Freak Shows: Demeaning Depictions or Empowering Employment?
By Michelle Favis, 2001-2002 U.S. Fulbright Scholar (mfwheels@yahoo.com)
Mr. Penguin, Lady Frog, and Duck - These are the official titles of carnival freak show performers once featured at the Boom na Boom Carnival in Metro Manila. Named after animals that they supposedly resemble, these performers sparked interest, disgust, and amusement in spectators. But shock and outrage overcame disability rights advocate Manny Batac when he first saw these entertainers on television. He didn't see animals or freaks - instead he saw people with disabilities being exploited and degraded by the public. His anger set him on a quest to 'save' these people from what he calls "demeaning" employment and media exposure.
But if Batac's quest was a righteous one, then why are so many people with disabilities - including some freak show performers themselves - upset at him?
"Saving" the Performers
As the broadcaster for "Usapang K," a radio show for Filipinos with disabilities, Batac speaks loud and clear about various disability issues, such as inaccessibility and discrimination. When he discovered that people with disabilities were working as freak show performers, Batac aired his opposing stance on Usapang K's Sunday afternoon broadcast. Batac, who lives with muscular dystrophy, claims a deep bond with these performers, whom he believes are humiliated and treated cruelly due to their physical differences. In "Able as Anybody," an article published in the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism's First Person, Batac stated that the performers' characterization as freaks and animals was "nothing but an affront to human dignity."
With the assistance of his former radio co-host Jessica Siquijor, Batac wrote letters to government officials, urging them to act against carnival operators who used people with disabilities as freaks in shows. The involvement of Matt Lee, Deputy Director of the National Council on the Welfare of Disabled Persons (NCWDP), led to action by government agencies. The Department of Interior and Local Governments released a memorandum circulated across the country to local government offices, calling on all government officials to ban all carnivals that employed persons with disabilities in freak shows.
Batac and NCWDP's advocacy efforts seemed to have paid off. The government's prohibition on the inclusion of people with disabilities in freak shows was invoked not only on Boom na Boom, but also on other carnivals traveling all over the nation. The only problem was the fate of the ex-performers.
Limited Employment Opportunities
Batac brought a number of ex-performers to NCWDP's headquarters, hoping that the agency would refer them to suitable employment opportunities. These ex-performers needed to work immediately to support themselves. To the dismay of Batac and the ex-performers, the agency could not do much to address their lack of employment. According to Lee, these people with disabilities had no skills that could provide them with stable and well-paid work. Therefore, the only solution Lee recommended was vocational training. He felt that these persons with disabilities had to acquire some skills before they could work.
However, even if these performers had the skills needed to gain employment in the open job market, the likelihood that they would find work is slim. Considering the country's depressed economic conditions, including high unemployment and underemployment rates, Filipinos with disabilities find it tough to gain suitable employment - especially employment that is commensurate with their abilities and skills. As Lee states, "If non-disabled Filipinos can't find work, what more to those of us who are disabled?" Discrimination against PWDs by employers is a compounding factor that keeps even skilled persons with disabilities from obtaining wage employment in the open market.
The ex-performers were sent to train for work in sheltered workshops. After the training, these ex-performers were expected to work alongside other disabled individuals, packaging and preparing items, and making less than one dollar an hour - far lower than the pay they were receiving as performers. They also enjoyed only minimal prospects of salary increases or independent living. Because these circumstances seemed far worse than working in the freak shows, some ex-performers rejected the chance to work in sheltered workshops, and tried to go back to their previous job as entertainers.
The bottom line...
Their return to the freak shows was a choice that some disability advocates and groups understood. Although Lee believes that freak shows are an unacceptable form of entertainment, he sympathizes with the performers' need to sustain themselves. He states, "These performers could care less about images they are projecting - they need money to live!" When it comes down to it, pay at sheltered workshops does not pay the bills. Disability rights advocate Ricardo Calapatia mentions that some disabled people even prefer begging in the streets and sidewalks, where they receive much more in handouts than the wages at sheltered workshops. Despite this, the Philippine government has not changed its strategy of establishing sheltered workshops to keep people with disabilities off the streets. Although Calapatia is aware that the government's approach fails to meet the economic needs of many disabled persons, he believes that sheltered workshops are better than providing trainings for jobs that are not available in the open market. At least Filipinos with disabilities will always have sheltered workshops as an alternative to living from begging in the streets, says Calapatia.
Media Control?
In "Able as Anybody," Batac wrote that he knows he's earned "the ire of the disabled performers themselves, along with other disability groups," who accuse him to "taking away their only source of income." Despite this, Batac continues speaking out against freak shows on his radio talk show. He believes that the dehumanizing images of people with disabilities projected in such shows are a backlash against the disability sector's fight for equal rights and equal opportunities. To be viewed as animals contradicts the strong, independent and humanistic image that the disability rights groups are struggling to project in society.
In addition, Batac and other disability advocates have focused their efforts on abolishing negative images of disability on television and other forms of media. There are many television programs and films in the Philippines that mock and disparage people with disabilities by depicting them as weak, helpless, and incompetent. Government officials have shown their support for Batac's cause. Last July, the "Media Protection for the Disabled" Act was filed in the Senate by Philippine Senate President Manuel Villar. If passed, this act will seek to control depictions of disabled persons in all forms of media. Some disability advocates believe that this act is too restrictive and infringes on people's right to free expression. These advocates also express concern over the legislative act's repercussions on people with disabilities working as entertainers. More entertainers with disabilities would be out of a job once it passes.
Disability advocates also note that the target should not be the media, but employers. They argue that employers should provide suitable job opportunities and ensure that discrimination based on disability in the workplace ends. Until employment is available to Filipinos with disabilities, freak show entertainers like Mr. Penguin, Lady Frog, and Duck will not willingly retiring.
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