Warning: post contains spoilers for the season finale of American Horror Story and anger about treatment of disabled people in media. I have for the most part enjoyed Freak Show. Putting people with actual physical differences on screen is a brave and political act. But I learned never to trust Ryan Murphy way back in days of Nip//Tuck when he moved from creating the best transgender character I had ever seen on TV to basing major plots around a transgender character who embodied the most damaging stereotypes. I know not to expect more than exploitation from him. Ari Neeman has said that the worst thing about the movie Rain Man is that the autistic character ends up confined in the institution again at the films conclusion. This idea-- that people with disabilities do not have a place in the world-- is one of the most pervasive and damaging ones we face. The disabled character goes away at the end of the Very Special Episode. Even Edward Scissorhands ends up on the mountain alone. In the final episode of Freak Show, Dandy Mott goes on a killing spree and murders every character still living who is played by a disabled actor (also the stagehands and Meryl Streeps daughter). There is a blatant political statement in having freaks then kill Dandy, the big bad Straight White Man who is The Biggest Freak of All. There is a more subtle political statement in allowing just the actors who Only Play Disabled People on TV to be a part of that revenge. No one who cant take off the appliances at the end of the day is part of the new world that ideal physical specimen Evan Peters tells us the freaks will inherent. And the real freaks? They end up in heaven. Or hell. Or something. With Elsa, the Star. Ethel cannot be angry at Elsa for killing her: they were both just playing their roles. Besides, shes Jessica Lange, not really bothering to pretend that her legs are made wood. Disabled people are real people. We deserve real lives. We need stories that stop telling us we are Too Good for This World or that we are Better Off Dead. It is not our role to be killed for other peoples entertainment or edification. People who hurt us are guilty of real crimes that deserve real punishment. We cannot look to people like Ryan Murphy for more than exploitation-- we will always be the bit players for the actual people who matter to them. We have to tell our own stories. No one else will. To them, its all just a freak show.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 12:26:56 +0000
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