transfaabulous reblogged
the concept of a freakshow never fully went away. nowadays people collect posts/screenshots of disabled/mentally ill people literally just Existing Online and put them on their accounts with the intention of displaying them for people to hurl abuse towards. And they think that this is a Normal and Moral way to behave and carry themselves.
Also? TLC shows are often freakshows rebranded to be inspoporn or "these are obviously freaks but we're HELPING them". I'm a literal bearded woman and had a TLC show producer reach out to try and make a show about me in 2018. See also: British tabloids and reality shows. They're even more aggressively obvious that they're into freaks. Freakshows are everywhere in modern media.
#^^^^#there's something to add here about like#ugly laws#and how they interacted with the freakshows of the time#and how we're still dealing with implicit ugly laws as well#lack of accessibility and cruelty and other things that keep us from being part of public life#and then the freakshows as 'look at these freaks you'll never see otherwise because we've made sure of it'#so it's like. they can't see us as just people because we're pushed out and so they marvel at us because they don't see us#i am. exhausted#so idk how much sense this makes#but then it also feeds into 'why bother with accessibility when no one needs it' WE'RE HERE WE NEED IT THIS IS IMPLICIT UGLY LAWS#they're very deeply connected in my mind#actually disabled#text post#ableism talk#myron grumbles (tags edition)