circassian Slave: or, The Sultans Favorite: A Story of period, defied the combined powers of the whole of Russia, and whose daughters, though the
Constantinople and the Caucasus, which was first published serially in the Boston periodical children of such brave sires, are yet taught and reared from childhood to look forward to a life
Gleason, Pictorial Drawing Room Companion in 1851. The CircaJJian Slave was republished as of slavery in a Turkish harem as the height of their ambition'' (21).
a dime novel by Gleason's firm, for which Murray wrote and of which he later assumed The beauty "of Circassia's women is an act of compensation on the part of Providence
leadership. 19 Widely traveled himself, Murray specialized in tales of exotic, faraway lands and because, according to Murray, they are "unendowed with mental culture" and in "want of
stones of the sea. The Czrcassian ~lave is in part such a tale, but it is also a document that intellectual brilliancy'' (21). "No wonder, then," he explains, "educated, or rather uneducated
promotes an American ethic of rn!turalized individualism within an exotic context. Prefaced as they are, that the visions of their childhood, the dreams of their girlish days, and even the
by a statement of authenticity of/the character of the lands and peoples described Murray's aspirations of their riper years, should be in the anticipations of a life of independence, luxury
" , and love, in those fairy-like homes that skirt the Bosphoms at Constantinople" (21). In this
story opens on a hot, sultry summer" afternoon at the slave markets in Constantinople: "here
are Egyptians, Bulgarians, Persians and even Africans; but we will pass them by and cross to capacity, these women have attained positions, if not of power, at least of prestige: Circassia's
the main stand, where are exposed for sale some score of Georgians and Circassians." 20 After "daughters have been the mothers of the highest dignitaries of the courts, and Sultan
describing the "motley crowd" that throngs the marketplace, Murray notes how bursts of Mahomet himself was born of a Circassian mother" (21). Murray does not clearly condemn
laughter broke "from an enclosed division of the place where were confined a whole bevy of or condone the slavery he depicts; rather, it seems to be the best for which many of these less-
Nubian damsels, flat-nostriled and curly-headed, but as slight and fine-limbed as blocks of than-bright women can hope. And this slavery has not prevented their attainment of esteem;
polished ebony" (10). These African women lie "negligently about, in postures that would they are, after all, mothers to many powerful men. Murray here seems to use the plight of the
have taken a painter's eye" but, as Murray assures us;---"we have naught to do with them at this Circassians to reflect problematic notions of white American womanhood, highlighting the
time" (10). Indeed we don't, for Murray proceeds to the sale of the Circassians, who are role of the mother as one of potential grandeur in a society in which white women are
described as "fair and rosy-cheeked" and exposed "only so far as delicacy would sanction, yet economically and socially, if not literally, enslaved; if not openly disconcerted, Murray at least
leavmg enough visible to develope {sic} charms that fired the spirits of the Turkish crowd" sounds wistful that such a situation exists.
(10). The slavery of the harem itself is described as a luxurious and mindless one. Komel walks
Murray's story will not be about slavery as Americans know and practice it, although his into a "gilded cage" when she enters the harem of the Sultan to which she has been sold: "the
characterization of the "Nubian damsels" in the slave market is grounded in the American costly and graceful lounges, the heavy and downy carpets, the rich velvet and silken hangings
ste~eotype of African women's promiscuity; that of the Circassians, exposed "only so far as about the walls, the picturesque and lovely groups of female slaves that laughed and toyed
delicacy would sanction," likewise supports the notion of white women's "modesty" and sexual with each other, mingling in pleasant games, the rich though scanty dress of these favorites of
propriety. In fact, the story focuses on one Circassian woman in particular- Komel Gymroc, the Sultan, all were confusing and dazzling to her untutored eye" (13). And while "days and
or "Lalla" as she is known in the Sultan's harem to which she is sold-who is simply not slave weeks passed on in the same routine of fairy-like scenes, and the Sultan's slaves counted not
material. The Circassian Slave promotes an ideology of slavery that suggests that those who the time that brought to them but a never varying dull monotony of indolent luxuriance,"
can remain and survive in it are probably best suited for that life. The Circassian society Komel's "natural" intellect suffers in such a sweet but stifling atmosphere (40).
Murray describes raises its daughters to anticipate-happily, for the most part-a life of The quality of laziness that Said emphasizes as constitutive of the Orient in Western
luxury and wealth in the Turkish harems. But Komel, whom the Sultan realizes to be of"the discourse of Orientalism is sharply juxtaposed with Komel and her loved ones. And, of course,
better class of her own nation," does not deserve the life of a harem slave (14). Slavery is not it is just this quality of intellect and restlessness that further heightens her attractiveness for
depicted as necessarily negative, but rather as a realistic choice for a suitable class of people. the Sultan. Described as "a noble specimen of his race, tall, commanding, and with a spirit of
And while Murray indeed leaves the "Nubian damsels" behind, the brief but telling image of firmness breathing from his expressive face," the Sultan is himself the son of a Circassian
them as sexualized and "negligently lying about" serves as another indication of whom slavery (11). While he does not seem to be intellectually deficient in any way, he does exhibit "a
may in fact suit. doomed darkness of expression" that causes Komel to tremble before him (11). The Sultan is
Komel, we learn, is a sixteen-year-old Circassian who has been taken into bondage against the symbol of Eastern tyranny, the representation of Turkish cruelty and oppression: "Stern
her will by a jealous lover. She is bound by her affections to a childhood companion, Aphiz and imperious by nature, it was not usual for him to evince such feeling as had exercised him
Adegah, and they are depicted as pastorally united and blissful prior to Komel's abduction: towards [Lalla/Komel], and it was plain that his heart was moved by feelings that were novel
"They had grown up together from very childhood, played together, worked together, sharing there" (12). Komel is the essence of American Victorian womanhood, "trapped" in an Eastern
each other's burthens, and mutually aiding each other; now quietly watching the sheep and body: "She possessed all that soft delicacy of appearance that reminds the sterner sex how
goats upon the hillsides, and now working side by side in the fields, content and happy, so frail and dependent is woman, while she bore in her face that sweet and winning expression
they were always together" (22). Circassia is a land in tumult, described in much the same of intellect, that, in other climes more favored by civilization, and where cultivation adds so
way as Barnum's author described it: "Circassia, the land of beauty and oppression, whose much to the charms of her sex, would alone have marked her as beautiful" (15-16).
noble valleys produce such miracles of female loveliness, and whose level plains are the vivid Troubled by the emotional intensity that accompanies his new acquisition, the Sultan calls
scenes of such terrible struggles; where a brave, unconquerable peasantry have, for a very long a slave to bring him his pipe, and he is "soon lost in the dreamy narcotic of the tobacco" (12).

254
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The Sultan does not know precisely how to handle his new feelings given that he has been intellectual capability, these photographs emphasize the exoticism and eroticism of the Cir-
taught to "look upon the gentler sex as toys, merely, of his own," and when it comes to the cassian Beauty. Some display their stockinged legs in reclining postures; one woman, photo-
question of possession of Komel, he remains the savage (29). When Komel's lover, Aphiz, graphed by the Obermuller and Son studio on Cooper Square in New York, reclines on an
comes to the palace in search of her, having earned a favor from the Sultan by coincidentally ornately carved wooden bench, her silky tunic provocatively sheering at her waist while her
saving his life from Bedouin thieves, the Sultan immediately imprisons and attempts to legs stretch to her side. The setting for the photograph is prirnitivist-palms frame the
execute him (he does not, of course, succeed). When Komel begs him to free Aphiz, her pleas Beauty as she leans on an animal skin draped over the bench. Another Obermuller portrait
are "received by the Sultan in that cold, irascible spirit that seems to form so large a share of features a Beauty reclining on a roughly carved rock in the parlor of a house, stairs rising off
the Turkish character" (34). The Sultan's memory is unfortunately short, and because he to the left. She too boasts long, stockinged legs and a loose leotard, her ankles crossed
II
doesn't remember "how unlike her people she had already proved herself'' and doesn't realize demurely at the bottom of the rock. Another, photographed by the Henshel studio in
"that his high station, his wealth, his pomp and elegance" are thought of by Komel "only as Chicago-"Miss Fatima" according to the writing on the back of the print-wears a white
the flowers that adorn the victim of a sacrifice," he does not anticipate what we readers do- camisole with short pantaloons, long white gloves, and a long velvet ribbon tied in a large
her escape (46). Kamel returns to her homeland with Aphiz, who has also escaped from the bow around her neck (fig. 17.1). Her shoulders bare, she leans against a column while cupids
Sultan's clutches. Despite the years that pass, the "Brother of the Sun ... does not forget [the dance on the building's border below her in bas relief. One stockinged leg is daringly drawn
woman] who had so entranced his heart, so enslaved his affections, and then so mysteriously up to allow her knee to rest on the building's edge and the other extends before her; elbow
escaped from his gilded cage" (6 7). bent, she rests her head in the cup of her palm. She is almost smiling.
Joanna De Groot argues that the nineteenth-century discourse of Orientalism was a means Other images emphasize the exotic dress of the Orient-a woman with ropes of huge
by which men explored "their own identity and place in the world as sexual beings, as artists pearls around her neck, over and under her bosom and down the length of her arms, another
'
,,:1 and intellectuals, as imperial rulers, and as wielders of knowledge, skill, and power." 21 For De with a tightly fitted silk gown, "stars of the East" embroidered along its hem, an ornately
Groot, "the concepts of 'sex' and 'race' which came into use in European culture, elite and bordered cape over her shoulders. Ofren the studios incorporated tropical plants and animal
popular, did not just make the control of women or natives easier, but also expressed the skins into the background of the photograph. All of these women exude the slight sense of
conflicts, desires and anxieties which were part of the lived relationships between sexes and mystery necessary for the exotic flavor of the performance. Most are tantalizingly attired. But
races, the realities of sexuality and imperial power." 22 The Circassian slave of both Barnum there is really only one thing all of the Circassian Beauties have in common: their huge, bushy
and Murray is a woman of controlled possibility. She has been pulled from a state of hair.
debauchery and tyranny realized in the fictionalized harems described in these documents, According to Bogdan, the women performing as Circassians soaked their hair in beer and
but that state has less to do with the institution of slavery than with Western descriptions of teased it to make it frizz and stand up. 25 In fact, the hairstyle of the American-made
the weaknesses and evils of the Orient_23 The Circassian Beauty becomes the idealized Circassian Beauty probably had nothing to do with actual images of the harem woman from
colonial subject, she who is primed for "civilization'' and exhibits the naturalized individualism Turkey; in the engraving that accompanies Murray's story in Gleason~ Pictorial Drawing Room
and intellect of Western and particularly American culture, traits that allow her to attract Companion, Lalla/Komel is veiled, her long, straight black hair shimmering beneath the veil.
without effort. Lalla, Murray's Circassian slave, is particularly evocative to the Sultan, who She is carefully covered, dressed in traditionally puffy pants and layers of shifts, shawls, and
purchases her not only because she is beautiful and intellectually and emotionally sensitive, scarves. But the American freak show Circassian Be~uty always sported large, Afro-like hair
but because she is deaf and mute (she is struck so when she witnesses the murder of a and, as these images show, usually less rather than more clothing. These women look more
defender and friend on the night of her capture into slavery; she regains her hearing and like nineteenth-century pin-ups than they do harem dwellers, which brings yet another facet
speech after seeing Aphiz in the Sultan's palace). For Murray, the worth of Lalla/Komel as a of the Circassian Beauty's signification in American culture to light: while, textually, Barnum's
subject with the potential to be civilized is apparent on sight. The same is true of Barnum's writer describes Zoe Meleke as the very model of Victorian womanhood- modest, intelli-
Circassian Beauty, whose primary achievement seems to be her ability to see America as the gent, and pure, racially as well as sexually-visually, the Beauty is something quite different,
bastion of civilization and progress that it claims to be. a sexualized figure intended to entice. She may well represent the reason why Victorian
Carte de visites or postcards taken of the Circassian Beauties and sold and circulated in the patriarchal culture constructed such a controlling domestic ideology; the Circassian Beauty
latter part of the nineteenth century represent these women in a variety of settings and embodies sensual pleasure and, more importantly, a tremendous sexual power that is resolutely
poses. 24 One Beauty, fully clothed in a long white gown with a high neck and encircled by a female.
large wreath made of branches, looks more like a Western bride than a harem slave. This While somewhat confusing, the signature hairstyle of these women is clearly vital to our
interpretation of the Circassian Beauty seems to realize visually much of what the texts understanding of the Circassian Beauty's signification in American culture. If we go by John
discussed above say about her, that she is charming, delicate, intellectual, and chaste-the Dingess's story of the procurement of Zalumma Agra for the American Museum in 1864, the
perfect model of Victorian American womanhood. What is interesting is how contradictory fact that the woman hired to perform the role of the first American Circassian Beauty had
to this conception of womanhood most of the surviving visual images of the Circassian bushy hair may be the reason why it became the freak's trademark. The freak "original"
Beauty seem to be. Rather than highlighting their modesty and chastity, their propriety and quickly became that figure's prototype for all similar performances; as Dingess comments,

257
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111

17.2. Zumigo the Egyptian, age 20, born in Cairo.

Harvard Theatre Collection. The Houghton Li-
brary.

thirty years after Zalumma's first appearance, freak lecturers other than Barnum would still
announce that their Zalumma (who was not even old enough for the story to be true) "was
brought to this country by John Greenwood for Barnum's American Museum." 26 But the
Circassian's bushy hairstyle certainly echoes other Barnum exhibits, especially his display of
"Fiji Cannibals" and other so-called "primitive" groups. 27 One variation of the Circassian
Beauty captured by the "freak photographer" Charles Eisenmann in New York shows a
woman in a tightly fitted fringed bodice and shorts, her bosom and hips amply displayed (fig.
17.2). She wears stockings and is photographed against the typical leafy set. According to the
writing on the back of the photo, this woman is "Zumigo the Egyptian, age 20, born in
Cairo." Albeit not a true "Circassian Beauty," Zumigo is cast within that framework; her hair
stands a triumphant almost two feet out from her head. The presentation of Zumigo
illustrates how the trademark Circassian Beauty's hair would have resonated for contemporary
audiences with the images of African and tribal women circulating in the culture. Perhaps it
is no accident that the two primary characteristics of these Circassian Beauties are their bushy
17.1. Miss Fatima, age 20. Harvard Theatre Collection. The Houghton Library. hair and their evocative postures; just like the "Nubian damsels, Jlat-nostriled and curly-
headed" lying "negligently about" in Murray's story, the images of the African-American
woman's hair and promiscuous sexuality were mythic cultural stereotypes that nineteenth- I
11
century audiences would have swiftly put together. 28 i

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De Groot believes that the Oriental women portrayed by European painters and artists 5. Ibid., 125-27.
were "socially marginal, sexually powerless, and vulnerable, and regarded by westerners and 6. Saxon discusses Barnum's contradictory attitudes and actions regarding slavery and African-
Americans in P T Barnum; although Barnum publicly championed the cause of the North and
Middle Eastern societies as inferior, morally suspect, even virtual prostirutes." 29 Further, she
abolition, he also allegedly bought and sold several slaves himself while touring in the antebellum
points out that these women " 'become' whoever artists want them to be, yet they were South. Saxon sums up the discussion by saying: "Let us be candid about the matter and have done with
actually flesh-and-blood women whose lives were no less real for being hidden from his- it: Barnum's opinion of blacks during the pre-Civil War era was no higher than that of most of his
tory." 30 Just as the "real" Circassians are lost in the artistic Orientalism of male European art, countrymen, whether Southerners or Northerners. They were chattels, things to be bought and sold,
the "real" performers of the American Circassian Beauty are likewise lost, nameless or like any other commodity" (85). See Saxon, P T Barnum, 82-85.
7. My concern in this chapter is with the way in which the harem dweller is represented within the
renamed women hidden behind the photographed performance of the freak show. While
image of the Circassian Beauty; for more on the harem itself, see Malek Alloula, The Colonial Harem,
these women were probably not "real" Circassians, they were commodified within the market trans. Myrna Godzich and Wlad Godzich (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986); Alev
of American popular entertainment as were their Eastern sisters within the slave markets of Lytle Croutier, Harem: The World Behind the Veil (New York: Abbeville Press, 1989); N. M. Penzer, The
Constantinople. Harem: An Account of the Institution as It Existed in the Palace of the Turkish Sultans with a History of the
Who these women actually were has been suggested by circus press agent Dexter Fellows, Grand Seraglio .from Its Foundation to Modern Times (London: Spring Books, 1936); and Leslie P.
11
and his suggestion illustrates how the disempowering, enslaving" representation of women in Peirce, The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1993).
American culture continues, with one culture's slavery merely revamped and grafred onto
8. Robert Bogdan, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit (Chicago:
another. Given that the lighter the skin of the Circassian Beauty, the more likely she was to University of Chicago Press, 1988), 238.
impress upon the audience her racial purity, Fellows explains that "whenever a showman 9. Ibid., 239,237.
encountered an unpigmented Irish or Norwegian female, he forthwith engaged her, at a salary 10. Ibid., 237.
far in advance of what she was capable of earning at the washtub, as 'Zuleika, the Circassian 11. Circus press agent Dexter Fellows says the same, highlighting the role of skin color in the
Circassian's presentation: "The theory that Caucasians were the purest and most primitive stock of the
Sultana, Favorite of the Harem.' Such, at least, was the history of the Circassian lady from
white, or European, race gave rise to the mistaken notion that they must of necessity be either albinos
Jersey City." 31 Just like the "lucky" Circassian girl who got out of the workhorse world of her or people whose extreme blondness ran to pink eyes and white hair" (Dexter Fellows and Andrew A.
countrywomen by entering the slavery of the Turkish harems, the immigrant girl in New Freeman, This Way to the Big Show: The Life ofDexter Fellows [New York: Halcyon House, 1936], 292).
York could also leave the drudgery of the "washtub" behind to join the market of commodified This possibly explains how Circassians came to be represented by albinos as the freak show progressed
bodies in the American freak show. throughout the nineteenth century.
What the image of the Circassian Beauty may finally show us is how the signification of 12. P. T. Barnum, Struggles and Triumphs; or, Forty Years' Recollections of P T Barnum, Written by
Himseij"(Buffalo: Courier, 1875), 580.
women in nineteenth-century American culture-the representations of her sexuality, her
i
13. Ibid., 581.
intellectual capability and freedom, her body and its control, as well as her position as a 14. Ibid., 580-81.
commodity in capitalism-not only depended upon the popular representations of women 15. Ibid., 581.
from other cultures, but in fact duplicated those meanings. The Circassian Beauty, then, 16. Edward Said, Orienta/ism (New York: Vintage, 1978), 205.
depicts a harem slave who is reenslaved into Victorian American domesticity, only again to be 17. This is Bogdan's explanation of Zoe's odd linguistic skills; see Bogdan, Freak Show, 239.
I enslaved as a sexualized immigrant commodity of public entertainment, a force that likes its
18. Zoe Me/eke: Biographical Sketch of the Circassian Girl (New York: P. T. Barnum's Greatest Show
I women and cultural others beautifully caged.
on Earth, 1880), 1. Further references to this pamphlet will be cited parenthetically in the text.
111 19. For more on Murray, see Peter Benson, "Maturin Murray Ballou," in Publishers for Mass
:,1 Entertainment in Nineteenth-Century America, ed. Madeleine B. Stern (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1980), 27-
i' 34.
NOTES 20. Murray, Lieutenant. The Circassian Slave: or, The Sultani Favorite: A Story of Constantinople and
1. Thanks go to a number of people who have helped in various ways with this project: Leonor the Caucasus (Boston: F. Gleason, 1851), 9. Further references to this novel will be cited parenthetically
Delazega and Robert O'Connor of the Hertzberg Circus Collection, Michael Dumas of the Harvard in the text.
Theatre Collection, the library staff of the American Antiquarian Society, and Marilyn Grush and 21. Joanna De Groot," 'Sex' and 'Race': The Construction of Language and Image in the Nineteenth
;Ii' Eddie Luster of the Mervyn Sterne Library at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, all for their Century," in Sexuality and Subordination, ed. Susan Mencius and Jane Rendall (New York: Routledge,
I help in locating and making available indispensable research materials; Rebecca Bach for her invaluable 1989), 100.
editorial advice; Scott Sandage for his historical expertise and intellectual comradery; and Rosemarie 22. Ibid.
Thomson for her interest in the first place. Parts of this project were supported by a Faculty Research 23. Said notes that one of the primary features of Orientalism is that it reflects the relationship
Grant from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. between European (and Euro-American, by extension) and Oriental powers as one between the strong
2. A. H. Saxon, introduction to Selected Letters of P T Barnum (New York: Columbia University and the weak, a point that supports Said's argument that Orientalism always has at its center the
Press, 1983), xxx. political control of the East ( Orienta/ism, 40).
3. A. H. Saxon, P T Barnum: The Legend and the Man (New York: Columbia University Press, 24. The photographs I discuss below can be found in the Harvard Theatre Collection. Only some
1989), 361. have identifying titles or captions which I have included when possible.
4. Barnum, Selected Letters, 91-92. 25. Bogdan, Freak Show, 239.
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26. Qiioted in ibid., 240.

27. Ibid., 184.
28. At least one writer of the period depicted life in the Turkish harems as something more
resembling America's slavery system than what writers like Murray show. Thirty Years in the Harem; or,
the Autobiography of Melek-Hanum, Wife of H H Kibrizli-Mehemet-Pasha (New York: Harper and
Bros., 1872) describes the life of a harem slave-and particularly that of the Circassian slave-as a
miserable one. Melek-Hanum's account echoes African-American slave narratives such as Harriet

i'
Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl in that the same central elements of danger appear-the
violent, raping master, the jealous, murderous mistress and the ever-present possibility of sale into an
even worse situation.
29. De Groot," 'Sex' and 'Race,'" 120.
30. Ibid., 121.
Textual Uses of Freaks
31. Fellows and Freeman, This Way to the Big Show, 292-93.

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EIGIITEEN

"One of Us": Tod Browning's Freaks

JOAN HAWKINS

Tod Browning's 1932 production, Freaks, certainly stands as a classic in studies of freakishness
and freakrnaking. Removed from distribution by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) shortly
afrer its release and banned outright in Great Britain, the film-as The Encyclopedia ofHorror
Movies points out-immediately "acquired an unsavoury reputation which lingers on even
though denied by the film itself." 1
Freaks tells the story of a circus midget's impossible love for a "big woman," 2 the circus tra-
peze artist, Cleopatra. When she becomes aware of Hans the midget's love for her, Cleopatra
contrives to marry him for his money (Hans, we learn, has a fortune). Shortly after the wedding,
she and her strongman lover begin administering poison to Hans. The other freaks in the circus
become suspicious, however. Following the "code of the freaks," they kill the strongman and
mutilate Cleopatra, turning her into a chicken-woman, the star of the Freak Show.
Critical reception was mixed. 3 Confusion over the film seems to have stemmed largely from
the use of real freaks to play the parts. 4 Critics worried that the film merely replicated the
most unsavory aspects of the freak show. The New York Times reviewer talks about "the
i underlying sense of horror ... that fills the circus sideshows." 5 Variety faults the film for its
Ir "too fantastic romance," claiming that "it is impossible for the normal man or woman to
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sympathize with the aspiring midget." 6 And Time refuses to evaluate the picture at all,
,I detailing instead all "the misfits of humanity" it numbers among its cast: ''A man without legs
walks on his hands. A woman without hands eats with her feet. A Negro with no limbs at all
lights a cigaret {sic} with his teeth. Siamese twins have courtships." 7
Certainly, publicity for the film points up Freaks' relationship to the carney culture it so
poignantly depicts. "Unlike anything you've ever seen," the Rialto Theater's 1932 ad for the
film proclaims. "The strange and startling love-drama of a midget, a lovely siren, and a giantF
In addition to Leila Hyams, Baclanova, Wallace Ford, and Rosco Ates, the ad lists "a horde
of caricatures of creation- not actors in make-up-but living, breathing creatures as they are
and as they were born!" The base of the ad carries a warning: "Children will not be permitted
to see this picture! Adults not in normal health are urged not to!" 8
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appealing. "What keeps Freaks 'freakish,' " as the Pacific Film Archive notes for the film point
out, "is rather the duality of Browning's own intentions. Despite being one of the few films
that, mutatis mutandi, treats the Other as 'one of us'; and despite purporting in the original
prologue to be an expose of the exploitation of 'nature's mutants,' Freaks is guilty of the crime
it denounces." Through "its bizarre revenge plot" and its periodic insistence on the ''code of
the freaks," the film "traps its characters in a horror mode." 11 It reinscribes physical difference
as a thing to be feared.
The first half of the film goes to great lengths to "normalize" the freaks. We see differently
formed people going about the everyday business of life. Frances, the armless woman, eats;
Randian, the "living torso," rolls and lights a cigarette; Frieda, a midget, hangs out the
laundry. And while it is tempting to read these actions-as the Time review of the film
does- as a series of sideshow acts, the presence of sympathetic "big people" in nearly all
these scenes helps to mitigate the performative aspect. Randian is in the middle of a
conversation with one of the Rollo brothers-the circus acrobats-when he lights his
cigarette. Similarly, Frances, the armless woman, is listening to one of the Rollos brag as she
eats her evening meal. Frieda, as she hangs out her laundry, exchanges confidences with
Venus, the circus seal trainer. The film clearly brackets these exchanges as everyday conversa-
tion ("You're not singing this morning, Frieda," Venus observes, as she sits on her wagon step
to sew and chat). It also uses the "big people" as audience stand-ins: much like the screaming
victims in traditional horror films, they "cue1' us to the appropriate audience response.
Furthermore, there seems to be something odd about most of the "normal" people in the
film. The Rollo brothers' excessive bragging appears here as far more quirky than Randian's
dignified cigarette routine. Rosco, the man who works with Hercules, stutters. The sword-
swallower and the fire-eater are lumped with the freaks in the circus attractions. And Phroso
18.1. Poster for Tod Browning's 1932 film, Freaks. Court·esy of the Ron Becker Collection, Syracuse the clown, the most sympathetic "big man" in the film, refers ominously to his "operation"
University Library, Department of Special Collections. and appears a little slow in his dealings with the street-smart Venus.
Even Cleopatra, the "Q,_ieen of the trapeze" and the "most beautiful big woman" Hans has
Although both critical reaction and box office success appear to have been mixed, mass ever seen, appears here as somehow too large. Seen in Hans's wagon after her marriage to
public reaction was not. A few favorable statements buried in othenvise ambivalent reviews him, Cleopatra must hunch over in order to move around. And Venus, Phroso's sympathetic,
were not enough to counter the negative reviews that appeared in the local press. Despite the conventionally formed lover, calls Cleo a "big horse" when she learns from Frieda about the
fact that the film had shown good box office receipts in some areas, theater owners- trapeze performer's designs on the midget. But it is Cleo's perverse nature that most estab-
particularly those in rural areas-refused to handle the film. At the same time, parent- lishes her as the "living monstrosity" of the circus. Initially flirting with Hans as a nasty joke,
teacher associations and what Leslie Fiedler calls "other organizations specializing in moral Cleo turns deadly serious when she learns he has money. "Midgets are not strong," she tells
indignation" lobbied against the movie. Even some of the freaks who had played in the film, her lover Hercules. "He could get sick. ... It could be done." And the hunched position she
Fiedler notes, "most notably the Bearded Lady, were convinced in retrospect that Browning must assume in order to give Hans his poisoned medicine once he does, in fact, become ill, is
had vilified their kind and said so in public." 9 It was in the face of so much opposition that simply the visible sign of the predatory nature Cleo has nurtured all along. "In this extraordi-
MGM withdrew the film from circulation shortly after its release. While the film could be nary film," Ivan Butler writes, "Browning has turned the popular convention of horror topsy-
seen, without the MGM logo, on the exploitation film circuit, it remained unavailable for turvy. It is the ordinary, the apparently normal, the beautiful which horrify-the monstrous
mainstream viewing in the United States from 1932 (when MGM shelved it) until its revival and distorted which compel our respect, our sympathy, ultimately our affection. The visible
in 1962. beauty conceals the unseen evil, the visible horror is the real goodness." 12
Watching Freaks today is an unnerving experience, although not for the reasons implied by Just in case the audience somehow fails to get the point that it is the "freaks" in this film
the 1932 reviews of the film. It is not seeing the freaks lead normal lives ("Siamese twins have who deserve our allegiance and sympathy, Browning includes at least two scenes that make
courtships") that is unsettling. On the contrary, the film's apparent thesis-namely, that the film's thesis quite explicit. When Hans falls ill, Venus confronts Hercules and makes it
"freakishness is only skin deep, and that differently formed people have all the feelings, clear that she does not regard herself as one of his "kind." "You better get Cleo to tell the
intelligence and humor of 'normal' folks" 10 -is one that most contemporary audiences find doctor what she put in the wine last night," Venus tells Hercules, "or I'll tell the coppers."
I r
I
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;j JOAN HAWKINS f; ~ "ONE OF us" f

1
"So," he replies, 'you'd tell on your own people." "My people," Venus says, pulling herself up, manners behind his back and teases him when he shows signs of jealousy. At the wedding
1 "are decent circus folks, not dirty rats what would kill a freak to get his money." banquet she accuses him of acting like "a baby'' when he does not join in her outburst; and
1

A more telling scene, however, occurs early in the film. The setting here shifts away from she further humiliates him by taking him on a piggyback ride around the deserted table. Even
the cloistered world of the circus to the surrounding countryside. We see a gentleman walking in her gentle moments, Cleo tends to infantilize Hans. She calls him "my little," in a vain
with his groundsperson, Jean, who is struggling to describe the horrors he has just seen. attempt to convince him of her affection, and tells his friends to go home so that she can tuck
"Horrible, twisted things," he says, "crawling and gliding." The gentleman assures the dis- him in for the night. But Hans is not "a baby"; he is, as he tells her early in the film, "a man''
traught man that he'll clear his grounds of any "things" or persons who do not belong. We who has the same feelings "big people" have. And these feelings turn quite nasty when he
then see-in long shot-Madame Tetralini, the owner of the circus, and a group of circus begins to suspect that Cleo is trying to poison him.
freaks that she has brought out for exercise. The human skeleton is lying on his back, playing It is Hans's and, by extension, all the freaks' revenge against Cleo that helps to establish
a reed pipe. The pinheads, Schlitze, Elvira, and Jennie Lee, and some of the midgets are Freaks as a true horror film. Certainly, the revenge sequence is terrifying in a way that
dancing in a circle, singing and giggling. Nearby this strange pastorale, Madame Tetralini suspense can never be. But if the freaks' revenge inscribes the film as part of the horror genre,
sits, reading. As the disgruntled Jean moves in to chase the strange band away, the camera it also reinscribes the freaks as monsters within that genre. In fact, the entire revenge sequence
comes in for a medium to medium-close shot. Madame Tetralini rises; Schlitze and Elvira can be read as a systematic reversal of the earlier pastoral scene, which attempted to establish
run to her for protection. The other freaks gather closely around. Clinging to her skirts, the freaks as harmless children. Whereas the pastoral takes place in a contained, sunlit space,
they-especially Schlitze and Elvira-look like frightened children. And children, Madame the revenge sequence unfolds at night during a rainstorm; its overt sense of menace derives
Tetralini explains, is exactly what they are. "These are thildren from my circus .... When I precisely from the fact that the freaks can not be contained. Anywhere that Cleo runs, she is
get the chance I like to take them into the sunshine and let them play like-children. That is vulnerable. Furthermore, whereas the pastoral sequence expounds antifreak prejudice (in the
what most of them are-children." When the gentleman gives them permission to stay and form of Jean's tirade to his employer) in order that Madame Tetralini might refute it, here
calls the srill-sputrering Jean away, Madame Tetralini scolds her charges for being frightened. Jean's anxieties about the freaks are given literal expression. Pursuing Cleo through the mud
"Shame .... How many times have I told you not to be frightened. Have I not told you that and rain, the freaks here do crawl and glide; and given the fact that it is night, they do
God looks after all His children." resemble "horrible twisted things," rather than differently formed people. Finally, while the
Madame Tetralini's speech, like Venus's, is clearly meant to remind the audience that pastoral scene attempts (somewhat unsuccessfully, as I argue above) to represent the freaks as
physical difference is an accident of birth. Her gentle insistence that we are all God's children "children," the revenge sequence shows clearly that the most childlike freaks can be quite
functions here as a reproach to any Philistines in the audience who might believe-as Jean vicious. Even Schlitze-perhaps the most childlike pinhead-appears monstrous here, as she
and Hercules clearly do-that differently formed people are "little apes" or "monsters." But gambols through the mud clutching a knife.
Madame Tetralini's speech points to one of the subtler aspects of the film: While it is certainly If the pastoral scene shows a group of vulnerable freaks who cling to a big woman, Madame
true that the freaks are all God's children (i.e., God's offspring), it is not so clear that all the Tetralini, for protection, the revenge sequence depicts a big woman who desperately needs
freaks-or even "most of them'' -are literally "children" (i.e., innocent and helpless beings), protection from a band of marauding freaks. It is clear that Cleo occupies the star-victim
as Madame Tetralini claims. position here. From the moment she runs screaming into the night with the band of venge-
Although some of the freaks- most notably the pinheads- are portrayed as childlike ful freaks behind her, Cleo begins attracting audience sympathy. And it is this very
throughout most of the film, the male freaks included in the pastoral scene are all explicitly shift in audience sympathy-away from the freaks and toward their intended victim-that
linked to the adult world. The human skeleton playing the reed pipe appears in a later tends to undermine what Robin Wood would call the earlier "progressive" nature of the
sequence as the proud father of the bearded lady's baby. Randian, the "living torso," has a film_l3
mature, weather-lined face and sports several tattoos. And the midget who leads the band in Furthermore, there are indications that the freaks have done this sort of thing before. The
thanking the gentleman for allowing them to stay is obviously mature. It is he who proposes barker's ominous references to the "code of the freaks," as well as the·prologue's invocation of
and leads the "one of us" toast at the wedding banquet, who seems to organize and orchestrate such a code, sensitizes the viewer from the very beginning to the possibility of freak violence.
the surveillance of Cleo when Hans gets sick, and who first calls the audience's attention back Even the "progressive" sequences of the film-those which show the freaks behaving "nor-
to the freaks' "code." Enjoying a glass of wine with Frances, the armless lady, he angrily mally'' at home-hint at a dark side of freak culture. Relaxing over a glass of wine, Frances,
predicts that Cleo will have problems if she tries "doing anything to one of us." the armless woman, and her friend, the midget who played a leadership role in the earlier
If it is wrong to judge people as "monsters" simply because they are differently formed, it is pastoral scene, gossip about the budding romance between Cleo and Hans:
equally wrong (and potentially dangerous)-the film seems to be saying-to attribute child-
like qualities (like helplessness and innocence) to adult people who happen to be diminutive SHE: Cleopatra ain't one of us. Why, we're just filthy things to her. She'd spit on Hans if he
in size. And this is a mistake that many of the "normal" people in the circus make. Even wasn't giving her presents.
Cleo, who plays on Hans's adult sexual feelings throughout the first half of the film, periodi- HE: Let her try it. Let her try doing anything to one of us.
cally confounds his appearance and behavior with that of a child. She laughs at his courtly SHE: You're right. She don't know us; but she'll find out.

268
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~ JOAN HAWKINS~ ~ "oNE OF us" f

Frances's observation that Cleo doesn't really "know" the freaks serves in part to remind us apparently has in mind all along. From the beginning of their relationship, Cleo seems to
that the freaks are a marginalized, maltreated group. Like any such group, they have been have mounted a campaign of sexual humiliation against Hans. "Are you laughing at me?"
forced to adopt an inscrutable, "unknowable" public demeanor in order to survive. But the Hans asks Cleo when she first attracts his attention. And it is Hans's sexual humiliation that
reminder comes at a very odd moment in the film. Just when the film appears to be Frieda tries to prevent when she goes to see Cleo in her wagon. "Everybody's laughing," she
downplaying difference (by showing that the freaks' domestic lives are not very different from tells Cleo, "because he's in love mit you .... I know you just make fun, but Hans, he does not
those of "big people"), it explicitly connects the idea of difference to an implicit threat ("She know this. If he finds out, never again will he be happy."
don't know us; but she'll find out"). This threat is, of course, realized in the revenge scene. Despite Frieda's attempts to comfort Hans with the thought that Cleo's tragedy was not
While there is a certain poetic justice to Cleo's final transformation, her emergence as a his fault, one has the impression that the real cause of Hans's depression at the end of the film
chicken-woman further complicates the depiction of physical difference in Freaks. For Cleo is is the collapse of the marriage itself. For Hans finally did find out that Cleo was just making
constructed, not born, as a freak. And this construction seems to have two implications for fun. "I don't blame you, Cleo," he tells her on their wedding night, "I should have known you
the film. On the one hand, it works as a nice metaphor for the way that freaks are shown as would only laugh at me." And having found out, Hans-as Frieda predicted-can never
"social constructs" throughout the film (i.e., the film shows that there is nothing inherently again be happy.
freakish about differently formed people and that in the freaks' world, it is "big people" who The coda, then, attempts to undo some of the revenge sequence's impact. Having been
seem abnormal and odd). On the other hand, however, it directly contradicts the argument forced -almost against its desire-to see the freaks as monsters, the audience can return at
for tolerance that we are given at the beginning of the film. Having been initially reminded the end to its earlier vision of Hans as Cleo's victim. It is significant, though, that such a
by the barker that physical difference is an "accident of birth," not the visible sign of_ some return can be effected only through the complete feminization and infantilization of Hans.
inner monstrosity, we are ultimately presented with a woman who has been turned mto a As the camera rests on Frieda and Hans at the film's end, Cleo's earlier taunt (that Hans was
freak as punishment for her immorality and greed (i.e., a woman whose physical difference is a "baby," not a man) seems to have been realized. Having failed in his efforts "to be a man"
the tangible sign of her inner monstrosity). The fact that Cleo-the true "living monstrosity'' (i.e., to win Cleo's respect and to control her punishment), Hans is recast at the end as
in the circus-is transformed into a physical "monstrosity'' raises the possibility that physical Frieda's "baby." Sobbing in his fiancee's arms, he seems to be destined for maternal rather
difference can be the tangible sign of inner depravity, which serves to partially blunt the than sexual love.
progressive edge of Freaks. Freaks remains a troubling film to watch largely because of its own internal demonization
The film itself seems to acknowledge the fact that it comes perilously close to completely of the freaks and because of the demands it makes on the audience (first we sympathize with
undermining audience sympathy for the freaks. Although Cleo's appearance as a chicken- the freaks, then with their victims, then with the freaks again). But equally troubling are the
woman seems to be the logical conclusion to the film, 14 Freaks has a brief coda whose only misogyny and gynophobia that run throughout the film. From the opening barker's speech-
purpose seems to be the recuperation of audience sympathy for Han~. In the_ coda, Phroso "Friends, she was once a beautiful woman" -to the revelation of the chicken-woman, the
and Venus bring Frieda to see Hans. Hans, who has been a recluse smce leaving the arcus, film's real topic seems to be "dames'' who "squeal when [they] ... get what's coming to
does not wish to see his old friends; but Phroso and Venus contrive to enter and to leave [them]." 15 And it is the punishment of one such "dame," Cleopatra, that I wish to reconsider
Frieda -with him. "Please go away," Hans tells them, "I can see no one." "But Hans," Frieda here.
tells the now-sobbing midget, "You tried to stop them. It was only the poison you wanted. It On one level, there is an element of poetic justice in Cleo's final transformation. Having
wasn't your fault." previously refused to become "one-of us'' symbolically during the wedding banquet scene,
Besides providing a romantic ending (Hans and Frieda are together again) to an otherwise Cleo is literally transformed into a freak as punishment for her arrogance and for her betrayal
grim film, the coda serves to remove responsibility for Cleo's condition from Hans. But it also of one of the freaks. But there is also a strong sexual-component here. Not only did Cleo plot
serves to establish Hans as another victim of the freaks' revenge. Completely broken by the to kill her husband, she sexually humiliated him in front of all his friends. Kissing Hercules
events he seems to have unleashed, Hans now can bring himself to see no one. Hidden away, passionately at the wedding banquet, insulting the wedding guests, and, finally, symbolically
he is even more isolated from the "normal" world than he was in the circus. And it is hard unmanning Hans (with the piggyback ride around the table), Cleo emerges here as the
not to see this all as somehow Cleo's fault. She is the one, afrer all, who encouraged his quintessential transgressive woman, and her mutilation appears as an atavistic enactment of
attentions, who gave him "ideas" -first to send her gifts and later to marry her; and she's the the punitive scarring visited upon adulteresses in certain preindustrial tribes. The goal is to
one who tried to poison him. ruin her looks so that she cannot attract other men. As in any ritual designed to bring female
In fact, the film's ending can be read as the logical conclusion to Hans's relationship with sexuality under control, the rape imagery in the revenge sequence is strong. When Hans
Cleo. For, in true horror-victim fashion, Hans seems to be completely feminized in this scene. demands in the wagon that Cleo turn over her little black bottle of poison, one of his friends
While Phroso and Venus's tiptoed exit-complete with pokes in the side and broad winks to dramatically opens a switchblade. In the hands of the midget, the knife looks enormous; the
one another-leads the audience to expect to see the midgets in a passionate embrace, the spring action of the weapon combined with its piercing, penetrating function seem perhaps
final shot of the film shows a completely unmanned Hans sobbing in Frieda's arms. And it is too obvious a phallic symbol for Hans's assumption of authority over his wife. Later, in the
the unmanning of Hans-the divestment of both his money and his sexual pride-that Cleo chase scene, everyone-even the pinheads-is armed with some kind of phallic weapon.
 1 JOAN HAWKINS I; 1 "oNE OF us"~

Interestingly, Cleo alone is mutilated in Freaks. As J. Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum duality or confusion. Even the performers associated with the freaks are often cast in sexually
point out, the story's original ending called for the castration of Hercul~s, as well as for ambiguous roles. Rosco, the stutterer who performs with Hercules, dresses as a Roman lady
Cleopatra's mutilation. 16 Originally, both of the lovers were to be treated with sexual brutal- for his act. And Phroso the clown refers to an unspecified "operation" in one of his early
ity-essentially, to be "neutered." The transformation of Hercules' punishment from castra- conversations with Venus. 21
tion to swift capital punishment (one of the midgets throws a knife into Hercules' back) is But if Cleo's mutilation is the culminating event in a film obsessed with gender confusion
just one of the elements that is troubling here. For it is not really certain that Hercules is and duality, it is also the culminating event in a film haunted by misogyny. Punished for
being "punished" at all. When the midget throws his knife into the strongman's back, betraying Hans and for transgressing her gender/sexual role, Cleo emerges as the "most
Hercules is in the process of strangling Phroso. The knife attack is, then, as much an amazing, the most astounding living monstrosity of all time." She emerges as the quintessential
expedient means of saving Phroso's life as it is punishment for the crimes that Hercules example of what Phroso designates as essential femininity: At the hands of the freaks she
committed against the freaks. becomes one of those "dames" who "squeal when [they] ... get what's coming to [them]."
If-as the original ending for Freaks would suggest-mutilation and castration are the I realize I have raised more questions about the function of gender in Freaks than I have
appropriate penalties for sexual transgression, then Cleo takes the punishment for both herself been able to answer here. But identifying provocative patterns and raising questions about
and Hercules. Her mutilation stands in for two violent and disfiguring acts: her own symbolic latent material may be the only possible way to analyze a horror film that, as Raymond
rape and Hercules' castration as well. In that way, Cleo may be said to serve the same Durgnat maintains, "at every turn evokes the name ofBuiiuel." 22 Despite its apparently tidy
symbolic function that Carol J. Clover maintains the fe)"ale victim in contemporary slasher structure-framing device plus story plus framing device plus coda-Freaks resists the kind
films always serves. As her body symbolically becomes the site for Hercules' punishment as of analysis that most horror films invite. The film, as I have tried to show, does not really
well as her own, Cleo becomes the figure onto which the male experience of castration may establish itself as a horror film until the freaks begin stalking Cleo-almost two-thirds of the
be quite literally displaced_l7 way through the movie. And playing with our very notions of what constitutes freakishness
II
,,:'I But Cleo's punishment symbolizes a kind of female castration as well. For if Cleo is, as I and monstrosity, the film demands a complicated viewer response that, as Durgnat argues, fits
argued earlier, a monstrous figure, much of her monstrosity derives· from her assumption of our expectations of avant-garde cinema more than it does our expectations of horror.
male prerogatives and roles. It is Cleo who takes the sexual initiative with both Hans and It is in its treatment of sexuality and gender, however, that the film becomes most difficult
Hercules ("So that's how it is," she tells the strongman after she calls him to her wagon, "You to pin down. Cleo functions both as an essentialized female who fills the role that Phroso
have to be called.") It is Cleo who devises the plan to kill Hans and avail herself of his money. assigns to all women near the beginning of the film (dames who squeal when they get what's
And it is Cleo who takes responsibility for carrying the plan out. Physically stronger than coming to them), and as an androgynous character who looks like a woman and performs like
anyone in the circus except Hercules, 18 Cleo's very physiognomy establishes her as an androg- a man. Furthermore, even her sexual motivation appears to be fluid here. For all of her femme
ynous creature. As Ivan Butler describes her, she is "tall, blonde, almost aggressively vital... • fatale dealings with both Hans and Hercules, Cleo gives strong indications that at least her
One critic described her performance as 'voracious,' and there is indeed at times a nasty initial advances towards Hans may be motivated more by her antagonism toward Frieda than
feeling that at the back of her mind is an obscene desire to sink her teeth into the midget and by the joke she wishes to play on Frieda's fiance. It is Frieda's eye she catches when she makes
gobble him up." 19 Certainly, she physically dominates Hans. Carrying him piggyback around her first pass at Hans. And, immediately after flirting with him, she approaches the diminutive
the banquet table, she asserts her physical strength and humiliates him in front of his friends. woman seated on horseback and fluffs up her ballet skirt. "Nice, nice," she says. ("Don't,
Carrying him to his own wagon when he is ill, she reinforces his position as feminized victim. don't," Frieda replies). Later she torments Frieda by thanking Hans for the gifts he has sent
Cleo's sexual criminality is compounded, then, by the masculine codes she so readily her. "By me, she has no shame," Frieda tells Venus. ''Always when I can hear it she says to him,
assumes. Not only does she betray Hans in standard femme fatale fashion, she also overtly 'thanks, my darling, for this and thanks, my darling, for that'" [emphasis mine]. Finally, Cleo
usurps his position of physical and emotional dominance. Demonstrating that she is a better only decides to marry Hans after Frieda comes to her wagon and begs her to stop toying with
! I man than Hans will ever be, Cleo becomes what Susan Lurie would designate a "phallic his affections.
woman." 20 And, as such, she must literally be "cut down to size" by her husband and his There are, then, two erotic triangles at play in Freaks. There is the Cleo-Hans-Hercules
friends. configuration, the triangle that explodes into open conflict at Hans and Cleo's wedding
Cleo's mutilation-her punishment for transgressing certain sexual and gender limits-is banquet. But there is also the less obvious triangle of Cleo-Hans-Frieda, a triangle that is just
the culminating event in a film obsessed with the meaning of physical difference. In fact, its as fraught with psychological turmoil and intensity. What interests me here is the power
presence here serves to highlight the degree to which Freakl obsession with physical differ- model implied by the Cleo-Hans-Frieda triad. As Rene Girard argues in his book Deceit,
ence can also be read as an obsession with gender difference. The film repeatedly raises gender Desire, and the Novel, 23 there are always two active members of an erotic triangle (the rivals),
issues and questions the basis of gender assignment and identity. The silence that falls and it is their relationship that structures the dynamics of power within the threesome. As
over the performers whenever the half-woman, half-man Josephine/Joseph walks by, the Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick points out, this observation has enormous implications for the sexual
ij,! accouchement of the bearded lady, and Hans's struggle to be recognized as a "man'' are all dynamics that take place within the menage. "What is most interesting in his [Girard's]
indications of the way in which "freakishness'' in this film seems inevitably to involve gender study," she writes "is its insistence that, in any erotic rivalry, the bond that links the two rivals
I

!1''· 272 2 73
 ;1 JOAN HAWKINS~ ~ "ONE OF us" f

is as intense and potent as the bond that links either of the rivals to the beloved: that the NOTES

bonds of 'rivalry' and 'love,' differently as they are experienced, are equally powerful and in I would like to thank William Nestrick, who first suggested that I write on Freaks, and whose help and
many senses equivalent." 24 Sedgwick uses this observation to analyze the ways in which su?-gest10ns were c1:11cial to ~e develo?ment of this chapter. I would also like to thank Carol J. Clover,
Michael Lucey, Skip Hawkins, and Richard Hutson for their valuable critiques of an earlier version of
depictions of the traditional erotic triangle (two men and one woman) introduce the notion this chapter, and for their encouragement.
of male homosocial desire into \Vestern literature. What she does not consider-and what
Freaks only hints at-is the degree to which female gynosocial desire (in this case Cleo's bond 1. Phil Hardy, Tom Milne, and Paul Willemen, The Encyclopedia of Horror Movies (New York:
with Frieda) may be viewed as profoundly threatening and disruptive to a system in which, as Harper and Row, 1986), 51.
Sedgwick points out, "sexuality functions as a signifier for power relations." 25 2. !his _is the term that Hans uses throughout the film to describe Cleopatra. "She is the most
Claude Levi-Strauss once postulated that the exchange of women (through marriage and beautiful big woman I ever saw," he tells his fiancee Frieda at the beginning of the film.
3. S~e, e.g., "Not for Children," New Yorker, 16 July 1932, 45; and "The Circus Side Show," New
sexual liaisons) forms the basis of patriarchal sexual economy and, by extension, of patriarchal York Times, 9 July 1932, 7.
society itself. "The total relationship of exchange which constitutes marriage is not established . 4. I have decided to use ~he word "freaks" despite-or perhaps because of-its derogatory connota-
between a man and a woman," he writes, "but between two groups of men [the woman's kin tJ.ons. Whether or not p~ysicall~ challenged people are "freaks" is, after all, one of the crucial questions
and the kin of her prospective husband], and the woman figures only as one of the objects in posed by the film; and 1t is, I believe, the central issue involved in the film's suppression.
the exchange, not as one of the partners." 26 The point of such an exchange is to cement 5. "The Circus Side Show," 7.
6. The reviewer's ~iscomfort with the use of real freaks in the film is obvious here. One year after
liaisons between different kinship units; the woman, in this model, becomes the conduit for
Freaks was made, King Kong-surely the most fantastic love story of all time-was released to rave
an alliance between men. Girard, of course, draws heavily on Levi-Strauss's cultural paradigm reviews. See Variety, 12 July 1932, n.p.
to bolster his argument about the nature of adulterous liaisons. And, as Sedgwick demon- 7. "Freaks," Time, 18 April 1932, 17.
strates, the classic Girardian threesome-two men vying for one woman-does nothing to 8. The ad appeared in New York Times, 9 July 1932, 7.
alter Levi-Strauss's model. If anything, it reinforces the basis of the sexual economy, as the 9. Leslie Fiedler, Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self(New York: Simon and Schuster 1978)
296. ' '
circulation of the woman causes the men-in both Sedgwick's and Girard's view-to forge a
_10. Progr~m ~ate in the Pacific Film _Arch_ive serie~ Received Images: A Reading of Disability in
powerful relationship to one another. But when a man becomes the object of rivalry between Cmema, Urnversity Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Calendar, July 1990, University of California
two women and, hence, is designated as a commodity of sexual exchange, the male basis for at Berkeley, © Regents of the University of California.
power becomes seriously compromised. Here, the important relationship, the active relation- 11. Ibid.
ship, is the one that obtains between the two women rivals. The man is merely the " 'conduit 12. Ivan Butler, Horror z"n the Cinema, 2d rev. ed. (London: A. S. Zwemmer New York: A S Barnes
1970), 65. ' . . '
of a relationship' in which the true partner" is a woman. 27
_13. For Woo_d, horror_film~ "are progressive precisely to the degree that they refuse to be satisfied
In the microcosmic world of the circus, then, Cleo functions as a disruptive force on two
with - - • [the] simple designation of the monster as evil." See Robin Wood, Hollywoodfrom Vietnam to
counts. Not only does she refuse to keep the social place assigned to her by the dominant Reagan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), 192.
sexual economy, but she also builds relationships that seem to threaten the very existence of 14. In terms of both structure and plot, the shot of the chicken-woman seems like an appropriate
the patriarchal sexual economy itself To put it another way, Cleo is not merely struggling for place to ~nd. _S~cturally, it par3!1els t~e bark~r's speech that opens the film and completes the opening
position in a world order whose legitimacy she recognizes. She is behaving in a way that sequences ~ssmg shot. Thematically, 1t unveils the monster that the audience has been waiting to see.
usurps the very basis of male power.28 And it is for the role she plays in compromising the 1?. Early 1~ the film, Venus leaves the strongman, Hercules, with whom she had been living. As she
carnes her things back to her own wagon, she sees Phroso taking off his makeup. Realizing that he has
foundation of male dominance that Cleo ultimately must be reduced to a hen.
heard the entirety of her argument with Hercules, Venus lashes out at Phroso. 'Women are funnYi ain't
Oddly, it is the freaks in the film-those most associated with mixed and confused gender they~" she says sarcastically. Phroso follows Venus back to her wagon, where he replies, "You dam~s are
identities-who become, in this context at least, the enforcers of a patriarchal social order all alike ... how you squeal when you get what's coming to you."
that has spurned and marginalized them. Chasing Cleo through the woods and mutilating 16. J. Haberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum, Midnight Movies (New York: Da Capo, 1983), 297.
her, they seem unwittingly to become the instruments of the dominant society's revenge as 17. See CarolJ. Clover, Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1992), 50-53.
well as the enforcers of the "code of the freaks." That is perhaps the most troubling dimension
18. In fact, Cleo's preference for men who can physically dominate her is one of the few traditional
of a film that continually defies the very viewer expectations it works so hard to elicit. But in female codes she follows.
ultimately identifying the freaks' revenge with the enforcement of patriarchal sexual hege- 19. Butler, Horror in the Cinema, 66.
mony, Freaks also introduces a theme that Wood has identified as standard in horror: It 20. See Susan Lurie, '.'~ornography and the Dread of Woman," in Take Back the Night, ed. Susan
illustrates the basic connection that always exists between the monster and the "normal" world Lederer (New York: William Morrow, 1980); and Barbara Creed The Momtrom Feminine: Fi"lm
Feminism and Psychoanalysis (London: Routledge, 1993). ' '
(s)he menaces.29 For it is precisely when the freaks turn monstrous-when they seem to step
21. At the _e~? of his ar~m:nt ~th Venus, Phroso advises her not to start drinking. "Say, you're a
outside the bounds of normal social constraints-that they become enforcers of patriarchal
convention. It is when they become monstrous that they most clearly function-within the
pretty goo_d~?, _she tells him. You re darn right I run," he replies. "You should have caught me before
my operation. Give~ ~he s~al tenor of the scene, the audience is led to see the operation as somehow
dominant society-as one of us. sexual-an old war InJury, like the one suffered by the narrator of The Sun Also Rises, perhaps?

