Logan Cavender
6/21/2022
ENG 374
Dr. Marchbanks
Freaks Point Response
The carnival employee speaking at the film’s opening sensationally tells his audience that
“but for an accident of birth, you might be as they are.” Does this film cast disability as a wholly
negative state of being?
Tod Browning’s 1932 film Freaks is an early example of a film that casts disability as not
being an entirely negative state of being, but overall a human one. The carnival worker at the
beginning of the film tells a group of carnival attendees: “but for an accident of birth, you might
be as they are.” This statement was preceded by an opening crawl, in which the audience is given
a recounting of the mistreatment of disabled people throughout history, as well as providing the
viewer with an idea of the comradery that disabled people have. While they are outcasts from
mainstream society and certainly endure hardships, this movie also demonstrates the tight-knit
community and resilience that they have formed as a result.
Tod Browning’s film has many scenes that attempt to destigmatize common
misconceptions and misrepresentations of disabled people from this time. Instead, his film
depicts them as just that, people. One of the ways that he shows this is through the interactions
between the able-bodied and disabled performers. Bozo the clown who is able-bodied has a very
genuine and loving conversation with one of the disabled performers, to whom he offers to buy
her a hat, after complimenting her dress. This endearing interaction drives home the humanity
and loving community that has been founded at the circus. Another example of this is the
interactions between Venus and Freida, as Venus tries to comfort her as the distance between her
and Hans widens. Another way that Browning shows the disabled characters in a positive light,
is by showing parts of their everyday lives. At the dinner scene, the woman with no arms is seen
casually eating, grasping a fork with her feet. This act shows the normalcy in this mundane
everyday task. Similarly, a man with no arms or legs is seen at one point rolling a cigarette using
only his mouth, once again highlighting the normalcy with which these people live their lives.
Another way that Tod Browning seeks to highlight the humanity of disabled people is
through their romantic relationships. This clearly demonstrates an anti-eugenics point of view
and challenges the common misconception brought up by Marsha Saxton, that disabled people
should not reproduce. Examples of this include the conjoined twins, who each engage with their
own respective romantic partners. Another example is the woman with no arms and her dwarf
husband, as well as the main relationship focused on in the film, Hans and Freida. While all of
these relationships are different, they all serve to further humanize and enhance the lives of the
disabled characters in this film.
This comes to a crescendo at the film’s ending, as the carnival members band together
and take revenge against Hercules and Cleopatra, as retaliation for their plot against Hans. While
they did act violently, it was only to protect one of their own and to uphold the strong
community that they have fortified.
