Tag: freaks

  • Real Monsters and Real Disgust: Comparing Reception of FREAKS and FRANKENSTEIN

    Real Monsters and Real Disgust: Comparing Reception of FREAKS and FRANKENSTEIN

    INTRODUCTION Scholarship surrounding Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932) mostly includes discussion about public perception of disability. This discussion is certainly warranted, but I am hesitant to place sole responsibility for the film’s poor reception on said perception. Indeed, to place such emphasis on viewer attitudes about disability is to ignore systematic exploitation and “othering” of disabled…