2 74 2 7S
 ;j JOAN HAWKINS""

22. Raymond Durgnat, "Freaks," Films and Filming 9, no. 1 (August 1963): 23.
' l"'WIJ"'WE'I"EEJ"'W
23. Rene Girard, Deceit, Desire, and the Novel- Self and Other in Literary Structure, trans. Yvonne
Freccero (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972). . .
24. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocta! Desire (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1985), 21. An American Tail: Freaks, Gender, and the
25. Ibid., 7. p 1969) 115
26. Claude Levi-Strauss, The Elementary Structures of Kinship (Boston: Beacon ress, ,
quoted in Sedgv,ick, Between Men, 26.
i
Incorporation of History in Katherine
27. Sedgwick, Between Men, 26 .
28. This is very complicated because Cleo also functions as an obJect of sexual exchange between Dunn's Geek Love
Hercules and Hans.
29. See Robin Wood, "Return of the Repressed," Film Comment, July-August 1978, 26. RACHEL ADAMS

One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.

-SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR, The Second Sex, 1952 1

Organisms are not born, but they are made.

-DONNA HARAWAY, "The Promises of Monsters," r992 2

A true freak cannot be made. A true freak must be born.

3
-KATHERINE DUNN, Geek Love, r989

These epigraphs reflect an ongoing preoccupation within feminist theory with how best to
explain women's difference. Simone de Beauvoir's once-revolutionary statement acknowledges
that gender is not inherently connected to biology, but rather is assumed through the
repetition of a complex and arbitrary system of practices. Expanding Beauvoir's claim, Donna
Haraway asserts not only that gender is a discourse mapped onto the body, but that our
experience of the body itself materializes only through the various social interactions that
define its boundaries. In each critic's constructivist understanding, femininity emerges as an
oppressive discourse that must be understood and rescripted.
In contrast, Olympia Binewski, the narrator and protagonist of Katherine Dunn's 1989
novel Geek Love, emphasizes essential bodily difference as a determining factor in her social
identity: one does not become a freak, but rather is born one. Within the context of the novel,
which chronicles the downfall of a family of carnival freaks deliberately created by Lillian and
AI Binewski through exposure to radiation and the massive ingestion of drugs, Olympia's
essentialism is "false"; the "masterpiece" of her differently shaped body is not natural but the
product of her parents' careful and intentional experimentation. However, within the context
of the scene, in which the unfortunate dwarf is lifted onstage at a strip club as the men in the
audience laugh and jeer, her insistence on the value of authentic bodily difference is a
legitimate defense against humiliation. Although Olympia's assertion seems to counteract the
constructivist ideology of the novel, this inconsistency ultimately indicates that claims about

2 77
l
I
1 RACHEL ADAMS~

identity are always context-specific. As Diana Fuss has argued, the charge of essentiafom so
1 AN AMERICAN TAIL~

individuals born with bodily differences, such as Siamese twins, dwarfs and midgets, or the
frequently leveled against theories of identity need,'. to be tempered by an understand1_ng of human torso, would premise their sideshow exhibits on displays of their normality, which
the context and consequences of that essentialism: The question we should be asking 1s not demonstrated their ability to accomplish everyday tasks with ease, to think intelligently, and
'is this text essentialist (and therefore "bad")?' but rather, 'if this text is essentialist, what to engage in respectable relationships with others. 9 Exhibits focused on the performer's
motivate, it, deployment?' " 4 Countering poststructuralism's blanket critique of identity poli- healthy relationship with a spouse, ability to bear children, and acceptance into polite society
tics, Fuss advocates a consideration of "the political investments of the subject's complex as part of her freakishness. For example, the human torso Prince Randian was celebrated for
positioning in a particular social field." 5 At various moments Geek Love invokes both essential- his ability to roll a cigarette and light it with his mouth, and the marriage of the Siamese
ist and constructivist models of identity, creating a tension that, on the one hand, demon- twins Chang and Eng to two normal sisters was widely publicized as proof of their remarkable
strates that prejudices against bodily difference are culturally produced, and on the other, condition. In contrast, those performers who were not born true freaks, such as the snake
recognizes the materiality of the body as it experiences pain or becomes the subject of violence charmer, the savage, the strongman, or the tattooed person, emphasized their diffirence from
or ridicule. I read the novel's vacillation between essentialist and constructivist understandings the average person. In either case, the exhibit was premised on the deviance of the freak's
of the body not as a logistical inconsistency, but as paradigmatic of how Americans attempt body; its titillating transgression of boundaries-savage/human, child/adult, man/woman,
to manage the problem of bodily difference that has persistently troubled the nation's social self/other-called into question the audience's preconceived notions of the possibilities and
and legal structure. limitations of the human body.
This problem is generated by the inability of constitutional law-which guarantees the In unsettling the stable boundaries of the human body, the freak show also throws into
abstract equality of all citizens-to protect the rights of those who look different. Political and crisis fixed ideas about genealogy and history. The "true life" pamphlets that frequently
social theorists have repeatedly demonstrated the failure of the American legal system to accompanied exhibits provided a biographical description of the subject, his or her physical
recognize difference in cases involving affirmative action, fetal rights, and sexual harassment oddities, 1'of:ficial" endorsements of authenticity by doctors and scientists, and, in more exotic
6
where the blindness of the law to race and gender obstructs the rights of the injured party. cases, descriptions of the geography and native people of the freak's country of origin, which
In such cases concepts crucial to American national identity, such as individual merit, blind were often grossly exaggerated or patently untrue. According to Robert Bogdan, "Some
justice, and abstract standards, ignore the historical conditions that have shaped the identities pamphlets were forty and more pages long, going on in elaborate, fraudulent detail about the
of marginalized people or, as Patricia Williams puts it in her discussion of affirmative action, trek through the jungle that resulted in finding the lost tribe of which the exhibit was a
7
"a refusal to talk about the past disguises a refusal to talk about the present." Williams member-when in fact the person was born and raised in New Jersey." 10 The very identity
posits historical understanding as a remedy to institutional blindness by addressing the past of the freak is thus premised on the invention of a history that will draw maximum crowds
experiences of inequality that have shaped the current interests, abilities, and beliefs of and profit. If some biographies embellished the freak's identity by inventing exotic, faraway
marginalized groups. Geek Love is a text that explores the necessity of situating the problem origins, others displayed an anxiety about genealogy, insisting on the normality of the freak's
of difference and equality within history. Focusing relentlessly on the physical body as a site parents and offspring. Such pamphlets emphasized the freak's ability to produce normal,
of oppression, the novel illustrates what Michel Foucault has called the "microphysics of healthy offspring, as if to insure the audience of the isolated deviance of the freak's body
8
power," which situate domination deep in the ritualized practices of everyday life, but it also against an anxiety about the generation of a race of similarly freakish progeny. Both those
posits the body firmly anchored within history as a site for the reclamation of agency. biographies that claimed affiliation with exotic tribes and those that described their subjects
The relationship between history and the body becomes increasingly fraught as technology as isolated anomalies reflect an anxiety about the freak's place in history and work to situate
develops unprecedented capabilities for altering the physical form that call into question the her outside of, or as a bizarre and impotent anomaly in, mainstream American life.
limits of knowledge and the boundaries of the human body. Geek Love critiques institutions Although the freak show has all but vanished from American culture, the questions it raises
that endorse bodily transformation as a means of escaping from history and suggests instead about the significance and definition of the human body have multiplied as science develops
that this new plasticity of the body must be informed by a knowledge of one's personal past unprecedented capabilities for understanding, penetrating, and restructuring the inner and
and its position within local and national history. In Geek Love, however, history, like bodies, outer spaces of the body. As Geek Love so brilliantly demonstrates, both the freak show
is malleable, and its significance shifts depending on the context of its retelling. Faced with and new surgical technologies converge in their obsession with sexuality, production, and
potentially limitless possibilities, the novel manifests an anxiety-shared by many critics of reproduction. The novel critiques those institutions that focus on the body with the ostensible
postrnodernism-about boundaries and limitations. Without recourse to the natural, who is goal of bettering human life, but ultimately offer only fetishized models of beauty and
to say when science should stop trying to change the body's shape and genetic makeup? And perfection that endorse bodily transformation as a means of escaping from history. Medical
without master narratives that signal the Truth, how can we maintain a sense of the signifi- technology, which promises improved health and longevity, becomes instead a means of
cance of past events? normalizing the body, of producing replicants of a single, idealized model. The ability to
In Geek Love, the freak show becomes the locus for this anxiety about the malleability of replicate bodies and body parts-now possible through cosmetic surgery, with more sophisti-
bodies and history. The freak's partial identity, her inability to fit into fixed categories of cated processes such as cloning projected in the near future-combined with new reproduc-
definition, is what designates her as a human oddity worthy of display for profit. In the past, tive technologies that allow sex without reproduction, in vitro fertilization, fertility treatments,

2 79
 ,-------

-,I RACHEL ADAMS~ -,I AN AMERICAN TAIL~

and surrogate pregnancy focus the crisis of definition most prominently on the female body. 11 ability to generate income, the Binewskis are excellent interpreters of the capitalist system
In Geek Love the tension between production and reproduction, procreation and replication, that constructs the body as a commodity.
is most tellingly illustrated in the conflict over whether Olympia's estranged daughter Miranda The Binewskis solidify their children's sense of identity through the retelling of family
will choose to keep her tail or have it surgically removed. The conflict over Miranda's tail is history, which cements their connection to one another through a shared extraordinary past
the central structuring device of the narrative (the tale), the occasion for repeated movement reflected in their extraordinary bodies. But in spite of their affirmation of familial bonds and
between accounts of the present and memories of or documented information about the past. indisputable American patriotism, the Binewskis are unable to maintain their sense of place
A vestigial remnant that recalls the human body's articulation with the natural and animal within a larger national context that would provide them with a historical understanding of
worlds, as well as Miranda's connection to her own bizarre familial past, the tail thematizes the freakish body. Significantly, even the youthful Lil is unable to connect her own local
the necessity of thinking about bodily difference within the context of personal and collective experience to historical events; she clearly remembers July 3rd as the date when she saved Al,
history. yet she muses, "it was during a war, darlings ... I forget which one precisely'' (4). This
forgetting of national events presages Lil's eventual drug-induced oblivion, which causes her
to believe she is completely alone in the house where she lives with both her daughter and
AN AMERICAN TAIL granddaughter. Unable to accept her "failures," the freakish offspring who died in utero or
Early in the novel, Miranda must choose whether to keep her tail, which she displays for soon after birth, Lil keeps them stored in jars of formaldehyde that she visits each day.
profit by dancing naked at the Glass House, or to take the large sum of money the wealthy Refusing to mourn their deaths, she engages in the melancholic practice of obsessively
heiress Mary Lick offers her to have it removed. By lbaving Miranda the story of her past, polishing their jars. The end of Geek Love, which reveals the novel as an extended act of
Olympia provides a third choice: to keep her tail but to understand it as the product of a mourning through the retelling of history, will provide an alternative to Lil's willed ignorance
family history rather than simply as a fetishized object of male desire. This choice is of the past. 13
paradigmatic of the novel's insistence on the historical nature of embodied identity. Knowing Similarly, Arty, the eldest Binewski son, has a strong sense of interpersonal relationships
your own history becomes a means of negotiating between institutions that attempt to impose but little understanding of context. As Norval Sanderson, a journalist who keeps records of
an official version of identity and those that seek to erase the past altogether. For Michel de the carnival's proceedings, writes: "National and international politics are outside [Arty's]
Certeau, the retelling of officially sanctioned histories in "ordinary language" allows for the experience and reading. Municipal power relationships, however, are familiar tools to him. He
insertion of "the insignificant detail" that "makes the commonplace produce other effects." 12 has no real grasp of history-seems to have picked up drifts from his reading-but he is a
The retelling of stories, which enables the ordinary person to make meaning out of official gifted analyst of personality and motivation'' (190). Devoid of any conception of the larger
narratives, may become an empowering tactic for asserting agency and staking a claim in the operations of power or history, Arty is a skilled manipulator of the local and specific, a quality
workings of large and often impersonal cultural institutions. In the face of institutions that that brings him temporary success but eventually causes his downfall, a question to which I
seek to classify them as disabled, monstrous, or perverse, the freaks in Geek Love recount their return in my discussion of the Arturan cult.
past as a means of affirming their unique form of embodiment and situating their family Of course, this disregard for national politics and history may have to do with the minimal
history within the context of American national identity. role that marginalized people have been accorded in the making of such structures. As
The novel's intervention in American historiography focuses on the freak show, a form of feminists and scholars of color have long pointed out, the creation of history has always been
entertainment distinctly associated with the low, the spectacular, and the mass culture audi- the prerogative of the privileged white male, while women and other marginalized groups are
ence, as it traces the freaks' experiences and subjectivities as they move through the small persistently associated with the low, the bodily, and the everyday. In its recuperation of the
towns, highways, shopping malls, and supermarkets that make up the American landscape. other in American culture, the novel focuses incessantly on bodily difference in explicit and
Significantly, the Binewski children's origins are connected to a date of national victory; they magnificent detail to demonstrate that an alternative American history would necessarily
derive ceaseless delight from the story of how their parents met on a Fourth of July weekend examine the way that official narratives work to occlude the subjection of deviant bodies. Geek
when Lillian Hinchcliff, "a water-cool aristocrat from the fastidious side of Boston's Beacon Love delineates the way that freaks are able to manipulate their excess embodiment for the
Hill," gets the handsome Aloysius Binewski out of a pinch by agreeing to geek for him, an purposes of profit and personal empowerment. While outside the carnival gates bodily
outrageous and profane juxtaposition of blue-blooded Americana with the low and spectacular difference is confronted with stares of pity and disgust, the freaks create a space where they
that is characteristic of the novel. Aloysius, the Binewski patriarch, "was a standard-issue voluntarily display their bodies as spectacles for the viewing pleasure of "norms," who they
Yankee, set on self-determination and independence." A self-made man who brings the condescendingly describe as "assembly-line items" (282), "engulfed by a terror of their own
carnival success through the Franklinesque virtues of thrift and ingenuity, Aloysius conceives ordinariness" (223). This pride comes from the kind of essentialism expressed in Olympia's
of the ingenuous plan of breeding his own freak show because, as Lillian often remarks, statement: ''A true freak cannot be made. A true freak must be born." However, with Arty's
"What greater gift could you offer your children than an inherent ability to earn a living just rise to power the freaks become unable to situate their claims to authenticity within history
by being themselves?" (7). Recognizing the significant relationship between the body and the and instead focus on turning their unique bodies into commodities. This kind of bodily
 ;1 RACHEL ADAMS f;- ;1 AN AMERICAN TAIL~

authenticity, which involves replication rather than reproduction, increasingly serves the ends Isolation, Purity'' (227). While Arty seduces Alma Witherspoon by promising her freedom
of men while proving harmful and disempowering to the female freak. from a culture where judgments of personal value are made on the basis of physical appear-
ance, he introduces her into a strikingly similar world, where virtue is determined by how
closely the initiate approximates yet another bodily ideal. Adopting the rhetoric of advertising,
"1T's THE ERA OF FREAKINEss!": THE CULT OF THE Bonv
Arty boasts that his cult is a desirable "choice" available to those who can afford the admission
While a history of marginalized people would need to focus on the body in pain and as the fee, but the pretense of free will conceals a constrained situation that offers only the choice of
subject of violence, disembodiment has typically been a privilege accorded to those who are escape, not a means of coping with or changing the world itself.
wealthy and powerful enough literally to "forget" their fleshly origins. Lauren Berlant argues This form of escapism, which focuses on the body at the expense of more collective,
that within a liberal democracy, disembodiment is the prerogative of certain privileged historically informed strategies for change, approximates contemporary "health'' industries
citizens: "The white, male body is the relay to legitimation, but even more than that, the such as bodybuilding for competition, which offer individual satisfaction through bodily
power to suppress that body, to cover its tracks and traces, is the sign of real authority, change and endorse an ideology that combines self-help and physical enhancement. Bodybu-
according to Constitutional fashion." Those who do not embody this normative ideal because ilding for competition is distinguished from most other forms of strength-enhancing fitness
of race or gender experience a "surplus corporeality" where the "body is not abstract, but in that, while it gives the individual an appearance of well-being and massive strength, it is in
hyper-embodied, an obstacle and not a vehicle to public pleasure and power." 14 This ideal of fact dangerously unhealthy and can be fatal. Like the Arturan cult, bodybuilders reject
disembodiment materializes in the cult that evolves around Arty, born with flippers instead of dominant beauty ideals, deliberately making the body a spectacle by taking the culturally
arms and legs, who capitalizes on the success of his sideshow act by inducing his followers to valued attributes of strength, fatlessness, tan, and muscle to grotesque excess. Significantly,
give up all of their money and work for the privilege of gradually having their arms and legs competitive bodybuilding self-consciously appropriates the discourse of the sideshow: as a
amputated in his image. Historically, religious cults in America have encouraged extreme recent letter to Muscular Development enthused, "It's the era of freakiness! (... and there's
bodily deprivation in order to break down the will and reach spiritual insight. The Arturan nothing wrong with freakiness ... it's the name of the game!)" 15 Likewise, Sam Fussell
cult, however, like the contemporary "cult of the body," has new technologies at hand that go writes: "It's the Greatest Show on Earth. The bodybuilder comes complete with everything
beyond simple deprivation in their ability to penetrate and reconfigure both the interior and but a velvet restraining rope and castors. To this day, 'freaky' is the highest compliment one
exterior of the body itself. Ironically, while the cult claims to offer the privilege of disembodi- bodybuilder can pay another." 16
ment through literal means-the amputation of limbs-it actually approximates numerous Geek Love draws a striking parallel between the fictional cult with its genesis in the
contemporary cultural institutions that fetishize the body, such as cosmetic surgery, bodybuild- sideshow and contemporary institutions such as bodybuilding that are obsessed with defying
ing, and the diet industry. The partnership of the skilled surgeon Doc Phyllis and the psychic biology and history to alter the human form beyond the possibilities provided by "nature."
Fortunato-who can enter the patient's brain to eliminate pain and trauma-which enables Both the bodybuilder and the Arturan believe in the infinite malleability of the human
the bodily mutilations of the Arturans, taps into an anxiety about the ability of advanced physique. Emphasizing excess, the language of bodybuilding boasts of the ability to create a
medical technologies to alter the contours of the body in unprecedented ways. These invasive body larger and more muscular than could occur in the natural world. Bodybuilders and
technologies combine with the language of self-help, which provides instruction on how to Arturans share a nonessentialist view of the boundaries of the body in which drugs and
"become happy with your inner self," to create a contradictory discourse about the body that surgery are necessary products in its recreation." Unlike feminist understandings of an
asserts, on the one hand, the capacity for change and perfection, and on the other, its inessential body, which envision an increased acceptance of difference, these cults of the body
insignificance to personal satisfaction. work toward an idealized final referent. If they signal a radical redefinition of bodily appear-
Not surprisingly, Arty's first acolyte is Alma Witherspoon, an obese, working-class woman ance, it is not toward a new acceptance of physical difference and variety, but rather toward
whom he addresses directly during one of his shows: "Can you be happy with the movies and replicating a single fetishized ideal. The freakishness of bodybuilders challenges dominant
the ads and the clothes in the stores and the doctors and the eyes as you walk down the street beauty ideals but does not undermine the existence of an idealized shape and size. Likewise,
all telling you there is something wrong with you?" His question recognizes that idealized the Arturans can have their limbs removed in an approximation of their leader, but Arty
images of femininity make women feel constant dissatisfaction with their appearance as it is remains the true freak, authentic because he was born with bodily difference rather than
perceived by others. Using the rhetoric of pop psychology, Arty consoles Alma by asserting having to work for it. Because he "has no real grasp of history," Arty seeks to remove bodies
that these are culturally produced ideals that wrongly conflate virtue and intelligence with from their sociopolitical contexts and fashion new identities for them. However, this solution
physical beauty. He assures her that what she really wants "to know is that you're all right! works only temporarily for a woman like Alma Witherspoon, whose immobile torso is soon
That's what can give you peace!" (178). But in this case, the signifier for being "all right" is "retired" to be replaced by a series of identical acolytes. Like the movies, ads, and medical
remaking oneself in Arty's image: promising a refuge from a world filled with "terrorist practitioners he criticizes, Arty's authentic freakishness calls for replication of an idealized
attacks, mass murders, disease, divorce, crooked politicians, pollution, war and rumors of war" model rather than new ways to think about difference.
(231), the cult offers its members a personal means of escape rather than considering the
source of their disillusionment in collective or historical structures, hence its motto, "Peace,
1 1 RACHEL ADAMS~
1 AN AMERICAN TAIL~

legal intervention in questions of reproduction, motherhood, and fetal rights can deny the
PRODUCTION, REPRODUCTION, AND THE FEMALE FREAK subjectivity and bodily integrity of pregnant women. 21 The final conflict between the twins
Arty's ability to turn his peculiarly formed body into an ideal demonstrates his talent as a represents the only possible outcome for the persistent denial of bodily integrity: the body
manipulator of the local and specific. But if the cult works through the creation of replicants that turns on itself as the two subjectivities violently enact their divided loyalties.
in the image of one, idealized form, then the female body, with its ability to create originals Because of their beauty and exotic body the twins experience in extreme form many of the
through reproduction, poses a threat to Arty's absolute power. 18 Although the "truth'' of the same obstacles as "norm" women. Olympia's extreme ugliness, however, excludes her from the
freak may be determined through biological birth, the novel imagines radical forms of sex, patriarchal system of exchange at work within the novel. As Luce Irigaray has described it in
conception, and pregnancy that shift received notions of what it means to be a woman and "Women on the Market," women living under patriarchal capitalism become like commodi-
the boundaries of the human body itself. Lil and Al's breeding experiments, the twins' desire ties, objects of exchange by and for men. As such, women have no inherent value; their worth
for an abortion, and Olympia's artificial insemination all suggest an inessential understanding is determined solely through their appeal to men: "in order for a product- a woman?-to
of the female body and its capacity and desire for reproduction. Because the ability to reproduce have value, two men, at least, have to invest (in) her." 22 If this is the case with the twins, who
freaks, creating difference rather than similarity, calls Arty's regime into crisis, he must maintain so accurately mirror male fantasies and spend their lives moving from one site of domination
complete dominion over the sexual and reproductive activities of each of his sisters. to another, then what becomes of the woman who is so ugly that she is desired by no one?
The Siamese twins, Electra and Iphegenia, threaten Arty because they are able to draw Olympia's extreme ugliness renders her, in effect, a worthless commodity. She is the only
such large audiences, and as they mature, they begin to capitalize on their appeal both onstage woman in the novel who remains unattached to any partner, a position that grants her an
and off. Realizing the erotic suggestion of their joined bodies, which play directly into male agency unavailable to other women, but also causes her profound isolation and loneliness. As
fantasies of multiple orifices and partners, Elly states matter-of-factly: "You know what the Alma Witherspoon would attest, a culture obsessed with images of beauty leaves little room
norms really want to ask ... How do we fuck? That and who, or maybe what. Most guys for the empowerment of ugly women. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick makes a similar argument
wonder what it would be like to fuck us. So, I figure, why not capitalize on that curiosity?" about the fat woman in a clothing store who has the economic means to make a purchase but
(207). 19 While initially Iphy has doubts about relinquishing her virginity-the twins' dis- receives a message that "your money is not negotiable in this place." Although she has money
agreement suggesting the mixed messages that women receive about sex-after their first to spend, she experiences the "precipitation of [her] very body as a kind of cul-de-sac,
experience they willingly offer themselves to those who are able to pay their exorbitant prices, blockage or clot in the circulation of economic value." 23 Similar to the fat woman, the dwarf
making a profit off of their already objectified condition Their story suggests that if women is an obstacle in the exchange of commodities and bodies, and Olympia, like Alma, seeks
both inside and outside the carnival gates are treated as sexualized objects, subjected daily to refuge in disembodiment. Yet unlike the Arturans, who seek disembodiment through the
desiring male gazes they cannot avoid, then there is little difference between the twins' amputation of limbs, Olympia assumes a prosthetic identity as a radio personality fittingly
performing onstage and off, and their prostitution offers them a means of controlling the uses called "the Story Lady," which allows her a form of escape from a body that on the street, is
i ': to which their bodies will be put. As Anne McClintock has argued, depending on the met either by pitying stares or averted glances that seek to render her invisible.
circumstances, prostitution can be an empowering choice for women who otherwise would Her one positive bodily experience is pregnancy, which she achieves without physical
have little control over their bodies, sexuality, or working conditions.2° penetration or other intimate human contact. Asking Chick to use his telekinetic powers to
Precisely because the twins' prostitution guarantees them a degree of autonomy, the enraged move Arty's sperm, "the little wiggly things," into her body, Olympia undergoes a fantastic
Arty unceremoniously "gives" them to the Bag Man "just to fuck" (245). By "giving" his form of artificial insemination that parallels recent scientific advances that allow for impregna-
sisters away, Arty reaffirms their status as objects of exchange. After forcefully preventing tion without intercourse. Like a sperm bank donor, Arty never knows he is the father of the
them from aborting the resulting pregnancy, he has Elly, the more dominant and aggressive child, and his crass economic pragmatism forces Olympia to give Miranda up when they
twin, lobotomized, leaving Iphy to care for both the fetus and the limp torso of her sister. discover that her only asset is a curly, pink tail, an unmarketable spectacle.
Norval Sanderson describes "the pale Iphy in her painful progress down the row toward the In the case of both the twins and Olympia, pregnancy and reproduction -which signal the
Chute with her swollen belly pulling her forward while she struggles to balance the flabby ability to generate life, to produce more freaks-threaten Arty's coercive system of replication.
monster that sprouts from her waist" (272-73). Her pathetic attempts to support the senseless If the cult establishes his absolute autonomy through the subjection of others, female freaks
torso of her sister call attention to the parasitic nature of unwanted pregnancy: like the passive hold the possibility of making other freaks that might challenge his authority. As I have
and drooling Elly, the fetus is another alien "monster" dependent upon the body of the argued, the making of freaks is, of course, also the making of history. While Arty attempts to
mother. In contrast with the "choice" offered by the Arturan cult, in this sequence the novel obstruct Olympia's attempts to start a new family, afrer the carnival comes to a fiery end she
makes its most explicit endorsement for the protection of women's right to make decisions works to reestablish a connection to her daughter and to leave her with the story of her own
about sex, pregnancy, and reproduction. Rather than simply affirming the necessity of past, a knowledge that can inform the decisions that Miranda makes about her body.
"choice" -which disturbingly participates in the logic of the Arturans- Geek Love shifts the Olympia's plea that she keep her tail is less a resort to authentic bodily integrity than a
grounds of the abortion debate to reveal the larger questions obscured by the rhetoric of pro- recognition that familiarity with her past might complicate or change what otherwise appear
life/pro-choice. Elly's lobotomy and unwanted pregnancy vividly illustrate the ways in which to be endless and inconsequential options.
• i
;1 RACHEL ADAMS~

POSTMODERN PLASTICITY AND THE TECHNO-FREAK

;1 AN AMERICAN TAIL~

Yet her interventions are not limited to eradicating beauty and the attributes of femininity.
Significantly, her first operation is on Carina, "Half black. Half Italian. Poor as shit. A
The freaks in Geek Love, who simultaneously proclaim their own authenticity and use various dropout but she tested high in aptitudes" (159). After using acid to mar her beauty, Mary
technologies to manipulate the body, provide an interesting limit case for questions that arise funds Carina's college education and helps her to get a job as a translator. Carina's operation
in an age when science and theory are engaged in a radical redefinition of what it means to be literally burns the skin from her face, erasing the physical markings of her racial identity,
human. 24 Cybernetics, the information superhighway, artificial organs, gene splicing, and while her "education'' removes her from her "shit poor" class affiliation. Although it may be
other newly developing technologies raise the stakes for ontological and epistemological problematic to associate race with physical characteristics, the destruction of those features
debates that were once purely speculative. Feminists have focused on the effects these devel- seems a particularly violent and perverse solution to racial inequality, for if Carina's ethnic
oping technologies, at once promising and extremely dangerous, might have on the female hybridity and extreme poverty are inscribed upon her body, their erasure signals the inten-
body: fantasies of the infinite malleability of the human form, reproduction without sex, and tional obliteration of her history in the service of what one wealthy, white woman perceives as
consumption without labor are potentially liberating or dangerous, depending on their context a more rewarding existence. The danger of Mary Lick is not her rejection of an essential,
and consequences. Geek Love imagines one nightmare scenario in which the combination of unchanging bodily identity, but rather her need to remake the bodies of underprivileged
technology and feminism becomes profoundly destructive. women in the image of her own desires.
I Inspired by the practices of the Arturan cult, Mary Lick takes what Susan Bordo has called The fatal confrontation between Olympia and Mary Lick occurs in the locker room of a
"postmodern plasticity'' to horrifying extremes by offering disembodiment as a solution to a health club, the site of Americans' compensatory search for the perfect body in the face of
life where beauty and sexuality are distractions from more important callings. For Bordo, the disillusionment with other, more collective forms of embodiment, such as religious, political,
I
problem with "postmodern plasticity''-the sense of limitless freedom to alter and correct the and national identity. Caught in the deadly cloud of sterilizing chemicals Olympia has
contours of the body-is that it embraces normalizing standards of beauty premised on a prepared for her, Mary Lick dies and takes the dwarf along with her. At the end of the novel,
willful ignorance of the historical inequalities that have been connected to various forms of a newspaper clipping describing the two women's deaths and a letter from Olympia reveal
: II bodily difference. She writes: "Gradually and surely, a technology that was first aimed at the that the narrative is her way of posthumously bequeathing the Binewski family history to its
replacement of malfunctioning parts has generated an industry and an ideology fueled by final descendant. Unlike Lil's melancholic attachment to her dead babies, Olympia's letter
fantasies of rearranging, transforming, and correcting, an ideology of limitless improvement accomplishes the work of mourning by working through the trauma of her family's violent
and change, defying the historicity, the mortality, and indeed, the very materiality of the death and the loss of her only love, her brother Arty.
body." 25 Although "the ideology of limitless improvement" is primarily geared toward the Miranda, who has always had an aesthetic attraction to individuals with various bodily
replication of a slender, white, beauty ideal, Mary Lick uses medical science to subvert these deformities as the objects of her medical illustrations, now possesses the history of her own
normalizing impulses. If patriarchal culture objectifies women by judging their value on the difference. If the men who leer at her and "want to pump her full of baby juice" (18) when
I basis of physical appearance, Mary's brand of feminism sees the eradication of the "female- she dances nude onstage invest her tail with one set of meanings, her family history provides
ness" of the female body-by removing breasts and hair, sewing shut the vagina, clitorectomy, an alternative. By leaving Miranda's future unresolved, the novel does not attempt to reconcile
I 'I and other types of mutilation-as the only solution to gender inequalities. Olympia's discov- or evaluate these meanings. This refusal to make evaluative judgments or offer a way out of
ery that Mary has offered her daughter a large sum of money to have her tail removed, 1:hus its relentless horrors may be one reason some reviewers felt dissatisfied with Geek Love,
!1 ,I
I
beginning a gradual process of disfigurement, necessitates her violent intervention to preserve dismissing it as pure spectacle overcome by its own perversions. Mary Lick remarks soon
'I,,,'! both tale and tail. before her death, "It's amazing that you and I are so much alike, isn't it?" and Olympia agrees:
1
Mary's scopic addiction to ' changing people" involves sponsoring surgical mutilations of "She's right. We each appear totally alone in our lives.... We choose to seem barren, loveless
the female body so that she can watch them taking place and capture them on film for later. orphans. We each have a secret family. Miss Lick has her darlings and I have mine. All we've
A horrifying antidote to the beauty myth, "Mary Lick's purpose is to liberate women who are really lacked is someone to tell" (340).
liable to be exploited by male hungers. These exploitable women are, in Miss Lick's view, the The act of telling is a way for Olympia to memorialize her own death and to commemorate
pretty ones. She feels great pity for them'' (162). Using her vast wealth, Mary pays promising the lives of a family that would not be recognized by mainstream history. In her letter, she
young women to have their bodies altered so that they are no longer beautiful, thus "liberat- bestows a sense of collective identity that Miranda did not previously have: "I can't be sure
ing" them to pursue advanced professional careers. Imposing her own asexuality onto other what the trunk will mean to you, or the news that you aren't alone, that you are one of us"
women, she dreams of manufacturing a race of professional superwomen who would live (348). This sentence echoes the climactic "wedding feast" of Tod Browning's 1932 film
alone, caring only for themselves and the furthering of their high-powered careers. In her Freaks, in which the tall, beautiful Cleopatra is threatened by a throng of angry freaks who
version of feminism, the body is always a dangerous detraction from more important concerns. chant that she is "one of us." And indeed, by the end of the film the opportunistic Cleopatra
By using technology to mar its beauty, she fantasizes that she is liberating women from the is punished for marrying Hans the midget for his money: inexplicably, through the freaks'
distractions of physicality in order to achieve more important goals. violent collective intervention, she becomes "one of us," a squawking, half-woman encased
 ;1 RACHEL ADAMS f
r ;1 AN AMERICAN TAIL f

behind bars at the freak show. Like Geek Love, the spectacle of her grotesque body, which is Press, 1993), 71-98; Linda Singer, "Reproductive Regulations in the Age of Sexual Epidemic," in
Erotic Welfare: Sexual Theory and Politics in an Age of Epidemic (New York: Routledge, 1993), 88-99;
suggested at the film's opening but not revealed until the end, becomes the occasion for
Iris Young,]ustice and the Politics of Difference (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990).
storytelling that will invest her difference with meaning. As an audience stares open-mouthed 7. Williams, Alchemy of Race and Rights, 104.
at Cleopatra's cage, the barker launches into the film's narrative, which reveals the origins of 8. Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage, 1977), 26.
her misshapen form as a just punishment for her avarice and cruelty. As Mary Russo has 9. Most historical information on sideshows cited here is indebted to Robert Bogdan's Freak Show:
argued, the image of Cleopatra's body "remarginalizes the sideshow freaks as commercial Presenting Human Oddities far Amusement and Profit (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988).
i. oddities who, perhaps, should not be blamed for their inhuman behavior." 26 10. Ibid., 20.
11. Feminist critics attuned to the dangers of new reproductive technologies have argued that
Do the film and the novel leave the freak's body-and, significantly, in both cases it is a opportunities for increased reproductive capacity are typically marketed toward wealthy, white families,
female freak-invested with purely negative meanings? In Freaks, becoming "one of us" is a while poor and minority women are encouraged to use birth control or permanent sterilization. See,
11 punishment, while Geek Love, although more ambiguous, nonetheless connects Miranda to a e.g., Bordo, ''.Are Mothers Persons?"; Linda Singer, "Bodies-Pleasures-Powers," Erotic Welfare: Sexual
history of violence and pain. Both texts move to normalize the freak's shocking body, as the Theory and Politics in an Age of Epidemic (New York: Routledge, 1993), 113-30.
film's epilogue finds Hans and Frieda enjoying a placid bourgeois retirement, and Olympia 12. Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, trans. Steven Rendall (Berkeley: University of
111,
makes herself invisible by adopting a prosthetic identity. However, her death implies that California Press, 1984), 89.
13. See Sigmund Freud, "Mourning and Melancholia'' (1917), Standard Edition, ed. James Strachey
American culture has not yet made room for an acceptance of physical difference, and the (London: Hogarth, 1957), 14:237-58. This concept has more recently been taken up by critics
novel's power lies precisely in its refusal to suggest a utopian community that would relieve its interested in the relationship between mourning and history, individual and collective trauma, such as
readers of an overwhelming sensation of oppression and constraint: if "norms" view freaks as Carl Gutierrez-Jones, Rethinking the Borderlands between Chicano Culture and Legal Discourse (Berkeley:
the stuff of nightmares, Geek Love seems intent on producing precisely that effect. 27 Both University of California Press, 1995); Dominic LaCapra, Representing the Holocaust: History, Theory,
Trauma (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994); Constance Penley, "Spaced Out: Remembering
novel and film insist upon the necessity of the past in defining who we are and how we will
Christa McAuliff," Camera Obscura 29 (May 1992): 179-214.
live in the present. And although Olympia resists an outright condemnation of Mary Lick's 14. Lauren Berlant, "National Brands/National Bodies," in Comparative American Identities, ed.
behavior, the novel does problematize the use of economic and emotional coercion to induce Hortense Spillers (New York: Routledge, 1991), 113-14.
individuals to undergo physical alteration as a solution to social inequalities. As we develop 15. Don Ross, "Chizevski Bashing Unwarranted," Muscular Development, February 1994, 189. This
the technology to effect increasingly radical transformations of the body and more sophisti- article participates in the ongoing debate over whether the ideal for female bodybuilders should be large
cated forms of prosthetic identity that promise its transcendence, Geek Love suggests that size or a more stereotypically feminine shape. As bodybuilding is a sport designed to enhance particu-
larly masculine traits, the standards for female competitors continue to be hotly contested.
history will become more-and not less-important. If we no longer have recourse to nature
16. Sam Fussell, "Bodybuilder Americanus," Michigan Quarterly 32, no. 4 (Fall 1993): 578.
or essence to make ethical claims about the body, the continual retelling of tales and tails 17. Describing the process the bodybuilder undergoes to become "a self-willed grotesque," Fussell
becomes our only means of working through the past to invest our bodies with the weight of offers yet another trope on Beauvoir's famous quote: "Bodybuilders are made, not born, and they are
history and memory. years in the making" (ibid., 583).
18. N. Katherine Hayles has read the novel's recurrent focus on reproduction as thematizing
postmodern anxiety about the potential of advanced genetic science to alter human DNA codes.
NOTES Although her analysis highlights the novel's concern with the uneasy relationship between technology
! I, I am grateful to Maurizia Boscagli for her careful reading and comments on an earlier version of this and the human body, it surprisingly neglects to connect the anxiety about reproduction with domination
chapter; to Rosemarie Thomson for her encouragement of many drafts of the present chapter; and to of and violence against the female body. "Postmodern Parataxis: Embodied Texts, Weightless Informa-
Parker Douglas, Jon Hegglund, Amy Rabbino, Chris Schedler, Kim Stone, and especially to Jon tion," American Literary History 2, no. 3 (Fall 1990): 394-421.
Connolly for their generous and insightful suggestions. 19. Leslie Fiedler's salacious account of the universal appeal of Siamese twins affirms this male
fantasy: "In all ages, joined twins have evoked erotic fantasies in their audience, since they suggest
1. Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, trans. and ed. H. M. Parshley (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, inevitably the possibility of multiple-fornication-or at least the impossibility of sexual privacy." Freaks:
1952), 301. Myths and Images of the Secret Self(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), 206.
:I!' .
• I 2. Donna Haraway, "The Promises of Monsters: A Regenerative Politics for Inappropriate/cl Others," 20. Anne McClintock, "Screwing the System: Sexwork, Race, and the Law," Boundary 2 19, no. 2
I .
I. in Cultural Studies, ed. Lawrence Grossberg, Cary Nelson, and Paula Treichler (New York: Routledge, (Summer 1992): 94.
I: ' 1992), 295-337. 21. For more on the problematic focus on "choice" within debates over reproductive politics, see
I 3. Katherine Dunn, Geek Love (New York: Warner, 1989), 20. All subsequent references are cited Bordo, ''Are Mothers Persons?" 93.
parenthetically in the text. 22. Luce Irigaray, "Women on the Market," in This Sex Which Is Not One, trans. Catherine Porter
:11
111
·, 4. Diana Fuss, Essentially Speaking (New York: Routledge, 1989), ix. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), 181.
.I
j!
5. Ibid., 20. 23. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Michael Moon, "Divinity: A Dossier, a Performance Piece, a Little
6. See Patricia J. Williams, Alchemy of Race and Rights: Diary of a Law Professor (Cambridge: Understood Emotion," in Tendencies (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993), 217.
Harvard University Press, 1991); Lauren Berlant, ''.America, 'Fat,' the Fetus," Boundary 2 21, no. 3 (Fall 24. See, e.g., Rosi Braidotti, "Organs without Bodies," D'ijferences 1 (Winter 1989): 147-61; Donna
1994): 144-95; Susan Bordo, "Are Mothers Persons? Reproductive Rights and the Politics of Subjectiv- Haraway, Simiam, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991);
ity," in Unbearable Weight: Women, Western Culture, and the Body (Berkeley: University of California Hayles, "Postmodern Parataxis."
 1 RACHEL ADAMS~

25. Susan Bordo, "'Material Girl': The Effacements of Postmodern Culture," in Unbearable Weight:
Women, Western Culture, and the Body (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 245.
26. Mary Russo, The Female Grotesque: Risk, Excess, and Modernity (New York: Routledge, 1995), 93.
27. Contrast this with the 1995 Academy Award-winning film, Forrest Gump, and the way that its
freaks- Lieutenant Dan, Bubba, Jenny, and Forrest himself-are ultimately normalized, written back
into a bland story about America that takes the most charged moments in recent history and rewrites Freaking Feminism: The Life and Loves of a She-
them to erase their political content.
Devil and Nights at the Circus
as Narrative Freak Shows
SHIRLEY PETERSON

Let the priests tremble, we're going to show them our sexts.
-HELENE CIXOUS

Freaks, as Leslie Fiedler observes, fascinate the rest of us because they seem to represent
otherness-an otherness that, but for a twist of fate, might include us. Ultimately, he
concludes, this otherness is illusion, and since antiquity, freaks in various forms have actually
embodied our cultures' fears about ourselves-our "secret selves." 1 Fiedler's point here echoes
Freud's assessment of the uncanny as "that class of the frightening which leads back to what
is knowu of old and long familiar." 2 The freak, in other words, is the projection of what
culture fears most about itself.
While Fiedler amply illustrates how these fears have taken a variety of gendered forms,
feminist cultural critics might make more than he does of the peculiar way the illusion of
"otherness" commonly links freaks to women within the "us" of patriarchal culture. In The
Second Sex, of course, Simone de Beauvoir emphasizes the otherness of the female in patriar-
chy, which identifies woman as the primordial freak of nature, that figure of deviance from
il;··.11
I;' normative humanity. She is
! '

what man decrees; thus she is called "the sex", by which is meant that she appears
essentially to the male as a sexual being. For him she is sex-absolute sex, no less. She
is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her; she
is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential. He is the Subject, he is the
Absolute- she is the Other. 3

The arts have long represented woman's otherness to man, lending validity to the notion of
female freakishness, particularly as it relates female sexuality to the uncanny. 4 This chapter
explores the way that two novels, Fay Weldon's The Lift and Loves of a She-Devil (1983) and
Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus (1984), enlist freakishness for a feminist agenda by
foregrounding what Mary Russo calls the "grotto-esque": that which is "hidden, earthly, dark,

u
 -----
-;j SHIRLEY PETERSON~ -;j FREAKING FEMINISM~

material, immanent [and] visceral." 5 As narrative freak shows, these works also constitute reinforced by her husband, the aptly named Bobbo. But Bobbo denies Ruth's feminine
what Helene Cixous calls "sexts" - "female-sexed texts" that convert patriarchal fear of the identity even at the most degraded level: "I don't think Ruth is a natural rape victim,
feminine into female empowerment and force a confrontation with the illusion that underlies somehow. Are you darling!" (She-Devil, 37). Ruth's response to Bobbo's cruelty illustrates the
female otherness. 6 They imply that this illusion, while reassuring some in their normality, also narrative project of both writers. Her transformation from downtrodden suburban "angel in
invests the other with a good deal of power that, if unleashed, could undermine the very the house" into an avenging she-devil has its narrative equivalent in these novels which
foundations of culture. Beyond this critique of patriarchy, however, Weldon and Carter expose embrace the freakish image in the interest of reconstructing form. Condemned by husband
the "other" woman within feminist culture as well, thereby questioning the boundaries of Bobbo as a "she-devil" for refusing to accept their lie of a marriage, Ruth undergoes a strange
feminist ideology in the 1980s. evolution. As her mind immediately clears, she liberates desire from the restraining manacles
Weldon's and Carter's novels partake of a long, albeit uneasy, association of feminism with encoded in the Litany of the Good Wife (She-Devil, 26). Inasmuch as she has been robbed
I.I freakishness. At the turn of the century, the women's suffrage movement was considered by of her legitimate wifely role by the love goddess of romance fiction, Mary Fisher, she finds
some a freak show of its own. It succeeded partially by making a spectacle of female otherness, the inversion of the love goddess particularly suitable to herself: "Peel away the wife, the

j and critics consequently condemned its proponents as a band of "unsexed" creatures, both
physically and psychologically deformed. 7 In British novels, for example, Mrs. Humphry
Ward (leader of the anti-suffrage movement) and H. G. Wells, (advocate and practitioner of
mother, find the woman, and there the she-devil is" (She-Devil, 49). As writers, Weldon and
Carter offer readers a parallel transformative experience. By undermining the conventions of
romantic myth, particularly the fairy tale's enshrinement of marriage as the happy ending,
"free love") respond in ironically similar fashion to female political aspirations by depicting they reconstitute myth as a narrative exploration of female desire freed of patriarchal authority.
feminist activists as physically and psychically deformed" viragoes, deserving the punishment Just as Ruth rejects the static command, "we are as God made us," for an empowering new
their authors impose on them. 8 Both novelists inscribe the visual images of decrepit and motro, "we are here in this world to improve upon his original idea" (She-Devil, 131), Weldon
dangerous suffragists promoted in anti-suffrage political cartoons and posters of the time. 9 and Carter share a disregard for the literary/cultural authorities of the past who define
Even Virginia Woolf, the celebrated mother of modern feminism, and Rebecca West, one of normative femininity. To be unsexed, these writers imply, can be a liberating experience.
the most notorious feminist writers of her day, depict female political activists in ambivalent Challenging patriarchy, however, is only part of Weldon's and Carter's project. While both
terms. 10 These writers indicate the uneasy alliance between the early feminist agenda rooted writers acknowledge feminism as a force in their lives and in their writing, 13 their works
in nineteenth-century femininity and the politically transgressive power of the "unsexed" engage feminism with a boldness and directness that, in the popular vernacular of the
being. To be unsexed, of course, is to inhabit the realm of the freak who challenges "the postmodern counterculture, "freaks out" feminism. In other words, if within patriarchal
conventional boundaries betw"een male and female, sexed and sexless, animal and human, culture, the female "other" represents a repressed version of the patriarchal self, then within
large and small, self and other, and consequently between reality and illusion, experience and feminist culture, the "other" woman is the lesbian, the prostitute, the hag, and the fury-
fantasy, fact and myth." 11 The protagonists of Carter's and Weldon's novels, Sophie Fevvers those dimensions of the feminine that the politics of equality during the 1960s and 1970s
and Ruth Patchett, reject feminine reservations about transgressing these boundaries and in repressed in order to validate feminine experience and expression. As Maggie Humm explains
the process turn a veritable no-man's land into a source of female power. it, "Feminist theory has changed from the 1970s when it minimized differences between
It is precisely the power of this position that both Weldon and Carter find vital for a women to celebrating in the 1990s the electric charge of racial and sexual 'difference' and
postfeminist age. Carter's bird-woman, Sophie (or Fevvers), and Weldon's "uneasy giantess," women-centered perspectives." 14 The operative word here is "difference" and the way in
Ruth, are "extra-ordinary" in an age in which image is everything for women. As the which discourses of difference have evolved to confront some key feminist principles, particu-
celebrated winged aerialist of tum-of-the-century London, Sophie depends on the spectacle larly those regarding normative femininity. 15 Perhaps Carter's response to the popular feminist
of abnormality for her livelihood. She flaunts her plumage like a "Brazilian cockatoo" (Nights, novel The Womens Room (1977) helps illuminate the shift that she and Weldon represent: "I
15). Her six-foot wing span carries her between trapezes to the tune of-"what else-'The wouldn't see the point of writing that novel; I thought the premises of her idea of emancipa-
Ride of the Valkyries'" !_Nights, 16). Yet it is the limitations of her act that intrigue Jack tion were pretty ropey. I don't think it's good art, good fiction or good propaganda -if
Walser, crack reporter. In the parlance of the sideshow, Walser believes Sophie is a "gaff," or propaganda is what you want." 16
a fraud. Nevertheless, he notes the paradox that "in a secular age, an authentic miracle must By placing these novels in the historical context of what Susan Faludi calls the anti-feminist
purport to be a hoax, in order to gain credit in the world" (Nights, 17). Does she, in fact, "backlash" of the 1980s, we begin to see how they are both a response to patriarchal authority
inspire awe by sheer artifice? Sophie, whose career began in the freak show, knows the value and to feminism. 17 The term itself, "freaking feminism," articulates a hysterical patriarchy's
of illusion to women. Despite her authenticity, she relishes the uncertainty in spectators. condemnation of feminism (i.e., "Those freaking feminists!"). Moreover, the term suggests a
Within the sideshow code of ethics, of course, amplification of the truth is not only standard reexamination of feminism as an established institution of social change with its own notions
procedure but part of the attraction.'2 of normative femininity (i.e., to "freak out" or, perhaps more to the point, to "out the freak"
Weldon's two-hundred-pound Ruth embodies such cliches as the woman scorned, the fury within feminism). This dual agenda gives the novels a surprising boldness that, from a 1990s
of whom men have long been warned in literature. One of society's female outcasts, she has perspective, seems to coincide with a subtle, yet important, reconception of the feminist
gratefully married, hoping to normalize her excessive being, only to have her freakishness agenda.

