The Ringling Circus Museum in Sarasota, Florida has a collection of advertisements from P.T. Barnum’s sideshow, featuring the tiny General Tom Thumb, original Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker and ‘fat lady’ Alice from Dallas. ALFRED GESCHEIDT/GETTY IMAGES

Welcome to the Freak Show

Social media, pornography, and the contemporary exploitation of mental disorders

Freak shows used to be those exhibitions where you could find ‘biological rarities,’ meaning individuals who had unusual physical characteristics that often came as a consequence of diseases and conditions. At some point, tattooed and pierced people also became an attraction in freak…