Status Updates From Freakery: Cultural Spectacl...

“The ‘careers’ of people exhibited in freak shows: the problEm of volition and valorization” by David a Ferber

Andrea Stulman Dennett interestingly and convincingly positions talk shows as modern-day freak shows. I wonder what she thinks of TLC programs like "My 600-Lb Life" and "Little People, Big World," reality shows intended to create a spectacle out of people with physical differences living in extremely ordinary ways.

Lori Merish makes the ingenious comparison between little people in freak shows (like Tom Thumb), The Bluest Eye, and Shirley Temple in order to expound upon the "commodity aesthetics" of cuteness, a concept just becoming prominent in the late nineteenth century.