2 93
 ,--

1 SHIRLEY PETERSON"
1 FREAKING FEMINISM"

By way of vexing patriarchy, the novels employ some similar strategies. Both feature women
lot of humanity rather than making her "unfree" as myths tend to do, Carter also reminds us
who radically defy the stereotype of normative femininity. Ruth bears a six-foot-two-inch
that such flights of fancy can be dangerous for women. While Sophie relishes the role_ of
frame ("fine for a man but not for a woman"), dark hair, jutting jaw, sunken eyes, hairy moles,
hooke~ nose,. broad back and shoulders, muscular legs, and comically truncated arms. She is spectacle, in Madame Schreck'~ mus~um of w~man mo,?sters (an inextricab~e d~r~ underside
to the brothel) she illustrates F1edlers observat10n that freak shows always 1mphc1tly suggest
the anti-_Barb1e, an embodied disjunction: Her "nature and looks do not agree" (She-Devil, 5).
. . . that we only make believe that horror is make-believe." 23 At first, her role seems
If Ruth 1s the consummate loathly lady, Sophie Fevvers's vulgar, yet splendid, form explodes
innocuous enough, even somewhat comic, in the peep show housed in the bowels of Schreck's
such archetypes._ With her winged humpback, she resembles less an angel than a dray mare.
museum and known as The Abyss. Among such "prodigies of nature" as Fanny Four Eyes,
Her gaudy mul~colored feathe~s, she concedes, are only illusion insofar as they are dyed (her
Sleeping Beauty, the Wiltshire Wonder (three feet high), Albert/Albertina ("half and ~alf_and
natur,al ~olor bemg blond, like that _on my private ahem parts") (Nights, 25). Sophie matches
neither of either"), Cobwebs, and Madame Schreck herself (who began her career m side-
Ruths SJX-foot-two stature, surpassmg her current love interest, Walser. To Walser she is
shows as a Living Skeleton), Sophie performs in tableaux vivants for the viewing pleasure of
both freakish and disturbingly alluring: "Her face, in its Brobdingnagian symmet;, might
the truly horrifying, who bring their terror with them: "The Sleeping Beauty lay stark naked
have been hacked from wood and brightly painted up by those artists who build carnival
on a marble slab and I stood at her head, full spread. I am the tombstone angel, I am the
ladies for fairgrounds or figureheads for sailing ships. It flickered through his mind: Is she
really a man?" (Nights, 35). Angel of Death" (Nights, 70). Madame Schreck', museum makes explicit the voyeuristic
impulse that links the freak show to the pornographic display. Both "".hibitions oper_a:e out of
In their physical deviations from normative femininity, both Ruth and Sophie challenge
a consumer culture that creates its taboos only to turn them mto v,able commodities. The
~he aesthetic standards and male/female polarization, in which patriarchal culture is heavily
violence of such an economy ensures the management of otherness safely within the limits of
mves_ted. ~.ut, as _Robert Bogdan maintains, being a freak is not primarily a physiological
dominant culture.
cond1t10n:. Freak 1s a frame of nund, a set of practices, a way of thinking about and presenting
The museum also recalls fantasies of the Marquis de Sade, and the arrival of Christian
people. It 1s the enactment of a tradit10n, the performance of a stylized presentation." 18 Thus
Rosencreutz completes the Sadeian model.24 Much as Sade's virtuous Justine can only e~cape
Ru~'s and Sophie's fre~shness is historically and culturally specific and entirely performativ~
into further degradation, Sophie escapes from Madame Schreck's only to find herself m an
within_ a burlesque trad1t10n that elaborates and frames their corporeality. Like such sideshow
even more sinister environment. In Rosencreutz's Gothic mansion, Sophie discovers that she
attractions as bearded ladies and hermaphrodites, they function as sites of contradiction
challenging notions of stable identity and pointing to cultural dissonance. 19 ' is to be the sacrificial offering designed to provide Rosencreutz with eternal youth, a perver-
sion of her function as Angel of Death. Rosencreutz constitutes a pornographic nightmare.
One of the ways that femininity is modeled and contained within patriarchy has been
He is obsessed with "the female part, or absence, or atrocious hole, or dreadful chasm, the
through myth and folklore, genres populated with freaks, monsters, and human mutants that
act a_s warnings against deviance. A translator of Charles Perrault's fairy stories and an editor Abyss, Down Below, the vortex that sucks everything dreadfully dow~,. down, down where
Terror rules" (Nights, 77). Like the pornographer, his horror of the femmme 1s really a horror
of f~iry and folk tales, Carter nevertheless claims to be "in the demythologising business," and
of his own mortality 25 -a horror "we only make believe ... is make believe." As both freak
she 1s drawn to 2myths m the first place "because they are extraordinary lies designed to make
°
people unfree." Carter's Sophie evokes and undercuts numerous myths. She's billed as the
and female, Sophie is "the reconciler of the grand opposites of death and life" (Nights, 81)
who mediates an impossible position that offers escape from what Rosencreutz fears most-
"Cockney Venus," a blend of the vulgar and divine, recalling common carnival attractions
the annihilation of the self. If Sophie emerges victorious from this encounter, it is only thanks
such as The Bald Venus and The Bearded Venus, and perhaps alluding to the notorious
21 to Ma Nelson's phallic sword and to her recognition that in the grandiose myths that direct
Hottentot Venus. Privately, Sophie thinks of herself as "Helen of the High Wire," which
Rosencreutz's schemes she might be invested with the power of "elixum vitae" (Nights, 83),
com'.cally links her to ~e classical femme fatale and evokes the category of freak in which ' . . .
but that kind of power is an illusion in itself used on women to ensure their cooperation m
hybnds ai;; common. Like Helen, offspring of Leda and Zeus, Sophie was hatched and takes
after her putative father, the swan, around the shoulder parts" (Nights, 7). At Ma Nelson's the status quo. . . . .
brothel, where _Sophie .'f,rows up and where her freakishness and youth make her a natural Weldon's novel also invokes only to debunk a number of myths, begmmng with the irony
of Ruth's biblical name, which implies compassion and pity. If initially deserving the name,
Cupid'. a P"'.~ting of Leda and the Swan" adorns the parlor. Sophie fondly recalls this
she becomes Ruth-less, both figuratively and literally, in her campaign to equalize an unjust
r~ndermg of_ what_m1ght have been my own primal scene, my own conception, the heavenly
world. She is born a Cinderella, without the redeeming beauty, but with a neglectful mother,
bird m a white ma_Jesty of feathers descending with imperious desire upon the half-stunned
favored sisters, and no fairy godmother; consequently, she grows freakishly "lumpish and
and yet herself impassioned girl" (Nights, 28). Readers of Carter's other reworkings of myth
brutish" in an attempt to protect the nerve endings she wore outside, rather th~ 1ns1~e, her
will rec~gnize the "impa~s~oned" victim here as a challenge to more conventional readings
skin (She-Devil, 8). The eroticized romantic myths that Mary Fisher peddles like valium to
that derugrate female eroticism as sexual deviance. And readers ofW. B. Yeats's famous "Leda
bored middle-class housewives are not written for Ruth, whose marriage quickly dispels any
and the Swan" might find in Sophie an amusing answer to his perplexing question: "Did she
put on h1s knowledge with his power?" Apparently more than that. 22 romantic illusions she may harbor. Conversely, Ruth's story recalls the terror of Frankenstein,
If Sophie's mythical and mysterious birth gives her the power to· soar above the common as earthquakes and electrical storms accompany the final surgical phase of Ruth's self-
reconstruction. Warned of God's anger, she responds: "Of course he's angry.... I am remak-

2 95
 -'1 SHIRLEY PETERSON f -'1 FREAKING FEMINISM f

ing myself" (She-Devil, 269). As both monster and monster-maker, she usurps the role of had always longed to have" (She-Devil, 126). And later, with the financial backing of fellow
agent denied to her before her "fall" from grace. Like Lucifer, she "take[s] up arms against freak and lesbian lover Nurse Hopkins, she starts the Vesta Rose Employment Agency,
God Himself'' (She-Devil, 94). Since Lucifer was male, Ruth thinks she just might do better. designed in part to find secretarial work for women coming into the labor force after years of
Yet the outcome of her surgery reinforces Kathy Davis's conclusion that women who have had domestic slavery. Providing job training, day care, shopping, and delivery services, it becomes
cosmetic · surgery seek to "b e ord"1nary rath er t h an b eautI"ful." 26 A s Ruth's d octor surmises,
. "If a model of successful female enterprise, extolled by the corporate world as "an example to the
you have been extraordinary all your life, ... just to be ordinary must be wonderful" (She- weak-willed and complaining of what women could do if they really tried, if they hadn't been
Devil, 253). If myths involve wish-fulfillment, this is the wish of the freak to be normalized. fortunate enough to marry well" (She-Devil, 139). This smug statement takes on an ironic
On the other hand, it also expresses the wish of the normal to expel the imagined freak in meaning in Ruth's case, however, who demonstrates the feminist implications of "agency" by
27
themselves. If myths have coercive power, Ruth's reconstruction witnesses the cultural pressure using Vesta Rose to avenge herself on her husband and his mistress. The agency is ultimately
to conform that has propelled cosmetic and reconstructive surgery into a multimillion-dollar Ruth's means of infiltrating Bobbo's workplace and sabotaging his future. Consequently, we
industry. might be reminded more of the mythical Bacchantes, the intoxicated females of Bacchanalian
The most provocative myth, however, behind Ruth's transformation is that of Hans Chris- ritual who tear creatures to shreds and devour them. The final irony of the Vesta motif in
tian Andersen's The Little Mermaid· "Hans Andersen's little mermaid wanted legs instead of a both works is that, as they embark on the next phases of their lives, both Sophie and Ruth
tail, so that she could be properly loved by her Prince. She was given legs, and by inference burn house, home, and brothel to the ground in response to the tyrannies of patriarchy.
the gap where they join at the top, and after that every, step she took was like stepping on If neither Ruth nor Sophie are whores in the conventional sense, they certainly brandish
knives. Well, what did she expect? That was the penalty. And, like her, I welcome it. I don't the whore's erotic threat as a means to a feminist goal. Ruth's sexual encounter with Carver,
complain" (She-Devil, 173). Later, when Ruth has completed her transformation into beauti- the unsavory caretaker of her suburban paradise, Eden Grove, underscores their commonality
ful seductress, she dances with her doctor, now hopelessly in love with her, but "with every as oddities in this suburban sideshow. Carver understands the sexual allure of the freak,
step it was as if she trod on knives" (She-Devil, 275). This parable of the virtues of female described here by Fiedler: ''All Freaks are perceived to one degree or another as erotic. Indeed,
suffering is reinterpreted from Weldon's feminist standpoint as a story about the mutilating abnormality arouses in some 'normal' beholders a temptation to go beyond looking to knowing
influence of cultural myths, especially on women. Like the mermaid, Ruth inhabits the space in the full carnal sense the ultimate other. The desire is itself felt as freaky, however, since it
reserved for freaks of nature, those who defy conventional categories. The mermaid's freak implies not only a longing for degradation but a dream of breaching the last taboo against
appeal lies in her combined state as human/beast, and in the more threatening form of the miscegenation. 28 Carver has experienced something of this before as the troll-like ogre of
Siren she embodies a particular kind of sexuality that promises more than the usual fare. Eden Grove: "Good, suburban wives, neatly dressed and properly washed, seeking something
Acquired normalization, however, has its price. For instance, the normalization of the mer- beyond degradation so that it approached mysticism, trit-trotting into his shed" (She-Devil,
maid requires an abdication of sexual power (even though from a male perspective legs are 59). But his faith in himself is shaken before Ruth. Impotent and quivering before this
more accommodating than tailfins) along with conformity. Ruth pays with a great deal of strange goddess, he is reduced to a writhing body on the floor.
pain and degradation, eventually gaining only a pyrrhic victory. She models herself on Mary Sophie's upbringing in Ma Nelson's brothel and Lizzie's dismissal of marriage as "prostitu-
Fisher, a combined mermaid (seductress) and siren (temptress) in her High Tower beckoning tion to one man instead of many" (Nights, 21) undercut the virgin/whore dichotomy upon
unwary sailors to the rocks below. By now, all Sailor Bobbo (in prison) can remember of Mary which patriarchal culture evaluates women. Within this community of fallen women, whom
is "the bit where the legs split off from the body." But he can't recall her face, so regular and Sophie regards as mothers, she has surprisingly learned to regard her body not as a sex object
perfect: "She is all women because she is no woman'' (She-Devil, 186). Mary/Mermaid/Siren but as "the abode of limitless freedom": she can fly (Nights, 41). Walser's condescending
reminds us of the impossibility of a real woman in the romantic myth (including its porno- remark that he had "known some pretty decent whores ... whom any man might have been
graphic versions), which depends on anonymity and conformity to impossibly idealized proud to marry'' (Nights, 21) seems especially fatuous in the face of Sophie, whose primal
models. "fall," in her inaugural flight, takes on biblical proportions: "Like Lucifer, I fell. Down, down,
Whereas Mary's Christian name also ironically implicates her as the virgin servant to male down. . . . I was not yet ready to bear on my back the great burden of my unnaturalness"
deity, Ruth's revision of Mary eschews her virginal dimension. In fact, one of the ways (Nights, 30). Sophie's fall, though literal, is symbolic of all women incapable of bearing the
Weldon and Carter might be said to "freak out" feminism is by joining the vestal virgin with "unnarural" bifurcation of the virgin/whore.
the whore in a feminist-driven erotics that subverts what seem to be mutually exclusive Like his counterpart Carver, Walser succumbs to the erotic appeal of his female freak of
categories. Both novels ironically make reference to Vesta, virgin goddess of hearth and home. nature to the extent that he is reduced first to a whore-like clown in a circus in order to be
In Carter's novel, Ma Nelson's brothel features a virtual temple to Vesta in its drawing room, near her and finally to a babbling idiot in an outpost of Siberia before being restored his
in which "buxom, smiling goddesses supported [the] mantelpiece on the flats of their upraised (hu)manhood. Sophie's physicality, although often grotesque, is nevertheless intoxicating to
palms, much as we women do uphold the whole world" (Nights, 26). Each afternoon, ex- the reporter/inquisitor. Initially desiring to expose her falseness, he is consistently subdued by
prostitute Lizzie burns "sweet-scented woods" and "burning perfumes" like a priestess of her sensual, if unusual, charms: "Walser, confronted by stubbled, thickly powdered armpits,
pagan ritual. In She-Devil, Ruth takes the alias Vesta Rose, "a name that in her childhood she felt faint; God! she could easily crush him to death in her huge arms, although he was a big
 ..,.---

,,I SHIRLEY PETERSON~ ;1 FREAKING FEMINISM~

man with the strength of Californian sunshine distilled in his limbs. A seismic erotic certain bodies, in certain public framings, in certain public spaces, are always already trans-
disturbance convulsed him-unless it was their damn' champagne" (Night,, 52). Later, in the gressive-dangerous, and in danger." 34 Certainly Sophie's experience in Madame Schreck's
circus where Walser plays a clown he discovers firsthand how whoredom performs a scapegoat museum and later with Rosencreutz underlines this point, turning her otherwise profitable
function in the interest of dominant culture's protection against its own freakishness (he's freakishness into a danger to herself. Furthermore, Russo maintains that Bakhtin's emphasis
presumably already been initiated, having been buggered in Damascus). In this parody of on the grotesque body as female, represented in Kerch terra-cotta figurines of senile pregnant
Christianity with chief clown Buffo the Great as Christ figure presiding over his apostles, and hags, is problematic for feminist readers who find the image "loaded with all of the connotations
the saints reduced to mere "spectacle[s] from any freak show" (Night,, 120), we see the of fear and loathing associated with the biological process of reproduction and of aging." 35
burlesqued equivalent to Madame Schreck's horror chamber in which Sophie plays the Finally, female freakishness is complicated by the idea promoted in recent gender theory
analogous role of whore/entertainer. Clowns are the "whores of mirth, for, like the whore, we that all femininity constitutes masquerade to some extent: 36 "Deliberately assumed and
know what we are ... mere hirelings hard at work and yet those who hire us see us as beings foregrounded, femininity as mask, for a man, is a take-it-or leave-it proposition; for a woman,
perpetually at play'' (Night,, 119). As Captain Kearney predicts, Walser's fate is to make a fool a similar flaunting of the feminine is a take-it-and leave-it po,sibility. To put on femininity
of himself in this debased carnival atmosphere; however, the circus experience is finally with a vengeance suggests the power of taking it off." 37 Putting on femininity with a
transformative and cathartic for Walser. As a reporter, Walser has managed to extend his vengeance is exactly what Ruth and Sophie do, and in so doing they spotlight the performative
skepticism "even unto his own being." In his world travels, he had never found himself, "since function of both freaks and females within patriarchy. 38
it was not his ,e!fwhich he sought" (Night,, 10). Through his own "enfreakment," 29 then, In conclusion, it is worth noting that both of these novels appeared in the middle of the
Walser confronts the horror of the other only to find himself. Thatcher era, a contextual irony that perhaps fulfills Rebecca West's prediction to feminists in
This "circus as life" metaphor explicitly links Carter's work to Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of 1918 as they celebrated their achievement of the vote: "The arguments of oppression are not
the car~ivales.que. Furthermore, both novels' freakish characters and the excessiveness of their less dangerous from the lips of women than they are from men .... Without doubt women
protagonists fit Bakhtin's notion of the Rabelaisian grotesque: "The essence of the grotesque will be able to represent snobbery, prejudice, the desire to gain a simulacrum of true power by
(is precisely to present a contr~dictory _an1 double~fac_ed fullness of life. Neg~tion and destruc- the cheap means of persecuting weak and unhappy classes or peoples, just as well as men have
\ tion (death of the old)~;includecl as an e;sential phase, inseparable fro;;;_ affirmatio~from done." 39 If feminists in 1918 could have conjured a future feminine freak, she might well have
I the birth of something new and better. The very material bodily lower stratum of the resembled the Iron Lady of the 1980s, who as prime minister ironically embodied feminism's
promise. And West's caution to feminists not to assume moral superiority is well· taken. Set
1
grotesque image (food, wine, the genital force, the organs of the body) bears a deeply positive
{ character. This principle is victorious, for the final result is always abundance, increase."
30 beside this image, then, is that of Ruth, "a lady of six foot two, who had tucks taken in her
''
, !I
\ Ruth's and Sophie's "gargantuan'' qualities include not only their size but also the authors' legs. A comic turn, turned serious" (She-Devil, 278). Ruth reminds us, as West did earlier,
emphasis on thefemale body as the site of desire. In this respect, Sophie's appetite and how it's all about power in the end, about who defines the borders between normal and freak,
lewdnes; ;;;_ake he~ ari even more Rabelaisian cliaracter than Ruth, whose desires seem firmly center and margin.
rooted in hatred, committed to revenge, and consequently less celebratory and life-affirming. If Weldon's novel concludes on a bittersweet note with Ruth's and Bobbo's roles simply
Consequently, Ruth's surgical reconstruction of herself, while in one sense regenerative, is inverted,.ftn-de-,iecle optimism characterizes the conclusion to Carter's novel. On the brink of
self-defeating. As Marlene Hunter, the "impossible male fantasy made flesh," she concedes the twentieth century, Sophie marries a much-changed Walser. Yes, he has fought tigresses,
that "in the end [Mary] wins" (She-Devil, 259, 266). While tapping the power of the but he has also posed as a chicken. Now initiated in "the higher form of the confidence trick''
grotesque, Weldon's tale maintains some ambivalence about the transformation of Ruth into by a Siberian shaman, he is worthy of Sophie Fevvers, the new woman for a new century.
she-devil. If Davis's reading of this "fairy tale" overstates Ruth's victory through cosmetic Nights at the Circus also offers a refreshing contrast to Tod Browning's film Freaks (1932). 40
surgery, she rightly notes the novel's challenge to orthodox feminism: "Weldon's novel offers In that film the aerialist Cleopatra is transformed from a "normal" into a freak as punishment
a scathing portrayal of the feminine beauty norms without reducing women to the position of for her sexual betrayal of a midget. Subsequently, she horrifies spectators (in both the
deluded victim. Her protagonist is a 'she-devil' and, if we might wish her a better life, the sideshow and the theater) during the film's final moments by displaying her "fowl" body. Not
matter of her agency cannot be ignored." 31 We might wonder, though, if the "negation and so with Sophie Fevvers. In bed with Walser, now grown to know himself and "smothered in
destruction" of the old Ruth yields a "better" woman as well as a more autonomous and feathers and pleasure" (Night,, 294), Sophie howls with delight at having once again mastered
powerful one. the illusion, this time the illusion that she had been a virgin. The Rabelaisian laughter with
Although these modern versions of the medieval virago of carnival allow us to witness which Carter ends her novel is cosmic, celebratory, and transcendent while reminding us that
"certain essential aspects of the world ... accessible only to laughter," 32 Mary Russo notes in the best freak shows the joke is really on the audience: "'To think I really fooled you!'
the "dangers for women ... within carnival" partially arising from the nature of spectacle. 33 [Sophie] marvelled. 'It just goes to show there's nothing like confidence'" (Nights, 295). By
In what sense and to what degree, she asks, can women make spectacles of themselves with controlling the illusions about women, Sophie Fevvers, a woman of "confidence" and female
impunity? In the psychological dynamics of voyeurism, the spectacle is by nature in a freak extraordinaire, redefines the borders between normal and transgressive femininity and
1
masochistic position: 'In other words, in the everyday ... world, women and their bodies, consequently gets the last laugh.

2 99
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-ij SHIRLEY PETERSON f .;a FREAKING FEMINISM f

NOTES of Angela Carter," in New Feminist Discourses, ed. Isobel Armstrong (New York: Routledge, 1992),
1. Leslie Fiedler, Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), 129.
314. 23. Fiedler, Freaks, 290.
2. Sigmund Freud, "The 'Uncanny,'" in Standard Edition, ed. James Strachey (London: Hogarth, 24. Carter argues that Sade "creates a museum of woman-monsters [in which] he cuts up the bodies
1957), 14:220. of women and reassembles them in the shapes of his own delirium." Angela Carter, The Sadeian Woman
3. Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, trans. and ed. H. M. Parshley (New York: Knopf, 1993), xi. and the Ideology of Pornography (New York: Pantheon, 1978), 25-26.
4. See Terry Castle, The Female Thermometer (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 21-43. 25. See Susan Griffin, Pornography and Silence: Culture's Revenge against Nature (New York: Harper,
5. Fay Weldon, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (New York: Ballantine, 1985); Angela Carter, 1981), for an elaboration of this point.
Nights at the Circus (New York: Pengnin, 1986); all further references will be abbreviated as She-Devil 26. Davis, Reshaping the Female Body, 12; see also pp. 90-91.
and Nights and cited in the text; Mary Russo, The Female Grotesque: Risk, Excess, and Modernity (New 27. Davis ponders the paradox of agency for women in a culture that makes cosmetic surgery seem
York: Routledge, 1994), 1. like a choice: "Women's willingness to calculate the risks of surgery against its benefits can only make
6. Helene Cixous, "The Laugh of the Medusa," Signs (summer 1976): 877. sense in a context where a person is able to view her body as a commodity, as a possible object for
7. See Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, No Man's Land: The Place if the Woman Writer in the intervention-a business venture of sorts." Reshaping the Female Body, 157.
Twentieth Century, vol. 1, The War of the Words (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 65-121; 28. Fiedler, Freaks, 137.
Susan Kingsley Kent, Sex and Sujfrage in Britain: 1860-1914 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 29. See David Hevey, The Creatures Time Forgot: Photography and Disability Imagery (London:
1987). Routledge, 1992), 58.
8. Mrs. Humphry Ward, Delia Blanchjlower (New York: Hearst's International Library, 1914); H. G. 30. Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, trans. Helene Iswolsky (Bloomington: Indiana Univer-
Wells, Ann Veronica (1909; reprint, London: J.M. Dent, 1966) .. sity Press, 1984), 62. See also Rory P. B. Turner, "Subjects and Symbols: Transformations ofidentity in
9. See Lisa Tickner, The Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffrage Campaign 1907-14 (Chicago: Nights at the Circus," Folklore Forum 20, nos. 1-2 (1987): 39-60.
University of Chicago Press, 1988). 31. Davis, Reshaping the Female Body, 66
10. See Virginia Woolf, Night and Day (1919; reprint, New York: Harcourt, 1937), Mrs. Dalloway 32. Bakhtin, Rabelais, 66.
(New York: Harcourt, 1925), and The Years (New York: Harcourt, 1937); Rebecca West, The judge 33. Mary Russo, "Female Grotesques: Carnival and Theory," in Feminist Studies/Critical Studies, ed.
i! (1922; reprint, London: Virago, 1980), and The Young Rebecca: Writings of Rebecca West 1911-1917, ed. Teresa de Lauretis (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), 214.
Jane Marcus (New York: Viking, 1982), 109, 202-6, 243-63, 365-70. 34. Russo, "Female Grotesques," 217. See also Laura Mulvey, "'Visual Pleasure and Narrative
11. Fiedler, Freaks, 24. Cinema," Screen 16, no. 3 (autumn 1975): 6-18; Mary Ann Doane, The Desire to Desire (Bloomington:
12. Robert Bogdan, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit (Chicago: Indiana University Press, 1987).
University of Chicago Press, 1988), 108-13; see also Sally Robinson, Engendering the Subject: Gender 35. Russo, "Female Grotesques," 219.
and Seif-Representation in Contemporary Women's Fiction (Albany: State University of New York Press, 36. See, e.g., Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York:
1991), who argues that "a 'genuine' woman, in order to take an active subject position, must pretend to Routledge, 1990), 43-57; Joan Riviere, "Womanliness and Masquerade," in Formations of Fantasy, ed.
be 'artificial' - a woman masquerading as an idea of a woman'' (123). Victor Burgin, James Donald, and Cora Kaplan (New York: Methuen, 1986); Mary Ann Doane, "Film
13. See interviews with both writers in Michelene Wandor, ed., On Gender and Writing (London: and the Masquerade: Theorizing the Female Spectator," Screen 23, nos. 3-4 (September-October 1982):
Pandora, 1983), 69-77, 16G--65. 74-88.
14. Maggie Humm, ed., Modern Feminisms: Political, Literary, Cultural (New York: Columbia 37. Russo, "Female Grotesques," 224.
University Press, 1992), 54. 38. See Robinson, Engendering the Subject; Carter's masquerader also turns an active gaze on the
15. See, e.g., Kathy Davis, Reshaping the Female Body: The Dilemma of Cosmetic Surgery (New York: male spectator and in the process causes quite a bit of discomfort. It is in this sense that the female
Routledge, 1995). Davis's fresh insight into a topic of traditional disdain to feminists reflects the subject in this text is both spectacle and spectator" (122).
dynamics of feminist theory over the past tw"enty-:five years. 39. Rebecca West, "'Women as Brainworkers," in Women and the Labor Party, ed. Marion Philips
16. See John Haffenden, Novelists in Interview (London: Methuen, 1985), 94. (New York: B. W. Huebsch, 1918), 58.
17. Susan Faludi, Backlash: The Undeclared War against American Women (Crown: New York, 1991). 40. Tod Browning, Freaks (Los Angeles: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1932).
18. Bogdan, Freak Show, 3.
19. Marjorie Garber calls such a phenomenon "category crisis" in her discussion of transvestism in
heterosexual culture. Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety (New York: Routledge, 1992),
16-17.
20. Wandor, On Gender, 71.
21. See Fiedler, Freaks, 143. For discussion of the celebrated nineteenth-century Hottentot Venus,
see Angela Carter's "Black Venus," in Black Venus (London: Chatro and Windus, 1985), 9-24; Jill
Matus, "Blonde, Black and Hottentot Venus: Context and Critique in Angela Carter's 'Black Venus,'"
Studies in Short Fiction 28, no. 4 (fall 1991): 467-76; Sander Gilman, Difference and Pathology:
Stereotypes of Sexuality, Race and Madness (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), 76-108.
22. See, e.g., "The Bloody Chamber" and "The Company of Wolves" in Angela Carter's The Bloody
Chamber (New York: Pengnin, 1981); W. B. Yeats, The Poems of W B. Yeats, ed. Richard J. Finneran
(New York: Macmillan, 1983). For further discussion of the Yeats link, see Linda Hutcheon, The
Politics of Postmodernism (New York: Routledge, 1989), 98; see also Elaine Jordan, "The Dangers

300 JOI
 1 TEACHING FREAKS~

T"""""ENTY•ONE the material i~ a~y co~rse must be the extent to which it encourages complex modes of
thought and highlights issues of broad significance, and by this standard the subject-matter in
"Freaks" succeeded admirably. More than any "Introduction to Poetry" I have taught, this
course underscore~ the importance of word choice; more than any survey of Romanticism, it
Teaching Freaks foregrou_nded the mterd_ependence of subject and object; more than any widely focused core
course, it cast into rehef the defining assumptions of various humanistic and scientific
BRIAN ROSENBERG disciplines. It was a course-possibly the first I've taught-in which issues of theory and
ideology seemed to the students naturally to emerge from contemplation of the material and
not to be imposed from without.
My chief goal when I began planning "Freaks" was less ambitious but nonetheless im-
portant to an extent obvious to anyone who's ever stepped to the front of a classroom: I
wanted students to talk, often and with animation, and I wanted to select a subject that would
encourage them to do so. During the previous semester I'd taught a seminar on "Fictional
Autobiography'' that began conventionally enough (Great Expectation,, Villette, A Portrait of
the ArttJt a, a Young Man, etc.) but that ended with Gunter Grass's The Tin Drum and
Katherine Dunn's Geek Love-two novels that adapt and subvert the traditional Bildungsro-
man and that happen to be narrated by dwarfs. These dwarfs, moreover, embrace rather than
~emoan,,1hei~ condition, seizi~g it a~ an opportunity to escape the restrictions imposed by
All who profess to an academic interest in freaks would do well to ponder the words of Ward normal soaal and personal mteract10ns. Whether I consciously paired two dwarf novels I
Hall, a freak show manager for over four decades, who observed, without rancor, that the cannot in all honesty recall- surely I must have known what I was doing-but the result,
chief difference between exploitative scholars and reporters (like myself) and exploitative serendipitous or not, was inspired. The sessions on the two novels were the most lively of the
entrepreneurs (like himself) is that "we paid these people." i Or, consider the more desperate semester and, indeed, among the best I've been lucky enough to teach. Students seemed
words of Robert Wadlow, the tallest human being on record, who confessed that he "was captivated in p~rticular by issues relating to the freakishness of the protagonists, spending
more concerned about how physicians would present him than he was by his treatment at the whole class penods arguing about Oskar Matzerath's decision to stop growing at the age of
hands of any showman." 2 For me these comments have formed part of a larger, ongoing three, "towered over by grownups but superior to all grownups," 3 or about Arturo Binewski's
process of self-examination that began when I decided not long ago to teach "Freaks" to a reflections on the "horror of normalcy." 4 Other periods were spent pondering the allure of the
group of college sophomores. I've wondered whether the decision was simply one manifesta- freak show and considering the connotations of the word "freak" and how they differed from
tion of the restlessness that overcame me as I approached the age of forty-a safer, less those of "disabled person" or "cripple." Among the more useful (though chastening) things I
expensive alternative to buying a used Harley-Davidson; whether it was an attempt by one discovered_ was that my lack of knowledge and formal training on these various subjects
who typically teaches safe, conservative British literature courses, where an act of politi- mattered httle to the quality of the discussion.
cal extremism means substituting Joarma Baillie for Percy Shelley on a syllabus, to walk on Thus inspired, I sought an opportunity to continue and broaden the study of "freaks" and
the pedagogical wild side; whether, worst of all, it was an attempt to pander to the darker faun~ one in a course required at the liberal arts college where I teach. In place of the
aspects of popular taste little different, as Hall suggests, from the strategies of any carni- tradit1~n~ freshman composition class, our institution offers a sophomore writing class, on
val huckster. If this last was my intention, the evidence suggests that I succeeded: oh the the prmaple that sophomores have more to write about than do entering freshmen and will
sole basis of the unexplained but arresting title, nearly sixty students attempted to preregis- therefore take writing instruction more effectively. (Generally, I think, this has proven to be
ter for a course with a limit of eighteen. That's never happened for my seminars on Charles true.) Sections of the course are taught by faculty from all departments, each of whom is
Dickens. expected to design a topic around which readings, writing assignments, and class discussion
Although there may be an element of truth in each of these self-accusations, I've come to ~ center. Because students in each section are likely to represent a diverse range of academic
believe that my urge to teach "Freaks" was more than merely a desire a fill classrooms or to mterests and com~etencie_s, i~structors are encouraged to think in more interdisciplinary
test the limits of acceptability more radically than my colleagues who teach alternative terms than they might ordinarily and to select topics that are relatively accessible. Here, more
traditions or queer theory-or, at least, that whatever my motives at the start, my decision to than in any English class, seemed to be a context in which I might appropriately draw upon
teach the course proved in the end to be a wise one. Certainly one might argue that high and popular culture and a variety of disciplines and media to teach "Freaks " and in
reading Great Expectations should be higher on any student's list of priorities than pondering which I might use the compelling nature of the material to good effect. One doesdt have to
representations of phocomelics and Siamese twins, and I would by no means advocate ~e. Peter Elbow to recognize that most students will be more interested in writing about
substituting the latter activity for the former. But one measurement of the appropriateness of bizarre accounts of normal humans turned into freaks" (to quote one particularly lurid dust

302 3°3
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~ BRIAN ROSENBERG"" 1 TEACHING FREAKS""

jacket) 5 than in writing about the state of contemporary letters. The Weekly World News beats of interesting creative depictions widely varied in form and quality. Eliminating obviously
the New York Review ofBooks at the check-out counter every time. . mythic or fantastic variants-I had no desire to study the Cyclops or the Seven Dwarfs-
How complicated it would be to teach this material became apparent before I had decided there remained a rich tradition of artistic representations of the freakish. If "human oddities"
upon a single text, writing assignment, or discussion topic when, pr_odded by the registrar, I were not quite up there with young-men-coming-of-age and fallen women as recurrent figures
was forced to submit a course title. "Freak" is, of course, a word that m the wrong context can in art, they were at least a persistent presence. One could in fact construct a high culture
become as inflammatory and offensive as any racial or ethnic slur, and it was in precisely this version of a "Freaks" course made up entirely of respectable stuff: Velazquez (Las Meninas)
context that I intended to use it: for the purposes of my course, "freaks" were not members of and Montaigne ("Of a Monstrous Child"), Edgar Allan Poe ("Hop-Frog") and Mark Twain
the sixties counterculture, fans of the Grateful Dead, or aberrations of a general kind, but (Pudd'nhead Wilson), Vladimir Nabokov ("Scenes from the Life of a Double Monster")
human beings whose physical abnormalities or deformities were the defining features of their and Par Lagerkvist (The Dwarf). An admittedly peculiar Victorian-Edwardian version of
lives. I prefer to consider myself the sort of person who would not consciously _inflict pain on the course might center around Dickens, Victor Hugo, Lewis Carroll, and Walter de la
these individuals or, indeed, use any language in a hateful or harmful way. But like others who Mare (author of the little-read Memoirs of a Midget). At another extreme, a pornographic-
have studied the topic (and others who have stood before a sideshow?), I found the use of t~e scatological version might include the Siamese-twin fiction of John Barth ("Petition'') and
word "freak'' alluring and next to unavoidable, and I was quite willing to adopt the apologias Donald Newlove (Leo and Theodore) and the comic-book art of Robert Crumb and Bill
of my predecessors as my own. I decided at the same time to make the title of the course its Griffith.
initial topic of discussion, and to ask students to weigl) the merits of the blunt "common My decision was to assemble a mix of material that came out somewhere betvveen the
sense" of Daniel P. Mannix-"! don't know of any word that expresses the concept of a extremes of the Harvard Classics and head comics, that is, that neither anesthetized students
6
dramatic physical deviation from the ordinary as well as 'freak.' So I'll use it" -:--the reporto- against the shock of the subject-matter nor disguised its ultimate seriousness. Given my sense
rial accuracy of Robert Bogdan-"The word freak offends most people. Disability nghts of the purposes of the course and the likely student constituency, I chose to combine verbal
activists find words such as midget, giant, and pinhead degrading. I use them here because and visual texts and to rely heavily, if not exclusively, on those designed to be accessible to a
individuals in the business used them'' 7 - and the appeal to myth and memory of Leslie large though reasonably literate audience (in other words, not the Weekly World News). I chose
Fiedler: too to concentrate on European and especially American works produced during the past
century, since one of my goals was to establish the place of freaks in the culture students knew
Perhaps the very word "Freak'' is as obsolescent as the Freak show itself, and I should be best. The cinema therefore became a valuable resource for me, since there the representation
searching for some other term, less tarnished and offensive. God knows, there are of freaks has already reached either its apogee or its nadir, depending upon one's sense of the
plenty: oddities, malformations, abnormalities, anomalies, mutants, mistakes of nature, appropriate. What I finally presented to students was a collection of films and photographs,
monsters, monstrosities, sports, "strange people," "very special people," and phenomeneJ. novels and essays, stories and poems that might begin to suggest the significance of freaks to
... For me, however, such euphemisms lack the resonance necessary to represent the modern society and the modern imagination.
sense of quasi-religious awe which we experience first and most strongly as children: face Initially, however, we needed to define our subject, and to that end we began by reading
to face with fellow human beings more marginal than the poorest sharecroppers or black excerpts from the two most important scholarly treatments of freaks in recent years, Leslie
convicts in a Mississippi chain gang. 8 Fiedler's Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self(1978) and Robert Bogdan's Freak Show:
Presenting Human Oddities far Amusement and Profit (1988), and by considering (with merciful
Naturally, I was also influenced by the drawing power of "Freaks" as a course title, just as brevity) a few case studies from medical journals. What became clear only as discussion
Bogdan and Fiedler must have recognized that book titles such as Freak Show and Freaks, unfolded was that the competing definitions of the "freak" offered in these works presented to
however historically and psychically accurate, would attract more buyers than tamer alterna- the class, in a schematized but telling form, the general divisions among disciplines-natural
tives. But, like them, I hoped to problematize the word by turning its implications and, more science, social science, humanities-with which students in most American colleges and
broadly, the very impulses that attracted students to the course, into one subject of the course universities are familiar. From the journals emerged a definition of the freak-or "monster,"
itself: to entice them into the freak show and then to ask them why they were there. to use a "term frequently appearing in the older literature to designate a grossly malformed
Once I began seriously to investigate potential material for the course, my preliminary fear fetus" 9 -devoid of ethical or social considerations, based wholly on the detailed, detached
that there might not be enough turned quickly into the realization that there was far more observation of physiology. Photographs more gruesome than anything seen in a B-grade
than I could possibly include. My aim was to begin the semester with the consideration of horror film were offered to the reader for clinical rather than aesthetic or emotional consider-
such general issues as the definition of "freak," the meaning of "normalcy/' and the lu_re and ation, as if the object pictured were not a human being but a specimen. Even the faces of the
legitimacy of the freak show, supplementing the discussion with relevan~ histoncal, cntJ.cal, or individuals in the photographs seemed drained of affect and identity. The entire procedure
theoretical readings, and then to examine creative treatments of these issues m ~orks _dr~wn conformed closely to the students' naive sense of the "objective" work typically performed by
from a variety of art forms and media. What I found, as I expected, was a relatively lirruted the biologist or chemist.
selection of useful background material, but, to an extent I had not expected, a vast amount Fiedler and Bogdan seemed to students to exemplify a basic distinction between the

304 305
 ~ BRIAN ROSENBERG~ ~ TEACHING FREAKS f

humanist and the social scientist. For Fiedler the nature of the freak is defined largely in where the response to perceived difference has been such a devastating historical force and
aesthetic, psychological, and mythic terms: "The true Freak ... stirs both supernatural terror where the alienated anti-hero has been so popular a figure in literature, the freak, so flamboy-
and natural sympathy, since, unlike the fabulous monsters, he is one of us, the human child of antly different and unavoidably alienated, becomes emblematically useful. Significantly, all of
human parents, however altered by forces we do not quite understand into something mythic the works I've mentioned, with the possible exception of The Elephant Man, are products of
and mysterious, as no mere cripple ever is .... Only the true Freak challenges the conventional artists who draw upon freakish subjects at most occasionally and who seem to feel no desire
boundaries between male and female, sexed and sexless, animal and human, large and small, to explore the subject of freakishness in great depth-that is, whose interest in the freakish is
self and other, and consequently between reality and illusion, experience and fantasy, fact and relatively "normal."
myth." 10 This is very nearly the freak as art-object, described in terms usually reserved for The most provocative works studied in the course turned out to be ones in which the
painting and poems. Freakishness-like the beauty of the Sistine Chapel or the brilliance of attitude toward freaks was more ambiguous, uncertain, or conflicted, and in which the freak
Hamlet?-is a quality inherent in particular objects and is finally irreducible to a simple was not easily reduced to an object of pity, horror, or comedy. I have in mind particularly
definition or explanation. Bogdan will have none of this. For him freakishness is not inherent Tod Browning's 1932 film Freaks, the posthumously published collection of Diane Arbus's
but constructed, the freak, however deformed, not born but made: " 'Freak' is not a quality that photographs, and Dunn's novel Geek Love, which together, in my view, comprise the most
belongs to the person on display. It is something that we created: a perspective, a set of interesting-if not always the most polished or accomplished-imaginative representations
practices-a social construction." Fiedler's approach, in Bogdan's view, "reifies 'freak' by of freaks in modern American art. For all three artists, the freak appears to be not a casual or
taking 'it' as a constant and inevitable outpouring of b¥ic human nature" and, rather than occasional subject, but one to which they are drawn by some compulsion or necessity: afrer an
"penetrating the socially constructed dimension of the freak show, ... merely mystifies it." 11 early career as a contortionist and sideshow barker, Browning made a string of bizarre silent
These simple distinctions among disciplinary approaches were eventually and beneficially films populated by genuine or counterfeit freaks (typically played by Lon Chaney); Arbus was
blurred. Students came fairly easily to see that the "objectivity" of the scientist or physician lured away from fashion photography in part by her fascination with freak shows and
was a position constructed as carefully as any and more subtly than most; that in Fiedler', carnivals; and Dunn, who remembers herself as "an ugly kid [with] a deep, huge voice" and
quest for the mythic, prototypical freak, he perhaps too quickly dismissed the differences the nickname of "Toad," calls her freak novel the repository of "all I had tried to learn." 13 The
among cultures and historical periods; and that Bogdan, beneath the dispassion of the social work of each re-creates in the viewer or reader something of the ambivalence of the patron of
scientist, was beguiled by the inexplicable mystery of the freak nearly as powerfully as Fiedler. an actual freak show and holds that ambivalence up for consideration; there is no safe distance
Thus the lesson was two-fold: that the same subject is likely to be understood in different from the freaks or from one's own discomforting responses.
ways by individuals in different fields, and that each field has its own preferred evasions and Elsewhere in this book is a fuller discussion of the plot, virtues, and inadequacies of the
sleights-of-hand. film Freaks than I can provide in this context. I'll simply note, for what it is worth, that
A,; we worked through the creative material I'd chosen for the syllabus, it became clear that Browning must be acknowledged as the father of freak studies in this century: Arbus's
most modern representations of the freakish might be divided into distinct categories, or repeated viewing of the film in a revival house is described by David Ska! as "a distinct
tended at !east to develop a set of recurrent responses. In Poe's "Hor Frog," about a diminu-1 epiphany" in her artistic development; 14 Fiedler calls his book "a belated tribute to that great
tive court iester who responds to an act of cruelty by roastmg the king and h1S mm1Sters, H. director and his truly astonishing film"; 15 and Bogdan identifies the same film as his "invita-
G. Wells's The Island ef Dr. Moreau, in which surgically manufactured man-beasts destroy tion to journey into the world of freak shows." 16 In my course, Freaks was viewed early and
their creator, or any of countless horror films and stories I might have used, the freak becomes became the work to which students most often turned for examples and comparisons. Many
an embodiment of our darkest nightmares, something alien not to be disturbed or challenged. of them claimed not to "like" it (I'm not sure I like it), but most seemed interested in talking
In Thomas Mann's "Little Herr Freidemann," Nabokov's "Scenes from the Life . .. ," and about their responses to it. What chiefly fascinated them, of course, was Browning's casting
II David Lynch's film version of The Elephant Man, the hunchbacked dwarf, Siamese twins, and of such actual sideshow greats as Johnny Eck the Half-Man and Prince Randian the Human
I grotesquely malformed man, respectively, are sentimentalized into objects of intense pathos, Torso as characters in the film, a decision that raises a host of compelling ethical and aesthetic
becoming stand-ins for the modern, sensitive-thus-alienated individual. Freaks in such works issues; but they were also taken by what Martin Norden calls the film's "chilling, contradictory
17
tend to enjoy music, gardens, and building miniature cathedrals. The darkly comic potential quality," that is, its delicate balance (or confused indecision) between sympathy for and
of freaks is explored in a vein of Southern Gothic that runs through Eudora Welty ("Petrified revulsion at its misshapen subjects. Characters who are one moment described as "God's
Man''), Flannery O'Connor ("Parker's Back"), and Ann Beattie ("Dwarf House") and in the children" are the next crawling through the slime prepared to murder and mutilate, so that
postmodern fiction of Barth and Elizabeth McCracken ("It's Bad Luck to Die"),12 The point one can't quite tell whether Browning wants to embrace or obliterate them. If we see his
in these stories is generally to ask whether the literal freaks are actually so peculiar as the freaks engaged in the "normal" activities of playing, eating, and giving birth, we also hear
physically normal but internally stunted individuals by whom they are surrounded. Though them chanting in some alien tongue "Gooble, gobble, one of us," which severs them from the
the distinction is difficult to draw, one might argue that all the aforementioned works are not "normal" world. Surely this mix of reactions approximates the confusion of the gawker before
so much about freaks as about normal reactions to freaks or the hidden qualities in normals the sideshow giant, who can be seen to sweat and tremble but who seems at the same time
to which freaks give perceptible form. Thus the attractiveness of the subject: in a century other than human. ' ,

I 306 3°7
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 ;1 BRIAN ROSENBERG f ;1 TEACHING FREAKS f

Arbus was the surprise of the course. If Browning's attitude toward his freakish subjects is leaving the reader considerably more exposed. And that view seems to have some basis in
ambivalent, hers is inscrutable, and I had feared that students might be frustrated by the truth. Bearded woman Percilla Bejano, when asked the obvious question-Why not shave?-
mystery. Instead, they were attracted and tried mightily to make sense of "Mexican dwarf in replied, "If I did, I'd be down in the tip with the rest of you instead of standing here on the
his hotel room in N.Y.C. 1970," "Tattooed man at a carnival, Md. 1970," and, my favorite, platform making a good living." 22
"A Jewish giant at home with his parents in the Bronx, N.Y. 1970," and of Arbus's commen- I've spent a good deal of time trying to gauge and make sense of student response to the
tary (decidedly Fiedleresque) on her own interests: general subject and specific contents of the freaks course, since in some ways I consider that
response the central subject of the course itself. As I wrote in my syllabus, "One cannot talk
Freaks was a thing I photographed a lot. It was one of the first things I photographed about freaks without talking about the viewing of freaks, so, in a sense, the course is about
and it had a terrific kind of excitement for me. I just used to adore them. I still do adore us" - abo~t wh~ we've chosen to sit in a room and talk with passion about human beings
some of them. I don't quite mean they're my best friends but they made me feel a whose chief claim on our attention is some gross physical deformity. Simply by virtue of
mixture of shame and awe. There's a quality of legend about freaks. Like a person in a getting into a course from which forty of their classmates were excluded, the students began
fairy tale who stops you and demands that you answer a riddle. Most people go through with a sense of privilege or exclusivity. When asked why they had enrolled, they provided
life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. predictable answers: curiosity, an interest in horror developed through fiction or films, a sense
They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. 18 of adventure. Many of the students claimed to "see themselves" as freaks-I had three with
nose studs and tw""o with iridescent hair, and this on a conservative campus-and to view the
Arbus is among the very few artists who seem to foreground the freaks' view of themselves, course as self-exploratory. A few others defined themselves, with what I suspect was more
and this is, as Susan Sontag has observed, "a large part of the mystery of [her] photographs. 1
honesty, as ' normal," and their interest in the freakish as voyeuristic. All in all, the responses
... Do [her subjects] see themselves, the viewer wonders, like that? Do they know how were comparable to, though more freely volunteered than, what one might expect to elicit
grotesque they are? It seems as if they don't." 19 The pride or complacency on the faces of from patrons lining up to enter the "freaks" tent at a county fair.
Arbus's freaks, indeed their very acquiescence in being so frankly posed and photographed, I cannot overestimate the extent to which the apparently unrespectable nature of the
interferes with the compassionate, horrified, or amused response customarily elicited by freak- material in the course inspired student enthusiasm. Probably the most crudely manipulative
art, comparably, again, to the way the willingness of the sideshow exhibition to be exhibited portion of my syllabus was the following unsubtle note: "One final, quite serious warning: this
complicates the reaction of the viewer. As a number of commentators have observed, and as course is not for the squeamish. No sane person could be exposed to all this stuff without at
many students quickly recognized, Arbus also manages to transform every individual she times feeling horrified, revolted, even outraged. But if you believe that your revulsion and
photographs into an apparent "freak," blurring the line between the monstrous and the outrage are likely to interfere with your ability to study and discuss the material, you should
normal. Her children and married couples typically appear more distraught and inspire more enroll in a different class. I'd prefer not to listen to objections from you (or your relatives) later
unease than her midgets and transvestites. m the semester." Of course this had them salivating. There is no surer way of sparking
Teaching Geek Love was, as I noted, one of my original sources of inspiration for the course enthusiasm in undergraduates than by convincing them that they are engaging in an illicit
and turned out again to be an engrossing experience. Not surprising, given that Dunn's novel activity. In this case, moreover, the engagement was risk-free: not only was there no punish-
managed on the one hand to be castigated by reviewers as "an orgy of sadism and violence" ment looming as the price of participation, there was actually a reward promised for partici-
and "a snuff film made legitimate by a reputable publishing house," 20 and on the other to be pating well. Again like the freak show, the course provided a temporary, controlled opportu-
nominated for the 1989 National Book Award. The book is both gruesome and good, which nity for minor transgression, only here the transgressors were not being duped out of money
is a nearly sure-fire combination in a class of college students. It is also a radical attempt to (unless one considers paying tuition for a course on freaks being duped), but were being paid
re-imagine traditional ideas of normalcy and acceptability. More disturbing to readers than m As, Bs, and credits toward graduation. It was the sanitized version of a peep show.
Dunn's collection of Siamese twins, dwarfs, phocomelics, telekinetics, and psychotics who I like to think that the students lured into this particular tent were treated to more than an
murder, mutilate, and crassly manipulate seems to be her valorization of freakishness in its exhibition of grotesquery. The one thing the viewer at a freak show, strip club, or perhaps
most extreme forms: with the help of liberally ingested "drugs, insecticides, and eventually even beauty pageant does not want to do is think too deeply about his motives for attending
radioisotopes," Lil and Al Binewski create a family of freaks, proud of having bestowed upon or about the humanity of the individuals being observed. This is precisely what I asked the
their children "an inherent ability to earn a living by just being themselves." Their daughter class to do, repeatedly and at length, and in the end is what distinguishes the viewing of an
Olympia, the bald-albino-hunchbacked-dwarf who narrates the novel, considers it her "curse" Arbus photo or the reading of Dunn's novel from a simple act of voyeurism. These works are,
that she is "a freak but not much of a freak," and their armless/legless son Arturo glimpses the in effect, freaks or strippers who stare back, who make us aware of our role in the act of
"norms" in the sideshow audience and sees beings "engulfed by a terror of their own ordinari- exhibition, and who sensitize us to the somewhat unsavory motives and impulses that under
ness. They would do anything to be unique." 21 While most works in this genre present, for ordinary circumstances we are inclined to overlook. As one reviewer says of Geek Love, "one
obvious reasons, a "normal" view of freaks, allowing the reader to observe from a position of hand beckons us to gape at [the] assembled monstrosities, while the other wags a finger at
relative security, Geek Love seems to approach something like a freakish view of normals, our queasy fascination."
23
In my course, wagging a finger meant not chastising students for
1

'I 11'I,
'

Ii 308
3°9
l -i1 BRIAN ROSENBERG~

their interest-I was surely in no position to do so-but asking them to reflect upon it. The
aim was not to arrive ultimately at any convincing explanation, but to raise questions similar
-i1 TEACHING FREAKS~

correct" the society, moreover, and despite the best efforts of disability-rights activists, there
continues to be no stigma attached to the abhorrence of freaks comparable to the stigma
to those discussed by Fiedler and Bogdan: Is the freak born or constructed? What role does attached to racism or ethnic separatism, and there is a sense that such abhorrence is somehow
language play in the creation of the freak? Does the existence of the freak blur distinctions we natural. On the other hand, this feeling of insulation, of safety, brings the benefit of enabling
usually take for granted? Is normalcy definable? students to talk about subjects they shy away from in other, more uncomfortable contexts and,
AB I hope is already apparent, many of the basic questions raised in the freaks class would maybe, of carrying over and sensitizing them in those contexts. Lessons about the complex
be equally relevant to the discussions of race and gender that very commonly arise in today's interactions between subject and object or insider and outsider learned in this setring will
literature and history classrooms. It's a small and natural step to move from considering the perhaps not be quickly forgotten. It is my guess and certainly my hope that the encounter
power of the word "freak" to considering that of the word "nigger," or from examining the with "the alien, the other . . . preeminently represented by the Freak'' 25 will encourage
social construction of freakishness to examining that of gender; thinking about exclusion on students to think more carefully about the ways they construct and understand "aliens" and
the basis of physiological difference leads almost inevitably to thinking about exclusion on "others" closer to home-that if the line between "us" and "them" is blurred in this case, it
other bases as well. What distinguished the discussions of these issues in the freaks class from will be more readily blurred in others. Perhaps, too, it will reveal to them the limited extent
those I had had in other contexts was the relative absence of the skepticism and resistance I to which any categorizations based wholly on physical difference are "natural." In any event,
typically encountered in my students-mostly white, conservative, upper-middle class-and holding on to such a hope seems preferable to the alternative, which is to concede that Ward
the presence of more intellectual enthusiasm. The same sophomores who rolled their eyes at Hall is fundamentally correct and that freak show manager and freak scholar (or teacher) are
a feminist reading of a Shakespeare sonnet and, for v,at matter, participated actively in the colleagues, engaged in different but finally comparable forms of exploitation.
fraternity culture on campus, were willing in thi✓case to accept without hesitation the
argument that language, social practice, and stereotypes all matter and all contribute to the NOTES
creation of the freak. Perhaps this is simply because the situation of the freak is so extreme as 1. Qyoted in Robert Bogdan, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities far Amusement and Profit
to cast these issues into bold relief, rendering obvious and explicit what might be subtle and (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), 268.
2. Qyoted in ibid., 275.
implicit in other cases. There were, additionally, no divisions within the group comparable to 3. Gunter Grass, The Tin Drum, trans. Ralph Manheim (New York: Random House, 1961), 60.
the racial, gender, and socioeconomic divisions that sometimes heighten tensions and enforce 4. Katherine Dunn, Geek Love (New York: Warner, 1989), 223.
silence during classroom discussions of politically weighted issues. For the purposes of this 5. Qyoted from the back cover of Daniel P. Mannix, Freaks: We Who Are Not as Others (New York
course, everyone in the room was the same, a "norm," and the subjects under discussion safely Pocket Books, 1976; reprint, San Francisco: Re/Search Publications, 1990).
distant and alien-not immediately present and not regularly encountered during ordinary 6. Ibid., 8.
activities. (I've imagined often how different the class would have been had a student with 7. Bogdan, Freak Show, xi.
8. Leslie Fiedler, Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978),
some extreme physical difference been enrolled, or had someone had a "freak'' in the family.) 16-17.
Fielder's claim that the politics of "physiologically deviant humans ... remains a politics 9. Stedman's Medical D£ctionary, 1976 ed., s.v. "Monster."
without a program'' 24 may be less true today than twenty years ago, given the rise of disability- 10. Fiedler, Freaks, 24.
rights movements, but still such movements have no history of provoking, and not much 11. Bogdan, Freak Show, xi, 7.
12. No wonder that Jeanne Schinto refers to freaks as "an American short story staple." Jeanne
current power to provoke, the anger and resentment often inspired by racial, ethnic, and
Schinto, "Freaks, Etcetera," Belles Lettres: A Review of Books by Women 9 (winter 1993-94): 28.
sexual agendas. Students were prepared to accept with perfect equanimity the argument that 13. Katherine Dunn, "Katherine Dunn in Her Own Words," in Geeh Love, 352, 354.
norms had made and mistreated freaks and even to include themselves in the indictment, 14. DavidJ. Ska!, The Monster Show: A Cultural History ofHorror (New York: Norton, 1993), 17.
manifesting little of the defensiveness usually inspired by charges of racism or sexism. 15. Fiedler, Freaks, 18.
Ironically, then, this course on a topic ostensibly shocking and offensive turned out finally 16. Bogdan, Freak Show, viii.
to be more comfortable for students than courses on topics more familiar. And this is both its 17. Martin F. Norden, The Cinema of Isolation: A History of Physical Disability in the Movies (New
chief limitation and, I am hoping, its most enduring value. Because "freaks" are so tiny and
Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994), 116.
18. Diane Arbus, Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph (New York: Aperture Foundation, 1972), 3.
invisible a minority-particularly on a campus such as mine, where individuals with even 19. Susan Sontag, On Photography (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977), 35-36.
minor physical disabilities are virtually absent-their study can never have for most students 20. Dinitia Smith, review of Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn, Nation, 15 May 1989, 673-74.
the importance or relevance of the study of race or gender, and a course in freaks can never 21. Dunn, Geek Love, 7, 103, 223.
substitute for courses on these more broadly significant subjects. Students talk easily about 22. Qyoted in Mannix, Freaks: We Who Are Not as Others, 95.
freaks because in the end the topic doesn't matter to them very much, and because their own 23. Matthew Giunti, review of Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn, Christian Century, 5 July 1989, 664-
65.
secure sense of being "normal" insulates them from feeling the pain of deformity. By the 24. Fiedler, Freaks, 13.
standards of Olympia Binewski, even the most socially inept or unattractive student in the 25. Ibid., 54.
group doesn't begin to approach the margins of normality. However polite or "politically

JII
 Relocations of the Freak Show
/

I ,
', I
 T"W"ElNTY•T-W-0

The Dime Museum Freak Show Reconfigured as

Talk Show
ANDREA STULMAN DENNETT

Freaks are what you make them. Take any peculiar looking person
whose familiarity to those around him makes for acceptance, play up
that peculiarity and add a good spiel, and you have a good attraction.
-CLYDE INGALLS

