Freak Discourse

The introduction to freak discourse by Rosemarie Garland Thomson provides an overview of the history of 'freaks' and how they the stigma came to be, as well as how it changed. Thomson provides various definitions of freaks through the ages including everything from beauty contestants to dwarfs to 'exotic ethnics'. Before industrialization, such freaks were flaunted and paraded around as human anomalies that people paid to see. The key phrase in her article is 'wonder becomes error', meaning that modernity changed amazing human deformities into distasteful human flaws that need to be fixed so those members can be assimilated into modern society with little effort and notice. Through industrialization, what were known as freak shows descended into lower society as human mistakes and those that were able should have made an effort to utilize modern technology (surgery etc.) to correct the 'mistakes' within themselves. Another main idea of Thomson's introduction is that most of why freaks were viewed as such comes from a fear of comparison. She discusses at one point that, following the American Civil War, it became harder for freaks to be distinguished from the normal because war casualties had deformed so many people. Thus, many people were now likening themselves to biological freaks which detracted from the wonder of the 'originals.


anomolous bodies- those bodies that were abnormal and differed from the normal and accepted human form

teratology- the science of monstrosity

enfreakment- David Hevey's idea which is a process by one comes to carry the stigmatic name 'freak'


According to page the middle of page for, freaks have "become today the abnormal, the intolerable." Why use the word intolerable?

What do you make of fat ladies and boys as well as beauty contestants as freaks?

Referencing the top of page 11, wouldn't exploitation of freaks increase the risk and threat of freaks?

Who knew that the Epcot Center was based on freaks?

Are reality shows like Little People, Big World attempts to reappropriate the word 'freak'?