Modern Freak Shows

In the reading for Thursday it said that Freak Shows have died off in the 1930-1940 but, have they really? The Freak show of the late 1800's and early 1900's was a type of entertainment for people and families. Now there are TV’s and the internet. With the invention of technology comes a more private way to view freak shows. I believe the ‘freak’ shows have ever completely gone away they have just become more private, used for learning purposes and/or idolized. Looking at the shows on television or the top ten new stories on search engines there are always stories about 600 pound people and how they live their lives( which is kind of what the pamphlets were like in the old ‘Freak’ Show standards). The cable network TLC (The Learning channel) has made tons of money promoting “learning” by making documentaries about different people, Little People, Big World is a show about a family of little people. The producers make up story lines or adventures for the family to take. How are these shows any different from the old ‘freak’ show from the past?  Didn’t a business manager set up story lines and make the little people act the part? Or for example look at American Idol for a moment. American Idol has weeks and weeks of “auditions” which are filled with people or ‘freaks’ for Americans to judge and gawk at. Sure the American Idol contestants can’t see the American public laughing at them as they stand there in a cage but, it’s doing the same thing. People are natural curious and want to see ‘freaks’ so that they can measure themselves against the ideal and deviant. Just because people are not putting other people in cages and traveling around the country doesn’t mean that there aren’t still freak shows. It is just cheaper and more convenient for people to view the ‘freaks’.