The dime museum-a distinctly American form of popular entertainment-flourished in

the late nineteenth century. As an entertainment venue it peaked between the years 1880 and
1900 and was in decline by the following decade. For a low, one-time admission charge, the
dime museum dazzled men, women, and children with its dioramas, panoramas, georamas,
cosmoramas, paintings, relics, freaks, sruffed animals, menageries, waxworks, and theatrical
performances. Nothing quite like it had existed before. 1 No previous amusement had ever
appealed to such a diversified audience or integrated so many diversions under one roof.
One feature that distinguished most dime museums from genuine historical or art museums
was live performance. In addition to providing melodramas, strolling musicians, and lecturers,
most museums exhibited an array of freaks, who were displayed on platforms, either together
or throughout the various curio halls. To be considered fit for exhibition as a museum oddity,
a person did not have to be taller or shorter than average, or fatter or thinner, or even
deformed. Many other criteria came into play.
Five classes of human anomalies were displayed in dime museums: natural freaks, those
who were born with physical or mental anomalies, such as midgets and "pinheads"; self-made
freaks, those who cultivated freakdom, such as tattooed people; novelty artists, those who
were freaks because of their "freakish" performances, among them snake charmers, mesmer-
ists, hypnotists, and fire-eaters; non-Western freaks, those who could be promoted as exotic
curiosities such as "savages" and "cannibals," usually billed as being from Africa; and finally
the fake freaks, or "gaffed freaks," those who faked freakishness, such as "Siamese Twins" who
2
were not attached, or the "Armless Wonder" whose arms were hidden under his costume.
Before the emergence of dime museums in the mid-nineteenth century, the majority of
human oddities in the United States were itinerant performers, their careers handled (or
mishandled) by managers, who usually booked them into taverns, rented storefronts, or
concert and lecture halls. With the advent of dime museums, the luckier freaks became at

JIS
 1 ANDREA STULMAN DENNETT f ~ THE DIME MUSEUM FREAK SHOW RECONFIGURED f

least somewhat more stable participants in the popular entertainment industry. Performing in true with their top attractions, since the more shows these freaks performed, the more tickets
an organized freak show was a relatively respectable way to earn a living, and many perform- were sold. When Theodor Jeftichew, "Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Boy," appeared at the Globe
ers-the tattooed people, sword swallower,, and snake charmers-turned themselves into Museum in New York, his managers arranged to have him perform twenty-three shows
freaks to become part of the industry. during a twelve-to-fourteen-hour day. 8
The dime museum freak show, or "platform entertainment," as it was known, was a huge In fact, a freak was simply a commodity packaged by museum operators and showmen in
crowd pleaser and a solid moneymaker, giving proprietors a powerful incentive to tteat their such a way as to bring in business. Novelty, variety, and humbugging, the trademarks of the
freaks well. Successful museum managers such as George Huber and Phineas T. Barnum successful museum, all figured in the exhibiting of human oddities. The display of phony
understood this point and cherished their freaks as they would any other profitable invest- freaks occurred regularly, especially among the smaller dime museums, which needed the
ment. Both Huber and Barnum provided lodgings for many of their freaks on the top floors drawing power of fabulous attractions to lure customers away from the larger establishments.
of their museums. Although the accommodations were far from glamorous, they were cheap, Not only did managers manufacture freaks, they also lied to the public about the exhibition
and there was always plenty of food, heat, and companionship. Out-of-town actors often of celebrity attractions. For example, once in the 1880s when Jo-Jo was performing in Europe,
shared lodgings with these platform entertainers. As young performers, for example, the his name appeared on the bill of a Jersey City museum. A fellow performer, believing the
famous vaudevillians Weber and Fields worked at many museums on the East Coast. While New Jersey Jo-Jo an impostor, attempted to discredit the animal imitator by trying to make
at Keith & Batcheller's Dime Museum in Boston during the early 1880s, they slept in the him laugh or fight during his performance (Jo-Jo usually only growled on stage). Afrer a week
attic along with other museum employees, paying six dollars a week to "Mom Keith" for room of such antics, the Jersey City Jo-Jo pulled his wig off to reveal that he was indeed a fake. 9
and board. According to their biographer, Felix Isman, the large attic room was divided into Showmen also fabricated the biographies of freaks to make their oddities more fascinating.
individual cubicles: "Eight-by-ten partitions in which the actors both dressed and slept lined For example, when Barnum first exhibited Charles Stratton as "General Tom Thumb" in
the walls and opened upon the dining-room, occupying the center of the attic floor." 3 1843, he told the public the prodigy was eleven years old instead of five, fearing some would
Although the dime museum business provided a certain opportunity for otherwise impover- think Tom Thumb an unusually short child instead of an anomaly. In addition to giving
ished and lonely freaks, the conditions endured by most were far from glamorous. Many were Stratton a new name, Barnum provided him with British ancestry, believing it added class.
abused by small-time museum operators, kept to grueling schedules, and given only a small Inches were added to the height of giants and subtracted from that of midgets; Fat Ladies
percentage of their total earnings. Individual exhibits were hired for one to six weeks by the gained pounds and Skeletal Men lost them. Superlatives abounded, and every display was
proprietors of dime museums; the average freak performed in ten to fifteen shows a day and billed as the tallest, smallest, fattest, ugliest, or hairiest-and of course the most extraordinary
was shuttled back and forth week after week from one museum to another. Some, however, or original. Vivid and provocative epithets often followed the names of performers. Lizzie
like "George, the Turtle Boy" (who was displayed at Huber's Museum three years running), Harris, who weighed 676 pounds, was heralded as the "Largest Mountain of Flesh Ever
had long-term conttacts. 4 Seen." Captain and Mrs. Bates were billed as "Extraordinary Specimens of Magnified Hu-
Many freaks were lucky and gifted enough to earn a good livelihood through exhibitions, manity." The captain was 7 feet 11 ½ inches tall and weighed 478 pounds. His wife was the
and some became celebrities, commanding high salaries and earning far more than acrobats, same height and weighed only sixty-five pounds less. 10 Midgets were given exotic new names
novelty performers, and actors. The salaries of dime museum freaks usually varied from usually with titles. There was General Mite, Baron Littlefingers, Prince Ludwig, Duchess
twenty-five to five hundred dollars a week, substantially more than lecture-room variety Leona, and Baroness Simone. They appeared with normal-sized people or sometimes with
performers were paid; they received twenty-five to thirty-five dollars for a so-called single act giants to emphasize their tiny stature. Several freaks had routine partners or alter egos: the
and fifty to seventy-five dollars for a double. 5 By conttast, late-nineteenth-century stage actors diminutive Admiral Dot often shared a platform with the seven-foot giant Anna Swann, and
were paid only thirty-five to eighty dollars a week. 6 Mrs. Tom Thumb stood in the spotlight with Noah Orr, who was just over seven feet tall and
Charles Sttatton, "General Tom Thumb," probably the most famous freak of all time, tipped the scales at 516 pounds_l1
eventually split his weekly profits with Barnum. Stratton owned a house in Bridgeport, Although physical anomaly was the only real drawing power of most natural freaks, some
Connecticut, several pedigreed horses, and a yacht. And he was not unique. A number of were truly talented. General Tom Thumb sang and danced his way into the hearts of
freaks were able to afford real estate and to retire comfortably; Chang and Eng, the original Americans and Europeans alike. The general's repertoire included several "Negro songs," as
Siamese twins, owned a farm, a business, and several slaves in North Carolina; Millie- well as dances such as the polka and a so-called "Highland Jig." He also did impersonations
Christine, conjoined singers, earned five hundred dollars a week and owned a plantation in of Napoleon Bonaparte and Frederick the Great. In addition to performing on platforms in
North Carolina; Zip, Barnum's "What is It?" exhibit, owned property in New Jersey and lived the curio halls, Stratton acted in plays and afterpieces presented in museum lecture rooms.
in an elegant house in Connecticut, a gift from Barnu:U; diminutive Admiral Dot owned and He made his acting debut December 4, 1848, when he was nine years old, in a play called
operated a small hotel in White Plains, New York. Commodore Nutt, a mid-century midget, Hop O' My Thumb, about a miniature-and precocious-child who outwitted a giant that
was heralded as the thirty-thousand-dollar Nutt because he had a three-year contract worth had been terrorizing the kingdom of Old King Cole. It was the perfect vehicle to illustrate
that sum, an extraordinary amount of money at the time. 7 the comic skills of Stratton, who was seen running under the legs of adults, being dragged in
Although many freaks were paid handsomely, museum managers were often insensitive a shoe, and getting served up in a pie.
about performance schedules; profit margins were their main concern. This was especially One premise of the dime museum freak show was that most people have an innate desire
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to behold the misfortunes of others. The historian George C. D. Odell, after years of the years 1897 to 1904 Coney Island was transformed into a technologically sophisticated
chronicling dime museum entertainments, came to believe that "the freaks of the dime center of mass entertainment that attracted patrons from all socioeconomic levels. 15 Coney
museum served the purpose of raising dull persons from the throes of their inferiority Island's attractions included Steeplechase Park (1897-1965), Luna Park (1903-46), and
complexes." He thought pleasure seekers could not look at such "monstrosities" without Dreamland (1904-11).
convincing themselves that, after all, their normal selves were "pretty good, if not beautiful." 12 Located in the heart of Dreamland, Lilliputia was a municipality of three hundred midgets
Watching freak performers, Odell believed, built self-esteem; people left freak shows feeling organized by Samuel W. Gumpertz, a longtime showman. Everything in the city, from the
more at ease with their lot in life. Freaks were created by others out of fear. Modern medicine bathrooms and bedroom furniture to the fire department, was constructed precisely at half-
was still in its infancy, and the average person was afraid of being incurably different, scale. The town also had its own government and operated as did any small city. Spectators
unalterably abnormal. But the definition of "normal" was narrow, and this very narrowness, a entered Lilliputia and walked like Gulliver among the midgets who might be shopping,
product of ignorance, was in its way comforting. cleaning, or doing any other ordinary tasks. After fire destroyed Dreamland on May 27, 1911,
Most dime museums routinely closed for the summer. Many freaks found work during Gumpertz put up a tent outside the ruins and opened his "congress of freaks." 16 While the
these months with circuses or with independent traveling museums. "Barnum's Great Asiatic embers still smoldered, Gumpertz turned Dreamland into a popular sideshow attraction,
Museum and Menagerie," organized in 1851 by Barnum, Seth B. Howes, and Tom Thumb's displaying a collection of "living wonders" from all over the world and turning Coney Island
father, Sherwood Stratton, toured the country for four years complete with a 110-foot tent. into the "world's capital of the eccentric and the bizarre." 17 For well over thirty years,
Barnum's "Great Traveling World's Fair, Museum, Me,nagerie, Polytechnic Institute and Gumpertz's Dreamland Circus Sideshow attracted scores of freaks who were tempted by the
International Zoological Garden," as well as many other yvell-known traveling museums, such community life of the seaside resort; Gumpertz became the twentieth-century czar of the
as Colonel Wood's Museum, toured up and down the Mississippi in the late 1850s. Some set freak show world.
up in vacant storefronts or on the boardwalks of resort areas. The larger ones-consisting of Live freak shows long remained part of the American carnival and circus traditions. Most
a few wax effigies, some animals, and a carload of freaks-attached themselves to circuses or legitimate non-circus-related sideshows, however, were associated with the "Ripley's Believe
equestrian shows. It or Not!" tour created by Robert Ripley in 1933 for the Chicago World's Fair. Following the
Most traveling museums did not operate on a very grand scale. The majority were small fair, Ripley traveled with a company of twenty-five living oddities and some three hundred
and somewhat decrepit, cropping up on carnival midways and at other types of outdoor fairs. inanimate objects. 18 Some of his more famous freaks were "Grace McDaniels, the Mule
By the 1880s most were limiting their displays to human oddities, and gradually, around the Faced Woman," "Roy Bard, the Ossified Man," "Laurello, the Man with the Revolving
turn of the century, the word "sideshow" replaced "museum." 13 It was with the advent of the Head," "Leo Congee, the Human Pin Cushion," and Paul Whitaker, a black man from
sideshow that the display of human oddities for profit began to turn seedy. Sideshows were Georgia who could pop his right eye out a full inch beyond its socket, "Paul Desmule, the
part of the outdoor amusement industry; the image (and the reality) was of crude platforms Armless Man," used his toes to hurl knives with ten-inch blades at a human target. 19
on floors of grass and straw under tents. The smells and noises of circuses and carnivals came Today the era of P. T. Barnum and the freak show is long past. Such shows are thought to
to be associated with the exhibition of freaks. Ironically, this was the antithesis of the be dehumanizing and have been outlawed in many states. Ironically, however, freak shows
atmosphere at a freak show in an elegant dime museum. provided more independence to some disabled people of the past century than do today's
The days of the glorified freak show were gone by the turn of the century. By 1910, there affirmative action programs. Freaks had marketable attributes, and those who were exhibited
was no longer an abundance of dime museums, with their organized freak displays, as there had an opportunity to become celebrities, to obtain fame and fortune. In support of this idea,
had been in the 1880s and 1890s. In the twentieth century, the exploitation of freaks for in 1972 the Florida Supreme Court struck down a 1921 law banning freak shows, ruling that
profit began to be frowned upon. In part because of the world wars and their devastating the state had no business preventing anyone from earning an honest living. 20
effects on the bodies of survivors, there came a gradual awareness of society's responsibility The concept of the freak show is not dead; there are many modern versions of these
toward people with disabilities. Prostheses were devised for those who lacked limbs, modern nineteenth-century spectacles, reconfigured for contemporary society. However, in the new
medicine demystified many of nature's mutations, and hormone therapy began to be adminis- format the position of the born freak has been, for the most part, filled by the novelty
tered to people with growth problems. performer and the self-made freak. For example, Dick Zigun, a young man from Barnum's
With the demise of the dime museum, freak performers became largely itinerants. Anoma- hometown of Bridgeport, Connecticut, since 1980 has devoted his energy to preserving
lies who still wanted to exhibit themselves for money could find work at world's fairs, popular forms of entertainment. Zigun, a playwright and graduate of the Yale Drama School,
amusement parks, carnivals, and the circus. But as th~ decades passed, it became more and founded Coney Island, USA, a museum and theatre company dedicated to reviving the
more difficult for freaks to find legitimate jobs. 14 Even when freaks could find work, the parades, sideshows, and other performance elements typical of Coney Island at the turn of
salaries they earned were rather meager. the century. There are no born freaks at this show, since it is "performance-oriented, rather
Coney Island, a permanent midway, represented a new form of commercialized entertain- than gawker-oriented." 21 Without real human anomalies, only a cast of self-made freaks such
ment for an urban, industrial society that had come of age. The Brooklyn beachfront resort, as "Electra, the Electric Girl" and the "Illustrated Man," this show is no more than a magic
along with its three amusement parks and independent entertainments, symbolized changes show. It does not affect its audience on a deeply visceral level.
in American manners and morals. Once known as a scandalous and unsavory place, during This type of freak show is less effective in part because self-made freaks fail to amaze the

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modern spectator. In our late-twentieth-century culture, the self-made freaks on the platform from physical to psychological freakishness. Although today's talk shows promote themselves
are not very different from the people we see at the downtown mall or on the subway. Our as "discussion programs" and do indeed occasionally address a politically important issue, their
culture has developed a very vocal subculture that believes the body is a personal canvas to be basic appeal is pure voyeurism (whether it be a celebrity interview or a debate about interracial
redesigned as the owner sees fit. Body jewelry and the piercing of cheeks, nose, lips, navel, dating). People in bizarre situations more or less beyond their control, either psychologically
and nipple, which have never been associated with Western notions of beauty, have become or physically, hold themselves up for public scrutiny. These shows are both alluring and
very popular in the 1990s. While the piercing of genitalia still seems outrageously freakish to revolting, but indisputably successful. Taboo subjects, ranging from homosexuality among
most of us, ear, nose, navel, and nipple piercing is now mainstream; the Gauntlet, a piercing teenagers to sexual relations between unmarried relatives, are aired daily from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M.
parlor, advertises in the Manhattan Yellow Pages. Tattooing, now frowned upon because of With just a press of a button audiences can tune in to Oprah Winfrey, Phil Donahue, Geraldo
health risks, is nevertheless a booming industry. Tattoos are no longer seen as the mark of the Rivera, Sally Jessy Raphael, Monte! Williams, Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, Charles Perez,
criminal or as the macho insignia of soldiers and sailors, but as living art. Celebrities such as Jenny Jones, Richard Bey, or Ricki Lake. Recent issues of TV Guide list seventeen talk shows,
Cher, Whoopi Goldberg, and Prince all sport tattoos. According to Glamour magazine, body not including the prime-time magazine shows, which incorporate similar devices.
engravings are more than acceptable, they are hip.22 Talk shows recycle many of the conventions of the earlier freak shows. For example,
During the 1960s and 1970s, Americans witnessed a cultural and aesthetic revolution in television hosts closely resemble the lecturers of the dime museums. Typically, there were no
which many artists created ephemeral projects that contested the perception of the human seats in the curio halls of dime museums; patrons were ushered from platform to platform by
I body and its function. Numerous performance artists, from Vito Acconci to Karen Finley, a lecturer, whose role was that of master of ceremonies. During his performance, the lecturer,
transformed their bodies, turning themselves into self-nytde freaks in or~er to shatter c_ultural usually given the pretentious title of "Professor," held the audience's attention by describing
I taboos about bodily functions and human sexuality. Modern body artists, usmg theu own the freaks displayed on the various platforms. In addition to a carrying voice, the lecturer
tissues as the medium of expression, challenge twentieth-century social concepts of sex needed to have both magnetism and eloquence. His elocutionary style usually was patterned
and individuality. Similarly, certain nineteenth-century freaks suggested ambiguous types of on the traditional hyperbolic spiel of carnival barkers, and his recitations were filled with
sexuality and aroused the erotic fantasies of a sexually repressed audience. In an interesting classical and biblical allusions.
echo of the old freak shows, performance artists Linda Montano and Tehching Hsieh Talk show hosts also guide their audiences from exhibit to exhibit, explaining the tragic
1 1.
attached themselves to each other with an eight-foot rope tied at the waist in 1983-84. Their plight of each person in turn. Unless there is a celebrity guest on the show, what viewers
1 project, titled Rope, called for them to remain joined for an entire year. In essence their usually see is a lineup of three to ten people who have similar bizarre problems. This format,
·1,11
: ·1 contrived life style of enforced intimacy mirrored the interdependency of natural Siamese which involves introducing one guest, one freak, at a time, also echoes the dime museum
:, I' twins. Montano and Hsieh each explored how a state of perpetual attachment would affect arrangement. Television hosts, like the museum lecturers before them, keep the show moving
them as people and as artists. Seeing a man and a woman joined together evokes taboo topics and structure the performance to fill the allotted time. A host must be pleasant-looking and
and erotic images. While observing any part of Rope, spectators might ask such questions as: have an ease not only with the guests and the studio audience but with the home audience as
11
How do they go to the bathroom, shower, or even sleep? Just as Chang and Eng, the original well. Many times his or her own confession, or spiel, is as interesting as the problem of the
Siamese twins, had conflicting personalities, Montano and Hsieh disagreed about the intent freaks on stage: the death of Raphael's daughter, and the fact that Raphael is an adoptive
of their project: she was more spiritual and he was more formal. 23 mom; Oprah's being abused as a child, her weight battles, and her recent admission on the air
From body piercing to body art, many Americans are symbolically illustrating that they are to having used cocaine. James B. Twitchell believes that Oprah, an extremely wealthy and
in control of their lives as well as negating the importance of the body in mass culture. powerful black woman, is fascinating to watch for her "ability to reverse color-line expecta-
Thus, in a world where body modification is accepted and body piercing and tattooing are tions." She is a "tvventieth-century wishful resolution to P. T. Barnum's questioning title of
commonplace, the man who hammers nails into his tongue or drives spikes up his nose is no liberated blackness in our culture," the "What is It?" 24
longer outrageously freakish. No one can make big money exhibiting such people these days; As with the freak shows of the dime museums, the sensational aspects of the TV talk
nor can a would-be Barnum exploit our continuing fascination with the born freak. The shows are played down and the educational aspects heightened to legitimize these spectacles.
problem for a modern promoter, therefore, is how to reconfigure the nineteenth-century freak Sometimes midgets or other anomalous or disabled persons appear on talk shows, but
show for a late-twentieth-century audience. What kind of exhibition would be grotesquely mostly these appearances are promoted as enlightening and informative. Like the medical
fascinating, politically correct, and a sure draw? testimonials provided by "doctors" at museum freak shows, psychologists and other behavioral
The most obvious modern form of the freak show is the television talk show, an environ- "experts" are ofren featured to help the audience understand a particular problem and to
ment in which dysfunctional human beings parade themselves in front of an audience. If, as validate a show's subject. For example, on a Geraldo program called "He/Shes Who Sleep
Odell claimed, the old-time freak show made spectators feel at ease with their lot in life, so with Straight Men," aired April 26, 1995, a psychologist, introduced halfway through the
too does the daytime talk show, where the inner monologue of the viewer is, "I'm so glad program, participated minimally by answering only two questions. Clearly the show was not
that's not me!" about understanding the deviant behavior, it was about voyeurism; it was a freak show.
As the dime museum freak show transforms itself into the TV talk show, attention shifts Although talk shows are marketed as informative, producers heighten the shock value of

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segments in many ways. One involves deceiving the guests. On a February 1995 Jenny Jones male and female, self and other. Tattooed women, fat women, and skeletal women were
Show program about May-December relationships, the producers arranged for a nineteen- costumed in short, sleeveless dresses to berter verify their freakishness. Snake charmers wore
year-old black woman go on a date with a forty-six-year-old white man so as to stretch the minimal clothing, exaggerating their wildness and exoticism. Sometimes patrons were allowed
boundaries of the topic to include interracial dating. The infamous Jenny Jones Show program, to touch the ?mb_s of Fat Ladies or pull the whiskers of Bearded Ladies. It was deeply
"Secret Crushes," led to a murder when a male guest found out his secret admirer was a man, arousing to ~1_ctonans t~ touc~ a s~ange woman in a legitimate, respectable setting, and it
not a woman. Jon Schmitz, who was so excited about appearing on the Jenny Jones Show that was a tantalizmg and disturbmg sight for the other spectators, especially adolescents. A
he bought three hundred dollars' worth of clothing to impress his secret admirer, killed the wondrously titillating dialectic emerged, in which performers were alluring as well as repul-
man who claimed to have a crush on him three days after the show was taped in March sive.
1995. 25 The producers insisted their guests were aware the admirers might be of either sex Transgressive sex and incongruous couples are central themes of many TV talk shows as
and claimed this was not an "ambush" show.26 The program was never aired. well. The following is a sample of the programs aired from October to November 1994:
This kind of manipulation of the personal lives of freak performers is not a new concept. "Infidelity and Pregnancy," "Contrasting Styles of Female Behavior," "Acting Like a Member
For example, while on display at Worth's Museum in May 1888, J. W. Coffey, the elegant of a Different Race," "Teens and Chastity," "Mates with Dissimilar Sex Drives" "Twins
skeleton man who carried a walking stick and wore a high hat, morning coat, wing collar, and wi~ ?ifferent Sexual Preferences," "Homosexual Marriages," and "Bigamy." 30 I~terracial,
bow tie, advertised in the New York Herald for a wife. Coffey, who was five feet six inches tall swmgmg, May-December, and other incongruous couples inspire images that push the
and weighed a mere seventy pounds, was looking for a "plump and pleasing person" to be his envelope of tr".'1itional sexuality. One February 1995 Jenny Jones program, for example,
life's companion. He received numerous responses ~ ~e~ected a ~~e- from among t~e featured a marned couple with an extreme age difference: the woman was twenty-seven and
applicants. Worth managed to make a profit from the publicity by exhibitmg Coffey and his the man seventy-eight.
new wife through the end of the 1888 season. H~mosexuality _and transvestism, also popular program topics, are twentieth-century mani-
Marriages were often arranged between incongruous freaks, and most of these unions were festat10ns of the mcongruous couple theme and the sexual-ambiguity motif. On Geralda's
exploited for profit. It is not known whether Mr. and Mrs. Atherton, a Skeletal Man paired "He/Shes Wh? S(eep with Straight Men" program, beautifully coiffed "women," with ample
with a Fat Lady, were really married. The "Original Aztec Children," Maximo and Bartola, bosoms, m skin-u.ght outfits, coolly told the audience they were transvestites, biologically
who were publicized as brother and sister, in fact were married on January 1, 1867, while on males. The host referred to them as "ladies." Their male sexual partners, for the most part,
tour in London.27 Probably no one will ever know whether they were actually siblings and knew they were men. The feelings .of shock and confusion stirred in the audience at the
their marriage a publicity stunt, or whether they were only marketed as brother and sister and ~oment of discovering_ the true sex of these beauties must have been similar to those felt by
their marriage a true legal love match. Some marriages between freaks, of course, were mneteenth-century audiences who came face to face with the sexual riddle of a Bearded Lady.
undoubtedly genuine, bringing fame and fortune to the couples. Chauncey Morlan and Annie Bemg a pubhc spectacle m a dime museum or talk show is not without its consequences:
Bell were married November 30, 1892, at Huber's Museum. The newlyweds were exhibited marriages break up, family members and friends stop talking to one another, and, as in the
for six weeks to a capacity crowd; everyone wanted to see the "heaviest couple alive," whose Schmitz case, some have even died. In 1892, Henry Stratton won a fasting contest at Huber's
combined weight was more than fourteen hundred pounds. Anna Swann, the "Nova Scotia Museum; however, he died as a result of his forty-five-day feat. 31 The dime museum patron,
Giantess," married 3.Ilother giant, Martin Van Buren Bates, billed as the "Kentucky Giant," like the talk show spectator, not only enjoyed watching human anomalies, but received a thrill
in London on June 17, 1871. The day after their wedding, a reception was held in their from occasionally playing "freak for a day." There were a host of museum-sponsored public
honor, with such guests as the Prince of Wales and other British dignitaries. 28 mntests, from beauty pageants, baby shows, and boxing matches to unique forms of competi-
The Siamese twins Chang and Eng provided an even more titillating look at freak u.on such as gum-chewing, quail-eating, and having the smallest feet. 32 Talk shows mirror
marriages. By the age of twenty-eight, these twins had accumulated a small fortune, become these spectacles with programs like Richard Bey's "Bikini Contest," and Geraldos "Hunk of
American citizens, and changed their surname to Bunker. In 1843 they married sisters in a the Year Contest." 33
double wedding ceremony; Eng married Sara Ann Yates and Chang married Adelaide Yates, Society has begun to accept the physical differences between people and to integrate what
and between them they fathered twenty-two children. They came out of retirement in 1850 were once_ c":'1ed_ "nature's_ mist~kes." The Americans With Disabilities Act protects people
and began appearing in public with their wives and children. 29 ~om discnmmation. Despite this contested assumption, there remains one true physical freak
Siamese twins posing with their normal spouses and offspring not only prompted questions rn ':'odern cul~re: the obese_ person (see fig. 22.1). The Fat Lady still evokes horror. Being
about everyday privacy, but also raised issues of sexual.privacy. Sex was a powerful component fat is _so su.gmatized m American culture that fat people are often perceived as having mental,
of the performance text of the freak show; spectators imagined sexual intercourse between em?tJ.onal, and even moral impairments. 34 The fat person is perpetually rejected by society,
incongruous partners-the fat woman and the thin man, the bearded woman (who may not which disregards his or her needs: buses accommodate wheelchairs; most buildings have
after all, be a woman) and her husband- and among couples like Chang and Eng and ramps; but in public vehicles and buildings, no larger chairs exist for the larger person. Seats
their wives. Such performances readily inspired images of transgressive sex, ambiguous sex, are actually gettmg smaller, so that restaurants, buses, airplanes, and movie theaters can
homosexuality, bisexuality, and group sex, challenging the conventional boundaries between enlarge their seating capacities. Airplanes do offer seat-belt extenders for those with a larger

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woman; it was always the other way around. In the hierarchy of the freak world, the Fat Lady
had little status. While many freaks earned hundreds of dollars a week, fat women were hired
for only twenty-five to fifty dollars a week. 40
Talk show programs with titles like "You're Too Fat to Wear That," "Mom I Don't Want
to Be Fat Like You," and "You're Too Fat for the Beach'' continue the freak show tradition of
ridiculing fat women. 4 i Rarely do overweight women appear on talk shows by themselves;
usually they are paired with a slim relative who serves to emphasize their fatness. After being
publicly humiliated, these women customarily cry, yearning for acceptance from their family
as well as the audience. The obese person is not looked on with sympathy, as a born freak
might be, but is viewed as a type of the self-made freak, someone responsible for his or her
own condition. Society has not truly accepted some of the latest medical explanations of
certain types of obesity, which involve genetics and glandular and hormonal problems; the fat
person is believed simply to lack willpower and self-control. 42 The problem, wrote Kim
Chernin, is not in our bodies but in our "attitudes toward the body." 43 Being slim is highly
valued in our society, and fat people seem to be flouting an unwritten law and thwarting our
mutual expectations of sane, reasonable behavior. 44
The television talk show is undeniably a late-twentieth-century freak show that uses many
of the conventions established more than a hundred and fifty years ago by the dime museums.
The freak show was-and is-about spectacle: it is a place where human deviance is
enhanced, dressed, coiffed, and propped up for the entertainment of a paying audience. The
freak show is about relationships: us versus them, the normal versus the freaks. It is about
culture, which determines what is freakish and what is not. It is about the human body and
22.1. One freak figure that has endured from the society's perception of normal and abnormal. It is about psychology and deviant behavior. But
dime museum through to the contemporary talk most importantly, it is about people on display and the public examination of what are
show is the fat person, shown here in a dime essentially private affairs.
museum cabinet photograph. Courtesy of Robert
Gould Shaw. Harvard Theatre Collection, The
Houghton Library. NOTES
1. Brooks McNamara," 'A Congress of Wonders!' The Rise and Fall of the Dime Museum," Emerson
Society Quarterly 20, no. 3 (1974): 219.
girth, but it must be humiliating to ask for one. In almost every aspect of daily living the fat 2. Robert Bogdan, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Prefi.t (Chicago:
35
University of Chicago Press, 1988), 9.
person is positioned outside the norm. . . 3. Felix lsman, Weber and Fields (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1924), 50.
The meaning of fat has changed over the past century. Fat used to be a descnpt10n; today 4. "Huber's Museum in the Discard," New York Telegraph, 17 July 1910.
it is a moral indictment. It has become more stigmatized than it was in the dime museum 5. Barry Gray, "Freaks and What I Know about Them," Cincinnati Billboard, 20 March 1920.
freak show. A dime museum lecturer, Professor Bumpus, once described Cherrie Burnham, a 6. Weldon B. Durham, American Theatre Companies (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1986), 69.
610-pound woman, as "fat," "beautiful," and "magnificent," with "cheeks like the sun-kissed 7. Robert Toll, On with the Show (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), 279; Walter Bodin
36 and Burnet Hershey, It\ a Small World (New York: Coward-McCann, 1934), 240; William G.
melon!" He compared her to ~een Victoria, Boadicea, and Delilah. Contrastingly, Mira-
Fitzgerald, "Side-Show Ill," Strand Magazine, June 1897, 521.
bella magazine recently featured an article in which the author wrote that her bnght and witty 8. Isman, Weber and Fields, 42.
37
friend, a woman who weighed more than three hundred pounds, had only one identity: fat. 9. Ibid., 44.
Although fat is not solely a feminist issue, fat women signify differently from fat men,. and 10. "Barnum and Brady, Pictures from the Collection of Frederick Hill Meserve," clipping file, New
the nineteenth-century freak show did not exhibit ma,ny fat men. Most large men were either York Public Library, Lincoln Center; George C. D. Odell, Annals ef the New York Stage (New York:
billed as Giants or as the "Heaviest Human Alive." "Fat" was a term primarily associated with Columbia University Press, 1927-1949), 7:503.
11. See Odell, Annals of the New York Stage, vols. 12-16.
women or young boys, as with "R. J. James, the Fat Boy," or "Chauncey Morlan, the Fat 12. Ibid., 15:455.
39
Boy." 38 Robert Bogdan observed that Fat Ladies were exhibited in a comical fashion. Obese 13. Don Wilmeth, American and English Popular Entertainment (Detroit: Book Tower, 1980), 241.
women had such titles as "Dolly Dimples" or "Baby Ruth." They wore little-girl outfits and 14. Oliver Pilat and Jo Ranson, Sodom by the Sea (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran, 1941), 179.
acted in a self-mocking, coquettish manner. Never was a fat man paired with a skeletal 15. John Kasson, Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century (New York: Hill and

J25
 i1 ANDREA STULMAN DENNETT~

Wang, 1978), 3, 8; Andrea Stu.lman Dennett and Nina Warnke, "Disaster Spectacles at the Turn of the T'WEJ'WTY•TillI&EE
Century," Film History 4 (1990): 101.
16. Alva Johnston, "Profiles: Boss of the Circus," New Yorker, 6 April 1933.
17, Edo McCullough, Good Old Coney Island (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1957), 258,265,
18. "Ripley Gleans Curious Facts on Every Hand," New York Times, 27 December 1934.
19, "Ripley's Show Boasts 25 Wonders," New York Times, 26 December 1934; "5,000 Enjoy Ripley's
Freaks 1n Space: "Extraterrestrialism'' and "Deep-
Odditorium at Opening of Show Here," Washington Times, 5 January 1934.
Space Multiculturalism''

I
20, Frederick Drimmer, Very Special People (New York: Amjon, 1973), 15,
21. Janice Paran, "Home ls Where Their Art ls," American Theater, October 1992, 34; Douglas
Martin, "The Rebirth of a Sideshow at Coney Island," New York Times, 4 September 1992. JEFFREY A. WEINSTOCK
22. "Dos &Don'ts," Glamour, January 1995, 112.
23. Linda Frye Burnham, "High Performance, Performance Art, and Me;' Village Voice, 24 June 1986.
24. James B. Twitchell, Carnival Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992), 202.
25. Michelle Green, "Fatal Attraction," People, 27 March 1995, 40-43.
26. Ibid., 42.
27. Bogdan, Freak Show, 131.
28. Ibid., 207.
29. Leslie Fiedler, Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978),
214-18. /
30. TV Guide, October-December 1994.
31. Odell, Annals ofthe New York Stage, 15:150. BOUNDARY BREAKERS
32. Ibid., vols. 14 and 15.
33. Richard Bey, "Bikini Contest," 1 July 1995; Geraldo, "Hunk of the Year Contest," 20 March 1995. Freaks are those human beings who exist outside the structure of
34. Natalie Allon, "The Stigma of Overweight in Everyday Life," in The Psychological Aspects of binary oppositions which govern our basic concepts and modes of
Obesity, ed. Benjamin B. Wolman (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1982), 131. self-definition. They occupy the impossible middle ground between
35, Ibid., 132. binary pairs.
36. Rollin Lynde Hartt, The People at Play (Boston: Amo, 1974), 94. -ELIZABETH GROSZ l

37. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, "Flesh, Food and Fashion," Mirabella, January 1995, 21.
The alien ... always positions itself somewhere between pure familiarity and pure otherness . ...
38. "The Fat Man and His Friends," American Heritage 17, no. 4 (June 1966): 35; Gahan Wilson,
Taking its place on the border between identity and difference, it marks that border, articulating it
"Freaks,""25 April 1966, 30-32, Clipping file, New York Public Library, Lincoln Center; Bogdan, Freak
while at the same time disarticulating and confusing the distinctions the border stands for.
Show, 13. -MICHAEL BEEHLER
2
39. Bogdan, Freak Show, 114.
40. George Middleton, Circus Memoirs (Los Angeles: George Rice, 1913), 72. Of course, there were A mixed category, the monster resists any classification built on hierarchy or a merely binary
exceptions such as "Big Winny," whom he paid three hundred dollars a week. opposition, demanding instead a "system" allowing polyphony, mixed response ... and resistance
41. Sally Jessy Raphael, 24 April 1995; Ricki Lake, 27 April 1995; Richard Bey, 10 July 1995. to integration . ..
42. Allon, "The Stigma of Overweight in Everyday Life," 131. -JEFFREY JEROME COHEN
3

43. Kim Chemin, The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness (New York: Harper and
Row, 1981), 30.
44. Marcia Milhnan, Such a Pretty Face: Being Fat in America (New York: W. W. Norton, 1980), 71.
It is no accident that Elizabeth Grosz, Michael Beehler, and Jeffrey Jerome Cohen figure
freaks, aliens, and monsters in nearly identical terms: the three categories are merely three
branches of the same amorphous and disturbing family of "boundary breakers." All three, in
their relationship with and proximity to the "human'' and the "normal," raise and problematize
the discreteness of opposing categories such as Self/Other, Difference/Sameness, Human/
Nonhuman, Normal/Abnormal. All' three transgress schemes of cultural categorization. All
three simultaneously fascinate and horrify.
Yet, in a late-twentieth-century American context, the three are not the same. If I can
extrapolate from my own refusal to equate freak show freaks with monsters, I suggest that the
terms "freak'' and "monster" resonate differently in contemporary American culture. To locate
the site of the extraterrestrial alien in the contemporary Science Fiction (SF) text, we first
need to differentiate between the concepts of the modern freak and the monster.
I,
I'
, I

i 326 32 7

! 1111
 -,l JEFFREY A. WEINSTOCK~
-,l FREAKS IN SPACE~

To the extent that it is possible and desirable to diaw distinctions between the two, I The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and The Return of the Jedi (1984); and the recent television
suggest certain contingent and contestable differences. AB opposed to the monster, I propose series Star Trek: The Next Generation (STNG), aired from 1987 to 1994. These two SF series
that the freak is, as Fiedler notes, "one of us." 4 Though corporeally or behaviorally different present alien races in two distinct manners: whereas the Star Wars movies exoticize and
in some disturbing way, the freak remains identifiably human. 5 The monster, as Cohen has emphasize the alien as freakish and essentially inferior in a manner that I will refer to as
remarked, exists at more of a remove: there is something irreducibly superhuman or nonhu- "Extraterrestrialism," the more "progressive" STNG attempts to assert (not unproblematically)
man about it; having a human body differently configured, the monstrous body exists beyond an ethic of cultural relativism that I will call "Deep-Space Multiculturalism." Before I explore
the human. 6 Thus, on a continuum stretching from human to nonhuman, from a mythical this difference, however, it is worth noting in brief the ways in which the American freak
conception of a unified, bounded self to an equally mythical notion of an absolute other, the show, from its earliest inceptions, has always been "science fictional."
freak remains contiguous with the human, while the monster exists at a farther remove, at a
point approaching the unknowable. A gap exists between the monster and the human, a gap Sc1ENcE/FREAKIFICTION
problematically occupied by the freak.
A second distinction between the freak and the monster is the aspect of physical threat. The work of Bogdan makes evident that the freak emerged from the conjunction of science
One component of Noel Carroll's definition of the monster, as articulated in The Philosophy of and fiction. As he staunchly maintains, the "freak" is not an essential ontological category,
Horror, is the ability of the monster to cause bodily and/or psychic harm to those it encoun- but a construct produced at the crossroads of multiple discourses, including the medical,
ters. 7 If we are willing to adopt Carroll's definition in this context, then another distinction anthropological, and economic. Always problematically articulated in opposition to varying
that can be diawn between the freak and the monster fthreat potential. The encounter with conceptions of "normalcy," the freak "is not a quality that belongs to an individual.... [It] is
the freak does not imperil the immediate health or physical well-being of the observer. This a frame of mind, a set of practices, a way of thinking about and presenting people." 9 In this
is not to say that the freak is not dangerous in its own way, but the threat of the freak exists sense, freaks are always already fictional-not born, but made. And the text that is the
at the level of psychological dis-ease; the corporeal freak induces anxiety via the stimulation freakish body can be read to reveal the ideologies and attitudes of the cultural context that
of repressed fears concerning bodily integrity and social individuation. Although the proximity scripted it.
of the freak to the "normal" may be disconcerting and produce anxiety, the freak generally Bogdan observes that scientific and medical discourses have been heavily implicated in
does not endanger those it encounters.
constructing and modifying the changing story of the freak. Nineteenth-century American
scientists and physicians, intent upon establishing "scientific" classifications for "freaks of
Although never "human," the extraterrestrial can fall anywhere on the continuum between
nature," achieved heightened visibility by serving as "experts" in cases of "human curiosities,"
human and monster: the alien can be unproblematically monstrous (e.g., the ever-popular,
disgusting, dangerous, and emphatically nonhuman Blob), or as close to human as possible and the fact that "reputable scientists" were interested in such things legitimated the public's
without actually being human (e.g., Star Trek's Spock). 8 Most aliens fall somewhere in voyeuristic interest in freak exhibits. In addition to the interest displayed in freaks by physi-
cians and scientists, the "educational" and "scientific" value of the freak show was further
between monster and human: into the freak zone.
Perhaps it is not coincidental that 1940, the date Robert Bogdan defines as the swan song legitimated both by the association of freak displays with museums, which frequently incorpo-
of the American freak show, is also the same date noted as the beginning of what has been rated exhibits of "human curiosities," and by the continuing exploration of the globe. Bogdan
dubbed by SF critics and aficionados as the "Golden Age of Science Fiction." The American notes that non-Western people brought back to the United States and exhibited as freaks
SF scene in the 1940s witnessed an explosion of popularity and creative talent. Authors such "stimulated the popular imagination and kindled belief in races of tailed people, dwarfs,
as John Campbell, Lester de! Rey, Robert Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, Isaac Asimov, giants, and even people with double heads that paralleled creatures of ancient mythology." 10
Clifford D. Simak, and Ray Bradbury opted to write in and transformed the SF genre, The "freak" thus became a locus defined by the convergence of nineteenth-century scientific
fashioning a bevy of unfamiliar worlds and exotic aliens in the process. and anthropological discourse, as well as folklore and mythology.
To what can we attribute the attraction of speculative formats in the 1940s? Perhaps with Added to the stories told by science and the freak-tales already prevalent in the culture
the freak show's waning hold on American culture, along with society's moral reevaluation of were those told by the showmen. Bogdan writes that showmen "embellish[ed] their exhibits
exhibiting real-world non-Western or disabled people for amusement, a psychic need for with presentations that were in some cases half-truths and in others out-and-out lies ....
freaks found expression in SF fiction and film. Although the freak show may be all but extinct Mid-nineteenth century America provided the ideal venue for humbug to be institutionalized
in contemporary America, it remains alive and kicking on the big screen, where Wookies, as a fine art and as a basic and lasting part of the freak show." 11 Drawing from nineteenth-
Draks, Klingons, Ewoks, and a host of other aliens spanning the alphabet from the lovable and early-twentieth-century scientific reports and travelogues, freak show promoters, ex-
E.T. to the mischievous Qto the imperialistic V enthJ"all and disturb viewers with a vast array ploiting and feeding the public's interest in the "exotic" and the "primitive," claimed to have
of somatic forms and divergent cultures. The freak show, the exhibition of difference for gathered their exhibits from various mysterious parts of the world. Bogdan even details a few
amusement, the apex of terrestrial "political incorrectness," is alive and well in space.
(precocious) instances in which the exhibit's origin was claimed as extraterrestrial. 12 Together,
This chapter will concentrate on two SF series, both of which have enjoyed immense the showmen and the prevalent scientific discourses collaborated to script the popular concep-
popularity in America and worldwide: the George Lucas Star Wars trilogy, Star Wars (1977), tion of the freak.

J29
.I

~ JEFFREY A. WEINSTOCK f i1 FREAKS IN SPACE f

If science, as Donna Haraway maintains, is "our myth," a story about knowledge and their ideological affiliations on their sleeves. As John Fieder notes, "The rebels are clean,
power, a "contestable text," 13 then the exhibition of the freak show freak was always a double white Americans who befriend life-like machines. The Empire's vaguely Prussian militarists
fiction, the showman's story layered upon the scientific story. Contemporary SF follows this are machine-like men. The odd extraterrestrial stands in for ethnic variation in traditional
same recipe in building its aliens: juxtaposing and enmeshing the scientific with the fantastic American style, either dangerous scum ... or as the inarticulate sidekick, Chewbacca." 19
and sensational, SF merely relocates the terrestrial freak into orbit. Inasmuch as SF aliens Chewbacca is Big-Foot in space, the freak show hirsute man in orbit, the missing link
frequently function as thinly veiled metaphors for real-world racial, ethnic, religious, somatic, between man and animal. However, if we cast Star Wars in the mode of the traditional
and political groups, the presentation of exotic extraterrestrials often functions prejudicially American romance, a tradition structured, as Fiedler notes, by the homosocial pairing of the
and imperialistically, much as the actual incorporation of non-Western peoples into the freak white hero and his nonwhite companion, (Huck and Jim, Ishmael and Qyee-Qyeg, etc.),2°
show did in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. then the depiction of Han Solo's furry sidekick as an "inarticulate," ape-like brute incorporates
some well-known and particularly nasty racist stereotypes of black men. Chewbacca as both
EXTRATERRESTRIALISM missing link and subordinate nonwhite companion reifies the position of white male as top of
the evolutionary ladder. Perhaps Chewbacca's hulking presence serves as substitute for the
Science Fiction provides a rich source of generic metaphors for the
depiction of otherness, and the "alien" is one of the most familiar: it
displaced black body of James Earl Jones, present only as the authoritative voice of the black-
enables difference to be constructed in terms of binary oppositions garbed Darth Vader.
which reinforce relations of dominance and subordination. Particularly interesting in The Return of the Jedi is the ease with which the "good" Annakin
14
-JENNY7~MARK Skywalker is separated from the "dark" side of the "force" and recuperated as Luke's father
once he sheds Darth Vader's black exterior (and the voice of James Earl Jones). Conveniently
If "Orientalism," as famously proposed by Edward Said, is the manner in which ideas of the forgotten in the drive towards reunification of the family that occurs at the end of Jedi (a
"Orient" and the "Oriental" were constructed and existed for the West as "a topic of learning, Disneyesque reunification in which the role of the mother, as it is throughout the trilogy, is
discovery, practice" on the one hand, and a site of "dreams, images, fantasies, myths, obses- excluded entirely) is Annakin-as-Vader's complicity not only in a multitude of individual
sions and requirements" 15 on the other, then it seems appropriate to refer to constructions of deaths, but in the destruction of an entire planet. The Star Wars trilogy exhibits a Manichean
exoticized space aliens in SF texts as "Extraterrestrialism." The ostensible difference between pattern of black-and-white morality in which the metaphors of "light" as good and "dark" as
Orientalism and Extraterrestrialism is, of course, that the former has affected and continues evil are realized not only in the "dark'' and (presumably) light sides of the "the force," but also
to affect millions of real-world inhabitants. Orientalism, as a system of discursive practices in the corporeal divisions of "clean white" rebels and nonwhite alien scum. 21 The clearest
involving the stereotyping of the "Oriental" as biologically inferior and serving to justify illustrations of this operative Extraterrestrialism, the exhibition and exoticization of freakish
imperialism, has functioned as a powerful real-world force. aliens implicitly presented as inferior, occur in the memorable cantina sequence of Star Wars
In contrast, Extraterrestrialism refers to purely fictitious creations. However, the alien is and in the stronghold ofJabba the Hut sequence inJedi.
never innocent, never totally divorced from real-world politics. As numerous SF critics have Lucas provides this description of Luke's descent into the cantina: "The murky, moldy den
observed, "one cannot depict the totally alien." 16 Extraterrestrials, particularly because they is filled with a startling array of weird and exotic alien creatures and monsters at the long
do not exist in the real world outside of the texts and tabloids that give them life, readily metallic bar. At first the sight is horrifying. One-eyed, thousand-eyed, slimy, furry, scaly,
become metaphors for terrestrial groups and situations, thereby constructing and reinforcing tentacled, and clawed creatures huddle over drinks." 22 As Luke enters the cantina, the camera
specific ideological positions. Leighton Brett Cooke explains, "Fictional aliens are shaped to lovingly lingers on one freakish form after another as the alien denizens cavort and mingle,
satisfy the fantasy needs of human readers; there is little else they could be expected to do." 17 banter in strange dialects, consume dangerous-looking concoctions, and nonchalantly take
Cooke adds, "By now, the potential of science fiction for the expression of xenophobic, even draughts from hookahs. A conjunction of the freak show and the opium den, the outlandish
racist sentiments is well acknowledged." 18 As with the stereotypical "Oriental," underlying inhabitants bear witness through their physical representations to Ben Kenobi's characteriza-
the imagining of aliens are specific configurations of power. As we shall see with the Star tion of the Mos Eisley spaceport as "a wretched hive of scum and villainy." 23 Here deviation
Wars movies, for example, Extraterrestrialism, by drawing from repertoires of real-world from the white human norm represented by Luke and Ben unproblematically correlates with
stereotypes, can function as an unproblematic extension of Orientalism. Depictions of aliens moral degeneracy, for this carnivalesque atmosphere is a mercenary world without law or
in SF texts can tell us a great deal about the extent to which a given culture values and fears compass10n.
human difference and diversity. As Ben separates from the young, wide-eyed Luke to look for off-world transport, Luke is
accosted by a drunken alien, referred to in the script as a "hideous freak," 24 and his facially
STAR WARS AND THE DEVIANT ALIEN
disfigured human companion. A fight ensues, during which Ben severs the arm of one of
Luke's assailants with his light-saber. The cantina patrons, momentarily distracted by this
The American freak show has not disappeared, it simply has been relocated to "a galaxy far, eruption of violence, return to their activities at the end of the skirmish unfazed and
far away." Presented as fairy tales, dislocated in time and space, the Star U'ars movies wear unexcited; we are to understand that such displays of aggression are common in this establish-

330 JJI
 ~ FREAKS IN SPACE 1,-
~ JEFFREY A. WEINSTOCK 1,-

size and repulsive appearance correlate directly with his unrestrained appetite for wealth and
ment. Confirming this assumption is Han Solo's execution of the unsubtly named "Greedo,"
25 power. In opposition to Jabba's excess, the white, human heroes demonstrate the (American)
the "slimy green-faced alien'' bounty hunter who has just expressed his delight at an
virtues of self-government, control, and discipline. Jabba's degeneracy is the unrestrained
opportunity to kill the cornered Solo. AB before, the freakish cantina clientele barely acknowl-
appetite of the, "Oriental despot" and, to the extent that the viewer consciously or uncon-
edge the killing. For his part, an unconcerned Solo tosses a few coins on the bar on the way
sciously makes this connection, Extraterrestrialism functions as a fururistic extension of
out, mumbling, "Sorry about the mess." Within the Star Wars universe, the killing of an alien
Orientalism.
is of little importance.
Of course, not all aliens in the Star Wars movies are evil monsters, and the audience easily
The cantina sequence is a freak show pure and simple. It is structured as a world of
can identify which aliens are safe and friendly: as a rule, ugly aliens are bad, cute aliens are
difference and deviance, and the camera's isolation of monstrous form after monstrous form
good (albeit still inferior). The latter is the role of the ever-lovable Ewoks, those funny, furry,
for the audience's amusement turns this spectacle into an extraterrestrial exhibition. The
diminutive second cousins to the Wookie whose presence dominates much of Jedi and for
unquestioned correlation of external difference and disfigurement with moral degeneracy
many is its most memorable aspect. We know that these walking teddy bears are innocuous
works to essentialize the freakish alien as inferior. This is the first test of Luke's bildungsroman
because they are cute; within the world of Star Wars, this is assurance enough. Tribal forest
development and serves as a powerful lesson: beware the freak. In contradiction to the familiar
dwellers, the Ewoks are also figured as being too "primitive'' to be sneaky or double-dealing;
maxim, books can be read by their covers: external ugliness is symptomatic of internal
they live in trees, ornament themselves with crude bone necklaces, and believe in magic. If
moral degeneracy. (I shall address the correlation of cuteness with innocuousness and naivete
Chewbacca fills in as the nonwhite .companion of the American romance, then the Ewoks
presently). And it is appropriate that a limb is severed in tpis sequence, prefiguring both Luke
play on an equally stereotypical construction of the "primitive'' African pygmy tribe living in
and Vader's loss of right ha~ds in f!mfire and Jedi, res]i'ctively'. as well as C3PO's numerous
the jungle, astounded by the white man's technological "magic" and too simple to be devious.
dismemberments and Lukes decap1tat10n of the fantasy Vader m Empire. Luke, and the Star
Through Chewbacca and the Ewoks, the Star Wars movies evoke both the threatening and
Wars movies more generally, display a preoccupation with issues of bodily integrity and bodily
trivialized stereotypes of Africans. In each case, the intellectual superiority of the white male
limitations. Perhaps one function of the somatic freak is to excite anxiety in the viewer by
is reconfirmed by comparison.
triggering repressed memories of the pre-Oedipal body-image. 26 The morphological alien
A powerful discourse of Extraterrestrialism thus operates in the Star Wars movies: the
stimulates uneasiness about the integrity of one's own body, an uneasiness articulated in the
intrinsic difference of the alien often translates into inferiority and moral bankruptcy, while
cantina sequence by Luke's juxtaposition of freakish alien bodies with a severed arm.
simultaneously affirming the valor and superiority of the white male heroes. The essentialized
The moral degeneracy of the unwholesome alien is corroborated by the court ofJabba the
alien others and the fear of difference operative in the Star Wars features reveal that the
Hut in Jedi. Jabba himself is the most monstrous creation of the Star Wars series and is
impulse to exhibit freakishness has been relocated from the terrestrial freak show into SF
described enthusiastically in James Kahn's novelization of the movie as follows:
cinema. In fact, most of the extraterrestrials in the Star Wars movies suggest a freak show
parallel: as noted, Chewbacca is a missing link or hirsute man and Jabba is both fat man and
His head was three times human size, perhaps four. His eyes were yellow, reptilian- his
Ii a legless wonder. The Ewoks suggest the "cute" freak show midget. Further, by suggesting
skin was like a snake's ... covered with a fine layer of grease. He had no neck, but only
I'!' that Chewbacca is black, Jabba is the "Oriental despot," and the Ewoks are "primitive" tribal
a series of chins that expanded finally into a great bloated body.... Stunted, almost
members, the racist, hegemonic resonances of alien representations find grounding in real-
useless arms sprouted from his upper torso, the sticky fingers of his left hand languidly
world discourse. It matters little whether the audience recognizes specific racist overtones
wrapped around the smoking-end of his water-pipe. He had no hair-it had fallen out
behind the representation of any individual alien species, because the general equation of the
from a combination of diseases. He had no legs-his trunk simply tapered gradually to '
Star Wars movies is unmistakable: difference equals danger. The white male Jedi, fighting to
a long, plump snake-tail that stretched along the length of the platform like a tube of
maintain his position of authority in a universe of freaks and evil others, is the top of the
yeasty dough. His lipless mouth was wide, almost ear to ear, and he drooled continu-
evolutionary ladder. The audience views an array of alien others at which to gawk and laugh,
ously.27
but the serious job of saving the universe lies with the "normal" white male hurnans.28
Greasy, diseased, bloated, misshapen, incomplete-Jabba is a freak show unto himself,
suggesting simultaneously the fat man, the legless wonder, a misshapen fetus, and the enlarged DEEP-SPACE MULTICULTURALISM?
head of an achondroplastic dwarf. And, of course, to confirm Jabba's alien degeneracy, as with
In contrast to the Star Wars movies' imperialist view of difference, the question of how to deal
the Cantina denizens, he does not speak English. Like the cantina, his stronghold, populated
with alien races and cultures in nonprejudicial and nonimperialistic ways is a persistent theme
by an array of evil-looking aliens, is a bastion of debauchery. From his position on the
of the Star Trek: The Next Generation series. In its ostensible sensitivity to the value of
platform, Jabba surveys his domain and ogles his scantily clad slave dancer, before gleefully
diversity, its resistance to judgments based on appearance and degree of deviance from a
feeding her to his pet monster to the delight of his court. The water-pipe (present also in the
humanoid norm, and its incorporation of both nonwhite and alien others into the crew of the
cantina), as well as Jabba's sultan-like reclining position on the dais and the haremesque slave
Enterprise, STNG apparently demonstrates an ethic of what I will refer to as "deep-space
dancer, make the link between Orientalism and Extraterrestrialism obvious. J abba's engorged

