THE COMPLEX SUBJECTIVITY OF FREAKS IN AMERICAN HORROR STORY: FREAK SHOW

Abstract

The subjectivity of people with a disabled body is often simplified or reduced to a stigma. For centuries, this body has been derisively referred to as a monstrous or freak. In American horror story: Freak show, an anthological horror series produced by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk (2014), we are introduced to the United States of America in the 1950’s, a moment when such pejorative and prejudiced names used to be applied. In this article, we aim to analyze the subjectivity of the freak characters in this series, that is, we examine the representation of people with bodies considered monstrous. In order to do this, we rely on concepts from history and sociology (BARNUM, 1888; BOGDAN, 1988; DEMELLO, 2007; LE BRETON, 2007; DURBACH, 2010; KALIFA, 2019) in the delineation of the ideas of bodies, freak, and freak show. As a result, we observe that the series opts for a non-limiting representation of the subjectivity of people considered freaks. Although society often reads these bodies in a superficial way, we see that American horror story: Freak show contributes to spreading the idea that freak people are endowed with complexities, duplicities, and contradictions, not differing, after all, from those considered normal.