While I’m probably not the first person to make this observation, I have noticed something about YouTube that utterly fascinates me as a student of history.
To put it bluntly, it’s a bloody freak show!
Medical disorders (from severe obesity to Hurler’s disease, Progeria, and serious infantile diseases) and are being exhibited for eager gawkers, and the self-promoters (the victims themselves) get millions of hits.
It takes no effort to find them. Here are just a few.
Severe obesity with possible mental issues (15 million):
Hurler Syndrome (16 million):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt7dK62QdLM&feature=related
Progeria (2.5 million hits):
Severe obesity/exhibitionism (close to half a million):
Deformed baby butt slide (5.2 million):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCbZ1h6RWac&feature=related
Conjoined twins (36 million):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkKWApOAG2g&feature=related
Merely sittingt on the toilet got one overweight woman a whopping 52 million hits:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYW6C44zo24
(As to why the above does not display, maybe there’s a “privacy” concern…)
Whether it’s the old days of P.T. Barnum, the modern fascination with the co-called “People of Walmart,” or just plain looking at YouTube, this country has not lost its fascination with what used to be called circus freaks.
They were pretty much put out of business by laws like this prohibiting exhibiting deformities. But where there’s a need, it will be filled, and YouTube is a form of free speech.
People are free to violate their own privacy online and be their own freak show.
I guess it’s a win-win.
Comments
2 responses to “Roll over P.T. Barnum!”
(As to why the above does not display, maybe there’s a “privacy” concern…)
There is a setting in YouTube that allows posters of their material to deny embedding in webpages.
I’d pay … 35 bucks to see these people in a freak show. More if there were some giants, midgets, and other freaks thrown in.