.132 333
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11
;a JEFFREY A. WEINSTOCK~ ,j FREAKS IN SPACE~

111 multiculturalism." The back cover to The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion describes with the aggressive Worf at the end of the series' run seems to confirm the sexist assumption
the program as follows: "Led by Captain Jean-Luc Picard ... , the US.S. Enterprise blazed a that all women want to be dominated). Mary Jo Deegan's analysis of the role of women in
11
trail of understanding across an unfamiliar galaxy.... [It] brought to vivid life a future where the original Star Trek series seems equally applicable to STNG: "Since all men vie for power,
cooperation and mutual understanding proved the key to solving humanity's problems-a~d human and alien males have a common bond. In their lust for power even male Klingons
I
enabled galactic civilization to flourish." 29 To its credit, the series indeed does take maior behave more like men than human women do." 32 In Deegan's evaluation, women in Star Trek
steps toward dismantling unfounded conjunctions of physical difference with intellectual are always "aliens," secondary figures who either "provide romance or reveal that any woman's
inferiority and/or moral degeneracy. However, in contradiction to this utopian universe of the desire for power is 'abnormal.' " 33
future suggested in the quotation above, the world of STNG is not a perfect galaxy of peace, Data, the android, although not an "alien" in the biological sense, most clearly exemplifies
love, and understanding. Although the bridge of the Enterprise, under the moderate and the extraterrestrial position as articulated by STNG. Data wants to be human and is constantly
controlled command of Captain Picard, is a locus of "enlightened understanding," the rest of learning what it means to be human. Deprived of emotions and coolly logical, Data is
the universe always has something to learn about being "human." And inasmuch as its alien STNGs Spock substitute. The series chronicles Data's development and his convergence with
representations slip with greater or lesser degrees of ease into identifiable metaphors for real- "humanity," which within STNG is the evolutionary apex-the position occupied by the
world groups, racist and imperialist ideologies again reassert themselves, even beneath the white male. Synonymous with goodness, decency, integrity, ingenuity, and compassion, "hu-
deep-space multicultural fapde of the Enterprise bridge. man" serves not simply as a biological designation, but as a moral marker. Alien races are
Several "alien'' races are represented on the bridge of the Enterprise: there is Worf, the black assessed by the extent to which they can understand and approximate the human. It is taken
Klingon, chief security officer (the brawn); Data, the; ~ndroid (the brains); and the half- as self-evident that all alien cultures, if they do not already, will understand and recognize the
· [I Betazoid ship's counselor, Deanna Troi (the sensitive/female/sex object). All three of these obvious superiority of human parameters such as beliefs in the ideas of individual responsibil-
characters, however, fail in different ways to measure up to the level of human white male; ity and equity, and the experiences of guilt and compassion.
Ii each is in some way, either literally or metaphorically, "a.lien." In general, alien races in STNG can be divided into two categories: those races (generally
The fact that Worf was raised by human foster parents means that there is not a "full- depicted as "primitive") that need to learn emotional restraint (e.g., races such as the Klingons
11
blooded" alien on the bridge of the Enterprise. Indeed, Worf can be integrated into the crew that need to be taught moderation), and those (generally technologically advanced) races that
precisely because his savage Klingon instincts have been "tempered" by his lifelong association need to "loosen up" (e.g., Vulcans and androids). Through this universe of inadequate alien
with humans. In spite of this, Worf is still depicted constantly fighting to pass as human, to others travels the remarkably controlled and duty-bound Captain Picard, exemplifying the
suppress his Klingon instincts-nature and nurture are in constant conflict. Klingons in virtues of the Aristotelian mean and, Christ-like, teaching both the barbaric primitive races
; i
STNG, though more trustworthy than Romulans because they rigorously adhere to an honor and the logical, emotionally frigid races he encounters the value of mercy. 34 Physical diversity
code, are warriors one step away from barbarians. In the episode entitled "Birthright," 30 Worf is tolerated to the extent that the alien's values coincide with the "human."
teaches certain isolated Klingon youth the art and glory of the hunt. In the forest, armed with Although STNG staunchly maintains the universal superiority of the "human," it has taken
I
a spear, Worf literally can smell the scent of his prey. The bloodlust of the Klingon warrior, a major step forward from the alien depictions found in the Star Wars movies; physical
not surprisingly, translates into equally aggressive and animalistic sexual practices: aroused deviation from a humanoid norm is no longer automatically equated with moral degeneracy. 35
Klingons growl at each other and Klingon foreplay is very violent. The racist stereotype of the The shift is somewhat comparable to the rejection of the permissible exhibition of non-
primitive animal savagery of the black man requires little elaboration. As with Chewbacca, Western others as freaks in favor of a more tolerant ethic of cultural relativism. The continu-
the black Klingon finds its freak show parallel in the missing link or wild man. Worfs human ing Star Trek series (Deep-Space 9 and Star Trek Voyager} now find themselves facing the same
masquerade frequently slips to reveal his essential otherness-a "primitive" savagery that conundrum confronting contemporary ethnography: how to survey/study/write about other
removes the black man from the circle of "enlightened humanity" back to the freak show cultures without objectifying and "dehumanizing" the other. STNGs progressive thinking
31
stage, again reconfirming the superiority of the controlled, "evolved" white male. never reached the level of questioning its own authority or realizing the collaborative produc-
In contrast to the hypermasculine Worf, Deanna Troi, the half-Betazoid "empath" (the tion of ethnographic knowledge. How far the spin-off series will go in this direction remains
Enterprise's exotic Circassian beauty), assumes the typical feminine role of sensitive nurturer. to be seen.
For the first several seasons, Counselor Troi had the dubious distinction of being the only
bridge member to wear a skirt. Several costume changes later, Troi was still the only officer to
HORRIBLE OTHERS, HORRIBLE SELVES
don a cleavage-accentuating scoop-neck. Only half-Betazoid, Troi's telepathic abilities are not
keen enough to actually read thoughts-she is res>ricted to sensing emotional states. Al- This essay started with three quotations, each suggesting how freaks, aliens, or monsters
though she assumes more authority as the series progresses, in Cassandra-like fashion, the function as categorical boundary breakers, entities that transgress cultural schemes of classifi-
bridge crew typically acknowledge her assessment of a given situation and then continue with cation and violate hierarchical structures of binary opposition. The construction of the alien
whatever plan they were already considering. Troi's primary role on board the Enterprise is as is always a complex play of disavowal and identification. The extraterrestrial alien, as a
psychologist for the crew and love interest for, first Riker, and then Worf. (Her involvement fictional creation, must function as a site of tension between self and other. As a projection of

334 335
 ;1 JEFFREY A. WEINSTOCK f, ;1 FREAKS IN SPACE f,

otherness generated from within the self, the figure of the alien articulates what a given 16. Gregory Benford, "Effing the Ineffable," in Slusser and Rabkin, Aliens, 14.
culture perceives as different, aberrant, strange, freakish. Extraterrestrialism, the process of 17. Leighton Brett Cooke, "The Human Alien: In-Groups and Outbreeding in Enemy Mine" in
Slusser and Rabkin, Aliens, 183. '
"othering" that essentializes alien difference as inferiority, acts to reify and reinforce the 18. Ibid., 181.
"human'' as superior. Inasmuch as the freakish SF alien frequently draws from real-world
19. John Fieder, "Embracing the Alien: Science Fiction in Mass Culture" Science-Fiction Studies 9
racial stereotypes, the "human" frequently narrows to white, American, and male. (1982): 33-34. '
Yet, the alien is a site of ambiguity, anxiety, and contestation. The vehemence with which 20. S~e Leslie Fi~~ler, fove and Death in the A_m~c~n Nove~ (New York: Doubleday, 1960).
the alien, the freak, and the other are renounced, degraded, and disavowed by a culture, be it 21. Billy Dee Williams s character Lando Calnssian m Empire and Jedi only slightly complicates this
on the freak show stage or in the SF feature, suggests a commensurate level of anxiety in the assessment. Women (Leia) and animals (Chewbacca), those who feel rather than think within Lucas's
uni~erse, instantly distrust him, as does the audience. Although he turns out okay in the end we never
collective distancing psyche. Constructed as a freak, a curiosity to be exhibited and gawked
entuely get over our initial negative reaction to the character. '
at, the alien calls the human into question. To live with the alien, the freak, and the monster 22. ?eorge Lucas, script to Star Wars, in The Art of Star Wars, ed. Carol Titelman (New York:
is to come to terms with ourselves. Ballantme, 1979), 58-59.
23. Ibid., 53.
NOTES 24. Ibid., 59, emphasis mine.
I offer my thanks to Jeffrey Cohen, Noreen O'Connor, and Jill Angelino for their advice and insight. 25. Ibid., 70.
26. Accor~g to Jacques_ Lacan, prior to the mirror stage the infant is incapable of controlling the
1. Elizabeth Grosz, "Freaks," Social Semiotics 1, no. 2 (1991)' 25. ~oveme°:ts of its bodr and is dependent upon the care of others. The child's recognition of the mirror
2. Michael Beehler, "Border Patrols," in Aliens: The Ant/;ropology of Science Fiction, ed. George E. image ~ its own and Joyous. ass_umption of a spatial identity are undercut by the gap benveen the unity
Slusser and Eric S. Rabkin (Carbondale and Edwardsville' Southern Illinois University Press, 1987), of th~ image_ and the_ contmmng_ fragment~ ch~racter of the infant's existence. This discrepancy
32. occas10~s a kind of pnmal paran01a-the self is alienated from itself, and this discordance lies at the
3. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, "Monster Culture (Seven Theses)/' introduction to Monster Theory: Reading f~unda~on of th~ Lac_anian notion of human identity. According to Lacan, fantasies about the
Culture, ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, forthcoming), 6. diss?lutJ.on o~ bodily umo/ and control stem from repressed memories of the lived bodily experience of
4. Leslie Fiedler, Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self(New York: Doubleday, 1978), 24. the mf~nt pnor to _the mirror stage. I am prop?sing that the somatic freak can excite such pre-Oedipal
5. This distinction results, at least in part, from modern medicine's recuperation of the freak as memones m the ~ewer. See Jacques Lacan, Ecrits, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: W. W. Norton,
pathological. As Robert Bogdan observes, during its heyday the freak show was a form of amusement 1977), 1-7; and Elizabeth Grosz, Jacques Lacan: A Feminist Introduction (New York: Routledge, 1990),
incommensurate with pity. It did not force spectators to confront their own racism, imperialism, and 4. 5
handicapism; rather, it confirmed prejudices and beliefs in inherent racial inferiority and the undisputed 27. James Kahn, The Return if the Jedi (New York: Ballantine, 1983), 336.
superiority of the West. See Robert Bogdan, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and 28. At the end ~f Star Wars, Luke and Han receive medals while Chewbacca stands by and is
Prefit (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), 111, 197, 267, 277. I suggest that from a exclu~ed. Perhaps his loud growl, upsetting the solemnity of the ceremony, is one of frustration rather
nineteenth-century perspective, the freak and the monster, if not identical, were much closer in than3oyl
proximity that they are in contemporary American culture. As medical science increasingly became able 29. Larry Nemecek, The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion (New York: Simon and Schuster,
to identify the biological basis of many physical abnormalities, and in some cases provide treatments, 1995), back cover.
the notion of freak as ontological other was destabilized and the physically deviant freak was relocated 30. This episode first aired February 22, 1993.
from the realm of the monster to that of the human. 31. If Worf incarnates one stereotype of the black man as feral, then the other black male character
6. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, personal communication, June 1995. on the show, Geordi La Forge, incarnates the opposite stereotype of the subservient black man.
7. Noel Carroll, The Philosophy ofHorror (New York: Routledge, 1990), chap. 1. 32. Mary Jo Deegan, "Sexism in Space: The Freudian Formula in "Star Trek," in Eros in the Mind's
8. In fact, inasmuch as "human" serves not just as a biological category but a moral mark.er, the alien, Eye, ed. Donald Palumbo (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1986), 221.
by desiring to be human, establishes certain criteria for defining the human, and often ends up being 33. Ibid., 209.
more human than human. The alien in this context not only recognizes its fundamental lack-its 34. It is intriguing that ~e cap:~n of the Enterprise should be a Frenchman, John-Luc Picard,
"want-of-being," as Lacan would say-but strives to realize a definition of "human" that few humans P?rtrayed. by the commandmg B~~hsh Shakespearean actor, Patrick Stewart. Presumably, Captain
demonstrate. See the "Deep-Space Multiculturalism?'' section of this chapter. P1c~d umtes the stereotypes of Bnush reserve and duty with Frenchjoie de vt"vre, although the former
9. Bogdan, Freak Show, x, 3. quality seems to be much more in evidence.
10. Ibid., 6. " 35. It should be noted that _only rarely_ is the open-mindedness of the Enterprise's crew to physical
11. Ibid., 31. abnormality" pushed to the lirmt. A salient aspect of STNG is the improbably high occurrence of
12. "In the 1920s and 1930s, Eko and Iko, brothers with albinism and dreadlocks, were presented as ant~opom~rphic alien races. Klingons, Romulans, Vulcans, Betazoids, Ferengi, Bajorans, and so on are
ambassadors from Mars discovered near the remains of their spaceship in the Mojave Desert." Bogdan, all differentiated from humans solely by minor facial and cranial deviations. "The Chase" a sixth-
Freak Show, 105. season episode first aired April 26, 1993, explains the biological similarity of so many dive:gent races
13. Donna Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention ofNature (New York: Routledge, through recourse to a common ancestor that "seeded" similar DNA codes on a variety of worlds.
1991), 185.
14. Jenny Wolmark, Aliens and Others: Science Fiction, Feminism and Postmodernism (Iowa City:
University ofiowa Press, 1994), 2.
15. Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (New York: Routledge, 1994), 71.

337
 ~ BEING HUMANED f

entertainment with the politics of life." 1 Our chief interest here is "the politics of life,"
or, more precisely, the political history of the body, both ordinary and extraordinary, that
documentaries about conjoined twins inherit, reiterate, and displace in spectacular fashion. ,
What roles do the twins and their physicians play in this theater of surgery performed
Being Humaned: Medical Documentaries and the internationally before a potential audience of millions? What does it mean to watch the
televised representation of these fused and exotic bodies, at once maximally visible and coolly
Hyperrealization of Conjoined Twins distant, while they undergo the most radical forms of morphological transformation at the
hands of the surgeons?
DAVID L. CLARK AND CATHERINE MYS ER By way of addressing these admittedly large questions, this chapter examines Siamese
Twins, a documentary written, produced, and directed by Jonathan Palfreman for the PBS
Nor was it without some reason that I believed that that body which, by
a special right, I call mine, belonged to me.
television series Nova. 2 First broadcast in the United States in 1995, Siamese Twins is about
-DESCARTES, Meditations Dao and Duan (their full names are never provided), nearly three-year-old conjoined twins
born in Thailand and living in what is vaguely identified as "a Bangkok orphanage." The film
[I]f a foot, or an arm, or any other part, is separated from my body, it is follows the twins for about eighteen months, after they have been brought to the United
. taken away from my
certain that, on that account, nothing has been States by an international adoption agency for the purpose of separation. The narrative falls
mind. roughly into three unevenly divided sections: the first section begins with the twins' arrival in
/-DESCARTES, Meditations
America and includes scenes of family life with their caregivers, Barbara and David Headley,

i
11
punctuated by various tests in Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to determine the viability
of separation surgery (summer 1993); in the second segment, we witness the preparations for
surgery, as well as the preseparation and separation surgeries themselves, under the direction
of Dr. James O'Neill, head of pediatric surgery (September to December 1993); the conclud-
111
ing section focuses briefly on postoperative life, including rehabilitation therapy (May 1994),
a fourth-birthday party (June 1994), and the twins attending preschool (January 1995).
If anomalously embodied subjects are no longer exhibited in freak shows, as ~hey_ were for In its most affecting moments, and there are many of these, Siamese Twins powerfully
centuries, they remain today the peculiar object of public fascination m_
which 1t 1s very conveys the spirited endurance of Dao and Duan, who are subjected to a series of stark
difficult, perhaps impossible, to distinguish simple or even morbid cunos1ty from o~tn?ht dislocations, both physical and psychical: their transportation from their home in Bangkok to
voyeurism, with all the force of surveillance, objectification, fetishization, and hyperrealizat10n an alien culture in Philadelphia, a series of invasive tests and painful preoperative procedures,
that such forms of looking entail. That extraordinary bodies continue to be the stuff of the dangerous separation surgery itself, and the subsequent shock of their radically altered
spectacle is perhaps no more obvious than in the case of conjoined twins, whose birth and bodies. Any alleviation of the pain of this extended trauma comes from Dao's and Duan's
surgical separation consistently excite fierce media interest, including the production of full- foster caregivers, whose presence in the film forms a familial alternative to the clinical setting
!1
length documentaries, one example of which is the focus of our attentton here. Documentan_es of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. At their adopted home, the children receive respite
about conjoined twins have a mixed inheritance that reflects the comp~ex work they must from their subjection merely as "patients" and as anomalous bodies in need of repair, even if it
perform in the subjection of the exttaordinary body. These antecedents mclude_ the wonder is here that we also witness, inevitably, the shaping effects of other discursive regimes. But it
book, which makes specialized knowledge of human oddities available for the polite conversa- is the medical environment where the film's greatest emphasis lies: unlike Katie and Eilish (a
tion of lay people; the anatomy lesson, in which the visibility of the flesh, ~r at least of a British documentary about a set oflrish conjoined twins in which the details of the separation
deracinated version of it, is inversely proportionate to the visibility of the lived body; the surgery are deliberately underplayed so as to allow the camera to linger over the twins' family
clinical report or case history, whose explanatory narrative transforms the subject into the life), 3 Palfreman's film is arguably not "about" the children at all, except as a means by which
"patient"; the freak show, with its carefully managed combination of pathos, hyperbole, and to represent the sophisticated medical technology available at Children's Hospital, and the
prurient amazement; and the television hospital melodrama centered _upon ~e benevolent extraordinary medical expertise-pediatric surgeons, urologists, radiologists, plastic surgeons,
work of heroic physicians. These elements are woven into the earnestly mstruct.Lve framework neurosurgeons-concentrated there. Although Dao and Duan are rarely absent from any
of the documentary genre, whose naturalistic strategies conceal the degree to which the film frame, it is the doctors who form the consistent focal point of the documentary, making it the
stages the spectacle it purports to describe. Notwithstanding significant shifts in the cultural postmodern expression of a mise en scene that could be said to have begun with Rembrandt's
construction and reception of the humanly "monstrous," contemporary representat10ns of the The Anatomy Lesson efDr. Nicolaas Tulp. 4 In other words, Palfreman's documentary realizes a
extraordinary body in documentaries therefore provide a uniquely illuminating insta~ce of certain technologized medical gaze, a gaze whose view is insistently actualized in frames filled
what Neil Harris said of P. T. Barnum's career, namely "the involvement of the polittcs of with images of Dao's and Duan's exposed flesh. Under this close surveillance, the twins are

139
 --,.---

i1 DAVID L. CLARK AND CATHERINE MYS ER 1,- 1 BEING HU MANED!,-

paradoxically both present and absent, because they are reduced to something closer to and_ Duan .nevertheless remain within the benevolently elevated sight of America, whose
malformed skin and bones, a "surgical field" in which the new masters of the body will carry su~Ject position we as au_dience members are assumed automatically to occupy as viewers of
out their good, though dangerous, work. this documentary. Watchmg these brief scenes, it is hard not to wonder if the documentary is
Fully a third of Palfreman's film concerns the graphic details of the fourteen-hour surgery here also playmg on the media image of a "Third World" orphanage-familiar to television
itself, and another third is taken up with the physicians puzzling and triumphing over various viewers from various overseas relief campaigns-as a place of physical deprivation in need of
bodily "obstacles" to the separation. At no point is the question of whether the surgery should "First World" support and intervention. It seems important to the film's logic that Dao and
take place seriously considered, a startling omission to which we will return; neither are the Duan are orphans, which is to say disconnected from "home" even while at home and
profound "psychological" implications of the separation addressed, except in passing, and then therefore all the_ more easily figured as "rescuable" and "rescued" from a place that is i~ any
only after the operation has occurred. The suggestion is that in this surgical theater, the case apparently mcapable of offering them either a "true" family or adequate medical care. In
physical condition of the twins is so intolerable, and their reconstruction as separate individu- the absence of any other details, ''Thailand" and ''Bangkok" are figures that attract almost
als so imperative, that these other considerations are without consequence, or, significantly, of ~elusively negative con~otations, especially co_ncerning children: ' Siam" is the prototypical
1

interest mostly to the foster parents. The questions faced by the physicians and caregivers b1rthplace of malformed mfants, and now the site of an AlDS epidemic of almost unimagin-
alike prior to separation are represented '"-Lmostly surgical in nature, never truly ethical, able proportions; "Bangkok'' is the Asian city of appalling and prurient opportunities, where
epistemological, or phenomenological, notwithstanding the fact that Dao and Duan resis- impm'.enshed rural families sell their children into sex slavery. Compared to Thailand,
tantly embody these questions, and do so in such a palpably obvious way, simply by being who Amenca can only mean health, prosperity, technological prowess, robust individuality and
they are. In short, the documentary proves the point of Leslie Fiedler's observation that familial integrity. '
conjoined twins "have become supernumeraries" in a spectacle "starring the doctors who make When _the _film opens, Dao and Duan have already made the long journey to Philadelphia.
normal human beings out of monsters." 5 True to the psychoanalytic framework of his study, The,r amval is deemed more important than their departure and all that led up to it, implying
Fiedler's term for this spectacle is "psychodrama," and it is there where our work has a that they have come from a place so distant and so foreign that it has dropped out of sight
different emphasis. For Siamese Twins stages something closer to a theater of medical regimes, and out of mmd before the film has begun. And so their arrival is in effect a nativity scene, in
not personalities; the "monsters" that the "doctors" humanize are not those that dwell within, which the twms are born again, borne across the Pacific and delivered safely to America. It is
but, as it were, those that live "without," if by that term we mean the disciplined social body tellin~ that Dao and_ Duan are first greeted by a flurry of photographers' flashguns, since this
whose normative ideals Palfreman's physicians reiterate. celebrity scene anticipates the ways in which their images and imaging will become crucially
We wish to concentrate on the film's strategies in normalizing Dao and Duan, especially on =portant m the documentary. The narrator solemnly tells us that the twins now ''begin a
the ways that the twins' morphological construction or interpellation-to use Althusser's new ~fe m a strange land," underlining the fantastic cultural logic of the film, which asserts
term 6 -parallels and is reciprocally implicated in their cultural interpellation. By the end of that lives can stop and start anew with a plane ride. It is not so small a world after all or
the story, being happily integrated into American society and being "carved" into separately rather, it is a world whose geographical imaginary conveniently shrinks and expands according
embodied individuals (this is a verb to which one of the surgeons resorts) amount almost to to the 1deolog1c:'1 uses that this geography serves. Moreover, the suggestion is that an
the same thing. The film makes this process of interpellation possible by almost completely ?rphaned, Thai life has such a tenuous hold on its infant subjects that mere weeks in America
11
erasing any evidence of the twins' life in Thailand prior to coming to Philadelphia. At one is all it takes to be evaporated, as if it had never happened at all. Throughout the film, Dao's

Ii point Barbara Headley inadvertently articulates this cultural effacement and its exclusionary
premises: "When they first asked us to find a home for these children, they were just children,
and, Duan's_ indelibly Asian faces and Thai speech form a persistent countermemory to the
films colorualist amnesia. Against the film's dominant logic, these sights and sounds remind
like strangers," she says: ''They didn't have a personality, they didn't have anything." There is us that the elided place where the twins first learned to speak, and love, and learn -
ii
ii a curious slide here between two forms of poverty, one real -for the twins, in the narrowest generalized as "Thailand" -is not this place and will never be this place. Barbara and David
sense, "have" nothing when they are brought to the United States-the other, clearly Head'.ey remark that Dao ~nd Duan know only a few English words, inadvertently calling
hallucinated. What Headley intimates in an offhand and no doubt well-meaning remark, ~ttention to the fact that, with one brief exception in the opening seconds of the film, no one
Siamese Twins pursue, as its working assumption. With their life in Thailand deleted, it In the documentary speaks Thai-even of the most elementary kind-to the children in
becomes much easier to pretend that Dao and Duan are blank slates, when in fact they are order to help alleviate their isolation. When we are told that the twins nevertheless converse
slates whose profound cultural inscriptions have been simply been rubbed out in and by the wi'.h each other. in their native language, the documentary provides us with an image of the
film. Of course, Dao and Duan do possess personalities before coming to America, and so children sustarrung a tmy ISiand of their "former" lives in a sea of American middle-class
"have" a great deal, but of that abundance we see and hear almost nothing. For a fleeting culture. When the children are not enduring medical procedures, they are repeatedly shown
instant, and then only as a flashback, we glimpse the twins sitting on the bare floor of their to be happily embracmg this culture, whether eating fast food or watching television: by
home in a "Bangkok orphanage." As the only visual image of the twins' Thai life in the film, "culture," the documentary clearly means a culture of consumption. 7 That acculturation is
it comes freighted with significance. Filmed not at eye level but from above so as to emphasize successfully taking place seems mostly important to those who are observing the twins. One
the twins' helplessness and isolation, these images also simultaneously reassure us that Dao of the first things said in the film is Barbara Headley's revealingly anxious allegation that

34° J4I
n ;j DAVID L. CLARK AND CATHERINE MYS ER~

within one day Dao and Duan "feel very comfortable." The narrator confirms this expectation
of ease when he tells us that "only six weeks after arriving in Philadelphia, ... [the twins] are
;j BEING HUMANED ~

twentieth. 8 Does the virtualized universe of television make what was once an obviously
exploitative spectacle into something safe, that is, as hygienic and enlightened as the theater
getting the hang of American life" -which is to say, a certain bourgeois version of that life, of surgery? Fiedler, for example, has written evocatively of what it means to observe conjoined
complete with Barney, Coca Cola, McDonald's hamburgers, birthday cake, frilly dresses, and twins: "the beholder sees them looking not only at each other, but-both at once-at him,"
a large, white house in the fashionable suburbs of Philadelphia. a moment that Fiedler says breaks the distinctions that normally hold between "audience and
Insofar as Dao and Duan are given a historical context at all, it comes in the specious form exhibit, we and them, normal and Freak." 9 What, then, does it mean to look at conjoined
of comparisons to the life of Chang and Eng Bunker, the prototypical and stereotypical twins on television, where this (uneven) two-way visual communication is short-circuited,
11
instance of concorporate embodiment whose freak show name also forms the title of the ....,
thereby providing the viewer with a perfectly panoptic vantage point, freeing him and her to
documentary. Although brief, the account of the Bunker twins says a great deal about the look at will without feeling the ambiguous anagnori,i,-or re-cognition-that might come
documentary's assumptions concerning corporeality, both ordinary and extraordinary, and so of a returned gaze?
I
it is worth pausing to consider in some detail. As the image of the twins in their Bangkok At the very least, our gaze as viewers repeats from without what occurs within, for Dao and
orphanage dissolves into a photograph of their morphological namesake and precursors, Dao Duan are caught up in an extraordinarily ,pectacularized environment of redoubled images and
l
,11

and Duan are identified as "in a sense, true Siamese twins." What constitutes this "truth" imaging. In this thoroughly representational economy, the twins are dematerialized in several
remains unexplained, presumably because it is so thoroughly caught up in a web of falsehoods, ways, even as their material form is maximally displayed. For example, the extreme close-ups
beginning with the racism that underwrites the identification of a "pathology" with an othered of the various surgeries so shrinks the distance separating viewer and object that the body
cultural group (as in the case of "mongolism," a term still too often used to name subjects simply dissolves into the meaty and unfamiliar recesses of its own viscera. The twins are
I with Down's syndrome). How, then, are Dao and Duan "true Siamese twins"? "True" like subjected to an array of imaging technologies (from crude hand-drawn diagrams and over-
Chang and Eng, who were in fact Chinese, not Siamese, and whose conjoined morphology heads, to CAT scans, MRI, and x-rays) that bring the innermost reaches of their bodies into
:.II
I was quite unlike that of Dao and Duan? "True" as Siamese, when "Siam" is itself a kind of hypervisibility. Each of these images has its attendant medical observers and interpreters
I

I
lie, a nineteenth-century colonialist projection of the West upon the East that is revived in within the documentary, making the representation of the twins the object of the film's
this film in a way that is at once quaint and patronizing, while at the same time registering a representation; in other words, at these moments we are watching others watch Dao and
certain exoticism that will soon be tamed by Barney and by surgery? While the identities of Duan. Sophisticated, rotating three-dimensional computer graphics supplement the narrator's
Dao and Duan are flattened out to fit the generality of"true Siamese twins," the particularities. visualization of the twins' morphology, momentarily giving their body a ghostly transparency
of their life as Thai children are once again effaced, spirited away to a time that the narrator and our eyes a penetrating power that mimics the imaging technologies that the film
vaguely associates, in the shape of the Bunker twins, with "the last century." Chang and Eng, showcases. If Dao and Duan are captured in images, they are also captured by images, the
we are told, "travelled to America, where they found work as entertainers." Of course, this is most vivid instance being the scenes depicting them listlessly watching Barney on television
a hallucination of the Bunker's life, for they did not "travel" to America, but, like slaves, were during a three-month period while they are immobilized in a body cast. This is an experiment
purchased and ttansported there by two Yankee merchant skippers. The narrator similarly in cultural conditioning-Barney, we could say, is the very image of monstrous difference
passes over the freakish nature of their labor, peremptorily translating its voyeuristic exploita- suppressed and domesticated-that even the narrator concedes will be trying. Finally, the
tion into mere "entertainment," which is to say a form of popular diversion not entirely unlike narrative includes scenes in which the documentary maker films other photographers in the
the television documentary itself. process of making their own images. The most curious example of this latter form of
Lest this mirroring connection between the two "shows" go undeveloped, the camera cuts redoubled spectacularization-of making a spectacle out of a spectacle-occurs during the
from the faces of Chang and Eng to a flyer advertising their "work" in similarly normalizing filming of a large preoperative conference, in which the attending Thai doctors are depicted
terms, "respectfully" informing the "Ladies and Gentlemen of Boston'' when and where they not as actively participating but as passively videotaping the proceedings. This image comes
will "receive Visitors." Seeing a handbill entitled "Siamese Twins" within a film entitled uncomfortably close to the racist cliche of the camera-touting Asian tourist. Under these
Siamese Twins inadvertently comes dos~ to producing what literary criticism calls a mise en theatricalized conditions, the naturalistic distinction between representation and its object
abyme, the point at which a text vertiginously becomes the object of its own representation. wavers and threatens to dissolve into layers of spectacles within spectacles.
Given the ways in which the film draws parallels between the two sets of twins, it is almost Nested within the documentary, ostensibly as medical historical background to Dao's and
impossible not to read this advertisement without also considering whether or to what degree Duan's condition, the story of the Bunker brothers is in fact two conjoined stories: one of
contemporary documentaries contain traces of the freak show from which they try to distance desire fulfilled and the other of desire thwarted. Each story informs our reception of Dao's
themselves. There is a forthrightness about reproducing this advertisement, for it puts to us and Duan's experience in America. In the first instance, Chang and Eng function typologically
that for all of its earnestness, the film is, after all, circulated in a medium that is massively as "Siamese" twins who escaped a primitive and presumably penurious "Siam" to make their
committed to the task of recreation. In Siamese Twins, "the two great streams of appeal- fortune in a more civilized and wealthy America, thereby setting the example that Dao and
amusement and instruction'' -that Robert Altick describes as finding separate media late in Duan are destined to repeat. "Chang and Eng Bunker prospered," the narrator assures us,
the nineteenth century would appear to be complexly reunited on television late in the "bought land in North Carolina, married two sisters, and between them fathered twenty-two

I. 342 343
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I
;1 DAVID L. CLARK AND CATHERINE MYS ER~ ;1 BEING HUMAN ED~

children." The accompanying family photograph holds out the promise of a happy, middle- the separation of the Bunker twins in advance of the real operation on Dao and Duan,
class domestic life that D,ao and Duan too can expect. In case we have missed this parallelism, suggesting that the prowess of this "high-tech medicine" is so great that it can reach back into
the narrator reminds us in the film's closing moments that "like the Bunker twins before "last century'' and repair its malformed bodies after the fact. Dr. O'Neill will today fix in our
them, D)'(rand Duan have found a future in America." The fact that the prosperity of the minds what yesterday could not be remedied in the flesh. Moreover, through Dr. O'Neill's
Bunkers was irrevocably linked to the display of their anomalous bodies for the amusement intervention, what remained only the abiding object of the Bunker's desire is now about to
and titillation of America, and that twenty years after buying that land in North Carolina become a reality for Dao and Duan, so that one pair of "Siamese twins" fulfills the dreams of
their "prosperous" financial circumstances were unstable enough that they were compelled in another. Like Chang and Eng, Dao and Duan share in the prosperity of America; unlike the
their old age to display these bodies once again, goes neatly unspoken. 10 Instead, the Bunker Bunkers, however, they can own their own bodies as well.
brothers are broadly assimilated to the fertile, heterosexual normality whose middle-class Dr. O'Neill's return in the documentary signals its shift to the technical spectacle of the
values the documentary unwaveringly shares, here by measuring their success in America by surgeries themselves. With that shift comes a panoply of scenes that increasingly disembody
the number of their possessions and the size of their families. the twins, re-creating them as fantastically malleable surfaces to be molded and reconstructed
The Bunkers have everything that Dao and Duan are assumed to want- everything, that at will by each of the medical specialties in turn. There are scenes displaying their grossly
is, but the most personal and the most valuable of "personal property," the very condition of swollen skin ("expanded" by the plastic surgeon to make up for the "lack" of skin that the
the possibility of democratic self-sufficiency: namely, individual agency. 11 "For all their suc- surgery produces); scenes in which their body becomes a kind of fleshly whiteboard upon
cess, the Bunker twins wanted more than anything to be separated," the narrator baldly states, which different surgeons trace their incision lines with a black felt pen; scenes m which the
even though the biographical evidence is, at the very least, that Chang's and Eng's thoughts pediatric surgeon describes the initial stage of the operation as "opening the pag~s of a book,"
and feelings about separation changed over the course of their long lives. 12 The syntax of the as if the interior volume of the twins' body were in fact made up of a layered senes of discrete
narrator's apparently neutral description inscribes a narrative of frustrated desire onto Chang's surfaces or leaves; and scenes in which the narrator mimics and confirms the perspective of
and Eng's biographical history. According to this narrative, the accumulation of ever more the physicians by describing the twins as "the surgical field." While from the point of view of
precious forms of chattel-land, wives, children-could not take the place of what the twins the doctors these sorts of details may be unexceptional, within the context of the documentary
really wanted, namely discrete corporeality. Embodiment here comes close to being defined as they serve to emphasize both the two-dimensional plasticity and the compartmentalization of
a property relation, exactly as it is in Descartes's Meditations; 13 in a documentary that reduces Dao's and Duan's body, and thus to flatten its extraordinary features, rendering them banally
embodiment to malleable flesh, figuring corporeality in this way comes to have its own vulnerable to the most radical change. As a depthless surface, the disembodied body is
perversely rational logic. Did the Bunkers want "more than anything to be separated" (emphasis infinitely compliant a~d hollow, a docile ensemble awaiting not only its reconfiguration but
ours), or is it the case that the narrator-again, speaking on behalf of an audience that is also its reanimation by the physicians' touch.
presumed to hold self-sufficiency, both economic and corporeal, as a virtue above all others- But Dao and Duan do not constitute a "surgical field" whose planar coordinates can simply
imposes this desire upon the Bunkers? We cannot know for sure, since we do not hear from be rearranged. Their body sticks, and overlaps, and melds in extraordinary ways that resist
Chang and Eng: the grainy black and white stills of their "inscrutable" faces so easily become both straightforward separation and the medicalized assumptions about embodiment that
a mute surface upon which almost anything can be projected. About the matter of separation underlie it. There is a conceptual and physiological thickness to the twins that resists the
we do not hear from Dao and Duan either. But precisely because Dao and Duan are unable cutting force of the surgical regime. This is nowhere more problematically apparent than over
to voice their own desires, Chang and Eng in effect speak for them in the film, the the question of how the various "shared" organs, systems, and limbs are to be divided between
assumption being that the prototypical "Siamese" twins can in fact speak for all others. This the children. That these organs cannot simply be halved means that a number of cnt:Jcal
ventriloquization is in fact doubled in nature, since Chang and Eng are also mouthpieces, decisions must be made about the overall nature of each child's corporeality: the question is
here of the documentary's fundamental assumption that nothing could be more desirous than no longer how the bodies shall be separated, but who will receive which organ. Faced with
a singular body, nothing more essential to the intelligibility of human beings-not to mention this problem, the physicians are compelled to think of Dao and Duan not only as a body
Western, democratic, capitalistic culture-than individual agency. Nevertheless, if this is made up of parts and surfaces, but also as persons for whom "quality of life" is in some
what the film wants more than anything else, it is a natural virtue and a principle of normality unspecified way significant. The narrator broaches the issue twice, but both times in a manner
that is not so natural that it does not need to be reiterated through this extraordinary double that is at once simplistic and defensive: "Dividing conjoined twins is not about equality and
simulation. In other words, the simple fact that this staged and stagy reiteration of the norm fairness. O'Neill and his team have given Duan the third leg, the common rectum, and the
is necessary at all suggests, albeit faintly, that there is nothing natural or given about it. largest part of the bladder, because the blood and nerves that serve these organs are principally
Although Chang and Eng did not find a surgeon able to divide their bodies, the narrator under Duan's control." And again: "Although it might seem unfair that Duan, who will also
states that "today," in "the age of high-tech medicine," Dr. O'Neill "would have little difficulty get the third leg, also gets the most of the bladder, these decisions are made purely on medical
separating them." The surgeon goes on to describe how he would perform the procedure grounds. The point is not to simply divide the shared organs equally, but to give the organ to
(using, for example, "a thick ligature"). As if working in a virtual surgical reality, he conducts the twin in whom it has the best chance of surviving and growing. This depends most
critically on the nerve and blood supplies."

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 -/i DAVID L. CLARK AND CATHERINE MYS ER f ~ BEING HUMAN ED f

What do these directions by the narrator accomplish? By informing us that separation is The fact that having "control" over the relevant organs and limbs is the metaphor that is
not about "equality and fairness," the narrator reduces a complex ethical question to a matter most consistently used to rationalize these surgical-ethical decisions is revealing in a film for
of literal, physiological "equality," that is, of the symmetrical distribution of body parts. A which individual agency, which is to say complete self-control, is masterfully important: under
ch'."ged point at_ which. the documentary might reflect more carefully upon the assumptions these conditions, one useful, able agent is assumed to be "better" than two "disabled" agents.
gmdmg the surgical regimen is thus allowed to slip away. Instead, Palfreman handily capitu- And the documentary prepares us for that functional logic by consistently differentiating
lates to that regimen by appealing to "grounds" whose "purity" is a euphemism for being free between the twins on the basis of their relative self-control and ability. Dao and Duan are
from the taint of complication, almost as if they were the conceptual equivalent of the sterile equal, each deserving of the same care and the same medical expertise, to be sure. Yet from a
"surgical field" that the physicians labor to protect from biological contamination (and that utilitarian perspective one is more equal than the other. Dao is "more fragile," "weaker," less
we observe from the safe distance of our televisions). Several questions arise: Why would in "control" of the shared organs and limbs; she is smaller, and, as the narrator tells us early in
anyone want to make such radically life-altering "decisions" based on only one narrowly the film, "Wherever Duan wants to go, Dao must follow." David Headley refers to the
prescribed set of "grounds"? Why are "medical grounds" assumed to be wholly divorced from children as "the big one" and "the little one," before self-consciously reminding himself that
the question of "fairness," and from many other ethical questions that could here be fruitfully they should be called by their proper names; Barbara Headley asks Duan after the separation
14
evo~ed? _I~ th~ renun~ation of "fairness" as a treatment criterion not itself a profoundly to point to "where [Dao] ... was on you," unintentionally characterizing the smaller sister as a
ethical dec1S1on, 1f only m a negative mode? Speaking on behalf of the doctors, our narrator is kind of parasitic appendage. Fragility, weakness, littleness, and dependency are all evocatively
no'. the one to .pose these questions, since they would only compromise the putatively normative terms whose meanings spill messily over the boundary that is imagined to divide
dismtereste_d pos1tton of the attending surgeons. In terms of the narrative of the documentary, the technical from nontechnical accounts of the twins' bodies. Physical differences between
when the ISsue of separattng the twins' organs is raised, we are already deep inside the conjoined twins are not uncommon; what interests us here is the way in which these details
technicalized environment of Children's Hospital, long past what the narrator calls "the point form not only a morphological background to the evaluative criteria, but also, more important,
of no return." Thus it is all the more difficult to imagine other sets of criteria, other interests an alibi for their operation. Because she does not have "the best chance of surviving and
that could inform the decision-making. Here Palfreman's physicians risk committing what growing" (the questionable assumption here being that "she" is the sum of her body parts),
Ro~ert Veatch calls '.'~he technical criteria fallacy." 15 By arbitrarily narrowing the means by Dao functions as a kind of living organ donor to Duan; hers is the embodiment-we do not
which treatment dec1s10ns are made to "technical measures of prognosis," these decisions are say body-that will be more severely sacrificed for the benefit of her bigger, more viable sister.
deeme_d to be solely "the doctors' responsibility." This "fallacious generalizing of the physicians' The resolutely nontechnical starkness of that evaluation tends to be palliated in the
expertise to matters of moral and other value choices" 16 obscures the fact that no treatment documentary, surfacing only after the surgery is over, when, confronted with the image of
decision is or can be made "on purely medical grounds." Value judgments with ethical Dao's wholly altered life, it seems more difficult than ever to continue speaking of decisions
motivations and implications are always already present even if they are unacknowledged or being based on "purely medical grounds." With the long surgery completed, we glimpse the
only partly examined. Palfreman in fact concedes this point when, slightly earlier in the film, full extent of Dao's incompleteness: she "now has only one leg, a partial bladder, and half a
he states that the choices made by Dao's and Duan's doctors "not only determine the success pelvis." The narrator appears to realize that this is a fundamentally inopportune time to argue
or failure of the operation, but also the quality of each twin's life." In the medical ethics that "dividing conjoined twins is not about equality and fairness," but then makes a supple-
literature, "q~ality of life" is a notoriously difficult term to define, precisely because so many mental claim whose defensiveness inadvertently brings out how dissatisfying that argument
interests are involved in determining what it means and to whom. For this reason, it exceeds may always have been: "She will require extensive reconstructive surgery to her bladder and
the competence of those who proceed "on purely medical grounds"; yet this is precisely the colon, but today's procedure will leave her with a complete set of reproductive organs. If she
competence that the documentary assumes the doctors possess. As it is represented in the survives, like Duan, she will be able to have children when she grows up." According to this
documentary, the "medical" criterion used by Dr. O'Neill and his team to judge which twin utilitarian calculus, social productivity and re-productivity are interchangeable values. That we
ought to get the third, "shared" leg or the major part of the bladder or colon is the "technical" have twice been told that "equality" is not a principle that can be applied to separation surgery
determination of which of the two twins has "control" of these body parts, and of the blood does not prevent Palfreman from resorting rhetorically to it, here in the curious form of
and nerves "supplying" them. In this way, the doctors believe they can decide in which twin imagining some sort of organ exchange: Dao's intact ovaries and uterus are figured forth as
the organ or limb in question "has the best chance of surviving and growing." But we should recompense for her absent leg and incomplete bladder. This substitution, moreover, will make
reme'.1'b~,' that we are speaking here not only of single organs or limbs "surviving and her "like" Duan, underlining once again Dao's differentially determined existence. What
growmg, but also of persons whose postoperative existence directly depends upon the viability would motivate this compensatory gesture, except the naive belief-identified by Michel
17
~f thes_e body parts. If the subject who thrives is the one who will most decisively take her Foucault as the sign of modernity itself-that sex ''harbours what is most true in ourselves"?
place m s0C1ety and be productive" (to cite Dr. O'Neill', concluding characterization of the Secure in possessing her sex, the logic of this gesture suggests, Dao remains at the most
pro?er object of separation surgery), then the "purely" technical criteria behind the surgical fundamental level whole, notwithstanding the insults that her extraordinary body has with-
dec1s10ns turn out to be "impurely'' utilitarian in nature. stood at the hands of her surgeons. Even if her surgery has only allowed her morphology to

347
11 -,1 DAVID L. CLARK AND CATHERINE MYS ER~ ;j BEING HUMANED ~
I

approximate the norm, she can look forward to the deeper completeness that will come-and physical morphology that the surgeons have bequeathed her. Even to describe this complex
the narrator (speaking for whom? On what authority?) says it will come-when she, like her situation as "psychological" - as opposed to "physical" -is grossly to underestimate its natu~e,
sister, is interpellated into compulsory maternality. Palfreman's remark recalls his earlier since whatever the twins are as embodied beings, both before and after surgery, handily
references to Chang and Eng Bunker, whose abnormal corporeality is partly redressed by the exceeds this sort of deracinating and decorporealizing dualism, even if it is the dualism that
domestic normality that came of having all those children. We are also reminded that, next to made their bodies susceptible to division in the first place.
the sex life of conjoined twins, nothing seerns to attract more prurient interest than their Unlike bacteriological infection, the "psychological" effects of the surgery cannot be one
reproductive capacities. Perhaps the freak show fascination with the one is only a displaced postoperative complication among many, because these effects go to the heart of Dao's and
expression of the other. Duan's existence as joined incarnate lives. As Elizabeth Grosz suggests, the "corporeal link''
19
. More astonishingly still, Palfreman's account of Dao's futuie is framed by the grim sugges- that is forged between conjoined twins may not be something that can simply be "effaced."
tion that she in fact may not have a futuie: "If she lives," the narrator says. Palfreman's Even the narrator must admit this fact, conceding as he does that "no one's sure" what it
qualification cuts in several direcrions. To begin with, it starkly puts to the audience what was means for twins to be surgically separated at the relatively advanced age of "three and a half
obscured under the rubric of "purely medical grounds." It means that Duan has been deemed years." "No one's sure": in the wake of that rare c~ncession of t~e limits of m~d\c~ expe1:ise,
as the salvageable sister, and the possible consequences of that decision include the death of we are left to imagine the depths and extraordinary compleXIty of the twms mtertwmed
Dao. But a television documentary, like a nineteenth-century freak show, is meant to entertain embodiment, the corporeal jointuies and subtle knots that resist the scalpel as they do ~ur
as well as teach, and it is telling that Palfreman's qualification serves both interests simultane- understanding. Of course, their age is also a measure of the risk th_at the surgeons are willing
ously. For the phrase, brief as it is, also powerfully theatricalizes the postoperarive scene. Dao to assume, a sign of their pushing the surgical envelope. But we might also se~, it as an u~pe~
does in fact live and thrive. Since this is not a real-time live broadcast the prospect of her death limit for candidacy for separation surgery, beyond which, presumably, the psychological
can only be exploited to create suspense and extract the maximum pathos from the situation. consequences actually do begin to impinge upon the decision to perform the surgery. Other
In tuin, this pathos contains and palliates whatever concerns we might have about the questions arise: If age three and a half, why not "two,. or "one?" How do~s ~?e ~etermi~e
"equality and fairness" of the separation by suggesting that such concerns are immaterial when the degree or maturity of corporeal - rather than physical or psychological - linkage in
Dao's life hangs in the balance. conjoined twins? What is clear is that at three and a half the_ surgeons are working at an
"I like that. Yeah, I like that," pronounces Dr. O'Neill, as he looks down upon his experimental horizon beyond which little is known, but that this ignorance and the dangers
completed work, giving it a muted blessing. As Palfreman's documentary moves toward its springing from it will not stop them from proceeding.
conclusion, the narrator observes that after "ten days ... both twins are doing well physically, Although there is no doubting the resilience of the twins, the idea that they have "com_e to
but _psychologically, they're having trouble adjusting.... Dao and Duan are among the oldest terms" with their resected bodies in "ten days" is surely pure wish fulfillment, and it reminds
conJomed twins to be separated, no one's sure how two sisters joined for three and a half years us that this is the accelerated hyperreality of television, in which medical crises are by
will cope with being physically separate individuals." Thus it is not until after the surgery is convention resolved within a miraculously compressed temporality that both soothes the soul
over, narratively speaking, that the "psychological" consequences of the separation are explic- and satisfies the sponsors. Unlike Katie and Eilish, in which one of the twins dies in the initial
itly addressed. Having assumed that conjoined existence is intolerable, and that the prospect days after surgery, Palfreman's documentary ends happily; the hint of"psychological" proble_ms
of the twins living separately outweighs the risks of undergoing life-threatening, near- about which "no one knows" dissolves amid the closing images of Dao and Duan celebratmg
expenmental surgery, Palfreman has from the start narrowed the terms by which he might their fourth birthday and attending preschool "like millions of their peers." The pressure for
consider these consequences. In a documentary that is crowded with every manner of medical the twins to assimilate to a state of sameness organizes the film's conclusion, notwithstanding
specialist, the absenc~ of a child psychiatrist is revealing, for it points to, among other things, the fact that their significant differences go down to their sinews. Where before the separation
a hierarchical exclus10n of nonsurgical concerns even within the discipline of medicine. Dao's lack of "control" over certain organs and limbs was the criteria that favored Duan m
Whatever mental trauma the children suffer is instead left in the hands of the female their surgical distribution, after the separation the surgery itself is credited with the twins
caregiver, Barbara Headley, thereby safely exiling this "trouble" to a quasidomestic space coming into a morphological symmetry. For example, Dao's progress is largely u:,easured by
removed from the hygienic surgical field. There is perhaps no better indication that we are how rapidly she becomes more "like Duan" in "height, weight, and appearance. Although
gazing upon a mostly "depassionated" world of the Cartesian body 18 than when we hear the prior to the operation "equality and fairness" were deliberate~y excluded from, decmons
nai:rator co~lly characteriz~ the postoperative recovery in terms of "adjustment" and 1'coping," regarding the quality of postoperative life, they are treated as signs of the twms health as
as if the twms were adapting to a new school rather than living a radically altered form of individuals once the surgery is completed. In this way, "equality and fairness" are smuggled
embodiment. We are encouraged to believe that the problem is one of Dao and Duan back into the documentary's narrative as working virtues, since they literalize and embody a
positively "adapting" to their new status, when in fact it is more likely negatively a question of democratic vision of free and equitable personhood-the very condition of taking one's "place
mourmng the loss of the old body, or, more precisely, of negotiating between the body image in society and be[ing] productive," as Dr. O'Neill says. About what it '."e_ans to occupy th~t
that each child possesses as the fundamental matrix of her twinned embodiment and the useful place, of course, Dao and Duan say nothing. But that silence 1s itself tellmg, for 11

349
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brings out the paucity of firsthand accounts of the lives of conjoined twins, separated or not.
I ;j BEING HUMANED f-

approximates what is posited as ideal and reiterated as normal. It is important to emphasize

