Freak bodies (with)in a freak/talk show

Abstract

The corporeal difference is the most fundamental in experiencing the otherness of the other. Confrontations with freak bodies in public spaces often leave us helpless, yet they call for strategies that would resolve the problem of their otherness. Modernity has formulated two basic rules governing the presence of heterotopic body: its medicalization and normativization. It would then seem that there is now a void where once was a freak show. Yet, the traces of freak shows’ spectacular logic can be traced in the television talk show formula. The comparison of these two is not aimed only at pointing at some superficial similarities, but also to more in-depth analogies concerning the logic of representation of corporeal otherness and lastly – to the metanarrative behind the show that justifies its obscenity. The paper concludes with a question of the possibility of adapting, yet, another strategy of making freak bodies publicly visible: freak show-based performances of disabled artists.