"Freak Show Filler" --From Human Zoos to Adoption "Feels"

"Freak Show Filler" is the term I use to describe disrespectful depictions of humanity used to increase ratings and/or gratify an audience because the content is viewed as "strange" or "unusual" and can cause the audience to feel "good about themselves" or "grateful" or "inspired."

Examples of Freak Show Filler Include:

Oprah's "The 2-Headed Baby Miracle" in which she shows a baby born with Croniopagus Parasiticus as something strange, rather than as a baby who was born with a serious health condition.

Ota Benga from the early 1900's: one of many humans displayed in human zoos around the world.

And literally any of Dr. Phil's episodes, where he claims to share medicinal and educational material while potentially exploiting their own mental illnesses and personal traumas.

We've moved on from ancient entertainment, of gladiator slaves fighting for fun. We no longer gather around the noose or the guillotine, but rather, we gather around the television to see what kind of emotional poaching we can find today. It isn't any surprise that "reaction" content sells. It's what drives up the genre of "college reaction" videos and what single-handedly fuels Mr. Beasts' viral videos of giving homeless people money or donating 10 million dollars to homeless shelters. It's about the faces, the tears, the reactions, the gore! We want more!

And this is why, though we have denounced people zoos, where enslaved and kidnapped aborigines were showcased during the Summer Olympics once upon a time and in the Bronx zoo in the Monkey cages a mere hundred years ago, there is still a hungry market of ignorant people who believe Adoptees fall into the Freak Show Filler.

Just watch as in 2017 "Twin Sisters Separated at Birth Reunite on 'GMA'" is viewed over 26 MILLION times.

The heavily orchestrated reunion shows how the two young girls are directed to stand on either side of a wall as it is oh-so-dramatically lifted up in a scene worthy of Broadway. The two sisters burst into tears because of the incredible raw emotion, as the hungry, ravenous, and ignorant crowd cheer in their seats, awash in the dopamine of trauma porn (you may also know it as Inspirational Porn which is similar to Poverty Porn.)

These two Chinese adoptees are both under the age of 18 and therefore don't have any legal right to refuse to appear on the show any more than it seems any of the producers or family members thought to give them either. In our modern world, adoptees are not given consideration the way other special interests groups are given.

This segment on GMA was just a single cog in the machine of the FAIRYTALE ADOPTION EXPRESS, the fantasy of the grateful, happy, lucky adoptee who should be crying tears of thankfulness every day just for being given a chance to live. "Oh, might I have some more porridge?" cries Oliver Twist softly in the background. The message: Adoptees don't have a right to happiness and are not worthy of love. Therefore, when they get it, it is a miracle and we should all rejoice they aren't thrown in the streets like Gavroche from Les Miserables.

Good Morning America (GMA) chugs along, happy as can be, as they devour adoptees and their stories whole, unconcerned, and frankly too dense to care, that adoptees are not Freak Show Filler and their stories are worth more than five seconds of a cheer from the audience. GMA is not alone in this. ABC literally has a video entitled: "8 Adoption Stories That Will Give You The Feels" as in, watch this trauma porn. Their lives and emotions are worth nothing at all, except to give you, the viewer, the chance to feel warm and fuzzy again, you know, because nothing beats watching adoptees being portrayed as freaks to hit that spot. Am I right? And do I even need to bring up Ellen?

Adoption is so common, so universally done the world over and throughout time, and yet it is often that segment shoved at the end of a grueling news hours meant to force a little happiness out of people. Did you just hear about a triple homocide? Well, how about watching as this little boy bursts into tears after being told he is adopted? Awwwwww. Too bad the little boy is too young to have fully developed thoughts about adoption and his philosophy about human dignity and worth before our news producers swoop in and offer him a shoulder to cry on. Wow! Praise be to humanity!