In the absence of these undoubtedly extraordinary stories, others-including ourselves- are that both conjoined and singular bodies can only approximate this ideal condition. The notion
always willing to speak. of a discrete subject inhabiting the self-contained body that it is is exactly that: a powerful
(yet paradoxically disembodied) notion that real, lived bodies of all shapes and sizes are
nevertheless compelled to mimic, and against which their normality or abnormality is mea-
And this also means that we never know, and never have known, how to cut up a subject.
sured. As Butler points out, the very fact that bodies are repeatedly and forcefully made to
-JACQUES DERRIDA, " 'EATING WELL,' OR THE CALCULATION OF THE SUBJECT"
answer to these ideals means "that bodies never quite comply with the norms by which their
materialization is impelled." 23
".'7hat provisional conclu~ions can we draw from Palfreman's documentary, and what sugges- In the case of the media representation of conjoined twins, this distance between the
t10ns can we sketch out m the way of a theoretical framework for future research into media regulatory ideal and its fleshly approximation is spectacularly evident because the surgical
representations of the medical treatment of conjoined twins? Media accounts conventionally reconstruction of their bodies only approximates morphologically what is imagined to be the
emphasize that the separation of conjoined twins tests the limits of medical knowledge and case phenomenologically. Here the striking visual image of bodies in the process of being
surgical expertise, as if anomalous bodies were in a form of contest with the medical refashioned into a physical condition of separateness must standfor or simulate the creation of
regime. Beyond the benevolent desire to help the twins, "winning" this contest has important singularly embodied life. But the division of a concorporate body no more bequeaths "individ-
implications for the prestige and wealth of the hospital (and the surrounding community) in uality" to each twin than the surgical creation of sex organs makes a body "gendered." In both
which the surgery is conducted. But the medicalized staging of conjoined twins as primarily a instances, bodies are compelled to comply with normative ideals or ''phantasms" 24 that make
technical challenge conceals the deeper epistemological and phenomenological hazard that these bodies knowable and pliable-"docile," as Foucault would say. 25 From both Foucault
they embody: namely, the threat that they pose to normative conceptions of corporeality. and Butler we know that this forced compliance is a phenomenon as wide and as deep as the
Conjoined twins have always raised disturbing questions about the nature of the "relation'' social body itself. The media representation of conjoined twins simply reiterates its normative
between body and self. 20 It is not so much their fused bodies that prove troublesome as work in a remarkably condensed and vivid fashion. Perhaps this is what makes the medical
the implications that their concorporate existence have for conventional expectations about documentary so compelling, since it gives both the force of subjection and the impossibility of
embodiment. Are they two different subjects within one body? Or, more radically, are they a body ever being fully subjected the most lurid display. The documentary does not simply
two differently embodied subjects? That embodiment is properly a singular condition would document a surgical triumph; as a representation, as the site in which images are trafficked, it
appear to be a given, indeed, the given of human existence: I alone possess the body that I is a spectacular expression of the ''discursive demand" that bodies become produced according
am. But what seems to be given or "natural" about the materiality of the body is inevitably to certain regulatory ideals. Representations of separation surgeries are thus "performances" of
caught up in a network of culturally and historically variable assumptions-what Foucault subjection insofar as they stage, theatricalize, and cite the assujettissement-that is, the
calls "regulatory ideal[s]" 21 -that fimction in prescriptive ways to differentiate between simultaneous creation and constraint-of the "human" as singularly embodied. Singular
"normal" and "abnormal" forms of corporeality. From the point of view of Palfreman's embodiment functions as an ideal to be mimicked because it can only be an imagining of
documentary, the notion of singular embodiment-one person to one body-operates as one what it might mean to ''have" "a" body; it is a figure that simplifies, unifies, and stabilizes the
of these ideals and in a way that recalls the regulatory principles by which gendered bodies irreducibly excessive condition of embodiment-or more precisely, embodiments, since there is
are constructed and policed. As Judith Butler has argued, characterizing a body as gendered is no single manner of being incarnate. As such, singular corporeality can be usefully compared
never merely a description of a preexisting condition, but "is itself a legi,!ation and a production to the category of "sex," since it operates as "a principle of intelligibility for human beings,
of bodies, a discursive demand, as it were, that bodies become produced according to which is to say that no human being can be taken to be human, can be recognized as
principles of heterosexualizing coherence and integrity." 22 In other words, the mutually human unless that human being is fully and coherently'' 26 in possession of its "own'' body.
1
reinforcing notions that one must have 'a'' sex and only one sex, and that there is in fact "a" (Re)producing this ideal, reiterating it as the law of human intelligibility, media representa-
distinct sex to be "had," operate as normative ideals that produce, shape, constrain, and tions of conjoined twins either underplay or ignore altogether the question of whether they
simplify the irreducibly complex condition of gendered embodiment. ,hould be separated and dwell almost exclusively on the technical conundrum of how that
The notion of singular embodiment functions in a similar prescriptive and idealizing separation is to take place; the former question is largely ruled out of bounds because it is
fashion. What, after all, does it mean to ''have" or "possess" a body? Having ''a" body, like assumed that conjoined life, precisely because of its imagined phenomenological unintelligibil-
having "a" sex, is at best an abstraction that obscures the fact that there is no single "sex" or ity, must be intolerable. Dividing out the phenomenological and ethical questions from the
form of "embodiment" as such, much less a single way to "have" or to ''be" these things. Yet "medical" difficulties thereby becomes one of the enabling conditions of the division of the
i
, I the compulsion to assume a properly singular corporeality-again, like singular sexuality- bodies themselves.
'!, has a tremendous, even killing force in our culture. This constraint is perhaps no more Nevertheless, as spectacularly anomalous bodies, conjoined twins remain ambiguously
'i'
apparent than in the case of conjoined twins, whose surgical separation marks the extent to resistant bodies, corporeal instances whose strangeness and difference act to throw into sharp
I which the medical regime is willing to go to (re)construct the body so that it more closely relief the exclusionary forces that (re)produce them as anomalous. Recalling "the etymological
'

3S0
 1 DAVID L. CLARK AND CATHERINE MYS ER~
r 1 BEING HUMAN ED~

roots of both mirabila and monstrum," Stephen Pender notes that monstrous bodies "are to see that surgical separation tears much deeper than the flesh, conjoined twins are over-looked:
always in some way about 'seeing." 27 But when we observe the separation of conjoined twins they are unseen, paradoxically, because they are seen too much.
in a documentary, for example, at what are we in fact looking? The question is not as easily 3. As Mark Poster characterizes it, Baudrillard's "simulation is different from a fiction or lie
answered as it might seem, for in at least three related ways media representations of conjoined in that it not Only presents an absence as a presence, the imaginary as real, it also undermines
twins are an example of what Jean Baudrillard calls the "simulacra'' or the "hyperreal." 28 In any contrast to the real, absorbing the real within itself." 36 For Baudrillard, the exemplary
each case, the collective act of looking at the twins is also, in a sense, a looking away-a instance of this hyperreality is Disneyland, in which the difference between the play-world of
failure, due partly to their capture by images and imaging technology, to see that the twins the theme park and the surrounding work world is the lie that covers up the fact that
are who they are because, not in spite of, the bodies they "have." American society is so saturated with media images that it is unreal through and through: the
1. Katharine Park and Lorraine Daston have cogently shown how, with the advent of "real" world is the fiction that the "unreal" world produces as its own outside, thereby
modernity, the reception of anomalous bodies shifted from viewing "monsters as prodigies to collapsing the difference between what is "true" and what is "imaginary." A roughly analogous
monsters as examples of medical pathology." 29 While we cannot disagree with the overall phenomenon characterizes Palfreman's documentary in two ways. First, in emphasizing the
shape of their argument, it seems worth asking how, in the postmodern milieu of media extraordinary concentration of medical expertise marshaled around the twins, the film reiter-
images and simulations, this line of development from the freak as sign or augury to the freak ates the stark difference between two worlds: the theater of surgery at Children's Hospital of
as sickness is complicated, perhaps even folded back upon itself. Contemporary representa- Philadelphia (whose grimly appropriate acronym is C.H.O.P.) as the very special place where
tions of conjoined twins pathologize them, to be sure; yet deviant corporeality remains bodies are transformed; and the world of the viewer, who is momentarily given the unusual
uncannily portentous, even if what it provides comes in the form of a profoundly secular privilege of seeing this transformation in the way that the doctors and nurses usually do. But
revelation: through it, we witness the advent of a world of fully instrumentalized bodies, a this distinction between the site of radical surgical intervention and spectators who view it
"high-tech'' place of"postmodern plasticity" 30 where there will be no morphology, no matter from the safe distance of their living rooms masks the ways in which the medical regime
how malformed, that cannot be altered and normalized. Under these spectacularized condi- everywhere acts to demarcate and discipline bodies, and everywhere compels bodies to assume
tions, we are not so much looking at conjoined twins as peering in awe at the expensive the regulatory ideals that determine what is intelligible and what is unintelligible, what bodies
expertise that will transform us by transforming them. matter and what bodies do not.
2. In order to be anatomized and resected, the twins must be disembodied. That is to say, Second, the spectacular difference between the blurred and aberrantly fused flesh of the
their always exorbitant existence as incarnate beings evaporates amid the clinical hypervisibil- twins and their distinct, more or less intact bodies after separation surgery is the fiction that
ity of their interior and exterior morphology. This narrowing of human life is what makes belies the fact that bodies are never wholly distinct entities to those who live them, as it were,
bodies available to medical knowledge and susceptible to the kind of radical division that from within. Media images of conjoined twins show their bodies as both "fixed" and "fixable":
Descartes imagines in one of the epigraphs to this chapter. Documentary representations of that is, as something that can be both repaired and apprehended, or perhaps apprehended
separation surgery would appear to be the epitome of what Francis Barker calls "the ab- through being repaired. (We might recall that conjoined twins are differentially diagnosed and
stracting gaze of science [that] seeks a decorporealized body of and for knowledge." We see renamed according to where they are "fixed" to each other.) The silhouette of their liberated
this "Cartesian body ... subordinated to a hygienic and surgical science" 31 not only in the bodies is as "real," surely, as the surgical incisions that divide one twin from the other, and the
deliberate reduction of amorphous "individuality" to physical morphology, but also in the suture lines that seal each body up into itself. But in the realm of representation, this too is
assumption that the twins are somehow freestanding entities that are more or less already hyperreal, a reality that passes over into something much less determinate, since the image of
separated within the anomalous body that "disables" or "enslaves" them. ("Free at Last" is the fleshly closure masks the irreducibly nonclosural and unfixed condition of embodiment. In
revealing title of an Australian magazine article on a recent separation surgery in New this way, media representations of surgical separations constitute a kind of Lacanian stade du
York.) 32 But we have known since Sigmund Freud that "the ego is first and foremost a miroir in which the subject is misrecognized (but also fixed and celebrated) as unitary because
bodily ego," 33 inextricably woven into bodily functions, mappings, perceptions, and desires. it appears morphologically intact and distinct. But the difference between the properly
Embodiment is not reducible to the body, because "the thought of the body" is also "the proportioned body and the monstrous body is always undercut by the generally improper and
thought that is the body''. 34 Notwithstanding the objectifying and deracinating demands of ill-proportioned nature of corporeality-neither inside nor outside, subject or object, flesh or
the medical regime, embodiment remains an unstable nexus of discursive forces that explodes spirit, but the site of what Maurice Merleau-Ponty evocatively calls the "chiasmic crossing" of
the distinction between mental and bodily realms. Because it is the site of histories without these and other terms. 37 Hence Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's point: "If one really thinks
boundaries or focal points, and of ongoing negotiations and adaptations of flesh and world, about the body as such, there is no possible outline of the body as such .. There are thinkings
corporeality is messy, not hygienic. Conjoined corporeality is, as it were, messier still. It may of the systematicity of the body, there are value codings of the body. The body, as such, cannot
even be the case, as Elizabeth Grosz points out, that "those who have shared organs, a common be thought, and I certainly cannot approach it." 38 We can therefore say, after Baudrillard, that
· blood circulation and every minute detail of everyday life" possess a uniquely complex corporeal although we appear to be looking at the division of conjoined twins, "separation" has not taken
connection that cannot simply be dissected out. 35 To the extent that medical surveillance fails place. 39

352 353
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1 DAVID L. CLARK AND CATHERINE MYS ER~ 1 BEING HUMANED ~

NoTES 18. Barker, The Tremulous Private Body, 97.

1. Neil Harris, Humbug: The Art ifP. T Barnum (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973), 292. 19. Grosz, "Freaks," 35.
2. It is crucially important to emphasize from the start that our analysis of Pa1freman's documentary 20. In this context, it seems important to put the word "relation'' in quotation marks, since it begs
addresses the filmic representation of the life of Dao and Duan, which includes the representation of the the question of whether we can speak intelligently of the self apart from its embodiment.
words, actions, and motives of their caregivers and physicians. In other words, our interest is in how the 21. See, e.g., the final chapter of Michel Foucault's The History of Sexuality: Volume L An Introduction,
twins are subjected within and through the narrative of the documentary, and in how this subjection trans. Robert Hurley (New York: Vintage, 1980), 135-59.
plays out for a television audience. An investigation of, for example, the medical regimen at work in 22. Judith Butler, "Sexual Inversions," in Discourses of Sexuality: From Aristotle to AIDS, ed. Domna
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia as such would require a separate and somewhat different form of C. Stanton (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992), 351.
analysis. 23. Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits if"Sex" (New York: Routledge, 1993),
3. Space does not permit us to discuss in any detail Katie and Eilish: Siamese Twins and Lift without 2.
Katie, both produced by Mark Galloway for the BBC's First Tuesday documentary series. It is interest- 24. Butler usefully distinguishes bern.reen "fantasy'' and "phantasmatic." The latter term, she argues,
ing to note, though, how the postoperative death of one of the twins in Katie and Eilish casts a pall over is "to be understood not as an activity of an already formed subject, but of the staging and dispersion of
the film; it is the terribly saddening excess that the documentary's ambivalent allegiance to the medical the subject into a variety of identificatory positions." "Phantasmatic identification'' is the process by
regime cannot quite contain. Lift without Katie, the curious short film made after Katie and Eilish, plays which the subject imagines "the possibility of approximating" a "sexed position marked out within the
a complexly supplemental role in the midst of these ambiguities: it is at once an attempt to rationalize symbolic domain." By mimicking this symbolic image or ideal the subject is compelled into "the
the death, a work of mourning, and the fihnic equivalent of a phantom limb. Although there are assumption of sex." See Bodies That Matter, 267n. 7, 96-97.
significant differences between these documentaries and Palfreman's film, the subjection of concorporate 25. See Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan
embodiment remains strikingly similar. In complex ways that still need careful analysis, both documen- (Vintage: New York, 1979), 135-69.
taries demonstrate Elizabeth Grosz's point that "in spite of the state of health of siamese twins, there 26. Butler, "Sexual Inversions," 352. Here we partly reproduce Butler's account of the category of
seems a medical imperative for surgical intervention, even if surgery may actually endanger lives that "sex" in Foucault's work. Elsewhere Butler argues that "It is not enough to claim that human subjects
may otherwise remain healthy and well." See Grosz, "Freaks," Social Semiotics 1, no. 2 (1991): 34-35. are constructed, for the construction of the human is a differential operation that produces the more
4. For an illuminating analysis of how Rembrandt's painting "point[s] forvvard to a modern, surgical and the less 'human', the inhuman, and the humanly unthinkable". Our argument is that concorporate
regime of the body," see Francis Barker, The Tremulous Private Body: Essays on Subjection (London: embodiment is the "less 'human' " against which the fully human ideal of singular corporeality secures
Methuen, 1984), 73-112. its authority. See Bodies That Matter, 8.
5. Leslie Fiedler, Freaks: Myths and Images if the Secret Self(New York: Anchor, 1993), 199. 27. Stephen Pender," 'No Monsters at the Resurrection': Inside Some Conjoined Twins," in Monster
6. See Louis Althusser, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses," Lenin and Philosophy, trans. Theory: Reading Culture, ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996).
Ben Brewster (London: Monthly Review, 1971). 28. Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulations, trans. Paul Foss, Paul Patton, and Philip Beitchman
7. The documentary is itself hardly immune to the logic of late capitalism. Television images and (New York: Semiotext[e], 1983).
plush-toy versions of "Barney" figure so prominently in the narrative that Palfreman is obliged to 29. Katharine Park and Lorraine Daston, "Unnatural Conceptions: The Study of Monsters in
acknowledge who holds copyright in the credits, lest he be accused of "consuming" or marketing this Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century France and England," Past & Present 92 (1981): 23.
image without acknowledging whose property it is. 30. Susan Bardo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (Berkeley: University
8. Robert Altick, The Shows if London (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978), 509. of California Press, 1993), 245-46.
9. Fiedler, Freaks, 36. 31. Barker, The Tremulous Private Body, 96, 97.
10. See ibid., 214. 32. Janice Hopkins Tanne, "Free at Last," Australian Magazine, 5 February 1994, 14.
,.i 11. For an evocative discussion of the complex ways in which the Bunker twins served these and 33. Sigmund Freud, "The Ego and the Id," in The Standard Edition if the Complete Psychological
I, Works if Sigmund Freud, ed. James Strachey (London: Hogarth, 1961), 19:26.
other social interests in nineteenth-century America, see Allison Pingree, "America's 'United Siamese
Brothers': Chang and Eng and Nineteenth-Century Ideologies of Democracy and Domesticity," in 34. We are grateful to Will McConnell for this phrasing and this insight.
I Monster Theory: Reading Culture, ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota 35. Grosz, "Freaks," 35.
Press, 1996). 36. Mark Poster, introduction to jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings, ed. Mark Poster (Stanford:
12. Kay Hunter points out that the Bunker twins came closest to requesting that they be separated Stanford University Press, 1988), 6.
just prior to their marriages, but that their fiancees success:fully convinced them "to give up on their 37. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Visible and the Invisible, trans. Alphonso Lingis (Evanston: North-
idea of being cut asunder." See Hunter, Duet far a Lifetime: The Story of the Original Siamese Twins western University Press, 1968).
(New York: Coward-McCann, 1964), 86-87. 38. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "In a Word: Interview," differences 1, no. 2 (1989): 131.
13. Barker makes this point about Descartes in The Tremulous Private Body, 98. 39. Here we recall Baudrillard's strategically hyperbolic position that "the Gulf War did not take
14. For a discussion of some of these questions, see Catherine Myser, ''A Philosophical Critique of place." See "The Reality Gulf," Guardian, 11 January 1991; and "Laguerre du Goffe n'a pas eu lieu,"
the 'Best Interests' Criterion and An Exploration of Clinical Ethical Strategies for Balancing the Liberation, 29 March 1991. If we know that the twins have been surgically divided, this does not
Interests of Infants or Fetuses, Family Members, and Society in the United States, India, and Sweden'' necessarily mean that we know what, precisely, "separation'' and "separateness" mean.
(Ph.D. diss., Georgetown University, 1994).
15. Robert M. Veatch, "The Technical Criteria Fallacy," Hastings Center Report 7, no. 4 (August
1977): 15.
16. Ibid., 16.
17. Michel Foucault, Herculine Barbin: Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth-Century
Hermaphrodite, trans. Richard McDougall (New York: Pantheon, 1980), ix.

354 3.55
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;a BODYBUILDING~

".I"~ E N 'I" Y• F I - V E posing routines that feature gymnastic feats and by the increasing number of men's and
women's sports that make use of weight training. Finally, the bodybuilder's visible difference,
especially when on display, arouses both fascination and repulsion-both terror and sympa-
Bodybuilding: A Postmodern Freak Show thy-in observers and spectators.
Fiedler's definition of the true freak as a transgressor of categories thus has uncanny
parallels with today's bodybuilder. In fact, the bodybuilder finds new categories to blur-for
CECILE LINDSAY example, that opposing humans to machines, as technological innovations supply prosthetic
implants, surgical alterations, and chemical and nutritional enhancements to muscular devel-
The Freak show itself has not died.
-LESLIE FIEDLER
opment. And yet, while the bodybuilder is born the "human child of human parents," and is
genetically predisposed to success or failure in building his or her body, it is through personal
choice and action that he or she becomes a Freak. It is perhaps in this erosion even of the
category of "true" or "produced" Freak that contemporary bodybuilding provides a postmod-
ern context for the continued interrogation of the Freak as cultural "other," and for the
continued interrogation of the body as a site of contestation over essential versus constructed
attributes. Indeed, we need only look back to the circuses, vaudeville acts, and carnival side
shows of the late nineteenth century to confirm a continuum between that fin-de-siecle's
terrors and sympathies and those of our own. In this chapter, I examine how today's bodybu-
ilder transgresses and reconfigures modern categories, provoking both affirmation and con-
Published in 1978, Leslie Fiedler's Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self remains a demnation, and thereby constituting a locus for challenges to and enforcement of cultural
benchmark for the study of cultural constructions of an "other" that reflect the subterranean norms grounded in the body. In this way, I endeavor to show how bodybuilding in late
fears, dreams, and myths of selfhood and society. 1 For Fiedler, the true freak (as opposed to twentieth-century culture illuminates some of the paradoxes and potentialities of the post-
the accidental one) stirs us to terror and sympathy because "he is one of us, the human child modern condition.
of human parents, however altered by forces we do not quite understand into something
mythic and mysterious" (24). Fiedler identifies the source of the true freak's capacity to arouse
sympathy and fear as the effacement of those fundamental categories by which we order our A HISTORY OF FREAKS: NINETEENTH-CENTURY STRONG MEN AND WOMEN

existence: "Only the true Freak challenges the conventional boundaries between male and Individuals of extraordinary dimensions and/or physical strength have been displayed or
female, sexed and sexless, animal and human, large and small, between self and other, and have performed since antiquity. In the eighteenth century, strong men and women like the
consequently between reality and illusion, experience and fantasy, fact and myth" (24). Englishman Tom Topham and an Italian woman with the stage name "Sansona" performed
This definition of the true freak in many ways also describes the contemporary bodybuilder. feats of strength in public performance. 2 By the latter half of the nineteenth century, popular
Bodybuilders seek to maximize the visible muscularity of their physiques through a combina- interest in challenges to the limits of human strength arguably reached an all-time high. A
tion of progressive weight training, a diet and aerobic exercise regime aimed at minimizing French physical culture enthusiast, Edmond Desbonnet, published an exhaustive account,
subcutaneous body fat, and a physical presentation that displays the extreme degree of amply illustrated, of "the Kings of Strength." Subtitled ''A History of All the Strong Men
muscular definition and vascularity achieved by this regimen. The episodic culmination of a from Antiquity to Our Days" and published in 1911, Desbonnet's book captures the era's
bodybuilder's practice is a "show," a competitive event at which he or she is judged on excitement about displays of strength and physique and remains even today the definitive
body symmetry, muscularity, and artistic display of the physique in a choreographed routine work on early strong men and women. 3 In the final decades of the nineteenth century, with
performed to music. Through these practices, bodybuilders defy normative assumptions about the advent of what Robert Bogdan terms the "developing popular amusement industry," 4 the
human bodies and the categories that delimit and define them: male versus female, natural circus, vaudeville, and carnival came to provide a venue for strength and physique performers.
versus unnatural, normal versus abnormal. Like Fiedler's freak, the bodybuilder confounds The imagination of fin-de-siecle Europeans and Americans was fired by ponderous and
illusion and reality: the impression of monstrous scale is most often the result of extreme powerful men and women, whose acts were designed to both astonish and entertain. One
muscular definition highlighted by oil and muscles flexed to a maximal degree-an illusion such performer was billed as Apollon, "the Demigod of Strength." A Frenchman born m
evident when a competitor who looked like a giant on stage sits down beside you after his or 1862, he stood well over six feet, with a muscular and well-shaped physique. In his music hall
her routine and turns out to be of diminutive height and normal weight. Fact and myth are act, sandwiched between the risque numbers of Paris's Folies Bergi!res, he dressed in revealing
also blurred in popular reaction to bodybuilders. For instance, it is widely believed that big costumes and impersonated an escaping prisoner by bending real iron bars. 5 Audiences also
muscles "rurn to fat" upon cessation of weight training, while in fact muscles shrink when appreciated a Miss Darnett, the "singing strong lady" who sang while lying face up, her ~ands
training stops. And myths about the inflexibility of "muscle-bound" athletes are belied by and feet extended below her, and supporting on her chest and thighs a platform holding a

357
 1 CECILE LINDSAY f 1 BODYBUILDING f

piano and accompanist. 6 That these performers are recognized as precursors by contemporary
bodybuilding culture is evidenced by a regular column in Ironman magazine entitled "Gallery
of Ironmen," which features late nineteenth- and early tvventieth-century strong men and
women. Here one can read about the life, looks, and performances of bodybuilding predeces-
sors such as Apollon, Louis Cyr, Horace Barre, Eugen Sandow, and Lionel Strongfort or,
occasionally, strong women such as Kate Sandwina, Madame Minerva, Madame Montagna,
or the Great Vulcana. Two of these figures were especially successful in their time and
pioneered the beginnings of bodybuilding as it is known today: Eugen Sandow and Kate
Sandwina (who, born Kate Brumbach, adapted Sandow's stage name for her own strength
and balancing act).
Eugen Sandow (fig. 25.1) was the greatest exhibitor of the twenty-year "Golden Age" of
professional strong men beginning in the 1890s. Born in 1867 in Konigsberg as Frederick
Mueller, Sandow changed the direction of strength performance by combining his physical
beauty and artistry with showmanship and feats of strength. In their monumental Anomalies
and Curiosities of Medicine, published in 1896, physicians George Gould and Walter Pyle
discuss Sandow and other "Modern Hercules" under the category of "Physiologic and Func-
tional Anomalies," a chapter that also treats athletic feats such as endurance running and
swimming as well as contortionism. I--Iere, Sandow is described as possessing "remarkable
strength and control over his muscles" (466) and as a clever gymnast who used light and
posing to highlight certain body parts: "and in a brilliant light [he] demonstrated his extraor-
dinary power over his muscles, contracting muscles ordinarily involuntary in time with music,
a feat really more remarkable than his exhibition of strength" (467). Described as a wondrous
freak, Sandow thus marks a transition to muscle display as an aesthetic and entertainment
activity; Gould and Pyle go on to signal "the beautiful muscular development of this remark- 25.1. Fin-de-siecle strong man Eugen Sandow.
able man'' (467). Indeed, the physicians included photographs of Sandow to illustrate the Bequest of Evert Jansen Wendell. Harvard The-
anomalous condition of "extreme muscular development." In 1890, Sandow appeared in one atre Collection. The Houghton Library.
of Thomas Edison's early experiments with moving pictures, inaugurating cinema as a venue
for masculine muscle display, paving the way for the Italian dockworker "Maciste" who starred Exhibitors such as Sandow and Sandwina caught the fancy of the same fin-de-siecle crowds
in twenty-nine films beginning in 1914, the "B-movie" star Joe Bonomo of the 1920s, and on that flocked to see human freaks, oddities, prodigies, and curiosities. Of more interest than a
to Victor Mature and Johnny Weismuller in the 1950s-long before Arnold Schwarzenegger typology of these displays of human difference, as Bogdan argues, is how the institution of
and Lou Ferrigno filled the large and small screen oflate twentieth-century popular entertain- popular entertainment came in the latter half of the nineteenth century to organize formal
ment. exhibitions of anomalous persons for the purpose of amusement and profit. Why did the
Kate Sandwina likewise combined extravagant size, strength, beauty, and star quality in the nineteenth century become so fascinated with human differences, particularly the visible,
context of circus performance. Born in Germany in 1864, she was the daughter of strength physical ones that became the staple of freak shows?
performers; her lesser-known sisters also had a strength and athleticism act. Sandwina's size One approach to that question lies in science. The nineteenth century was an era so
was by all accounts spectacular: circus posters tout her height as six feet one inch and her dominated by science that it has been called the "Age of Science," 9 and its principal focus was
weight as 220 pounds at age twenty-three. More modest accounts put her at five feet eleven what we now call biology. Although for much of the eighteenth century the old belief endured
inches and 209 pounds at the same age. 7 What is generally agreed is that the Barnum and that all existence was divinely organized into a great chain of being, this conviction succumbed
Bailey Circus publicity describing her as "The Most Beautiful ... The Most Skillful ... The to the evidence of extinct fauna, whose discovery belied the notion of a permanent, stable,
Strongest of the World's Women'' was an accurate characterization of her reception by the and perfect creation. New information and hypotheses about the nature and place of organ-
American circus audience. 8 Billed as "Germany's Herculean Venus," Sandwina attracted large isms sparked debates about evolution and the postulation of the possibility of new species.
audiences with her mythical proportions, androgynous persona (at once superhuman male Nineteenth-century biology was driven by the impulse to establish categories, make distinc-
hero and supernatural female beauty), strength, and glamour. Like Sandow, her combination tions, and determine the laws of nature; debate focused on inherited categories such as mind
of revealing costumes and showmanship most likely overshadowed her remarkable physical and body, human and animal, male and female, living and nonliving. The unprecedented
abilities. popularization of science spawned books of taxonomies and texts on natural history, making

358 359
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I

;a CECILE LINDSAY f ;a BODYBUILDING~

it possible for amateurs of zoology to collect and classify segments of the natural order. This also reacted negatively, using terms like "disgusting, too big, beastly, looks like a man
classificatory impulse paradoxically held within it a fascination with the anomalous and the intimidating, unfeminine." 14 Mainstream culture's reaction to the bodybuilder adds a valenc~
exception -hence Gould and Pyle's exhaustive 1896 catalogue (nearly a thousand pages with of disapprobation, perhaps tinged with intimidation, to the recoil one might also exhibit
295 illustrations) of the "Anomalies and Curiosities" of human medicine. I propose that it before a freak show.
was a parallel enthusiasm for the delineation of normative classifications and far their excep- Within bodybuilding culture, "freakiness" is much more acclaimed in males than in females.
tions that accounts for the spectacular success of freak shows in the period between 1840 and Since the early 1980s debate has raged within the pages of bodybuilding publications over
1940, identified by Bogdan as the heyday of this form of entertainment. 10 acceptable levels of muscularity for women. A typical title on the cover of a bodybuilding
Although a number of important studies have demonstrated the establishment of restrictive magazine reads "Femininity: Do Female Bodybuilders Have It?" (Muscle and Fitness, Novem-
cultural norms (particularly those of gender role and appearance) at about this time, 11 it also ber 1989). What is at stake in this question is a cultural definition of somatic sexual difference.
seems clear that the era of the freak show was in some ways more receptive to the transgres- Female bodybuilding is disputed even within bodybuilding culture because it challenges a
sion of such classificatory categories than twentieth-century c~ture has become. For although deeply held cultural assumption: the equation of muscularity with masculinity. Although male
Gould and Pyle considered Eugen Sandow', muscular development to be anomalous enough and female bodies have virtually identical musculature and exhibit similar responses to
to merit photographic plates in their work, they also praise his beauty and grace. And while strength training (wider shoulder and back, narrower waist and hips, flaring thighs and
Kate Sandwina in no way conformed to the frail, consumptive model of Victorian femininity, increased muscular size and definition overall), perceptible muscularity continues to signal
she was considered highly attractive and was married to a handsome acrobat whose height she masculinity. The consumer industry of bodybuilding presents at once the social preconstruc-
exceeded by at least half a foot; perhaps the pressure to display gender dimorphism that makes tion of muscularity as masculinity and the questioning of that categorical equation by radically
contemporary couples select mates of a culturally approved height was not as pervasive in fin- muscular women. For instance, the major monthly bodybuilding magazine, Muscle and Fitness,
de-siecle America and Europe as it is today.12 At a time when the conventional distinctions has been criticized since the mid-1980s for consistently displaying on its cover very muscular,
and categories by which we have come to order existence were crystallizing, a measure of well-known male bodybuilders with anonymous female models possessing no perceptible
"play" still existed within and between classes of beings. As we shall see, bodybuilders of the muscular development. Typically, these models have very smooth, thin limbs and very large
late twentieth century perhaps face more restrictive enforcement of conventional categories of breasts; they are generally posed as clinging to or supported by the muscular male star. Such a
corporal existence than their precursors, even as they surpass bodily limits unimaginable a presentation encodes feminine powerlessness, dependency, and submissiveness overlaid with a
century ago. display of exaggerated secondary sex characteristics that signals reproductive capacity and
sexual receptivity. Over the years, female readers have complained in letters to the magazine
editors about what they see as a double standard: articles and regular columns inside the
TERROR AND SYMPATHY: CULTURAL REACTIONS TO BODYBUILDERS
magazine feature female contests and contestants, but the consumer target of the cover and
From his vantage point at the end of the hippie era, Fiedler noted in 1978 that the term the advertisements remains the male. 15 While seeking mainstream commercial success, these
"freak'' had become an honorific for socially dissident young people at the same time as it magazines and the industry they represent nevertheless constitute the site of conflictual
increasingly became socially inappropriate to apply the term to those groups it had tradition- impulses: between covers that hyperbolize traditional definitions of gender dimorphism, there
ally designated. Today, bodybuilders compliment each other with the term "freak''; it is an are displays of female muscularity that much of the population finds shocking.
expression of awe and respect for those who push their physical development beyond current Bodybuilding as a commercial enterprise and would-be entertainment industry finds itself
limits. "Freakiness" is what is to be achieved, what the "pros" possess, what is most often negotiating rival pressures. One the one hand, gym owners, magazine publishers, and product
acquired through drug use in addition to intense workouts. It is also, however, at least in part, vendors seek the widest possible participation in and observation of the sport. Thus female
what one is born with: a genetic predisposition for fabulous muscularity. Freakiness as an competitors and contests comprise a market opportunity. On the other hand, the industry
affirmation of physiological dissidence stirs both fascination and repulsion, both emulation recognizes that negative popular sentiment toward highly muscular women must be palliated
and rejection in non-bodybuilders and even within bodybuilding culture and industry. and the female competitors' physical appearance made palatable if the sport is to receive
Bodybuilding never fails to elicit strong reactions, be it from mainstream culture or from mainstream consumer acceptance. One strategy for marketing female bodybuilding has been
the scholarly elite of contemporary society. Although Americans have become accustomed, to control how competitors look by adopting certain unstated standards for judging competi-
via cable sports channels, to witnessing high-level bodybuilding competitions, many still find tions. Because the criteria of muscularity, symmetry, and posing style cannot be quantitatively
the bodies on display there unappealing or even repellent. The English professor mother of a measured, judging in bodybuilding competitions is fairly subjective. Female competitors
gangly Oxford graduate turned amateur bodybuilder reports that a female friend to whom she complain that criteria change from one contest to the next: full-blown muscularity, hardness,
showed pictures of her son over lunch responded: "Oh God, not while I'm eating!" 13 This and mass may prevail in one contest; the next week the very same competitors will receive
might be chalked up to the mid-life intellectual's lack of stomach for things bodily, but college widely divergent placings because a smaller, softer, more conventionally feminine look is being
student surveyed about their reactions to photographs of a professional female bodybuilder enforced. Increasingly, elite female bodybuilders acknowledge the pressure to refrain from

360
 '1 CECILE LINDSAY If '1 BODYBUILDING If

achieving extreme muscularity and to market themselves as conventionally attractive through

breast implants and other cosmetic enhancements, including facial surgery. Lenda Murray,
the current top-ranked female professional, stated after one of her Ms. Olympia victories:
"People need to stop and think. The IFBB [International Federation of Body Building, the
major promotor of competitive exhibitions] wants us to lose some size and muscle. I had to
diet longer to be a slightly smaller version of what I could really be." 16 While Murray's tone
is mildly rebellious toward the limits she was forced to respect in order to win, another
victorious competitor, Sue Price, is more plaintive than angry as she recalls a contest in which
the audience urged her to transgress the boundaries of female muscle decorum: "I don't know
if the judges want to see it all, after what happened to me at the 1992 Nationals (when she
placed fifth). It's like playing with matches. I don't want to burn the house down. I only
showed the cross-striations after people in the audience started yelling for me to hit my legs.
I said to myself 'I hope the judges forgive me if they don't really want to see that.' I only
contracted for a second but I could really grind on that thigh if I wanted to. I'm just afraid." 17
The competitor's fear of the judges' distaste is echoed in "Power and Sizzle," a recent column
introduced in Flex magazine to calm the fears aroused by the heightened muscularity of top-
level female competitors and, perhaps, to market a new erotic standard linking muscular
female bodies to traditional sexual display. This column regularly features a collection of
photographs of female competitors, either nude or in costume, posed in conventionally erotic
or provocative postures. The self-declared aim of this regular feature, repeated with each issue,
is to defuse negative or fearful reactions to female bodybuilders:

Women bodybuilders are many things, among them symmetrical, strong, sensuous, and
stunning. When photographed in competition shape, ripping and grimacing or squeezing
out shots, they appear shredded, vascular, and hard, and they can be perceived as
threatening. Off season they carry more body fat, presenting themselves in a much more
naturally attractive condition. To exhibit the real, natural side of women bodybuilders,
Flex has been presenting pictorials of female competitors in softer condition. We hope
this dispels the myth of female bodybuilding and masculinity and proves what role
models they truly are. 18

Like many competitors, the women quoted earlier go to great lengths to encode conventional
femininity in their grooming, posing, and sexy photo layouts published in bodybuilding
magazines and books (see fig. 25.2). Although their careers depend on marketing themselves 25.2. Contemporary bodybuilding competitor Sue Gafner. Reprinted from Bill Dobbins, The Women:
as attractive, nonthreatening women, they nevertheless long to fully develop the muscular Photographs if the Top Female Bodybuilders. New York: Artisan, 1994.
potential that some of their spectators find wondrous.
The challenge to conventions of somatic gender difference posed by transgressive female ethic of undifferentiated, transcendent muscularity. Audiences sympathetic to maximal mus-
physiques led in 1986 to mandatory drug testing for female competitors. When women cularity are at odds with an entertainment industry seeking to display a calculated, profitable
protested that men's contests were not drug tested, Ms. Olympia promoter Wayne DeMilia level of "freakiness."
responded that testing females was necessary because "their gender is changing faster. Some In recent years bodybuilding has captured the attention of scholars in a number of fields,
of the women are not totally female." 19 At about the same time, however, a Mr. Slate wrote from anthropology and sociology to philosophy. To date, most of this research has dealt with
in his letter to the editors of Modern Bodybuilding: "Of course the debate will rage about what female bodybuilding and the vexed question of resistance versus compliance to cultural norms
a woman is supposed to look like. But I thought the sport was bodybuilding." 20 In respect to of femininity. Feminist analysts of female bodybuilding have found in it a counterpractice that
female bodybuilding, bodybuilding culture itself is clearly caught up in conflictual discourses is ''traumatically unsettling" to mainstream culture's systems of gender differentiation. 21 Many
pitting essentialist views of sexual difference and physical appearance against a bodybuilding see in female bodybuilding a mode of personal and political resistance to an "ideological
 -,..--- - --- -------------- ..
I

~ CECILE LINDSAY~ ~BODYBUILDING~

complex of patriarchy, heterosexuality, and homophobia that equates muscularity with mascu- THE BODYBUILDER AS POSTMODERN FREAK
linity'' in a network of hierarchical categories disadvantageous to women.22 Despite its
potential for challenging and redesigning constructed attributes of femininity in a more While most scholarly treatments of bodybuilding analyze either males or females, Anne
empowering manner, most scholars still find female bodybuilding to be co-opted by societal Bolin's article "Flex Appeal, Food, and Fat: Competitive Bodybuilding, Gender, and Diet"
and market pressures to comply with mainstream definitions of femininity and female explores what makes male and female bodybuilders more alike than different. An amateur
beauty.23 bodybuilding competitor and anthropologist, Bolin finds that in the liminal phase of precon-
Recognizing that for female competitors bodybuilding is "saturated with contradictions," test dieting male and female bodybuilders come to resemble each other closely in their goals,
some feminist analysts still see there at least a potential for personal self-shaping and political strategies, and appearance. While muscularity is culturally linked to masculinity, femininity is
resistance. 24 Analysts of male bodybuilding, however, are critical of a practice they see as traditionally associated with a propensity for body fat. Diet, as Bolin points out, has been read
symptomatic of what ails contemporary society. For instance, sociologist Alan Klein uses a as the enforcement of patriarchal norms equating femininity with frailty, thinness, and
classic Marxian analysis to conclude that male bodybuilders are alienated and objectified, neoteny. When male bodybuilders pursue an exacting diet aimed at stripping off subcutaneous
seeking to overcome, through maximized physiques, psychological problems and insecurities fat, they cross over into a culturally feminine domain. Yet neither male nor female bodybuild-
stemming from poor self-image, failed family relationships, and the inability to relate to ers diet to be "thin''; both prize maximal muscularity, thereby placing themselves in a culturally
others. For Klein, bodybuilding is "a sport subculture built on a neurotic core." 25 Sam Fussell, masculine domain.
the Oxford graduate turned obsessive amateur bodybuilder mentioned earlier, makes a similar Elsewhere Bolin has noted that while muscles traditionally encode the agonic power of
point in his bodybuilding autobiography, using his own fears and self-loathing as evidence. masculine strength, women's power has resided in the hedonic realm of display and beauty.
While Fussell talks about "hating to be human'' as his motivation for bodybuilding, Klein Since Eugen Sandow, strong male physiques have participated in the hedonic code. Other
deplores how bodybuilding, like much of contemporary popular culture, idealizes the body as cross-over qualities establish male and female bodybuilders as "beings of the same category": 30
a machine. 26 Here we find again the language ofFiedler's definition: the bodybuilder as freak vascularity, hairlessness, loss of breast tissue in females and occasional enlargement of nipples
transcends and disrupts categories of existence unquestioned even in the analytical discourses in males due to steroid use, and an ideal body type for both consisting of wide shoulders and
of Marxism, contemporary sociology and psychology, and confessional autobiography. back, narrow hips, and flaring thighs. 31 Indeed, bodybuilders seem to transcend the category
A telling example of such category disruption and the terrors it stirs is Klein's discussion of of the human in the discourse of the gym and the muscle magazine; recently a victorious
the mind-body opposition fundamental to Western culture. For Klein, no other "subculture" competitor was praised in the pages of a bodybuilding magazine for her "coconut delts, cobra
splits self and body as much as bodybuilding; the bodybuilder is objectified and alienated in lats, bellowing thighs" in a cascade of metaphors mixing the vegetal and animal kingdoms to
the mirrors that line the walls of his gym and in his view of his own body as "an externalized characterize the woman's otherness. 32
object or machine." In place of this reified body Klein advocates instead a body that is Contemporary bodybuilders are constructed as freaks-either affirmatively by sympathetic
'
I "utilitarian, functioning on our behalf and as an extension of ourselves." 27 Klein's language practitioners and fans or negatively by general or scholarly opinion and skittish entrepre-
eloquently translates his own sense of distance between "ourselves" and our body as tool-a neurs-primarily on the basis of their violation of widely held cultural categories such as
1
useful prosthetic 'extension'' or robot "functioning" to accomplish the volition of the immate- those opposing masculine and feminine qualities, or those contrasting virtuous intellectuality
rial mind that for Klein seems to be the self. Klein's analysis enforces the very category with narcissistic corporality. Yet other, more subterranean classifications are transgressed by
distinctions for which he indicts the bodybuilder. It could be argued, however, that bodybuild- the contemporary bodybuilder in ways that make him or her an exemplar of postmodernity.
ing, like all sports, is a complex interaction of mind and body. Focus, concentration, mental In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir explained in The Second Sex the difference between transcen-
imagery, and feedback help the weight trainer to accomplish a challenging lift or feel the dence and immanence: a human subject who carries out a project, who acts upon the world
training effect. The interaction of muscle work and brain chemicals generates a sense of to alter it, is transcendent; one who fails to act upon external reality, who merely exists as an
mental and physical well-being. In one sense, moreover, bodybuilding is among those sports in object in the world, is immanent. Beauvoir's existentialist categories were enunciated in
which mentality and physicality are most thoroughly merged; in the diet phase of competition respect to women's lives under patriarchy early in what many describe as "postmodernity": the
preparation, rationality and mental control play as large a role in the final competitive outcome epoch following World War II, in which modern assumptions about traditional categories
as lifring weights and posing. 28 Klein's critique of male bodybuilders fails to recognize their describing being, society, and the human subject came under scrutiny and philosophical
potential for disruption of cultural categories and constructs them as freaks through a dis- attack. By 1962, J. L. Austin had provided an example of the postmodern blurring and
course of psychological and social pathology perhaps more revelatory of Klein's own cultural coalescence of categories when he demonstrated that speech is sometimes action: in How To
and intellectual fears than generalizable as a description of contemporary bodybuilders. As Do Things with Words, Austin termed "performatives" those special speech acts that perform
Bogdan notes, "How we view people who are different has less to do with what they are the action to which they refer. Postmodern bodybuilders perform themselves; they are their
physiologically than with who we are culturally." 29 own acts; they incarnate their own projects and embody their own achievements. Complicat-
ing the residual categories of modernity, bodybuilders are at once active, (self)transformative
agents and the object of others' spectatorial, evaluative, or erotic gaze.
 ;1 CECILE LINDSAY~ ;1 BODYBUILDING~

For postmodern theorists such as Donna Haraway, our epoch is not only postgender, it is Politics: Women and the Discourses of Science, ed. Mary Jacobus, Evelyn Fox Keller and Sall Sh 1 rth
witness to the breakdown of modernity's other boundaries, those between the human and the
(New York: Routledge, 1990), 83-112; and Ellen L. Bassuk, "The Rest Cure·
of Viet ri W , C fli ~,, • 1
Rpet't.t'ony or Ruttesoewlution
· e
o_
~ an omens ~n ~ts. m The Female Body in Western Culture, ed. Susan Rubin Sule·
animal, between the animal-human and the machine, and between the physical and the (Cambridge: Harvard Umversity Press, 1985), 139-51. , rman
nonphysical. The cyborg world Haraway describes is characterized by "transgressed bound- L' 1~. In Physical Appearance and Gender (Albany: State University of New York Press 1992) 182
aries, potent fusions, and dangerous possibilities which progressive people might explore as m a A. Jackson reports that a random pairin?. of males and females would produce a' female' talle;
one part of needed political work." 33 A micropolitics of multiplicity and respect for the tha~ thedm~t once out of every tw"enty-nme pamngs. In reality, a recent study of 720 married couples
myriad of singularities, of the "little stories" that make up human existence, also figures in the Pd:o uceh_ o Y one such couple. Contemporary Americans appear to select spouses who conform t
imorp 1c standards. o
writings of Jean-Fran~ois Lyotard on what he calls the postmodern condition. Elsewhere I 13. Betty ~ussell, "My Son the Bodybuilder," Lear\, November 1989, 79.
have argued that Lyotard's formulation of a postmodern ethics intersects in significant ways 14. Bolin, Vandalized Vanity," 91.
with his characterizations of the postmodern body as traversed by masculine and feminine 15.
these
In Little
·
Big Men (New York: State University of New York Press 1993) 87 Ala Kl · 1· ks
. , , , n emm
34
qualities, as pure surface without interiority or exteriority. For Lyotard, modernity was w· d magazme
t h to aulconsc10us strategy on the part of bodybuilding's maJ·or entrepreneur, Joe
bcovers
"work on the limits of what was thought to be established, in thought as well as in the arts, 1e er, o com at t ~ pop . ar stereotype associating bodybuilding with homosexuality.
16. Lenda _Murray, mt:rview with Reg Bradford, Muscular Development, March 1993, 90.
sciences, technologies, and politics." 35 Surpassing the established limits of the past, the
17. ~ue Pnce, qu~ted m Musci:Iar Development, January 1995, 86.
postmodern bodybuilder even blurs the lines between the domains Lyotard cites: his or her 18. Power and Sizzle: Sue Pnce, A Core of Confidence" Flex January 1995 124
practice participates in the realm of sport, art, dance, beef- or cheesecake, and science. For 19. Teagan Clive, "Ladies First," Ironman, April 1989, 157. ' ' ·
Haraway, as for the sympathetic spectator of bodybuilding shows, this freaky subject is a 20. Modern Bodybuilding, February 1990, 13.
wondrous being, a hybrid blurring the lines between true and produced freak: "By the late 21. Janet Gaines, introduction to Fabri"catiom: Costume and the Female Body, ed. Janet Gaines and
36 Charlotte Herzog (New York: Routledge, 1990), 26.
twentieth century, our time, a mythic time, we are all chimeras." 22. Laurie Schulze, "On the Muscle," in Fabrications, 74.
While Haraway argues for the pleasures of confused boundaries, the confusion operated by
today's bodybuilders and other category transgressors such as homosexuals, transsexuals, in
. 2r
ing,
See Schulze, "On the Muscle"; Bolin, "Vandalized Vanity''; Anne Balsamo, "Feminist Bod build-
Women, Sport, and Culture, ed. Susan Birrell and Cheryl L Cole (Cha · Ill Hy
Ki · 1994) 341 5 · · · mpaign, .: uman
vitro parents, pregnant women who seek to abort, or white middle-class youth who sport nose sO::ettcs, . , - 2;. Christtne Anne Holmlund, "Visible Difference and Flex Appeal: The Body,
rings and tattoos is threatening, even sacrilegious to a society in the grip of cultural conserva- , S~xuality, and Race m the Pumping Iron films," in Women, Sport, and Culture 299-314· Sh R
tism and resurgent religious fundamentalism. In the waning millennium, bodybuilding is at ~~thne and Shirley Castelnuevo, "Elite Women Bodybuilders: Models of Resis~ce or C~mp:a::e;:,,;
nay and Culture, vol. 5 no. 4 (November 1992): 401-8. ·
once an arena of ever-expanding corporal potentialities and a domain where a panicked
24. Bolin, "Vandalized Vanity," 90.
I politics of bodily control seek to limit corporal experimentations through the construction of 25. Alan Klein'. "Man Makes Himself," Play and Culture, vol. 5, no. 4 (1992): 329-37 ( uote on .
the postmodern freak as pathological other. Bogdan is right in correcting Fiedler's fascinated 329), see also Klem, Little Btg Men. q P
drift in focus from "us" to "them"; our culture's "sympathy and terror" before today's freak is 26. ~am Fussell, Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder (New York: Poseidon 1991) 173·
Klem, Man Makes Himself." ' ' '
the measure of our own vexed postmodernity.
27. Klein, "Man Makes Himself," 330, 331.
28. '.'Bodybuilding is one of several sports in which diet is accorded such a high status in training and
preparmg for a contest. When bodybuilders were asked to rank the diet in term f · t I ·
NoTES importance fc •ti • s o 1 s re at1ve
1. Leslie Fiedler, Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Seif(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978). re . or competl on, It was not uncom~on for them to assign 90 to 98% of the precontest
2. David Willoughby, The Super-Athletes (New York: A. S. Barnes, 1970), 53; and Fiedler, Freaks, P paraqon, 3 to 4 months before the competition, to a strict eating program." An B Ii "Fl
i
124.
Appeal, Food, and Fat Competitive Bodybuilding, Gender, and Diet" Pla,y and Cu/tune
(November 1992): 381-82. '
~~
re, vo • , no.
~
3. Edmond Desbonnet, Les Rois de la force (Paris: Librairie Berger-Levrault, 1911).
4. Robert Bogdan, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities far Amusement and Profit (Chicago: 29. Bogdan, Freak Show, 10.
University of Chicago Press, 1988), 10. 30. Bolin, "Flex Appeal," 34.
5. David Chapman, "Gallery oflronmen: Apollon," Ironman, November 1990, 123. H!;.,,~ his_groundbreaking work Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud (Cambridge:
6. George M. Gould, M.D. and Walter L. Pyle, M.D., Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine (New Uruversity Press, 19?0), histonan Thomas Laqueur posits that the one-sex model of funda-
~ent~ resemblance and co~tmuum between males and females held from classical times through the
York: Bell, 1896).
7. David Chapman, "Gallery oflronmen: Kate Sandwina," Ironman, June 1990, 70; Armand Tanny en~ssance, but ~ve way, m the late eighteenth century, to the dichotomous two-sex model that still
and Leo Gandreau, "Iron Ladies," Muscle and Fitness, March 1985, 104-6, 210. dommates our soaal and natural sciences today.
8. Chapman, "Gallery ofironmen: Kate Sandwina," 90. 32. Muscular Development, January 1995, 87.

