Freakshows

The second half of Exile and Pride by Eli Clare discusses language, bodies, gender and sexuality.

Eli discusses the reclaiming of words like "queer", "cripple", and "gimp", while explaining why the word "freak" has not been reclaimed. Through an extensive history of the "freakshows" of the late 1800's to mid 1900's, Clare expands on how those with disabilities, people of color, and people with atypical gender expressions, were exploited for the profit of white men. Many of the "freaks" that participated in freakshows were actually kidnapped from colonized parts of the world, or purchased from their parents.

Clare takes the politics of the freakshow and compares them to that of current day treatment of people with disabilities. In the freakshow many of the participants made decent money (while not as much as those running the show) because this was at many times the only form of employment that those with disabilities could find.

Through the freakshow, they also found a community of other people like themselves that were considered to be abnormal. Today, people with disabilities have had their bodies medicalized. They are considered victims of birth defects, viruses, accidents, etc. Worst of all, the freakshow still exists for them, only the freaks aren't getting paid anymore. Medical textbooks feature nameless, faceless, naked disabled bodies to be gawked at. Walking the streets people with disabilities are often exposed to gawking and staring. Clare was often called a retard growing up, not only by peers, but by doctors. Unemployment for those with disabilities is at 70%, and often benefits such as Social Security Income can be taken away if the person is to marry. Large medical organizations make millions of dollars for research (not civil action) while using the disabled body as a pitiful, helpless, dependent.

This part of the book really stuck out to me. I often consider too much of our everyday life medicalized in our allopathic healthcare system. Clare is arguing that while the freakshow was exploitative in many ways, we have only transitioned to another system of exploitation. Biological and scientific arguments have been used throughout our history to prove difference, create power structures, and define normalcy. From the dissection of Sarah Baartman, the study of cranial capacity by Morton, to the Victorian concepts of the female skeleton, biology and science have been considered the end-all of understanding. While the sciences are important and valid subjects to our lives, it is important to take a critical lens at what science is doing to people, and people's bodies. I feel society wrestles with disability because we have this idea of "birth defect", "freak of nature", engrained into our mind that it is hard to look past it and see that the

disabled can live full and productive lives. Personally, I think that one of the reasons people with disabilities are ignored and marginalized is because they make people feel uncomfortable. They don't follow the social norms of clear speech, or socially appropriate movements and gestures, or maybe they are just in a weelchair and you have to look down when talking to them. This makes mainstream society uncomfortable, so we ignore their disabilities (often to their detriment) instead of acknowledging who they are and their particular needs.

--Christine Cretser