American Horror Story

For inspiration i looked into the American Television progam American Horror Story and their series Freak Show. The series itself is based on objectifcation of circus 'Freaks' this physically through how the rest of society in the series such as police officers alienate and label the 'Freaks' but also through the context of the program itself and the ethical issues surrounding it. The program by labeling human oddities as 'Freaks' and alienating them only leads to objectification of them in reality and increases the use of the label 'Freak'. In the program, they discised the shock value by using them as circus art; i would like to research further into this as i feel it increases passive objectifcation which is what i want to achieve with my body of work.

I also decided to look into a numeber of charictors in the series and their reaction to labeling and objectification:

Although Jimmy Darling in the sereies rejected the labeling and didnt react to objectification it was very clear objectifcation was present. The police and other members of socitey labeled him as a 'Freak' and he was told that the only place for him was in the 'Freakshow'. Is their really such as a division between us and them? Does society really actually alienate human oddities and only used them as objects of abusement? This is what kind of feeling i did build up throughout the series.

The series also gave me negertive views on human oddities especially through these charictors. Bette and Dot the siamese twins from very early gave me a bad representaion of human oddies by the killing of their mother and the twisted thoughts they both had in terms of killing eachother. This makes you feel scared about them and have the view of them just being 'Freaks' and nothing more, they are not human. Truely is it ethical for tv companies to put these feeling into viewers head? It just increases the objectifcation 'Freaks'.

This was one very obvious objectifcation to me in the series, although it wasnt exactly very harmful or upsetting it was still a strong form or objectifcation and gave the wrong impression of human oddities. Throughout the series she was abused for being small and treated like a toy, like a child. instead of recognising her as a human being with a personality, thoughts and feelings, she was objectified and treated like entertainment like a 'Freak'.

It is very clear that objectification is current with human oddities, not just in the Amercian Horror story series but also in reality as when i think of a woman with a beard or a human with an extra limb i think of the circus, and this isnt due to people being biased it is due to socities reaction towards them. We see their bodies as entertainemt as it is so interesting and odd, thefore we objectify them for that, this was bought to me very clearly through watching from the tv series.