19
9. David Knight, The Age of Science: The Scientific World View in the Nineteenth Century (New York: ~~),~~~~a Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention ofNature (New York Routledge,
Basil Blackwell, 1986).
10. Bogdan, Freak Show, ix. 34. Cecile Lindsay, "Lyotard and the Postmodern Bodv" L'Esprit createur. vol 31 no
1991): 33-47. " , · , • 1 (Spring
11. See, e.g., Anne Bolin, "Vandalized Vanity: Feminine Physiques Portrayed and Betrayed," in
Tattoo, Torture, Mutilation, and Adornment, ed. Frances E. Mascia-Lees and Patricia Sharpe (Albany: 35. Jean-Fran,ois Lyotard, Tombeau de l'intellectuel (Paris: Galilee 1984) 73
State University of New York Press, 1992), 79-99; Susan Bordo, "Reading the Slender Body," in Body/ 36. Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women, 150. ' ' ·

366
 1 DAVID D. YUAN~

For many African Americans, including those who do not particularly like Jackson's music
his achievement retains a special significance. While Jackson was preceded by many vast!;
talented African-American musicians and entertainers, his achievement in shattering the sales
records for an album in any music category was a long-awaited moment for African Ameri-
The Celebrity Freak: Michael Jackson's cans. Jackson was told that there was a ceiling for black stars in America-the biggest black
star sttll could not surpass the biggest white star. When Jackson, irked by the fact that "They
"Grotesque Glory" call Elvis [Presley] the King," asked "Why don't they call me that?" he was advised to curb his
ambition because "'the white man will never let you be bigger than Elvis." 4 When Jackson
DAVID D. YUAN actually surpassed Presley in record sales, it was a signal event in American cultural history,
comparable to the now well-analyzed breakthroughs of Joe Louis in boxing and Jackie
Robinson in baseball.
And yet even after Jackson's highly publicized achievement, Elvis remained the King of
Rock 'n' Roll. Jackson countered with a campaign to cement his own sobriquet, "The King of
Pop," in America's cultural consciousness. He also married Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa
Marie Presley, prompting journalist Margo Jefferson to ask: Where else would Lisa Marie
Presley, who spent her childhood in "the shadow of Graceland," go "now that she is grown"
but to Jackson's Neverland? 5 Jefferson adds: "[w]ho but Michael Jackson could come close to
equaling [Elvis Presley's] power and his ultimately grotesque glory?" 6
"k h · "rtuall extinct in the West. i One might even be tempted to say that the The dilemma for Jackson is that the more loudly he has proclaimed his greatness as an
£
ThereaSOWlSVl y . "" entertainer and artist, the less the critics and the public have been interested in his multidi-
freak no longer exists; perhaps the term "freak" will soon become as ar~hru.c as sava~e or
"darky." Why is it, then, that Americans are as fixated, on freaks and freakishness tod_ay, m the mensional artistry, and the more they have been interested in the bizarre stories and allega-
late twentieth century, as they were in P. T. Barnums ttme? The tabloid press, which today tions that swirl around him. The association between Jackson and freakishness now has a long
includes television programs and on-line computer sites ~ well a~ newspapers, has more than history. For a perplexed public, it is above all what Jackson has done to himself (the cosmetic
a faint whiff of the old ten-in-one about it. Outlandish stones of three-hundre~-pound surgery, white makeup, hairdos, and costumes) and what he may have done to others that
babies, alien abductions, and Siamese twins frequently appear, but it is wh~t we might call make him freakish; he is viewed as the agent of his own "enfreakment," to use David Hevey's
tales of celebrity freakishness that today occupy the main stage. The celebrity is _already set term. 7 The "Elephant Man" (Joseph Merrick), the celebrated freak of the nineteenth century
apart from normal society: enlarged by fame and the adoration of fans, he or she soc'.alizes "."'th whom Jackson has admitted reminds him of himself, nevertheless conveys the opposite sense
other celebrities and lives a life whose richness and splendor are not beyond the fans 1magma- of enfreakment. With Merrick it is assumed that his freakishness is purely an accident of
tion, but utterly beyond the fan's experience. But the celebrity fre~ test'. the b~undanes of ac- nature, completely beyond his control or his encouragement. As Peter Graham and Fritz
ceptable, or even comprehensible, behavior. The celebrity freak at his weirdest is comparable m Oehlschlaeger argue in Articulating the Elephant Man, any notion that a modern public
the tabloid pantheon only to the extraterrestrials who c~m~e:e with him f~r _tabloid space... may entertain about Merrick is necessarily mediated by the ideologies of the physicians,
Michael Jackson, the self-designated King of Pop, is willingly or unwillingly the defimttve anthropologists, playwrights, and filmmakers who have rendered his "life" for us. 8 But the
celebrity freak of our times. At least since the mid-1980s, Jackson has been m~re famous for stark evidence of Merrick's dramatically deformed bones, the photographs and plaster casts of
his freakishness than for his talent as a singer, songwriter, and dancer. This might not be so his misshapen flesh, are silently but powerfully convincing; a man like Merrick would have
startling except for the fact that Jackson's contributio~s to Ameri~an music have been genu- had no choice about enfreakment.
inely important. The central achievement of Jacksons career is his 198_2 _album Thriller, ~e From the public's perspective, Jackson's enfreakment did not occur until after he became an
· album of all u·me , wi·th world sales of close .to 44 million. Thriller, which adult, when his behavior seemed to become progressively more bizarre and disturbing. The
b est-s elling music .
parade of weird tales about "Wacko Jacko" (the moniker the tabloid press prefers) began with
dominated popular music in the mid-1980s, was a rare commodity: a work that was genum~y
innovative and transgressive-in the sense that it broke through both arttsttc and soaal stories about Jackson sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber to prevent aging. The next big tabloid
barriers-but that was also so close to being universally accessible that it bec~me o~e of the story about Jackson (which was quickly picked up, however, by the "legitimate" press) was
greatest popular art successes in history. As critic Dave Marsh wrote prophettcally Just after that he had offered the London Hospital half a million dollars to buy the Elephant Man's
the release of Thriller; "Jackson ... has become a necessity ... for t~ose ':ho p~etend to know skeleton. It was (and continues to be) reported that Jackson has altered his face through a
about American music."2 Another reviewer proclaims that Jackson practically mvented_a new series of plastic surgeries in an effort to appear, to "be," more Caucasian and less African
genre of mass entertainment, and made himself into the most popular performer m the American. Jackson himself has said that he has vitiligo, a skin disorder that causes a patchy
3 depigmentation, and that he uses light makeup to even out the blotches. Moreover, it was
history of American music."
 ;j THE CELEBRITY FREAK f'" ;j DAVID D. YUAN f'"

rumored that Jackson is homosexual and is contemplating a sex-change operation, that he has assumptions are. It _is ~ere that Jackson and his audience appear to diverge. Initially, the
been castrated or that he takes special drugs to preserve his high, boyish v01ce; it was also audience receives a_ vica~10us :hrill from Jackson's acting out of corporeal transgression(s). But
reported that Iackson is obsessed with the_ actress _Elizabeth Taylm, has built a shrine to her eventual!~ the ~µdience s desire that the celebrity fulfill a particular identity (racial pioneer,
in his home, and has invited her to sleep with him m his hyperbanc chamber. Less facet10usly, sexless children s entertamer, heterosexual or homosexual erotic hero) overwhelms their toler-
Jackson, the man who would be a savior to all the world'~ children, was accused of sexually ance for J:ckson as a mercurial figure "morphing" effortlessly from role to role. The plasticity
molesting a young boy who was a guest at his estate. A cn_mmal mvesttgat10n was launched, of Jacksons persona becomes a strategy for eluding the audience.
but both criminal and civil cases against Jackson were dismissed after Jackson settled the civil I propose two categories, "static enfreakment" and "plastic freakishness," to distinguish
case out of court-a move that ensured that rumors and doubts about his conduct would be~een how the au~ience perceives_ J a~kson, and the enfreakment that Jackson fears the
a~dienc_e is trymg to impose upon him. The human curiosity at the dime museum or the
continue. .
While I was in the midst of tracing the history of Jackson's enfreakment and thinking arcus sideshow epitomizes static enfreakment: he or she is a silent unmoving 0 b;ect of th
di ' ' J e
about its implications for American culture, Jackson, now thirty-seven, released his album au ence s ga~e, _to be looked at while the showman runs through his spiel. The Elephant
HIStory: Past, Present and Future Book 1, in which he attempts to do_ the same. The. dou~le Man began his life as such a spectacle, and after he died his skeleton became the ultimate in
album divides neatly into "Past" and "Present" sections: disc 1 is a review of his old hits; disc static curiosities when it was put on display in a glass case at the London Hospital, which had
2 introduces :fifteen new songs, in which Jackson reviews his recent and not so recent personal bee~, his ~ome. I: the static curiosity is that which has been fixed, frozen, stuffed, or pickled,
history. "Tabloid Junkie" looks back at the early Jackson myths (the hyperbaric chamber,;tc.); the plasttc freak. by contrast is free to move and moves to remain free. The plastic freak
"Scream" and other songs seem to examine the more recent child-abuse scandal and the pre~s seeks to. elude fixity _and definition; his "true" identity remains hidden as he weaves images
and stones around himself to arouse curiosity. 10 As Jackson himself once put it: "the bott
abuse" that Jackson claims he has suffered. The "future" the album's title alludes to is
vaguer and more elusive than Jackson's past ~r present,_ perh~ps b~cause ~ackson's ~ture a~ a
Iine 1s
. th. ey don't know and everyone is going to continue searching to find out whether I'm =
professional entertainer is largely to be decided by his audience s reactton to this massive gay, straight, or whatever.... And the longer it takes to discover this the more famous I will
be." 11 '
retrospective/prospective work. As its title suggests, the album and booklet_ sum u~ all the
showmanship, humbug, and artistic brilliance that Jackson has been perfecttng m his thirty Jackson's goal is to be freakish enough to arouse a restless public's interest, but not so
freakish that fans are shocked or repulsed by him. But Jackson feels he must avoid static
years of performing. . . . , .
It is impossible to examine here all of the fasanatmg details ofJacksons life and art that enfreakment above all; he must always be moving, evolving, transforming himself. In the
are relevant to his freakish image: his childhood; the network of references to monsters, world of pop en~ertainment, stasis means a weakening of one's grip on the public; entertainers
animals and freaks in his albums and music videos; his penchant for fantastic disguises; the n_ot on the c~ttmg edge_ soon become irrelevant. Stasis means allowing the mystery that is
symbolic richness of the cinematic and circus memorabilia that decorate his Neverl~d estate, ;1tal to celebrity to be dissolved under the fixed gaze of a public intent on koowing all there
and so on. Therefore, I have largely restricted my analysis to two classic publicity stunts is to koow. The theme runnmg through Jackson's music videos, for example, is escape and
conceived by Jackson himself-the hyperbaric chamber photograph and the Elephant Man metamorphosis: Jackson metamorphoses from man to zombie, from man to animal, from
skeleton hoax-and to the physical examination Jackson was forced to undergo dmmg the man to cyborg 1n an attempt to escape fans, reporters, or cartoon-like villains.
police departtnent's investigation into the child-molestation charges. I will also situate my Stasis is the common theme running through the hyperbaric chamber and Elephant Man
analysis of these events against the "narrative" of Jackson's body suggeste_d by his frequent ho":"es, as well as Jackson's examination ordeal. The Elephant Man's skeleton in its glass
bodily alterations. My assumption throughout is that Jackson defines freakishness differently cabmet and the memorably eerie photograph of Jackson "asleep" in the hyperbaric chamber
I than does his audience. Thus we need to understand both how Jackson manipulates his own evoke a sense of a life arrested; a living being once capable of responding to its environment
enfreakment (his efforts to encourage or subvert enfreakment) and how the audience and its has been reduced to a static curiosity that will remain conveniently silent while it is gawked at
culture participate in the construction of the freak. . . by spectators. The police department's examination of his body constitutes for Jackson the
Both Jackson and his audience perceive freakishness as a type of theatncalized transgres- most threatening and abject example of static enfreakment. (It is not appropriate to debate
sion. Like the classic freak show with its hermaphrodite, its African albino, and the like, here whether such an examination was warranted, or speculate about Jackson's sexual conduct.
Jackson's public persona challenges boundaries of gender, sexuality, and race. In fact, this Whether Jackson is guilty or innocent of child molestation, the relation of his examination to
violation of or blurring of boundaries is integral to Jackson's nse to superstar status. The a history of institutionalized racial humiliation and abjection and to the classic freak show
freakish transgression draws attention to the fact that a cultural valu_e has been constructed remain issues relevant to this discussion.)
around a particular physical characteristic: skin color and texture, havm~ identtfia~ly male_ or In_ ~983, Fred Astaire, impressed by Jackson's galvanizing performance during a Motown
female sexual characteristics, the presence or absence of hair on certam body sites, having televis10n special, telephoned to congratulate him, praising him for being "an angry dancer"
fewer or more limbs than is "normal," the size and shape of the head, and so on. Whether the and "a hell of a mover." 12 Astaire summed up the essence of Jackson's public persona in a
freakish attribute challenges or ratifies the reigning ideology of the body is a complex_ issu~, word: ''mover." Jackson's art exists in the combination of his hyper.kinetic, explosive yet subtle
involving not only the performer, but how the performer is presented and what the audiences dance "moves" with the lyrics and music of his songs; this is why Jackson has always insisted

JJI
 -;1 DAVID D. YUAN~
-ij THE CELEBRITY FREAK~

Heth, th~ Feejee Mermaid, the Cardiff Giant, etc.) when he concocted his own hoaxes (the
that his videos are the real measure of his achievements. Jackson is doing something more hyperbanc chamber an~ Elephant Man skeleton myths). Furthermore, Jackson would seem
encompassing than "dancing." Not just specific dance steps, but every gesture, every facial to subscnbe to _Barnums !me of justification for humbug: any publicity is good publicity, and
expression, and every detail of his costume signify during Jackson's best performances. a good hoax serves the.public good by sharpening the wits of the citizenry. 1' It is intriguing
What is Jackson's famous "moonwalk" if not a theatricalization of the admonition in Ralph that _many of Barnums hoaxes played with a similar dialectic between static and plastic
Ellison's Invisible Man to "move without moving?" 13 To "move without moving" suggests an freakishness: the Cardiff Giant was supposed to be the calcified remains of a gen · · t·
even more difficult project: to transgress without transgressing. The pop star must be able to th 1' · M "d ume g,an ,
e eeJee ermai was actually a mo~key torso grafted onto a fish's body and tail; and
break rules and boundaries while somehow holding on to his wholesome image. Elvis Presley, Barnum encouraged speculat10n that Joice Heth might not even be human but th
whose success pushed at class and racial barriers in the postwar United States, was also a fi d" hi ali · b , ra er a
en_ is Y re stic ro ot._ These hoaxes played with the distinction between the animate and
transgressive "mover" and, to many, a freakish figure. Presley's critics were outraged before the the 1narumate, the orgaruc and the inorganic, much as Jackson's music videos and hoaxes do.
unforgivable spectacle of a sexy, young white man who had learned to sing and move like a For all that the ~ress has done to_ cement Jackson's reputation as the ultimate celebrity freak,
black entertainer (e.g., Presley's famous pelvic gyrations). As his fame reached national Jackson hims_elf mitiated the tablmd sensationalism in the mid-1980s, when he conceived of
proportions, Presley too had to tackle the tricky problem of "moving without moving," vis-a.- the hyperbaric chamber and the Elephant Man skeleton hoaxes. The hyperbaric chamber
vis his breakthrough performance on television's Ed Sullivan Show. The network crudely story appeared fir_st. After Jackson was burned during the filming of a Pepsi commercial, in
solved the "problem'' by simply refusing to show the lower half of Presley's body. If Presley's January 1984, he mspected an oxygen (hyperbaric) chamber used to heal serious burn victims
moving and singing like a black man seemed freakish and grotesque to white mainstream even though ~s burns were not extensive enough to require hyperbaric treatment. Reported!;,
society, it also defined his contribution to American culture. On the other hand, NBC's when Ja~ksons plastic surgeon theorized that the hyperbaric chamber might be used to
transformation of Presley into a cathode-tube "half man" or "legless wonder" on the Ed pro!ong hfe, Jackson thought of buying one. After his manager, Frank Dileo, talked him out
Sullivan Show rendered him a genuinely abject spectacle, even as Presley's appearance on the of it, J~ckson developed the notion of using the hyperbaric chamber as a publicity stunt,
14 concocting the story that he wanted to sleep m the chamber every night so that he could live
show vastly expanded his fame.
In the most general sense, Jackson, like Presley, could not avoid freakishness. The very to be a hundre~ and fifty years old. Jackson instructed Dileo to manage the publicity. Dileo
achievement that makes a Jackson a popular culture innovator must be riskily won by the made a deal with the National Enquirer: he gave the paper the photo of Jackson in the
performance of a transgressive act. Indeed, Jackson is potentially much more transgressive and hyperbanc ch~ber 1n ';ch~~ge f~~ the guarantee of"a cover feature." 20 Later, Dileo planted
threatening than the typical sideshow freak; Jackson is not ensconced in a socially marginal the hoax-story m the leg1t1mate press by convincing a publicist who did not work for
context (the sideshow) that is only seasonally accessible to mainstream society. The trans- Jackson to te_stify that the entertainer was indeed sleeping in the special chamber.
gressive acts performed by a mass media star like Jackson are much more likely to "contami- . The resulting photograph (fig. 26.1) is one of the most compellingly eerie of all the exhibits
nate" the public as his records and videos circulate worldwide. m the tabloids' "Wacko Jacko'.' collection. The coffin-like hyperbaric chamber has a glass shell
The history of American entertainment (and Jackson's own place in that history) is never that allows a head-to-foot vtew of Jackson, dressed in striped shirt and dark trousers but
far from Jackson's mind. 15 He has made it clear that he believes African-American music shoeless, eyes closed; below_Jackson's chin, a beam of light bounces off the glass, adding a
should not be relegated to "sideshow" status in American cultural history. Jackson (who once magic~ dazzle to the portrait. Dials, buttons, and something that looks like a radio receiver
performed a pseudo-minstrel number with Paul McCartney) would surely wish to challenge are vts_ible belo"'. the glass shell, on the machine's massive base. The photograph is richly
the ideological basis of classic blackface minstrelsy, in which African Americans16are allowed evoca~ve, both m terms of J ackso'.'s _private i~aginings and the public myths of popular
to be present to American culture only by being literally absent (from the stage). The story American culture. Many of Jacksons videos are 1n a science fiction vein: "Smooth Criminal"
ofJackson's own professional evolution has him developing from a helpless and unaware naif feamr:es Jackson transforming himself into an enormous cyborg (a rocket-powered man/
(an eight-year-old star manipulated by his powerful father) to become an immensely powerful machi_ne hybnd) as he defends the world's children from an evil drug-pusher· "Dancing
captain of his own destiny and the destinies of many others who are dependent on him in one Machine" features a gyrating "female" robot; "Ben" contrasts Michael's sweet s~ging with
way or another, including the press. It is important to recognize how the oft-told history of s~ary s~enes of an ec~logical disaster-a world overrun by rats. A common image in the
Michael Jackson's rise to stardom resembles the institutional history of African-American vtdeo~ is Ja~kson fleem~, often from fans, in rocket-ships or other futuristic, jet-powered
entertainment-and the institutional history of the freak showP machi_nes-Jet cars or Jet motorcydes, for example. If Jackson's videos typically act out
After Michael left the Jackson 5 to develop himself as a solo star, he was finally able to fant_asies of escape and metamorphosis, the hyperbaric chamber image seems to celebrate the
exercise complete control over his career. He swiftly began to reshape his musical approach, stasis he so assiduously avoids. The contrast between the eerily still Jackson in this photogra h
but he also eagerly began to participate in the broader task of promoting and marketing and Jackson the consumma_te "mover" onstage or Jackson the protean superhero in ts
himself. Having left the Jehovah's Witnesses, Jackson gave his manager a copy of a book carto~n-like VIdeos 1s stunnmg. The hyperbaric chamber image suggests death even as it
about P. T. Barnum's "theories and philosophies," telling him "[t]his is going to be my bible tantalizes us with the pronnse of eternal life- surely it is no coincidence that his waxy pallor
and I want it to be yours" and adding "I want my whole career to be the greatest show on makes him look like a cadaver or a vampire in its coffin. If this is eternal life, there is
earth." 18 Jackson would undoubtedly have been aware of Barnum's famous hoaxes (Joice

373
372
~ THE CELEBRITY FREAK t,:-
~ DAVID D. YUAN f;-

something distinctly sinister about it. (Note the photograph's gothic flourishes: how the long
fingers of Jackson's left hand extend spider-like on the white sheet he lies on.)
Why should Jackson display himself in this bizarre way? What did he think he would gain
by disseminating this image and the strange legend that accompanied it? First, there is no
doubt that Jackson succeeded in attracting vast publicity without singing a note or dancing a
step. As a piece of showmanship, the hyperbaric chamber hoax represented a kind of experi-
ment in audience control. Jackson may have surmised that if the public believed this outland-
ish tale, then they would believe anything- and a gullible audience is readily manipulated to
the showman's advantage. Beyond this show business utility, the hoax carefully reflected
Jackson's ambivalence about celebrity. The hyperbaric chamber seems to offer up an utterly
motionless, helpless Michael to his eager fans. And yet Jackson hermetically sealed in his
glass chamber is, while absolutely visible, also absolutely untouchable. This tableau is an acute
summary of the celebrity's existence: the celebrity is forever being observed, but real intimacy
with him is impossible. At this level, the hyperbaric chamber image reflects Jackson's fantasies
of the all-consuming audience: his autobiography, Moonwalk, presents Jackson as constantly
in danger of being consumed by his admirers, literally picked apart for souvenirs-a swath of
his shirt, a clump of hair and scalp.
~
By contrast, fans interviewed about Jackson stress his almost perfect inaccessibility, his
0
~
0 squadrons of bodyguards and retainers, the hired police who accompany him to the tall gates
-"'
P-< of his walled estate. For Jackson, the hyperbaric chamber might represent a hopeless fantasy
) "d
about protecting himself from damage or "contamination'' by the public (Jackson, after all,
""
~ wears a surgical mask when he goes out in public). For all his elaborate protections, Jackson
0
"d has confessed that he is still afraid of people and what they might do to him. For the public,
~ the hyperbaric chamber and the accompanying story might be taken as fact, and Jackson's
~
4-<
rather self-parodic fantasy of purity and untouchability accepted without irony. Conversely,
0 the photograph's evocation of contamination brings to mind Jackson's role as a cultural
~ transgressor: a marginal figure in terms of race and class who nevertheless realized the
0
~
~
0
Promethean feat of becoming the world's most popular entertainer. Jackson has often por-
u trayed himself as the messianic superstar who is feared even as he saves the world. 21
Jackson, approaching middle age, has increasingly been compelled to build monuments to
himself (like the gray Jackson statue featured on the cover of his latest album and in the
accompanying video). Even the hyperbaric chamber image can be viewed as a kind of
monument to an immortal celebrity whose grip over the future is as secure as his grip over
the past. During the Soviet reign, Lenin, icily preserved in a glass display coffin, was one of
the most popular spectacles in the world, viewed by millions of worshipful fans every year.
The telling contradiction for Jackson is that he finds the idea of himself as the object of this
sort of personality cult attractive, even as it provokes the very stasis he has been running from
for so long.
Jackson's "success" with the hyperbaric chamber photograph prompted another hoax: the
tale of his pursuit of the Elephant Man's skeleton. The parallel between Jackson in his
hyperbaric chamber wd the Elephant Man in his glass cabinet is clear: both present a static
curiosity to be gawked at by spectators. Jackson's interest in the Elephant Man was piqued by
the 1980 film The Elephant Man directed by David Lynch. Reportedly, Jackson watched the
film fifteen times in his private screening room, crying all the way through it. 22 ]. Randy
Taraborrelli writes that Jackson, like Merrick, was "an outsider ... searching endlessly for

374
375
 1 THE CELEBRITY FREAK!,- 1 DAVID D. YUAN I,-

love and acceptance." 23 Jackson's interest deepened after he read medical books on the For many, the Elephant Man epitomizes primary, "natural" freakishness. But as Articulating
Elephant Man's condition, culminating in a visit to the London Hospital Medical College, the Elephant Man argues, even Merrick's freakishness cannot be understood without interro-
where he inspected the Elephant Man's skeleton. In May 1987 after his visit, Jackson gating the culture in which he lived. Graham and Oehlschlaeger view Jackson and Merrick as
concocted the scheme to make an offer for the skeleton as a publicity stunt.Jackson's manager "protean'' figures who are "partly innate, partly made, and partly reflected"; both became
was asked to handle the publicity from there, and Dileo announced that Jackson, impressed public spectacles and both sought to achieve "the triumph of grace over awkwardness." 29
by "the ethical, medical, and historical significance of the Elephant Man," had offered the Impressed by these parallels between Jackson and Merrick, they are compelled to ask if
London Hospital Medical College half a million dollars for his skeleton. In fact, Jackson had Jackson should be seen as "a fellow sufferer existing between celebrity and freak-gazed at,
made no such offer to the Medical College at the time. 24 UPI and the Associated Press, appropriated, and reduced to the role he plays, colonized by the dominant values of his
however, quickly picked up on the story and spread it throughout the world. Reporters culture? Might an enormously successful black entertainer consider the Elephant Man his
subsequently thought to contact the London Hospital to corroborate the story and were told Victorian counterpart?" 30
that no offer had been made for the skeleton; moreover, the skeleton was not for sale. Dileo Has Jackson been "reduced" to a prepared role, and "colonized" by his culture? In my view,
allegedly urged Jackson to make a genuine offer to buy the skeleton, which Jackson agreed to. Jackson would not have been so feverishly popular, nor would he have aroused such a variety
After Dileo offered one million dollars for the skeleton on Jackson's behalf (the higher of intense responses (curiosity, reverence, skepticism, devotion, disgust, etc.), if he had never
amount creating the appearance of a tense bidding war for the remains), a London Hospital escaped from a prepared role in American culture. But this is not to say that the question of
spokeswoman curtly informed the press: "If indeed [Jackson] has offered to buy it, it would colonization is irrelevant to Jackson's enfreakment. We see Jackson's dilemma most clearly in
be for publicity and I find it very unlikely that the medical college would be willing to sell it his effort to shatter prepared roles and to transgress, but to do so without offending. Jackson
for cheap publicity reasons." 25 Jackson, apparently, never did acquire the skeleton, although must move without moving; to transgress too boldly means the censure of angry parents,
rumors persist that he did (as late as 1993, Jackson was still being asked about it). 26 newspaper columnists, and pressure groups (Jackson's most recent controversy is over the
It is intriguing to imagine Jackson, having watched Lynch's Elephant Man over and over alleged anti~Semitism of his song "They Don't Care About Us"). IfJackson has been assigned
again, being compelled to visit the London Hospital and see the archaeological evidence of a role, it is the unenviable one of being a G-rated controversial artist. But if this is a role that
Merrick's predicament for himself, rather than depending solely on the movie's version of his record company and others would like him to accept, it is still Jackson who has decided to
Merrick's life. Bones are primary evidence, or at least we like to think so. If there is an accept it.
overarching reason for the relentless press interest in Jackson, it is that the press never seems If Graham and Oehlschlaeger argue too one-sidedly for Jackson's victimization by a
to penetrate down to Jackson's "bones," down to the "real" man. Jackson, who has very dominant culture, other critics err in insisting that Jackson alone is implicated in his en-
deliberately avoided static enfreakment, has so far proved too mercurial, too elusive to be freakment. For example, his claims that there are medical reasons for some of the body
categorically "known." The enigmas continue to multiply: ls Jackson a child molester or a alterations he has initiated have often been dismissed or ignored. Jackson's claims must be
child savior? Does he suffer from vitiligo, discoid lupus, or some as yet unnamed skin examined critically, but many of his critics appear to make the same mistake that Barnum
disorder? Was his marriage to Lisa Marie Presley a loveless corporate merger, or a genuine claimed his critics made: they carry skepticism so far that they "will sometimes deceive
love affair? themselves by being too incredulous." 31 In other words, we can acknowledge Jackson's
Whether or not Jackson was ever serious about owning the skeleton, his interest in the manipulation of enfreakment while also acknowledging the plausibility of some of his claims.
Elephant Man does not appear to have faded when the London Hospital Medical College If Jackson does have vitiligo (and the police department's examination in 1993 indicates that
dismissed his offer. In his music video "They Don't Care About Us" Jackson even dances with he does have either vitiligo or a symptomatically related disorder), that alone supplies a
an animator's fantastic rendition of the Elephant Man's bones: a skeletal human figure on surprisingly rich ground for an "affinity" with Merrick. The traditional diagnosis of Merrick's
which is superimposed a genuine elephant's massive skull and tusks. No textual reference to disorder was that he had a severe form of neurofibromatosis. This diagnosis has very recently
the Elephant Man appears in Jackson's autobiography, but an arresting black-and-white been corrected, but the medical books Jackson would have consulted about the Elephant Man
photograph of Jackson dressed in dancing regalia (fedora and glove) does appear to be a in the mid-1980s would have offered the neurofibromatosis diagnosis-and since this disease
reference to the Elephant Man. Graham and Oehlschlaeger describe the parallels: "His hat, affects skin pigmentation, medical textbooks typically discuss it'together with vitiligo, partial
curls, and contorted profile with puffed-out upper lip suggest Merrick's large, lumpy head. albinism, and other dermatological disorders. 32 Thus it is possible, even probable, that while
The twist of the torso and partial bend to the legs give an impression of spinal curvature and Jackson perused a medical book for information on the Elephant Man's disease, he stumbled
hip misalignment.... [One] hand has a blurred, flipperlike quality." 27 However, they view on a discussion of his own disorder-or vice-versa. The empathy Jackson might already have
Jackson's evocation of the Elephant Man's deformities somewhat skeptically: "Dandiacal self- been feeling for the Elephant Man would have been ratified by the manner in which medical
deformity is as piquant a sauce for Jackson as high-life fantasies were for Merrick.'' 28 But the classification had associated the two disorders.
more one examines Jackson's life, the less frivolous his affinity for Merrick seems. One can Moreover, Jackson's alleged vitiligo suggests another dimension to his complex self-image.
criticize Jackson's excessive self-pity, but I believe his identification with the Elephant Man is There is a long history in the United States and Europe of blacks with curiously mottled skin
sincere-albeit still "dandiacal," or theatrical, in part. A capacity for taking his dandyism being exhibited in dime museums, circuses, and carnivals as well as at medical colleges and
seriously is something that Merrick would have shared with Jackson. academies of science (see fig. 26.2). Jackson may very well have learned about this aspect of

377
 4 THE CELEBRITY FREAK~ ~ DAVID D. YUAN f
l
One of his stage maneuvers is a measured sort of striptease: while performing a series of
complicated dance moves, he slips his jacket and shirt from around his shoulders, revealing
his naked torso; he turns to face the audience and freezes for just an instant-'and then he
covers himself and is once again in fluid, rapid motion. The point is that Jackson's "exposure"
is extraordinarily brief, measured, and utterly within the performer's control. Moreover, as the
most recent interviews with Jackson suggest, even instances of blatant "exposure" such as his
onstage striptease may not be what they seem; cunning makeup and even plastic surgeries
might be mediating between the audience and the object of its desire. And yet if this piece of
stagecraft is successful, Jackson will have succeeded in titillating his audience with what
appears to be a bold gesture: a celebrity relinquishing his bodily privacy, literally giving
himself to us. 34
Jackson's face has become the site for much of the debate over his freakishness. Many
critics (including Michael's brother Jermaine) complain that the purpose of his nose surgeries
and his white makeup is to retreat from his African-American heritage; Michael explains that
he uses makeup because he wants to cover up his vitiligo blotches. But neither the accusations
nor Jackson's explanations are fully satisfying. If Jackson had merely wanted to look Caucasian,
he could have done so without taking his cosmetic reconstruction nearly as far as he has. And
if disguising vitiligo blotches was his sole object, Jackson might have used dark makeup to
cover them rather than the clown-like white makeup he uses. Taraborrelli points to evidence
that the real meaning behind the facial alterations is Jackson's wish to look as little like his
father as possible. 35 But Jackson's mask-like public face is too outre to be explained in these
rather pedestrian ways. Jackson has constructed for himself a mask that calls attention to the
fact that it is a mask; one does not have to do that if the goal is simply to look white, or to
erase the family resemblance.
26.2. This "Leopard Child," who appears to have The most reasonable explanation for Jackson's cosmetic remodeling is that he is pursuing
vitiligo, was exhibited by P. T. Barnum at the all of the aforementioned goals at once-and reaching beyond them. His former wife Lisa
American Museum. Photograph by Mathew
Marie Presley offers a more revealing analysis of Jackson: "He's an artist ... if he sees an
Brady. The Meserve Collection at the National
Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. imperfection, he changes it, he's constantly remodifying something, reconstructing himself,
resculpting himself." 36 Presley's analysis brings the controversy over Jackson's body back to
the issue of plasticity. Thus Jackson's bodily reconstruction becomes the most spectacular
the sideshow, given his keen interest in theater history, Barnum, and freaks. Whatever the demonstration of his power over "natural history": he refuses to be limited by inherited traits.
extent of Jackson's awareness of "Human Leopards" and "Spotted Families," he has admitted Does Jackson defy natural history out of a hatred for his father? Does he defy inherited racial
to feeling extremely self-conscious about performing while suffering from vitiligo, even characteristics because he is ashamed to be black? Persistently queried about the racial issue,
though the evidence of his disorder is hidden. Jackson has always replied, predictably, that he is proud to be black. 37 His face, the site of so
Against the intertwined historical background of blacks as physical curiosities and blacks as much controversy and interpretation, reveals that his cosmetic project is more inclusive than
entertainers, Jackson's body remains enigmatic, but at least we are now able to situate the his critics maintain. The point is not to so much to exclude blackness or his paternity, but to
enigma itself in a meaningful historical context. If the Leopard Child represents the static include all the things Jackson is not supposed to be. The effect of Jackson's alterations is to
enfreakment of a human curiosity, Jackson's goal is obviously to defy this fate. If his role as a make him look androgynous rather than feminine, multiracial rather than ablack" or "white."
boundary-breaking pop entertainer necessarily entails a degree of enfreakment, Jackson means Jackson, long fascinated by his Asian fans, has given himself eyes that look more Asian than
to use enfreakment itself to excite and manipulate his audience, while always trying to remain Caucasian. Color photographs of Jackson show that he varies his facial skin tone a great deal:
at least one step ahead of us. 33 The Leopard Child would likely have performed in silence often it is extremely white, but sometimes it is much darker, closer to bronze. It is as if
while a professional talker "presented" the condition that made him a curiosity; like the Jackson, who has long aimed at entertaining all the world's peoples despite profound differ-
Elephant Man in the Lynch movie's grim sideshow scenes, the Leopard Child might well ences of language, culture, and race, has tried to make himself look the part of the universal
have been obliged to strip entirely at the climax of his performance, or at least come as close entertainer. The modification of his face allows him to appear utterly unique, and in appearing
to total nudity as possible. Physical exposure is fundamental to Jackson's performance as well. unique he becomes accessible to everyone. Jackson in his public makeup and costume looks

378 379
 1 THE CELEBRITY FREAK f 1 DAVID D. YUAN f

like nothing so much as a meticulously indeterminate cartoon character in a Disney movie: has been most widely disseminated, and it is the public's impression of the event that is
the hybrid, not-quite-Indian Pocahontas or the not-quite-Semitic Aladdin. Jackson has made important to this analysis. At any rate, the essentials of the story were verified by Jackson
his face into a "grotesque" in the sense that it has become a complex amalgam of signifying himself in a press conference he held two days after he was examined. If the most immediate
characteristics that together prevent Jackson from being "read" or typed in conventional ways: threat to Jackson was prosecution, he was nevertheless equally concerned about the threat to
the boundaries of race, gender, and age do not seem to apply to Jackson. his public image. It turned out to be the latter threat that sustained itself; tlie threat of
And yet the spectacle of Jackson's "whiteface" mask often astonishes and offends because prosecution was quickly scuttled by a settlement rumored to be in the millions of dollars.
its strangeness compels us to examine how culture constructs meanings around bodily differ- Ultimately, what counted in the Jackson sex scandal was the classic struggle he had been
ences-and the fact that such constructed meanings are often irrational. Thus Jackson's waging virtually his entire life: the struggle to control his image, avoid static enfreakment,
putatively comforting explanation that he uses cosmetics only to disguise his vitiligo lesions and maintain his aura of mystery. Jackson rightly perceived the examination as an effort to
serves not so much to settle the matter as to provoke a deeper question: Why do we call strip away his public persona and discover the "intimate" facts about him. Such an effort,
vitiligo a "disease" if its only "symptoms" are cosmetic? Is the anxiety and discomfort, the dis- however legal, was viewed by Jackson as having ramifications that went well beyond the
ease, of our neighbors enough to constitute "sickness"? For other critics, Jackson's face may be specific allegations he faced. For Jackson, the examination was an assault not only on his right
seen as a kind of brutal caricature of the more subtle efforts many undergo every day to to "privacy" (which even the noncelebrity enjoys) but on his right to preserve the mysterious-
lighten themselves and reap the social and economic rewards believed to be bestowed on the ness of his public persona. Moreover, the molestation scandal threatened to explode the
lighter-skinned in our society. 38 Is Jackson's face offensive because it compels us to examine oxymoronic role that Jackson had tried to live out for so long: the role of harmless transgressor.
the role of complexion (not simply "race") in constructing a social hierarchy? Jackson's once playful sexual ambiguity seemed to be hardening into a tangibly abhorrent
Hopefully this chapter has already indicated why the physical inspection Jackson underwent perversion. The physical examination, which sought to interpret vitiligo markings as if they
in 1993 (the inspection and filming of his body and its vitiligo lesions) was a realization of his were hieroglyphs, and the FBI's anthropometric "proof' that Jackson fit the profile of the
worst fears. The parallel between Jackson's inspection ordeal and the freak show is clear, child molester were from this perspective attempts to "fix" Jackson, classify his body and his
although the involuntary condition of the inspection made it a more genuinely abject situa- character, and dispel all ambiguities. 43
tion. Jackson, devotee of Lynch's Elephant Man, might well have had that movie's grim Jackson understood, then, that the press conference he held to offer his version of the
sideshow scenes or perhaps the later scenes at the medical theater in mind as he anticipated examination's meaning would be crucial-even if his court cases were dismissed. His appeal
his own inspection. was written carefully with help from his advisors. The four-minute press conference was first
According to biographer Christopher Andersen, the inspection was performed early in the broadcast live worldwide on CNN and then again on the network evening news. In his
Justice Department's investigation (December 1993) because police were concerned that statement Jackson proclaimed his innocence and called for a "speedy end to this horrifying,
I I Jackson had already begun to alter the markings on and around his genitals and torso, horrifying experience." He demanded: "Don't treat me like a criminal, because I am innocent."
markings that prosecutors would use to corroborate the alleged victim's claim that he "had an The focus of his statement, however, was on the "dehumanizing and humiliating" physical
intimate knowledge of Michael's body." 39 When Jackson's attempts to avoid the inspection inspection: "They served a search warrant on me which allowed them to view and photograph
failed, he was duly examined at his N everland estate by a team of two police officers, one my body, including my penis, my buttocks, my lower torso, thighs, and any other areas that
police department physician, one still photographer, and one videographer. A distraught they wanted .... It was the most humiliating ordeal of my life .... But if this is what I have
Jackson pleaded, "Please, do I have to go through with this?" but to no avail. Reportedly, the . b . ,,44
to endure to prove my innocence, so e 1t.
police were specifically trying to verify the plaintiff's description of Jackson as being "half Whatever Jackson's innocence or guilt, his speech was riveting and powerful. He not only
black and half white," and having black rings around his thighs and buttocks and "pink-white firmly denied any wrongdoing, he allowed the viewer to imagine how degrading it would be
vitiligo blotches around his genitals." 40 The photographer and videographer "circled him for an innocent man to be examined in such a way by the authorities. Jackson's statement
slowly, making a painstaking visual record" of Jackson's lower body for about five minutes, evokes both recent and historical encounters between blacks and the law: the Rodney King
after which Jackson cried "Make them stop!" The men stopped photographing him, but then beating, Clarence Thomas's self-described "high-tech lynching," the studied persecution and
Jackson was examined by the physician, "who spent another fifteen minutes scribbling down humiliation of blacks by police during and preceding the civil rights movement. One of the
detailed· notes about the distinguishing characteristics of Michael's buttocks and genitalia." tragedies endemic to a nation with a history of legalized racial injustice is that an event like
Allegedly, the Santa Barbara District Attorney had wanted the physician to "measure the size the examination of Jackson's body carries with it racist overtones, whatever the specific legal
of Jackson's genitals and the dimensions of the skin discolorations ... but Cochran [Johnnie necessity invoked by authorities, and whether Jackson is guilty or innocent of the charges.
Cochran, Jackson's attorney at the time] successfully fought that request." 41 However, it does not seem that Jackson has been entirely successful in reversing the damage
The accuracy of the details included in this account may never be fully verified; Andersen the molestation scandal wrought. The press still keeps a watchful eye on Jackson whenever he
has not named his sources. 42 Both the criminal and civil court cases against Jackson were is around children. Jackson's ability to manipulate the press and reinvent his public image is
dismissed after he settled the civil case. The police records are obviously confidential. My still formidable, but his assumption that he can completely master the audience was always
reason for repeating Andersen's version of the event is that his account (and related versions) false; the apparent failure of the HIStory album to reach the lofty sales goals set for it

380
 -;1 THE CELEBRITY FREAK f
T
I
-;1 DAVID D. YUAN f
', !,

despite a vast promotion campaign is the most recent _evidence of that. Jackson's contrived the Jackson 5 to actually confront Berry Gordy and demand that the group have more control over the
"controversies" have a way of getting out of his control, and unplanned controversies have a "'product" (Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson, 426). For more on Jackson's early career, see Jackson, Moon-
way of upstaging his best-laid plans. walk; and Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson.
18. Qy.oted in Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson, 426.
On the other hand, Jackson's public still cannot claim to have an "intimate knowledge" of
19. P. T. Barnum, Struggles and Triumphs, ed. Carl Bode (New York: Penguin, 1981), 120.
the pop star either; they still have not penetrated his mystery. After his December 1993 press 20. Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson, 426.
conference, "lie detection'' experts pounced on the tape of his testimony: one consultant 21. In the climax to Jackson's Smooth Criminal film, his cyborg identity is finally revealed to his
declared, "The stress in Jackson's voice shows that he's lying." 45 But the would-be anthropo- adoring band of child-fans, but significantly this revelation terrifies the childr~n eve~ as cyborg-Ja~~on
metrists who claim to have discovered the incontrovertible truth about Jackson have never rescues them from the sadistic drug-pushing villain. Jackson as planetary messiah, finng nuclear missiles
from his steel knuckles before flying off to a distant star, is awful in the biblical sense, and thus intimacy
been convincing. Jackson, for his part, has failed to accept that his deliberate indeterminacy
with him, like intimacy with Yahweh, is charged with danger even for the faithful. At Madame
will always allow the audience to imagine its own version of his character, his longings, and Tussaud's Wax Museum in London-a favorite sightseeing destination for Jackson-the wax figure of
his motives. If Jackson's fans and critics are denied the final knowledge that they are feverishly Adolf Hitler, unlike any of the other figures, is housed in its own glass cabinet. I was told that without
',I
pursuing and are instead forced to invent it, his bid to control his audience is equally fruitless. the glass cabinet the despised Hitler's figure would doubtless be vandalized; in ~act, dri~d _spitt1:e w~s
visible on the outer glass. Tussaud's "Hitler" needs to be protected from the public, but his 1Solation m
a glass cage (like a poisonous reptile at the zoo) suggests the notion that the public still needs t~ be
NOTES
protected from him, too. Jackson himself is also represented at Tussaud's museum, where he elljoys
1. Robert Bogdan, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit (Chicago:
posing next to his wax double for publicity photos.
University of Chicago Press, 1988), 2.
22. Christopher Andersen, Michael Jackson: Unauthorized (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994),
2. Dave Marsh and John Swenson, eds., The New Rolling Stone Record Guide, rev. ed. (New York:
79.
Random House, 1983), 248.
23. Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson, 431.
3. Excerpt from a review published in The New Yorker. Q,toted in J. Randy Taraborrelli, Mi~hael
24. Ibid., 431.
Jackson: The Magic and the Madness (New York: Ballantine, 1992), i.
25. Ibid., 432.
4. Don King, quoted in Taraborrelli, Michael]ackson, 445. 26. Jackson told Oprah Winfrey that it was just "Another stupid story. Where am I gonna put some
5. The Neverland ranch is Jackson's estate in California. Margot [sic] Jefferson, "Michael, Lisa, bones, and why would I want them?" (Michael Jackson, interview with Oprah Winfrey, ABC, 10
Diane and a Greek Chorus." New York Times @times top news online, America Online, 25 June 1995.
February 1993).
6. Ibid. In 1996, after this chapter was submitted for publication, Jackon and Lisa Marie divorced. 27. Graham and Oehlschlaeger, Articulating the Elephant Man, 188.
7. David Hevey, The Creature Time Forgot: Photography and Disability Imagery (New York: Routledge,
28. Ibid., 188.
1992), 53.
29. Ibid., 190.
8. Peter W. Graham and Fritz H. Oehlschlaeger, Articulating the Elephant Man: Joseph Merrick and
30. Ibid.
His Interpreters (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), 10-11.
31. Barnum, Struggles and Triumphs, 281.
9. For my use of the term "static enfreakment" I gratefully acknowledge David Hevey, who coined 32. See, e.g., Jean Paul Ortonne, David B. Mosher, and Thomas B. Fitzpatrick., Vitiligo and Other
the basic term "enfreakment."
Hypomelanoses of Hair and Skin (New York: Plenum, 1983). .. .
10. In this chapter, the pronoun "he" refers to either gender in those sentences where avoiding a 33. During his recent interview with Diane Sawyer, Jackson, asked to respond to the cntlcs' negative
gendered pronoun would be awkward; since the principle referent in this essay is Michael Jackson, I reaction to his controversial promotional video, cryptically replied: "That's what I wanted. They've
feel that this use of "he" is appropriate.
fallen into my trap" (interview with Diane Sawyer, PrimeTime Live, 14 June 1995). . _
11. Taraborrelli, Michael Jachon, 388.
34. Jackson's soft-focus nude scene with Lisa Marie Presley in a recent video may be viewed m a
12. Michael Jackson, Moonwalk (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 213. similar way: the "'exposure" is highly contrived, and while it raises our expectations, it fails to solve the
13. The "moonwalk" is the name Jackson uses for a dance move that has come to be closely associated
mystery of]ackson's sexuality.
with him (although he did not invent it). To "moonwalk" is to glide backwards while your feet appear
35. Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson, 253.
to be moving forwards.
36. Lisa Marie Presley, interview with Diane Sawyer, PrimeTime Live, 14 June 1995.
14. Legless sideshow performers are called "half men'' or "legless wonders" in carnival parlance.
37. For example, during the interview with Diane Sawyer, Jackson stated: "I love black."
15. See, e.g., Moonwalk, 213-15; and note 17 below.
38. For a discussion of skin color bias among African Americans, see Kathy Wilson, Midge Wilson,
16. See Eric Lott, Love and The.ft: Blacleface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class (New York: and Ronald Hall, The Color Complex: The Politi.cs of Skin Color among African Americam (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1993), for an excellent discussion of the ideology of blackface minstrelsy.
Anchor Doubleday, 1993).
17. The earliest black entertainers in America, of course, were slaves managed by white owners.
39. Andersen, Michael Jackson: Unauthorized, 332.
Later black stars (singers, dancers, musicians) were usually tightly controlled by white managers. The
40. Ibid., 332.
black entertainer was typically viewed as gifted with a splendid natural talent (for singing, dancing, etc.)
41. Ibid., 333.
but lacking in the intellectual power to manage, or even to fully understand, his talent. Eventually, 42. Nor have I repeated here all the details included in Andersen's treatment of the incident in
black managers and label owners began to appear (Motown's Berry Gordy being the most famous), but Michael Jackson: Unauthorized,· I have included the details that have been corroborated. For Andersen's
like their predecessors, they continued to exercise complete control over the performers; still later, black
complete account, see 332-40.
pop singers such as Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye became powerful enough to insist on a greater 43. Andersen summarizes the FBI's comparison of Jackson with their "'profile of a career ped_oph~e":
measure of autonomy. Jackson was keenly aware of these developments, and he was the only member of "excessive interest in children; refers to children as 'pure,' 'innocent,' etc.; age and gender preference; identifies
 ;1 THE CELEBRITY FREAK~

with children more than adults." Finally, the FBI noted: "The homes of some pedophiles have been OONTH,I:U"UTOH,~
described as shrines to children or miniature amusement parks" (ibid., 339). Hopefully it is possible to
be skeptical toward the FBI's disturbingly simplistic "profile" while remaining neutral about Jackson's
guilt or innocence. But if the FBI's profile describes the classic pedophile, it would also serve as a good
description of Walt Disney or Bozo the Clown.
44. Qµoted in ibid., 334.
45. Charles R. McQµiston, quoted in ibid., 334.

RACHEL ADAMS is a doctoral candidate in English at the University of California, Santa

Barbara. She is currently writing her dissertation on representations of bodily difference in
twentieth-century American culture.

RoBERT BOGDAN has been teaching courses since 1971 in research methods and the sociology
of disability at Syracuse University, where he directs the interdisciplinary doctoral program in
social sciences.

LEONARD CASSUTO is an associate professor of English at Fordham University, and was

recently a Fulbright Lecturer in Tanzania. His chapter in this volume is adapted from his
forthcoming book, The Inhuman Race: The Racial Grotesque in American Literature and
I I
Culture.
''
DAVID L. CLARK is an associate professor of English at McMaster University, where he is also
director of projects and programming for Plurality and Alterity: Discourses and Practices, an
interdisciplinary research group. He has coedited and contributed to Intersections: Nineteenth-
Century Philosophy and Contemporary Theory and New Romanticisms: Theory and Critical
Practice.

JAMES W. CooK, JR., is currently finishing his Ph.D. in U.S. history at the University of
California, Berkeley, where he is at work on his dissertation, entitled "Masters of Illusionism:
A History of Victorian America and Its Puzzling Visual Culture."

ANDREA STULMAN DENNETT recently completed her doctoral dissertation, "The Origin and
Development of the Dime Museum in America, at New York University. She has published
several essays on popular entertainment including "Disaster Spectacles at the Turn of the
Century" and "A Postmodern Look at EPCOT's American Adventure."
] ~CONTRIBUTORS~
r-- ~CONTRIBUTORS~
1

LESLIE FIEDLER is Samuel Clemens Professor of English and State University of New York and clinical ethical consultant in medical schools and hospitals in Sweden, India, Australia,
Distinguished Professor at SUNY, Buffalo. The author of more than twenty-five books, he and South Africa.
has earned numerous awards and prizes for his criticism and fiction and has lectured all over
the world. RoNALD E. OsTMAN is a professor of communication at Cornell University. Formerly a
professional journalist, he has authored or edited four books and continues to contribute to
ERIC FRETZ is an assistant professor of English at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. He has the popular press.
published articles on Hawthorne and Fitzgerald.
SHIRLEY PETERSON teaches in the English Department of Daemen College in Amherst, New
LINDA FROST is an assistant professor of English at the University of Alabama at Bir- York. She is currently coediting a collection of essays on feminism and modernism.
mingham. She is currently working on a book-length study of spectatorship, national identity,
and nineteenth-century American popular and print cultures. ALLISON PINGREE is a preceptor of expository writing at Harvard University. Her research
focuses on constructions of personal identity in American literature and culture. She is
DAVID A. GERBER is a professor of American history at the State University of New York at completing a manuscript on "figures of replication": characters, gestures, images, and language
Buffalo. His major projects as a scholar have been in the field of social history, in which he in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American fiction that critique dominant
has written about racial minorities and immigrants as well as people with disabilities. cultural values not through direct opposition, but through literalization.

ELLEN HICKEY GRAYSON teaches the history of ideas at the Maryland Institute College of
BRlAN ROSENBERG, chair of the English Department at Allegheny College, is the author of
Art in Baltimore. As a Smithsonian fellow at the National Museum of American Art, she. Little Dorrit} Shadows: Character and Contradiction in Dickens, and Mary Lee Settle} Beulah
recently completed her dissertation, ''Art, Audiences, and the Aesthetics of Social Order in
' i Quintet: The Price of Freedom.
Antebellum America: Rembrandt Peale's Court ofDeath."
NIGEL RoTHFELS received his Ph.D. in history from Harvard University in 1994 and is
ELIZABETH GRosz teaches philosophy, women's studies, and critical theory at Monash Uni-
associate editor and a research associate at the Center for Twentieth Century Studies,
versity in Australia. She is the author of Space, Time and Perversion: A Politics of Bodies and
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is currently working on a book entitled "Bring 'Em
the coeditor, with Elspeth Probyn, of Sexy Bodies: The Strange Carnalities ofFeminism.
Back Alive," an examination of the exotic animal and people trades in nineteenth-century
Germany.
JoAN HAWKINS is an assistant professor at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is currently
working on a book on the postcolonial depiction of race and racism in American horror films.
EDWARD L. ScHWARZSCHILD teaches American literature and culture for the Honors Program
BERNTH LINDFORS is a professor of English and African literatures at the University of Texas, and Department of English at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. He is currently at work on a
Austin. The founding editor of Research in African Literatures, he is the author and editor of book entitled Imagining Some United States: Photography, Nation-Making, and the American
numerous books, most recently Black African Literature in English, 1987-1991 and Long Writer.
Drums and Canons: Teaching and Researching African Literatures.
PAUL SEMONIN who received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon, is a historian currently
CECILE LINDSAY is a professor of French and acting dean of the Graduate School at the at work on a manuscript on the discovery of mastodon bones in eighteenth-century America.
California State University, Chico. A serious recreational bodybuilder for eleven years, she
has published a book on Claude Oilier as well as articles on fin-de-siecle and twentieth- ROSEMARIE GARLAND THOMSON is an assistant professor of English at Howard University.
century French literature, postmodern theory, and French feminist thought. Her essays on disability in literature and culture have appeared in American Literature,
Feminist Studies, and Radical Teacher. She is the author of Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring
LoRI MERlSH is an assistant professor of English at Miami University, Oxford. Her work has Physical Disability in American Literature and Culture.
appeared in Novel American Quarterly and American Literary History.
CHRISTOPHER A. VAUGHAN, a journalist with extensive experience in Asia and Latin America,
CATHERJNE MYSER is an assistant professor in the Center for Medical Ethics, Law, and the is an assistant professor of journalism and mass media at Rutgers University. His current
Humanities at the University of Florida College of Medicine. A former research fellow in the project addresses issues of national and ethnic identity formation in the context of a changing
Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford University, she has worked as a medical educator communications environment.

386
 1 CONTRIBUTORS~
T
JEFFREY A. WEINSTOCK, a university fellow in the Program in the Human Sciences at George IIWDElJlo:::
Washington University, also lectures in the English Department. Currently at work on his
dissertation on American ghost stories, he is coediting a collection entitled Imaginary Geogra-
phies with Jeffrey Jerome Cohen.

DAvm D. YuAN, has recently completed a dissertation in English and American literature at
Stanford University, entitled "Curious Bodies: The Body as Spectacle and the American Body
Politic, 1840-1898."

