Letting their Freak Flags Fly
(Page 2 of 3)
Mar.-Apr. 2008
by Sacha Evans, from Polite
In his book Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit (University of Chicago Press, 1990), Bogdan outlines how medical technologies improved our understanding of physiological anomalies. Faced with declining public interest, freak shows began disappearing in the 1950s.
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Just like any polite crustacean, Lobster Girl usually introduces herself to audience members with a handshake. It’s not until they encounter her clawlike hand, with two opposable digits, that they realize they have met a “mysterious” creature who can conjure “the voices of the deep.”
According to her online bio, “Lobster Girl emerged from the ocean.” In reality, she joined the show after meeting Samantha X and her partner at a party. “They told me they were starting a freak show, and I was intrigued,” she says.
Lobster Girl became the first freak to join the show, which repudiates modern conceptions of health and beauty. Modern medical professionals often encourage parents to correct or treat abnormal conditions in childhood, particularly if the conditions pose health risks—a practice that some freaks think can be as monstrous as the abnormalities it’s intended to cure.
“Doctors pumped our dwarf with growth hormones when she was young and totally fucked her up, telling her she could be a normal height,” says Samantha X. 999 Eyes was founded on the premise that it’s OK to let your freak flag fly.
Samantha X conceived of her freak show while she was teaching an anatomy and physiology class in which she used photos of sideshow freaks to teach about the endocrine system. As she collected stories of freaks from the past, “weird coincidences” began to occur, she says. “The freaks started coming to me.”
After Samantha X put out a call for performers on a college radio program in Eugene, Oregon, an “amazingly beautiful half-woman” showed up, suitcase in hand—soon to be dubbed “Jackie ov all Trades.” Her “mutantstrosity” is that she has only one leg, a short limb with four toes.
Samantha X scoffs at would-be critics. “You take a deformed little girl and you say, ‘You can go to school and work at K-mart, or you can join the circus!’ ” she says. “It’s not like you’re pulling these people into something dark and scary and evil. It’s a beautiful world of magic and imagination.”
But questions of exploitation persist. “There’s a mixed take on it in the disability rights movement,” Bogdan says. “Some people see the humor in it, or see it as a way that freaks fooled the public and took charge of their own lives.”