The freak shows in 19th century were performances or exhibitions of people that have bodily appearances or behaviors that deviant from the norm of the people living in the United States. The performers, referred as “freaks” in these cases, were led by showmen in various performing groups and made to entertain or be viewed by the people paying the showmen. There were two kinds of performers in these freak shows that distinguished by their possession of autonomy. The first kind, such as Lavinia Warren, a white, middle-class dwarf mentioned by Kim Nielson in his book A Disability History of the United States, are usually white middle-class that were not mentally disabled. Lavinia Warren, as a very famous “freak”, was able to manage her own business, wrote an autobiography, and lived a wealthy life. These “freaks” agreed to show their body figures to the public for profit and had the chance to say no if they wanted to. In return to the huge profit they earned, they were often locked into the figure of “freaks” in the society and being “freaks” was the only thing they could do to earn a wealthy life.

But there was also another kind of “freaks”: the ones that “belong” to the showmen and do not have autonomy. They are usually people with disabilities from poor families, people with severe mental illness, and people of color with or without physical disabilities. The more deviant, exotic they are, the more money they can make for their showmen (but not necessarily for themselves). As described by Nielson, “the way they (the “freaks”) were shown, often with little clothing, was eerily similar to that on the slave block.” These “freaks” were often bought by the showmen and did not have much control over whether they want to be displayed, or how they want to be displayed, or whether they even agreed to be displayed. Under those displayed bodies, the self was hidden, suppressed, or even gone. Who, then, was really there on the stage when the body was displayed?  Did anyone care about the real persons in the show?

The freak show was an entertainment, but entertain was never its only effect on the audiences. By showing the deviants at that time, the freakshow exaggerated the differences between individual human beings and once again emphasized the distinctions between the “norms” and the “freaks”. As Eli Clare pointed out in his book Exile and Pride, all performers in the freak shows “held one thing in common: nature did not make them into freaks. The freak show did, carefully constructing an exaggerated divide between ‘normal’ and Other, sustained in turns by rubes willing to pay good money to stare.” The performers were only named and defined as “freaks” when they arrived in the U.S. when they were bought, when they were put on the stage without the consent from themselves. Under the influence of racism, ableism, and gender discrimination, the “freaks” in the 19th Century freakshows were viewed as objects and the Other, and their bodies were the protagonists.