Abolitionism, 244 Android, 334-35. See also Star Trek: The Next Generation,
Abortion, 284. See also Pregnancy; Reproduction Data
Acconci, Vito, 320 Anglo-Saxon, 227,231
Acromegaly, 45 Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine (Gould.and Pyle), 58,
Adorno, Theodor, 91; and Max Horkheimer, 4 62,173,358,360
Advertising, 27,283, 329-30, 336 n. 12; artistic renderings Anthropology, 220, 226
as, 122; broadside ballads, 73-74; broadsides 113-14; Apollon, 357, 358
consumer empathy, 187; and cuteness, 198; for Freaks Arbus, Diane, 307-9
film, 265-66; Freaks movie poster, 266; handbills, 70-71; Aristotle, 1, 57
and late nineteenth-century popular culture, 198; pho- Armless and legless performers, 69, 269; Frances (in Freaks
tography used as, 122 film), 267,268,269,270. See also Buchinger, Matthew;
Africa, 32 Unthan, Carl
African-Americans, 48 Articulating the Elephant Man (Graham and
Africans, display of, 207-18 Oehlschlaege,), 369, 376-77
Agency, 173-74, 183 Asia, 28
Agra, Zalumma, 249, 257, 259 Asimov, Isaac, 328
Aiken, George, 149 "Assra, the Dwarf Aztec," as imitator of the ''Aztecs,"
Ainu,226 171 n. 2
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Seattle, 230 Astaire, Fred, 3 71
Albino, 25, 28 Asylums, 102
Alien. See Extraterrestrial Ates, Rosco, 265,267,273
Althusser, Louis, 340 Atherton, Mr. and Mrs., 322
Altick, Robert, 342 Audiences, 108-10, 112-13, 115,117
Amazon corps, enfreakment of, 171 n. 13 Augustine, 1
Ambiguity, bodily, sexual, 56-57 Austin, J. L., 365
American individualism, 12,174 "Authentic Anecdotes of'Old Zack'" (Melville), 238
American Museum, 2, 5, 14, 23, 43, 51, 122, 140, 248, Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, The (Warren), 190
257-59. See also Barnum, Phineas Taylor; Exhibition; "Aztecs," the, 322; and anthropological science, 162, 166-
Museums 71; discovery of, 159-60; and imitators, 171 n. 2; as miss-
American Revolution, 97 ing links, 158-71; related to the idea of jungle, 168-69;
Andersen, Christopher, 380 and the theory of recapitulation,, 166-68
Anderson, Hans Christian, 296
Androgens, 59 Baartman, Saartje (Hottentot Venus), 208-11, 217, 294
Androgyny. See Gender; Josephine/Joseph Backlash. See Faludi, Susan

388
I

1.
 !1 INDEX re
r 1 INDEX re
Baclanova (Olga), 265. See also Cleopatra Bluest Eye, The (Morrison), 185-86, 188-89, 201 n. 3 Carroll, Lewis, 305 Companionate marriage, 175-76, 178,183; defined, 175-
Bacon, Francis, 1, 71 Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich, 250 Carroll, Noel, 328 76. See also Women's roles
Bagobo,226,230 Boaistuau, Pierre, Histoires prodigieuses, 72 Carter, Angela. See Nights at the Circus, 291-99 Coney Island, 135, 227, 318-20
Bakhtin, Mikhail, 115-16; and carnival, 298-99; and the Bock, Carl, and the discovery ofKrao, 163 Cams, Carl Gustav, 159
I '1 Congo show, 130-32
'II, grotesque, 80 Bodybuilding, 282-83, 289 n. 15, 356, 357, 360-61,
! ' Castan's Panopticum, and the "Aztecs," 167 Congress of Races, 221
Bald Venus, 294 364-65; female, 361-62, 363-64; male, 364,367 n. 5.
!I Ballou, Maturin Murray, 253-54
Castration, 272 Conjoined twins, 44, 123, 125, and ambiguity, 60---65;
See also Cults, of the body; Strong men and Catlin, George, 145 Chang and Eng, 61---62, 279; Clinton Mystery sideshow,
1:, Billy, 27 women Caucasians, 250 126; cultural perspectives on, 173-74; in dime museums,
Baltrusaitis, Jurgis, 72 Body-image, 56; medicalized, 57 Certeau, Michel de, 280, 289 n. 12 302,305,306,308; eroticism of, 284,289 n. 19; imita-
Bannerline, 27 Body piercing, 32 Cetewayo, 215-16 tion of, 320; Jean and Jacques Libbera, 128; Jonathan
Barasch, Francis, on comic tradition, 79-80 Bogdan, Robert. See Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddi- Chainedfor Life (film), 173 Swift and, 69; medical separation of, 338-55; monstrous
Barbin, Herculine, 60 ties far Amusement and Profit (Bogdan) Chaney, Lon, 307 births and, 74; parasitic and autositic, 63; phony; 315;
Barker, 348, 352 Boko the alligator skin boy, 126
i Chang and Eng, 33, 174, 183 n. 2, 316, 320; and marriage, physical conjunction ofvs. marriage bond, 176-83; "pick-
Barney, 342, 343, 354 n. 7 Bolin, Anne, 365
1'' 322; source of term "Siamese twins," 174. See also Con- led punks" slang, 125; Siamese, 56, 57. See also Chang
Barnum, Phineas Taylor, 23, 25, 32, 43, 121-23, 174, 190, Bonomo, Joe, 358 joined twins and Eng; Hilton, Daisy and Violet; Laloo; McCarther
192,215,216,238,242,338, 372-73, 377; and autobio- Bordo, Susan, 286, 288 nn. 6, 11, 289 n. 21, 290 n. 25, Cher, 320 twins, Yvonne and Yvette; Millie and Christine; Tocci,
graphical revisions, 98-100; and the Circassian Beauty, 352 Chemin, Kim, 325 Giovanni and Giacomo
I' 248-50; and display of dwarfs, 49, 51-52; exhibition Bosjesmans, 211-14, 217 Chicago World's Fair, 319
I
Connecticut, Bridgeport, 316, 319
strategies, 139; hoaxes, 102-4; The Life ofP. T. Barnum, Boucicault, Dion, 150 ChiefJoseph, 226 Consent theory, 40-43
Written by Himself, 98-100; and minstrel shows, 104-5, Bound Brook, New Jersey, 144 Child, 48; actors, 190, 195-97; and cult of the cute, 199- Consumer culture: and bodybuilding, 361; and the Cir-
107 n. 27; and museums, 316-17, 319-21; and nine- Bourdieu, Pierre, 187 89; as site for transmission of culture, 187-88; social con- cassian Beauty, 250, 251-53, 260; commercialization of
teenth-century culture of exhibition, 97-107; and Bradbury, Ray, 328 struction of, 185-88 laughing gas demonstrations, 108-9, 112-13; effect on
Charles Willson Peale, 93; primitive exhibits of, 101-2, Brady, Mathew, portraits of"What is It?" 143, 145 Christianity; and freaks of nature, 74. See also Man and the sideshows, 121-35; and medical documentaries, 341,
259; production of"What is It?" 140-55; public recep- Braidotti, Rosi, 289 n. 24 Natural World (Thomas) 342, 343-44; and pornography, 295,301 n. 27;-relation-
tion of autobiographies, 100; Struggles and Triumphs: Or, Broadside ballads, on monstrous births and Protestant Chromosomal abnormalities, 59; sex, 59 ship to feminism, 188, 192-94, 195-96; and standardiza-
Forty Years' Recollections ofP. T. Barnum, 98-100, 250- prodigy literature, 71-74 Chua, as microcephalic race, 168 tion of the body, 11-13; women and, 186-97
51; and theatrical selfhood, 97-107; and traveling muse- Brodhead, Richard, 201 n. 4 Cinema: avant~garde, 273; and cuteness, 195-99; Freaks, Contortionists, 43, 158
ums, 318. See also American Museum; Barnum and Bai- Brown, John, 150 265-76, 299; freaks in, 305; horror, 273; King Kong, Conway, H.J., 149
ley Circus; Exhibition; Freaks Browning, Tod, 173, 182, 265, 266, 267, 287, 299, 307-8. 275 n. 6; science fiction films, 327-36; and strong men, Cooke, Leighton Brett, 330
Barnum and Bailey Circus, 13,170,207,358 See also Freaks (film) 358 Cooper Institute, 154
Barre, Horace, 358 Bryan, George, 100 Circassia, 253. See also Caucasians Corry, John, 50
Bartels, Max, and pathological study ofKrao, 163 Buchinger, Matthew, 2, 69 Circassian Beauty, the, 248---60, 334; hairstyles of, 257-59; Cosmographies, wonder literature and, 71-72
Barth, John, 305, 306; "Petition," 305 Buffalo Bill, 228 performativi.ty and, 252; performers of, 260; procure- Cott, Nancy. See Grounding ofModern Feminism, The
Bartholomew Fair, exhibition of monsters at, 70, 75-78 Bunker, Chang and Eng, 342, 343-45, 348 ment of, 248-49, 251, 257-59; significance and origin Cottle, Joseph, 109
Bartola. See ''Aztecs," the Burruel, Luis, 273 of, 250 Court jesters, 43
Barton, William Paul Crillon, 110-12 Bureau of Insular Affu.i.rs, 229 Circassian Slave, The: or, The Sultan's Favorite: A Story of CourtofDeath (painting), 108,115,117
Baskin, Barbara, 48-49 Burnham, Cherry, 324 Constantinople and the Caucasus (Ballou), 253-56 Couser, Thomas, 99, 105
Bates, Martin Van Buren, 317, 322; and Mrs. Bates, 317, "Bush Negro," use of term, 148 Circuses, 13, 46, 318-19. See also Barnum and Bailey Crimean War, 249
322. See also Swann, Anna Butler, Ivan, 267, 272, 275 n. 12 Circus Crumb, Robert, 305
Baudrillard, Jean, 352, 353, 355 n. 39 Butler, Judith, 350, 351, 355 n. 24, 26 Circus sideshow, Klamath Falls, Oregon, 128-29 Cults, 282-83; of the body 282-83. See also Bodybuilding
Bearded ladies, 128, 266, 268, 294, 323; Miss Annie Jones, Civil War, American, 250 Currier and Ives, lithographs of"What is It?" 141, 144-46
169 Cabbage Patch dolls, 187 Cixous, Helene, 292 Cuteness, 333; and class, 185-88, 189; and cinema, 196-
Bearded Venus, 294 Cabinets of curiosities, 2, 4
I Beattie, Ann, 306; "Dwarf House," 306 Caldecott, A. T., 214
Cleopatra,265,268,269,270,271,272,273,274,
275 n. 2, 275 n. 18, 276 n. 28. See also Freaks (film)
97; connected to freakishness, 188, 189-92, 197-200;
and construction of child sexuality, 185, 188-89, 192,
Beauvoir, Simone de. See Second Sex, The Caliban, 144 Clover, Carol]., 272,275 n. 17 195; and cult of the child, 188-89; and maternal desire,
Beehler, Michael, 327 Callot, Jacques, prints of anamolous and hybrid creatures, Cochran, Johnnie, 380 185-201; as national aesthetic, 187, 197; popularity in
Beja.no, Percilla, 57, 309 77
11
Coffey, J. W., 322 late nineteenth-century United States, 195-96; as racial
Bell, Annie, 322 Cameroon Show, 171 n. 13 Cohen, Jeffrey, 327-28 aesthetic, 185....:89, 197-200; and Shirley Temple, 185-
Bell Curve, The, 185 Campbell, John, 328 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 109 86, 188,189, 191, 194-95, 196-200; and the Tom
Belon, Pierre, cosmographies of, 72 Cannibalism, 223; in Typee, 234, 241-42, 246 n. 23 Colonel Wood's Museum, 318 Thumb Wedd;ng, 191, 192-95
Berlant, Lauren, 282, 288 n. 6, 289 n. 14 Cantor, Eddie, 173 Colonialism, 253, 256 Cuvier, Georges, 210-11
Berlin Anthropological Society, 164-65, 168-69 Capitalism, rise of, 40 Colonization, 83 Cyr, Louis, 358
Bey; Richard, 323 "Captain Costentenus" (tattooed man), 9, 239--40 Colorado Giant, 139
Bibrowski, Stefan. See Lionel the Lion Man Care Bears, 187 Colton, Gardiner Quincy, 108, 117 Darwin, Charles. See Origin of Species, The
Bioethics, xv Carey, Henry, 176-77, 180 Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 221 Darwinism, 140, 220
"Black Hairy Pigmy from Araby; The," 144 Carnival, 318, 319, 321; culture at Bartholomew Fair, 76- Co_mic horror, folk humor and, 78-80 Daston, Lorraine J., 70, 352
Blackness, antebellum constructions of, 149,152,154 78; Bakhtin's theory of the grotesque, 80 Comic tradition, the Devil and, 77-80 Daughters of the American Revolution, 30

39° J9I
 T
-;jINDEX~ ~INDEX~

Davidson, Arnold, 4 Dwarf bowling, 46, 49 Eugenics, 31 Freaks: born, 24; circus, 35; code of, 269,274; construction
Davis, Sir John, Nosce Teipsum and Puritan attitudes to- Dwarfs: ballyhoo promotion, 126; in China, 52-53 n. 31; Evelyn, John, 70 of, 23-37, 270, 273; conventions of display, 4; and cul-
ward prodigies, 79 display of, 43, 44, 49, 51-52; in early modern England, Evolution: in contrast to theories of recapitulation, 165-67, tural others, 200; definition of, 56-57, 304, 305-6; de-
Davis, Kathy, 296, 298 69-71; enfrealanent of, 158; in literature, 279,303,308; 170-77; and freaks, 162-65; and race, 242,247 n. 25; monization of, 27; in dime museums, 315-19; fake, 216;
Davis, Natalie Zemon, dialogue between Solomon and Marcolf, 80; Miss Emma Leach, the "maiden dwarf," science of, 44. See also Origin of Species, The (Darwin) in film, 265-74; fraud, 25; gaffed, 24-25; history of, 1-
Marcolf, 80 121; prejudice against, 50; ~runts" slang, 123; in science Examiner, 63 13, 251-52; made, 24; protest by, 13, 19 n. 27; racial,
Davis, Oscar King. See Our Conquests in the Pacific fiction films, 332; shown in sideshow banner, 127; Tom Exhibition: and P. T. Barnum, 97-106; of conjoined twins, 235, 241-44; self-made, 249-50; shows, 23-27; use of
Davy, Humphry, 109-12 Thumb and Barnum's giants, 252. See also Buchinger, 338, 342-44; in dime museums, 315-20; of freaks, 5, word, 4, 13. See also Exhibition; Freaks: Myths and Im-
Day, Benjamin, 154 Matthew; Dwarf bowling; Dwarf tossing; Little People 23-37, 121-22; glass eater, self-made freak, 127-28, ages ofthe Secret Se!f(Fiedler); Freak Show: Presenting
Deegan, Mary Jo, 335 of America; Midgets 130-32; of human physical anomalies, 38-40, 43-52; Human Oddities far Amusement and Profit (Bogdan); and
Deep-Space Multiculturalism, 329, 333-35 Dwarf tossing, 46, 49 language, 310; laughing gas demonstrations, 108-20; lo- specific freak types
De Groot, Joanna, 256, 260 cal opposition to, 122; and middle class, 105; of mon- Freah (film), xv, 173, 182, 265-76, 287,307; gender in,
Deism, 95 n. 20 Ead, Jack, 24 sters in early modern England, 69-80; obesity, fat shows, 271-74; Tod Browning as father of freak studies of the
De la Cruz, Juan and Martina, 228 Eck, Johnny, 307 127-28, 129, 130-31, 323-25; persuasion in, 121-35; twentieth century, 307-8
De la Mare, Walter, 305; MemoiTs of a Midget, 305 Edgeworth, Maria, 110 pit show, 133; platform show, 133-34; promotion of bal- Freah: Myths and Images of the Secret Se!f(Fiedler), 13, 83,
Del Ray, Lester, 328 Edison, Thomas, 358 lyhoo, 125-32; railroad facilitation of, 122; in science 105, 192,237-38,291,295,297-304, 305-6, 307,308,
DeMilia, Wayne, 362 Editorial cartoons, 220 fiction, 328, 332, 335, 336 n. 5; shills, 132; showman, 310,328,331,340,356,360,364,365
Democracy; 282, 344; and laughing gas demonstrations, Ed Sullivan Show, 372 117; sideshows, 121-35; slang, 123; of tattooed freak, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities far Amusement and
112-13, 117-18; subject of, 10 Edwards, Clarence, 224,225,230,232 nn. 19, 20, 237-41, 244. See also Barnum, Phineas Taylor; Freak P,efit (Bogdan), 13-14, 39, 43-45, 47-49, 51-52, 173,
Democratic ("hard") racism, 154 233 n. 21 Show: Presenting Human Odditier for Amusement and 175,190,191,238, 249-50, 257,279,289 n. 9,294,
Democrirus, 57 Egypt, 43, 49 Profit (Bogdan); and specific freak types 304, 305-6, 307, 310, 324, 328-29, 336 n. 5, 357, 359,
Derrida, Jacques, 350 Egyptian Hall, 142 Extraterrestrial: Draks, 328; E.T., 328; Ewoks, 328, 333; 360,364,365
Desbonnet, Edmond, 357 Eisenmann, Charles, and Circassian Beauty photograph, Klingons, 328, 334-35, 337 n. 35; Q328; in science fic- Frederke, the 15-Year-Old Pomeranian Colossus, 158,
Descartes, Ren, 338, 344, 352 259 tion films, 327-36; Vulcan, 335; Wookie, 328, 333. See 169
De secretis naturae (Albertus Magnus), 72 Elbow, Peter, 303 also Star Trek (original television series); Star Trek: The Freedman's Society, 154
Des monstres etprodiges (Pare), 3, 57, 72-73, 173 Elephant Man. See Merrick, Joseph Next Generation; Star Wars Freud, Sigmund, 289 n. 13, 352; and theories of recapitula-
Deviance, 325 Elephant Man, The (film), 306, 307 tion, 172 n. 21; and the uncanny, 291
Devil, and comic tradition, 77-78 Elks, 230 Faludi, Susan, 293 Frieda, 267, 270, 271, 273, 275 n. 2. See also Midgets;
DeVries, Diane, 46, 47 Ellison, Ralph. See Invisible Man (Ellison) Farini, and the discovery of Krao, 163 F,,ak, (film)
Dickens, Charles, 302, 305; Great Expectations, 302, 303; Elvira, 268. See also Pinheads Fat Lady, The, 38, 42,317, 322-23; lack of status, 325; Funt, Allen, 116
on the Noble Savage, 213-15, 217 Emancipation: and the Circassian Beauty, 253; and white show banner, 130-1; the stigma of being fat, 322-25 Fuss, Diana, 278, 288 n. 4
Die Gartenlaube, 162 Northern anxiety, 250 Fat people, 32, 127-28, 129, 130-31, 323-25 Fussell, Sam, 283,289 nn. 16, 17,364
Dileo, Frnnk, 373, 376 Emmitt, the alligator-skinned boy, 57 Feejee Menn.aid, 139
Dime museums, 5,122,135,216, 315-18; audience partici- Empedocles, 57 Felder, Edmund A., 227, 228, 229, 230, 232 n. 19 Galen, 57
pation, 323; demise, 318; lecturers, 321, 324; lecture Empire Strikes Back, The, 329, 332; See also Cinema; Star Fellows, Dexter, 260, 261 n. 11 Garrison, William Lloyd, 150
room entertainment, 317; reconfigured as talk show, Wars Femininity. See Gender Geek.Love (Dunn), 277-90, 288 n. 3,303,307, 308-9
320-23; salaries of performers, 316; traveling museums, E. M. Worth's Museum, 322 Feminism, 12; and bodybuilding, 363-64; and the Hilton Gender, 240,282, 294, 310, 347-48, 350-51, 355 n. 24,
318. See also Barnum, Phineas Taylor; Huber, George; Enfrealanent, 10, 369-71, 381 twins, 174-78; and literature, 277, 281, 283, 286, 289 n. 26; androgyny 272, 273; and the Circassian Beauty, 250,

I Museums
Dingess, John, 249,257
Entertainment and African-Americans, 372, 377, 382 n.
17; Allen Funt's Candid Camera, 116; Bartholomew
10, 291-301; relationship to consumerism, 188, 192-94,
195-96
253, 255, 256-60; and consumer culture, 186-97; and
cuteness, 185-203; exchange of women, 274, 276 n. 28;
Diodorus, 58 Fair, 70, 76--79; and blackface minstrelsy, 372; and Femme fatale, 273 feminization of men, 271, 272; gynosocial desire, 274;
i Disability, 5,237,318,328; Americans with Disabilities bodybuilding, 361; carnival, 298; early sideshow acts, Ferrigno, Lou, 538 homosocial desire, 27 4; laughing gas demonstrations,
Act, 323; Aristotle, 121; rights, 310-11. See also Freaks; 78-79; ethnological show business as, 207, 245; freak Fetus in fttu, 1 113-15, 120 n. 40; and masquerade, 300 n. 12,301 n.
Freah (film) shows as, 121-35, 292; Igorots as, 232; laughing gas Fiedler, Leslie. See Freah: Myths and Images ofthe Secret 38; misogyny, 271, 273; phallic woman, 272; social con-
Disembodiment, 282, 285, 286, 287 demonstrations, 108-20; London's itinerant showmen, Sdf (Fiedle,) struction of, 185-88; transgressive woman, 271, 272,
Dissertation on the Chymical Properties and Exhilarating Ef- 69-71; medical melodrama as, 338-39, 342-43; nine- "Fiji Cannibals," 259 273; and transsexualism, 370. See also Josephine/Joseph;
fects of Nitrous Oxide Gas, 112 teenth-century popular, 359; popular, 315-16; rise and Filipino Exhibition Company, 228 Women's roles
Doane, Mary Ann, 187 decline of freak show, 43-----44; and vaudeville/circus acts, Filipinos, 220; Filipino Midget Theater, 228 Genealogy, 279
Dog-eating, 219,223 357,358 Finley, Karen, 320 Genetics, 56; Mendelian, 59
Dolly Dimples, 130-31, 324 Erenberg, Lewis, 202 Fitch, John, 100 Genocide, 214, 215
Donahue, Phil, xvi, 320 Essentialism, 277, 278, 283 Fitzhugh, George, 153 Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Isidore, 4, 58, 65 n. 3
Dot, Admiral, 316,317,200 Estrogen, 59 Fliegelman,Jay, 97,106 "George, the Turtle Boy," 315
Double consciousness, W. E. B. DuBois's theory of, 152 E.T., 189-90 Ford, Wallace, 265 Geronimo, 226
Dred Scott v. Sanford, 150-51 Ethnocentrism: toward Africans, 207-18; and Circassian Foucault, Michel, 60, 278, 289 n. 8, 350, 351 Gesner, Konrad vo~, cosmographies of, 72
Dryden, John, and the grotesque, 78 Beauties, 248-62; in Germany, 158-72, toward Igorots, 4-H Fair, Central Iowa, Marshalltown, a show on the mid- Ghent, Belgium, 231
DuBois, W. E. B., 152 219-32; in Melville's Typee, 234-47 way, 123-24 Giants, 24, 45,292,304,307,317,324; enfreakment of,
Dunn, Katherine. See Geek Love (Dunn) Ethnology, 207, 229, 232, 235, 242, 244, 245 n. 5; and an- Frank, Gelya, 46 158; Patagonian, 226. See also Bates, Martin Van Buren;
Durgnat, Raymond, 273, 276 n. 22 thropology, 235, 245 n. 5, 329, 335 Franklin, Benjamin, 85, 87-90, 100 Earl, Jack; Swann, Anna

392 393
 f

-;j INDEX~ -;j INDEX~

Gillis, John R., 87 Hesselius, John, 85 Jackson, Michael, 368-84. See also Enfreakment; Hoaxes; Lewis, Jack (fiance of Daisy Hilton), 180
Gilhay, James, 110, 111 Heth,Joice, 102-4, 139,373 Plastic Freak; Race; Transgressiveness; Vitiligo Lewis and Clark Exposition, Portland, 227, 228, 229
Giraffe Neck Women, Burmese, 33 Hevey, David, 10, 369 James, Henry, 175 Liberator, The, 150
Girard, Rene, 273, 274, 276 n. 23 Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 105 James, R. J., 324 Lichenstein, Dr. M. H. C., 211
Gleason~ Pictorial Drawing Room Companion, 254 Hilton, Daisy and Violet, 173-84. See also Conjoined Jefferson, Joseph, 150 "Lieutenant Murray." See Ballou, Maturin Murray
Globe Museum, 317 twins; Lambert, Maurice (husband of Violet Hilton); Jefferson;Margo, 369 Life and Loves aJ a She-Devil, The (Weldon), 291-99
"'Gnome Fly, The," 142 Lewis, Jack (fiance of Daisy Hilton); Myers, Myer (man- Jefferson, Thomas, 84, 86-87 Life Without Katie, 354 n. 3
Goffman, Erving, 47 ager of Daisy and Violet Hilton) Jennie Lee, 268. See also Pinheads Lilliputia, 319
Goldberg, Whoopi, 320 History, in Geek Love, 27-81, 283, 285, 288 Jim Crow, minstrel show character, 149 Liminality, 237-38, 327-28, 335-36; of Barnum's carica-
Goliath, 1 Hitchcock, David K., 248 Johns, G. S., 225 ture "What is It?" 145-55; of child and freak, 189-92
Gould, George M., and Walter Pyle. See Anomalies and Hoaxes: and Michael Jackson, 370,373, 375-76; the Johnson, Richard, 106 Lind, Jenny, 100, 101, 139
Curiosities of Medicine (Gould and Pyle) "Woolly Horse," 147. See also Heth, Joice; Freaks, fraud; Johnson, William Henry: appearance of, 143; birthplace Lindsey, Benjamin B., 175-76
Gould, Stephen Jay, 165 Freaks, gaffed and family of, 144, 155 n. 15; career as Barnum's "What Lionel the Lion Man, 169-70
Graf, Lia, 202 n. 40 Hobennan, J., 272, 275 n. 16 is It?" 142-44; death, 155 nn. 12-13 Little Mermaid, The, 296
Graham, Peter, and Fritz Oehlschlaeger. See Articulating Holbein, Hans, popular prints of hybrid creatures, 77 Jo-Jo, the Dogfaced Boy, 45, 57,169,317 Little People of America, 46, 49, 50
the Elephant Man (Graham and Oehlschlaeger) Homoeroticism, 274 Jones, Miss Annie, 169 Living curiosities, 140
Grass, Gilnter, 303; The Tin Drum, 303 Homo Ferus (savage man), 144---46 Jones, Jenny, 321-23 Living Made Easy: Prescription for Scolding Wives, 114
Great Depression, 123 Homosocial desire, 27 4 Jones, John Paul, 86 Livingstone, David, 213
Great Vulcana, 358 Homosociality, 331 Jordan, Winthrop, 152 Locke, John, 40
Greeley, Horace, 100, 154 Hootchy-kootchy dance, 221 Jordan, Otis, the Frogman, 48-49 Lombroso, Cesare 242
Greenwood, John, Jr.: and the Circassian Beauty, 248, 249, Hop O' My Thumb, 317 Josephine/ Joseph, 272 London Hospital, 369, 371, 376
251; letter from P. T. Barnum to, 249; and Zalumma Hope, Bob, 173 Los Angeles Times, 63
Agra, 259 Horror fihns, 45 Kaffirs, 214 Lott, Eric, 105, 107 n. 27,245
G,illith, B;ll, 305 Horsman, Reginald, 242 Kafka, Franz, on hunger artists, 158 Louis, Joe, 369
Grosz, Elizabeth, 327, 349, 352, 354 n. 3 Hottentot Venus. See Baartman, Saartje Kahn, James, 332. See also Star Wars Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis World's Fair),
Grotesque, 235-36; comic tradition and, 77-80 Houdini, Harry, 173 Kant, Immanuel, 109-10, 117 219,220,221,222,227-28
Grounding aJ Modern Feminism, The (Cott), 175 Howes, Seth B., 318 Katie and Eilish, 339, 354 n. 3 Loutherbourg, Philip James de, 85, 94 n. 7
Gulliver~ Travels (Swift), and exhibition of monsters, 69 How To Do Things with Words, 364 Keith & Batcheller's Dime Museum, 316 Lovell, Robert, 109-10
Gumpertz, Samuel W., 319 Hsieh, Tehching, 320 !Gng, Rodney, 381 Lucas, George, 328. See also Cinema
Huber, George, 316, 322-23 King Kong, 275 n. 6 Luna Park, 319
Haddon, Alfred C., 230 Hugo, Victor, 305; The Man Who Laughs, 64 "Kings of Strength," The, 357 Lupton, Thomas (A Thousand Notable Things}, 72
Haeckel, Ernst, the biogenetic law and theories of recapitu- Human Skeleton, 268 Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara, 207,224,227,232 nn. 9, Lurie, Susan, 272, 275 n. 20
lation, 165-66 Human torso, 279 17 Lusus naturae (jokes of nature), 4, 121
Hagenbeck, Carl, and exhibitions of peoples (VtJlkerausstel- Humm, Maggie, 293 Klein, Alan, 364 Luzon, 219
lungen}, 164-65 Hunger artists, 158 "Krao," 33, 162-63, 164, 169 Lyman, Levi, 106
Hall, Ward, 302,311 Hunt, Else, 230 Lynch, David, 306, 375. See also Elephant Man, The (film)
Hans, the midget, 265,268,269,270,271,272,273, Hunt, Truman K., 225, 227, 228 La Igualdad, 230 Lyotard, Jean-Franois, 366
275 n. 2, 276 n. 28. See also Midgets Hunter, Robert, 61 Lacan, Jacques, 336 n. 8, 337 n. 26, 353
Happy Slaves: A Critique af Consent Theory (Herzog), 40- Hutton, Laurence, 190 Lafayette, Marquis de, 85 "Maciste," 358
43, 47. See also Consent theory Hyams, Leila, 265 Lagervist, Pr, 305; Dwarf, The, 305 Madame Minerva, 358
Haraway, Donna, 84, 277, 288 n. 2, 289 n. 24, 330, 366 Hybridity, 1, 5, 13; hybrid creatures, in early modern En- Lake, lliclci, 320 Madame Montagna, 358
Harems, 260, 262 n. 28; in The Circassian Slave, 254-56; glish entertainment, 70, 74-75, 77-79 Laloo, 169 Magnus, Albertus, De secretis naturae, 72
and Zoe Meleke, 253 Hyperreal, 338, 352-53 Lambert, Maurice (husband of Violet Hilton), 181 Mahzar, Fahreda (Little Egypt), 221
Harris, Lizzie, 317 Hypertrichosis, 45, 163,169,170. See also, Bejano, Percilla; Lane, William Henry (Juba), 199 Man and the Natural World (Thomas), 74-76
Harris, Neil, 100,191,202 n. 20,338 Jo-Jo the Dog-faced boy; Lionel the Lion Man; Pas- "Last Female Aztecs," 171 n. 2 Manifest Destiny, 250, 253
Hayles, N. Katherine, 289 nn. 18, 24 trana, Julia Laughing gas (nitrous oxide): audiences, 108-10, 112-13, Mann, Thomas, 306; "Little Herr Freidemann," 306
Head-hunters 229, 230 115, 117; broadsides 113-14; commercialization of dem- Mannix, Daniel P., 304
Heinlein, Robert, 328 lgorots, 219-33 onstrations, 108-9, 112-13; and democracy, 112-13, Marcolf, the hunchback or dwarf, 80
Hercules, 267, 268, 271, 272, 275 n. 15, 276 n. 28. See also Illustrated Report aJ the Important Expedition to Central 117-18; demonstrations, 108-20; middle-class respect- Marriage. See Women's roles
Fww (film) America from Which Resulted the Discovery aJ the Idol- ability, 108-9, 116-17; relationship to romanticism, 110, Marsh, Dave, 368
Hermaphrodites, 57, 64-65, 294; "blowoffn fee, 134; chrO- Worshipping City aJ Iximaya in a Completely Unexplored 117-18 Masculinity. See Gender
mosomal mosaicism, 59; exhibits in early modern En- Region, An: and the discovery aJ the ';<Jztecs, ~ 159 Law, 278 Masons, 29
gland, 70; gonadal dysgenesis, 59; history of, 58; Kline- Indians, American, 220, 226; Geronimo, 225 "Leda and the Swan'' (painting), 294 Mass culture: audiences for laughing gas demonstrations,
felter's Syndrome 58-59; testicular feminization, 58; Ingles, Clyde, 24, 315 Leech, Hervey, 140-43; career as Barnum's "What is It?" 109, 112-13, 115,117; in early modem England, 71; im-
Turner's Syndrome, 59 International Anthropological Exhibit Company, 228 140, 142-43; death, 143, 155 n. 10 portance of the body, 320; and medical documentaries,
Hermaphroditus, 58 Interpretive framework, 108-9, 112-15, 117 Leop"d Child, 378 338, 341-42, 353; and popular music, 368; and side-
Herodotus, 58-59 Invisible Man (Ellison) 372 Lesbianism, 176. See also Sexuality shows, 121-35, and standardization of everyday life, 11-
Herzog, Don. See Happy Slaves: A Critique of Consent The- Irigaray, Luce, 285, 289 n. 22 Leutemann, Heinrich, 164 12
ory (Herzog) lsman, Felix, 316 Levi-Strauss, Claude, 148,274,276 n. 26 Maternal desire, and cuteness, 185-201

394 395
 -s1 INDEX~
' -s1 INDEX f;-

Maternal impression, 30--31 "Aztecs," the; Krao; Pastrana, Julia; "Terra del Fuegians," Noble savage, 213-14 Philippine Exposition Board, 225, 232 n. 6
Mature, Victor, 358 "Rham-a-Sama," "Zip" Nondescripts: animals, 147; Barnum's use of category in Philippine Islands and Their People, The (Worcester), 220
Maximo. See "Aztecs," the Missouri Compromise, 149-51 "What is It?" 140, 146---47; social meanings of, 149-55 Philippine Scouts, 224, 228
Mayhew, Henry, 142 Modernization, 3, 11-13 Norden, Martin, 307 Philippines, 29, 219, 220, 221, 222, 230
McAdams, Clad<, 226 Money, John, 59 Normalcy: concept of, 4, 109, 235, 243-44, 279, 286, 304, Philosophy of Horror, The (Carroll), 328
McCall, Bruce, 185 Monsters: in antiquity, 1-3; ballads, 2; and Francis Bacon, 306, 308, 310, 329, 340; definition, 318, 324; in Freaks Phocomelics, 302, 308
McCarther twins, Yvonne and Yvette, 62-63 71; defined, 305; in documentaries, 338, 351-52; exhibi- (film), 265,266,267,270,274; medical regimes, 350- Photography: cartes de visites and cabinet photographs of
McCartney, Paul, 372 tion ofin early modern England, 69-80; female, 296; 52; and middle-class respectability, 108, 116-17; and freaks, 10, 27, 28, 30, 34,122,256; commercial improve-
McClintock, Anne, 284, 289 n. 20 Frankenstein, 295; in Freak (film), 268, 269, 270, 271, Charles Willson Peale, 83; society's perception of nor- ments of, by Louis Daguerre, 122; of lgorots, 220, 221;
McCracken, Elizabeth, 306; "It's Bad Luck to Die," 306 273, 27 4; in medieval church decorations, 79; Protestant mal and a_bnormal, 325; and women, 292, 294, 296 Niepce, Joseph Nicphore, inventor, 122; and Peale, 93
McDaniel, Hattie, 199 Reformation and prodigies, 71-74; in science fiction North Carolina, 316 Photography, Farm Security Administration (FSA), 122-
McGee, W. J., 226 films, 327-28, 331-32, 335, 336 n. 5; use of word, 3; Nosce teipsum (prodigies in Puritan verse of Sir John 25, 127, 129, 131-35; FSA director Roy Stryker, 123-
McGowan, Samuel M., 228 monstrous races, in popular monster lore, 74-75. See also Davis), 79 24, 134; by Jack Delano, 124-29; by Russell Lee, 127-
McIntyre, Frank, 230 Cohen, Jeffrey; Prodigies Novelty acts, 24 29, 131, 134; by Arthur Rothstein, 123-24; by Ben
McKinley, William, 221 Montaigne, Michel de, 1, 305; "Of a Monstrous Child," Nufi.ez, Maximo Valdez. See "Aztecs," the Shalm, 130, 133; by John Vachon, 135; Marion Post
McRae, John R., 230, 231, 233 n. 35 305 Nutt, Commodore, 316 Wolcott, 130-31
Meckel, J. F., 165-67 Montano, Linda, 320 Phroso the clown, 267, 270, 272, 273, 275 n. 15, 275 n. 21
Medicalization and freaks, 12, 13, 30, 31, 34, 45, 50,243, Moonwalk, 375 Objectification, 236-37, 244 Pinheads, 268, 271. See also Microcephalics
279,296,298,318,305, 329, 377; and obesity, 325; testi- Morlan, Chauncey, 324; marriage, 322 O'Connell, James (tattooed man), 238-40 Pitt, William, 85
monials, 321 Moros, 222 O'Connor, Flannery, 306; "Parker's Back," 306 Pity, 34
Melancholy and mourning, 281, 287, 289 n. 13 Morrison, Toni, The Bluest Eye, 185-86, 188-89, 201 n. 3 Octoroon, The (Boucicault), 150, 153 Plastic freak, 371, 373, 379
Melville, Herman, 234-47; '51.uthenticAnecdotes oj'Old Motown Records, 371 Odell, Geo,ge C. D., 318, 320 Plato, The Symposium, 55
Zack,"' 238; Typee, 234-47 Mo.Iler, Johannes, 159 Oken, Lorenz, 165-66 Plessis, James Paris du, A Short History ofHuman Prodigies
Memorialization, 287 Munchkins, 50 Olympic Games, 221 and Monstrous Births, 70
Men. See Gender Murgos, lnnocento and Martina, as parents of the "Aztec" Omaha Exposition, 221 Pliny, 1, 57
Mendel, 6, 31 children, 159 On Monsters and Marvels (Pare), 3, 57, 72-73, 173 Pneumatic Institute, 109-10, 112
Menjou, Adolphe, 192 Murray, Lenda, 362 O'Neil,James, 338, 344-45, 346,348,349 Poe, Edgar Allan, 305,306; "Hop-Frog," 305,306
Mental retardation, 31 Museums, 29, 35, 101, 135, 329; and Charles Willson One-Leggers, 162 Polyarthritis deformens, 45
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 353 Peale, 82-96; of women monsters, 295; World Fairs Orangutans, antebellum exhibitions of, 144, 148 Polyphemus, 1
Merrick, Joseph (Elephant Man): The Elephant Man Freaks Museum, 135. See also American Museum; Dime Oriental.ism: and the Circassian Beauty, 250, 251, 255, Poster, Mark, 353
(film), 306,307; and Michael Jackson, 369,371, 375- museums 256, 260, 261 n. 23; Edward Said, 251, 330; in science Postmodernism: and bodybuilding, 357, 365-66; and
76, 380 Myers, Myer (manager of Daisy and Violet Hilton), 178, fiction,330,333 "freaking out," 293; in literature, 278, 286, 289 n. 18;
"Me Too" (song), 178-79 180, 183 n. 4 Ori'gin of Species, The (Darwin), 29,140, 162-64, 242 and medical documentaries, 339, 352, 353
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 265, 266; See also Freaks (film) Myth and foll<lor~, xiii, 1; "Leda and the Swan," 294; Cind- Orr, Noah, 317 Poststructuralism, 278
Microcephalics, 31, 48; and the "Aztecs," 158, 166---68, erella, 295; Frankenstein, 295; Vesta, 296; the Bacchan- Ortiz, Demetria, the backward boy, 126 Potter, Edward, 231
170--71, in the career of William Herny Johnson, 143; tes, 297; The Little Mermaid, 296 "Ossified man," the, 45,319 Pavich, Maury, 320
Princess Mary, 126; Zip and Pip, 126; Zip the Pin Our Conquests in the Pacific (Davis), 220, 232 n. 2 Pratt, Mary Louise, 238
Headed Man, 200 Nabokov, Vladimir, 305, 306; "Scenes from the Life of a Outside lecturer, 23 Pregnancy, 284, 285. See also Reproduction
Middle class, 341; cuteness as aesthetic of, 185-89; nine- Double Monster," 305,306 Presley, Elvis, 369, 372
teenth-century theatrical selfhood, 100, 105-6; respect- Naether, Carl, 187 Painting, 49 Presley, Lisa Marie, 369, 376, 379
ability, 13, 108-9, 116---17; wonder literature and, 72 Narrative, 243, 280, 288 Pan-American Exposition, Buffulo, 21 Price, Sue, 362, 363
Midgets, 30-31, 51,279,333; and children, 189-93; and National Geographic, 221, 232 n. 4 Pare, Am.braise. See Des momtres et prodiges Priestley, Joseph, 109
cuteness, 190, 191, 192-95; in dime museums, 315-17, National Enquirer, 373 Paris Exposition, 221 Prince, 320
321; exotic names, 317; Filipino, 228, 233 n. 23; in Nationalism: and the Circassian Beauty, 252; cuteness as Park, Katherine, 71-74, 352 Prodigies, 3, 71, 73-74. See also Monsters
Freaks (film), 265,267,268,269,270,271,272; in litera- national aesthetic, 187, 197; and Geek Love, 278, 280- Pastrana, Julia, 163 Prosthetics, 285, 288
ture, 304, 308; midget city, 319. See also Admiral Dot; 81, 286; and Charles Willson Peale, 82-96 Patriarchy, sexual economy in, 274 Prostitution, 284
Dwarfs; Frieda; Graf, Lia; Hans, the midget; Thumb, Natural history, scientific interest in monsters, 69-71 Peacham, Henry, 75-76 Protestant Reformation, 40; and monstrous births, 71-73
Tom (Charles Sherwood Stratton); Tom Thumb Wed- Neanderthal Man, enfreakment of, 162 Peale, Charles Willson, 82-96, 101, 144; and The Artist in Public vs. private, 175, 180-83
ding, The; Warren, Lavinia Negritos, 221, 222, 225, 228 His Museum, 85, 88-93; and Rachel Weeping, 91-93; and Pygmies, 226, 333. See also Race
Millie and Christine, 32, 200, 316. See also Conjoined New Jersey, 316,317 family, 91-93 Pyle, Walter L., 58, 62, 173, 358, 360
twins Newlove, Donald, 305; Leo and Theodore, 305 Peale, Rembrandt, 101
Minstrel shows, 104-5, 148-49. See also Jim Crow, min- "New Woman," the, 175-78, 183 Peale, Reubens, 101 Race: and P. T. Barnum, 102-5; in The Bluest Eye, 185-89;
strel character; Samba New York, 43, 51, 97, 102, 317; Brooklyn, 318; White Pender, Stephen, 351-52 and the Circassian Beauty, 250, 260, 261 n. 11; and con-
Miscegenation, 250 Plains, 316 Pepys, Samuel, 70 joined twins, 340--41, 342,343; and cuteness, 185-89,
Misogyny, 271, 273 Niederlein, Gustavo, 225 Perez, Charles, 320 197-200; and freakishness, 200-201; and freaks, 29, 34,
Missing links: and evolutionary and recapitulation theory, Nights at the Circus (Carter), 291-99 Performance artists, 320 48-49, 282,286; and Michael Jackson, 369, 377-79,
159-71; and microcephalics, 252; in science fiction Nineveh, 1 Perrault, Charles, 294 381; in science fiction films, 331,334,336,336 n. 5,
films, 331, 333-34; as "What is It?" 139-57. See also Nitrous Oxide. See Laughing gas Philadelphia North American, 230, 233 n. 33 337 n. 21,337 n. 31; in Shirley Temple films, 197-99;

397
 T
1INDEXf 1 INDEX f

Race: and P. T. Barnum (Continued) Geek Love, 278, 279, 285, 286; medical science and de- 24, 26; of motherhood, 185-20; and muscularity, 361, Taylor, Carson, 227
stereotypes, 217; talk shows and interracial dating, 322- cline of the freak show, 45; in nineteenth century, 359- 365; of physical difference, 329-30, 335, 356; of race, Taylor, Elizabeth, 370
60; nitrous oxide, 108-20; Pneumatic Institute, 109-10; 185-89, 197-200 Technical criteria fallacy, 346
23; in teaching, 310-11; in Typee, 234-47. See also Igor-
scientific interest in monsters, 69---71; theory of evolu- Sommer, Doris, 186 Technology, 278-79, 282, 286, 288, 289 n. 18. See also Re-
ots; Missing links; Pygmies; Randian, the "living torso";
tion and rise of the freak show, 44; wonder literature Sontag, Susan, 308 production; Surgery
"What is It?"
and, 71-72. See also, Cabinets of curiosities; Medicaliza- Southey, Robert, 109 Temple, Shirley, 185-86, 188, 189, 191; Shirley Temple-
Racial anxiety, 235, 242-45
tion and freaks; Teratology South Louisiana State Fair, Donaldsonville, 127-28, 131 as-sign, 201 n. 4; and Depression-era politics 202 n. 40;
Racial science, 242
Science fiction, 327-36 Spanish-American War, 221 in Curly Top 194, 195, 197; in DimpleJ, 195, 198; in Kid
Randian, the "living torso," 267,268,307
Scientific Researches! New Discoveries in Penumaticks! or an Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty, 353 'n Africa, 198; in The Little Colonel, 195, 197-99; in Lit-
Raphael, Sally Jessy, 321
Experimental Lecture on the Powers ofAir (Gillray), 110- Springer, Jerry, 320 tle Miss Marker, 194; in The Littlest &be!, 194-95, 197-
Recapitulation theories, 162, 165--67, 172 n. 23
Rembrandt van Rijn, 339 11 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 225,232 nn. 7, 14 99; in Poor Little Rich Girl, 195, 196-97; in Rebecca ef
Replicants, 279, 283-84, 285. See also Reproduction Sears catalog, 220, 232 n. 2 Star Trek (original television series), 335; Spock, 328, 335 Sunnybrook Farm, 194; in Stowaway, 194,198; in Su-
Second Sex, The (Beauvior), 227,288 n. 1,291,365 Star Trek: The Next Generation, 329, 333-35; Data, 334- sanna ofthe Mounties, 198
Reproduction, 279, 280, 282, 284, 285, 289 n. 18. See a/Jo
Sedgewick, Eve Kosofsky, 273, 274, 276 n. 24, 285, 289 n. 35; Deanna Troi, 334-35; Geordi La Forge, 337 n. 31; Teratology, xiii, 2, 4, 13, 30, 57, 173-74, 247 n. 25
Replicants
Republican (usoft") racism, 153 23 Jean-Luc Picard, 334-35, 337 n. 34; Worf, 334-35 "Terra del Fuegians," 164-65, 169, 170
Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, Chiefly Concerning Self-help, 282 Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, The, 334 Testosterone, 59
Selva, Ramon, 159 Star Wars, 328, 330-33, 335; Ben Kenobi, 331; Chew- Tetralini, Madame, 268, 269
Nitrous Oxide (Davy), 109-12
Return ofthe Jedi (film), 329, 331-33. See also Cinema; Star Sennett, Richard, 90 bacca, 331,333; Darth Vader, 331-32; Han Solo, 331- Thatcher, Margaret, 299
Sentimentality, 13 32;Jabba the Hut, 331-33;James Earl Jones, 331; Luke Theroux, Paul, 53, 54 n. 31
Wars
Skywillm, 331-32 Thomas, Clarence, 381
Reynolds & Wells United Show, uOddities of the World," Serres, Etienne, 166, 167
Sexuality: and the Circassian Beauty, 253, 257; of children, Steeplechase Park, 319 Thomas, Keith. See Man and the Natural World
123-24
185, 188-89, 192, 195; erotic triangles, 273,274; of Steinitz, Heinrich, 165 Threat, 328
"Rham-a-Sama," 169
freaks, 194-95; in Geek Love, 279, 284; individuality, Steuben, Baron von, 85 Thumb, Tom (Charles Sherwood Stratton), 25, 32, 100,
Rice, Dan, 152
320; in medical documentaries, 347-48, 350-51, 355 n. Stewart, Susan, 83, 93, 200, 201 n. 12 101, 103, 144,188,191, 192-95, 241; Sketch ef the Lift,
Ringling Brothers, 33
26; the myth of African-American women's, 250, 254, Stone, Herbert S., 225 Personal Appearance, Character, and Manners of Charles S.
Ripley, Robert, 319
259; and Oriental.ism, 256; and pomog~aphy, 295; and Stowe, Harriet Beecher. See Uncle Tom's Cabin Stratton; 193-94. See also Midgets; Tom Thumb Wed-
Ripley's uBelieve It Or Not," 126, 130
privacy, 322; same-sex relations, 175-76, 187-79, 183; Stratton, Charles Sherwood. See Thumb, Tom ding; Warren, Lavinia
Rivera, Geraldo, 321, 323
sexual allure of freaks, 297; sexual humiliation, 271; talk Stratton, Henry, 323 Tinguiane, 230
Robinson, Bill, 194, 197-99
shows, 320; transgressive, 322-323; and unmarried rela- Stratton, Sherwnod (father of Tom Thumb), 318 Tobias, Charles, 178
Robinson, Jackie, 369
tives, 320. See also Feminism; Gender; Lesbianism; Tom Stratz, Carl, 162 Tocci, Giovanni and Giacomo, 169
Rollo brothers, 267
Thumb Wedding, The; Women's roles Strawberry Festival and Carnival (Plant City, Florida), The Tocqueville, Alexis, 102
Romanticism, 110, 117-18
Seymour, Robert, 113 Fat Lady, 130-31 Tom Thumb Wedding, the, 191, 192-95
Roosevelt, Theodore, 224
Shakespeare, William, King Richard III, 55 Strongfort, Lionel, 358 Topham, Tom, 358
Rosenbaum, Jonathan, 272, 275 n. 16
Sherman, Al, 178 Strong men and women, 357-58, 359, 360 Transactiom of the Berlin Anthropological Society, 168
Royalty, 29-30
Short History efHuman Prodigies and Monstrous Births, A Strong twins, 124--25 Transgressiveness, and Michael Jackson, 370-72, 377
Rubes, 35
(Plessis), 70 Struggles and Triumphs: or, Forty Years' Recollections ef P. T. Transvestites, 308
Rush, Benjamin, 112
Siamese twins. See Conjoined twins Barnum, 98-100, 250-51 "True life" pamphlets, 7, 30,279
Russell, Harold, 46, 47
Side show, 216; replaces "museum," 318; Ripley tour, 319 Sturgeon, Theodore, 328 Twain, Mark, 305; Pudd'nhead Wilson, 305
Russo, Mary, 288, 290 n. 26, 298-99
Simak, Clifford D., 328 Sun Also Rises, The, 275 n. 21 Twentieth Century Fox, 191
Rutherford, John (first tattooed man), 238-39
Singer, Linda, 289 n. 6, 289 n. 11 Surgery: cosmetidreconstructive on women, 279, 282, Twitchell, James B., 321
Sade, Marquis de, 295, 301 n. 24 Skal, David, 307 286-87, 296, 298, 369; separation of conjoined twins, Typa (Melville), 243-47
Sketch efthe Life, Personal Appearance, Character and Man- 344-50
Said, Edward, 251, 330. See a/Jo Orientalism
ners efCharles S. Stratton, A, (Tom Thumb), 193-94 Sutherland, Wtlliam A., 230 "Ubangi Savages," 33
Sambo, 149
Slavery: and PT. Barnum, 249, 261 n. 6; and the Cir- Swann, Anna, 317; marriage, 322. See also Giants Ugliness, 285
Sanday, Peggy R., 241
Sandow,Eugen,358,359,360,365 cassian Beauty in relation to the South, 250; and The Swift, Jonathan, 69 Uncle Tom's Cabin (Stowe), 149-50, 154
Sandwina, Kate, 357, 358, 359, 360 Circassian Slave, 253-56; and the markets in Constanti- Sword swallowers, 158 Unthan, Carl, 45~ 46
Sansona, 357 nople, 249,251; as context for Barnum's "What is It?" ex- Urbanization, 12, 43
hibition, 153; plantation life in early cinema, 197-98; Taft, William Howard, 224, 225, 228
Sapajou, 142
and the racial grotesque, 238, 242-44; and sex, 34 Tai, efthe Tub, A (Swift), 69 V, 328
Savages, 219,220
Sloane, Sir Hans, handbill collection advertising monsters, Talker, 26, 27, 33 Veatch, Robert, 346
Saxon, A. S., 100
Schlitze, 268,269. See a/Jo Pinheads 70-71 Talk shows, xiv, 158, 320-23, 325 Velasquez, Diego, 305; Meninas, Las, 305
Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll, 175 Taney, Robert B., 151 Venus, 267,270,273,275 n. 15,275 n. 2. See also Baart-
Schmitz, Jon, 322-23
Schneidewind, Richard W., 228, 229, 230, 231 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (film), 191 Tap dancing, as African-American cultural form, 199 man, Saartje (Hottentot Venus)
Schwarzenegger, Arnold, 358 Social construction: and the celebrity freak, 370; of child, Taraborrelli, J. Randy, 375, 379 Vermont State Fair, Rutland, 124--29
Science: and circus and carnival sideshows, 125-26; early 185-88; of femininity, 294; and Freaks (film), 270; of Tattooing, 32, 43, 315, 316, 320; enfreakment of, 158; the Victorian womanhood: and the Circassian Beauty, 250,
interest in monsters, 69-71; Francis Bacon and mon- freaks, 23, 238, 243, 277-78, 283, 306, 310; of gender, illustrated man, 319; narrative, 238-41; women, 323; 256-57; and The Circassian Slave, 255; and Zoe Me1eke,
strous births, 71; and freaks, 3, 27, 29, 30, 34, 305-6, 185-88, 367 n. 31; and interpretation of the freak show, and Typee, 234-47 253
44; and medical documentaries, 338, 339, 340, 355 nn. Taxidermy, 82-96 Virchow, Rudolf, 163-69
329---30, 336 n. 5; and freaks in Germany, 158-72; and

399
 -l1 INDEX f,

Visayans,222,226 Williams, Monte!, 321

Vitiligo, and Michael Jackson, 369,377, 379-80. See also Wilmot Proviso, 151
Leopard Child Windeler, Robert, 191
Vogt, Carl, and microcephalism, 158, 166-68 Winfrey, Oprah, 321
Voyage to Brobdingnag (Swift), 69 Winnie the Pooh, 187
Voyeurism, 309 Wizard o/Oz, The (film), 50
Wolmark, Jenny, 330
Wadlow, Robert, 302 Women: Photographs of the Tup Female Bodybuilders, The,
Ward, Mrs. Humphry (Augusta), "unsexed" suffragists, 363
292 Women's roles, 174-80, 182-83; women and education,
Warren, Lavinia, 51,317,188, 190, 191, 192-95, 241; The 175-76; women and motherhood, 175-77; women and
Autobiography ofMrs. Tom Thumb, 190. See a/JO Midgets; sexuality, 175-78, 182; women and work, 175-78, 179-
Thumb, Tom; Tom Thumb Wedding, The 80, 183; companionate marriage, 175-76, 178, 183; tra-
Washington, George, 85 ditional marriage, 175-78, 179-83
Weber and Fields, 316 Women~ &om, The, 293
Wedgewood, Thomas, 109 Wonder books, 3, 71-72
Weismuller, Johnny, 358 Wood, Robin, 269,274,275 n. 13,276 n. 29
Weldon, Fay. See Life and LO'Ves ofa She-Devil, The Woods, Harry, 178
Wells, Horace, 117 Woolf, Virginia, 292
Wells, H. G., 306; Island oJDr. Moreau, The, 306; "un- "Woolly Horse," the, 147. See alJO Hoaxes
sexed" suffragists, 292 Worcester, Dean C., 220, 232 n. 1
Welty, Eudora, 306; "Petrified Man," 306 World Fairs Freaks Museum, Norfolk, Virginia, 135
West, Benjamin, 85 Wordsworth, William, on Bartholomew Fair, 76
West, Rebecca, 292, 299 Work, changes in, 11
"What is It?": audience for, 141; Barnum's development of Wright, Thomas, and the grotesque in literature and art,
character, 139-40, 142-55; late nineteenth-century so- 77-79
cial and political meanings of, 149-55. See al.so Barnum,
Phineas Taylor; Johnson, William Henry; Leech, Her-
Yates, Adelaide, 322
vey; Liminality; Missing links; Nondescripts; "Zip"
Yates, Sara Ann, 322
Whig ("soft") Racism, 153 Yeats, William Butler, 294
White supremacism, 1S3
Whitman, Walt, 99
"Wild men'': 28, 31; of Borneo, 25, 2:33 n. 35; and comic Zigun, Dick, 319
tradition, 78-79; of the prairies, 144-45; of the woods, "Zip," 145,200,316. See also ''What is It?"
144 Zoe Me/eke: Biographical Sketch of the Circassian Girl, 251-
Williams, Betty, double-bodied girl, 126 53. See also Circassian Beauties
Williams, Patricia, 278, 288 n. 7 Zulus, 214-17

400