The Greatest Showman/Deception

I thought for a long time about writing this, and even longer about publishing it. For the most part, my blogs have been personal, heartfelt and simply my honest feelings written out. What I've written below is a departure from that. You could say I have a new heightened sensitivity to this sort of thing, or that I now see life through a different lens. You could also say that when I come across something that relates to Mira, in a negative light, I have to get it off of my mind and out of my heart. This entry has nothing and everything to do with Mira Joy.

When I saw the first preview of “The Greatest Showman,” a few months ago, something in me started to stir. I knew by the time of its release I would have a lot to say and even more to unleash in writing. Over the past year, I have learned far too much about the horrific history of P.T. Barnum not to share it.

I want to be clear...my purpose is not to dissuade you from seeing the movie, but more to educate you on the difference between who this real life man was and what is being portrayed on the silver screen.

Haven’t heard of the movie? I’ll fill you in real quick: The ever-charming Hugh Jackman plays P.T. Barnum, a handsome family man who pulls himself up from his bootstraps and starts a circus with the theme of acceptance and inclusion. It’s also a glitzy musical.

Though it features a character named “P.T. Barnum,” “The Greatest Showman” is in NO way a factual account of the life of the 19th-century circus founder. This isn’t to say I don’t understand when creative liberties are taken for audience enjoyment —I get it. But in the interest of general awareness of Barnum, it seems worth pointing out that the life that we’ve been presented on screen is a far cry from the man he actually was.

In the 19th century, Barnum made his name as a “freak show” peddler; a simple Google search will show the reports of the abuse (both human and animal) and the fetishizing of minorities and the disabled, all in the name of putting more money is his own pocket and promoting his social status.

In the colorful, uplifting, musical extravaganza, “The Greatest Showman,” Barnum is portrayed as an all-inclusive savior to these outsiders. The premise is that Barnum loves these people in a way that most of the ignorant world does not. And through his respect for their differences, they are able to love themselves and feel a sense of worth performing in what will become the legendary Barnum & Bailey Circus. In reality, Barnum was a narcissist who exploited men, women, children and animals for selfish personal gain.

Here are some facts, courtesy of The New Yorker:

· Barnum’s first theatrical enterprise, in 1835, involved the exhibition of Joice Heth, a blind, elderly, enslaved African-American woman, who was said to have been a hundred and sixty-one years old and to have raised George Washington. Heth was, in fact, in her seventies, and after her death, instead of allowing her to rest in peace, Barnum arranged for an autopsy as a stunt to prove her extraordinary (albeit incorrect) age. (Harriet Washington, in her book “Medical Apartheid,” details the cruel treatment of Heth and the gruesome spectacle of her posthumous exhibition.)

· Barnum was a producer and promoter of blackface minstrelsy. His minstrel shows often used double-edged humor to mock people, specifically of African-American descent. These shows were performed by Caucasians in make-up or “blackface” for the purpose of playing the role of black people. These shows lampooned black people as dim-witted, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious and happy-go-lucky. During this time period, these shows were meant to "prove the superiority of the white race."

· It wasn't until P.T. Barnum bought Jumbo the African elephant from the London Zoological Gardens in 1882 that circuses became well-known for their elephants. It was also the exact same time that elephants began to be mistreated. In 1850, Barnum sent two men from Boston to capture wild elephants in Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka). The mission “killed large numbers of the huge beasts,” Barnum claimed in his autobiography. The elephants who died on the 12,000-mile long journey to New York City were dumped overboard.

· One of P.T. Barnum’s most famous hoaxes was the Fiji (also known as FeeJee) Mermaid. People came from all over the world to get a peek at what they believed was a real mermaid. In fact, the object was created by sloppily combining preserved monkey and fish body parts.

· Barnum followed that with the exhibition of Charles Stratton, a boy born with dwarfism that he dubbed "General Tom Thumb" who, at four years of age, was sold to Barnum by his parents for $3 a week. The boy was taught to imitate people from Hercules to Napoleon. By five, he was drinking wine and by seven he was smoking cigars for the public's amusement. When Charles voiced his disinterest in having people stare at him, Barnum replied, “They’re laughing anyway. You might as well get paid.”

· Barnum helped popularize the derogatory word "midget.” By 1884 it referred to an extremely small person who was publicly exhibited as a curiosity in freak shows or circuses.

By now I hope you can see why this movie would affect me so profoundly.

“The Greatest Showman” amounts to what could be expected from Hollywood: a family-friendly, over-marketed film that paints Barnum as the good guy, the hero even. It aims for a message of tolerance and acceptance, but for those with disabilities (or for those who love and respect those with disabilities), “The Greatest Showman” is a reminder of Barnum’s cruelty, and of Hollywood’s continued misunderstanding of how to accurately represent disability in all of its forms. By glossing over Barnum’s history of exploiting his performers, the movie undermines its own message.

The realities of P.T. Barnum’s “showmanship” have echoed throughout the century, and unfortunately, they are realities rooted in violence, exploitation and deception. The abuse found under the infamous Barnum & Bailey circus tents should be taught and remembered.

This Christmas, I think I’ll opt for Pitch Perfect 3.

Barnum (Jackman) and his "Cast of Oddities"