Circus "Freaks"- 5 Minutes of Science

For my five minutes of science, I decided to focus on circus “freaks”. Most commonly known for their sideshow attraction in the late 1800s and early 1900s, we don’t think about them much anymore, but they are still a very large part of our entertainment industry. From people like Andre the Giant to Peter Dinklage, it is clear we still find something interesting about people who look different than us. And as American Horror Story: Freak Show shows, we still view these “freaks” as just that. They are separate and apart from us, something we enjoy marvelling at, but not welcoming into our own society. That is all fine and good until you consider that millions of people are considered “freaks”, for whatever reason. They cannot get jobs or a steady income because of their appearance, and when they do find something, it is often a capitalization of their birth defect, making them into something less than human.

These “freakish” types of birth defects can be caused by any myriad of things, from chromosomal abnormalities to genetic mutations to tumors to exposure to things like viruses, alcohol, or drugs in the womb. For example, gigantism is commonly caused by a tumor on the pituitary gland that causes it to secrete to much growth hormone, somatotropin, making them grow much taller and much faster than the average human. Something similar happens with dwarfism. While there are multiple types of dwarfism, the most common is achondroplasia, which is caused by a genetic mutation that makes the pituitary gland create less cartilage and slow the use of the growth plates much faster than they should. And those are just two of the most common.

While most “freakish” birth defects are survivable and have minimal side effects, depending upon how bad the birth defect is, some of them can be crippling. Some conjoined twins can never separate from each other, making life very dangerous for them. People with microcephaly can suffer side effects from something as mild as a shortened stature to something as severe as seizures. Not to mention that people with visible birth defects, like people with hirsutism, extreme, male patterned hair growth on women, or cornu cutaneum growths, human horns, are incredibly unlikely to get a job or the emotional support they need as humans without expense treatments and surgeries.

As someone who has studied many of these birth defects and more, at the Mutter Museum and beyond, I have found it increasingly more disturbing the way society treats these people. We allow ourselves to make a profit off of them and marvel at them in fascinated horror, but we refuse to let them work in the same offices as us or try to accommodate any side effects from their “freakishness”. While we may not stick them in side shows anymore doesn’t mean we treat them anymore humanly. We force ourselves to ignore the issues they are facing for reasons they can’t help in favor of our own comfort. This treatment needs to end and end quickly. We have been treating “freaks” like this for over a century; isn’t it time we learn?

Works Cited:

M. (n.d.). Hirsutism. Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hirsutism/basics/causes/CON-20028919

McGurgan, H. (n.d.). Gigantism. Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://www.healthline.com/health/gigantism

Memento Mutter. (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://memento.muttermuseum.org/

M. (n.d.). Microcephaly. Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/microcephaly/basics/causes/con-20034823