This week, I started a new job. For those of you who’ve been
reading the blog for a while, you’ll recall back in May’s Losin’ It that I lamented the inevitable demise of my position.
Well, it ended last month, my new position started Tuesday, and all is well in
the world again.
Jobs are important. Think how much time we spend at our
jobs, how they can define who we are as individuals. When I left the fire
department, I went through a serious identity crisis. For thirteen years, I
proudly wore the title “firefighter/paramedic.” I was a “hero,” a “lifesaver,”
a self-proclaimed badass. When I left to enter grad school, I was suddenly a
nobody (the title “grad student” won’t even get you a cup of coffee).
But when I graduated six years later and marched from
campus with my shiny new PhD, I was somebody again, with a brand new identity.
I admit, going from firefighting to archaeology was a strange transition and, although my careers were at odds, they made for some incredible
experiences.
That common term was a cruel label given to those who relied
on physical deformities or biological oddities to eke out a meager living as a
circus sideshow. During their heyday in the 1800s, these unfortunate
individuals were readily labeled “freaks,” since the medical community lacked
the sophistication for accurate diagnoses.
For example, Lionel, The Lion Faced Boy was covered with
six-inch-long hair over most of his body. Born in Poland in the late 1800s,
Lionel suffered from hypertrichosis, a rare genetic disease that causes
excessive hair growth. Today, this condition is treated through medications
that inhibit hair growth or through manual hair removal, but no such treatments
were available to poor Lionel. He died of heart failure at the age of forty-one.
Conjoined twins were always a big draw. Chang and Eng Bunker
were two of the most famous. Born in 1811 in Thailand (then known as Siam, thus the name “Siamese Twins”), the brothers were omphalapagus twins - joined at the abdomen –
and shared a liver. Had the brothers been born in the modern era, they most
likely could have been separated. Separation depends on the type of twinning
involved and omphalapagus twins, which account for about thirty-three percent of conjoined twins,
have a high success rate when the heart is not involved. Fortunately, the
brothers’ condition didn’t seem to slow them down. They married a set of
sisters and ended up having twenty-one children between them.
Another condition that resulted in deformities deemed worthy
of exhibition was acromegaly. The condition causes excessive growth of various body
parts , typically the hands, feet, and jaw, as a result of overproduction of
growth hormones (usually from a tumor of the pituitary gland, which controls
such hormones). But it also causes thickening of the skin, excessive height,
and an enlargement of the bones of the face. The deformities can be
frightening. Mary Ann Webster suffered from this horrible condition. Born in
London in 1874, Mary, like many sufferers, developed the disease as an adult
(the condition is called “gigantism” when it strikes children). As the disease
progressed and her face became more distorted, she was cruelly billed as “World’s
Ugliest Woman” and put on display.
Of course, the most famous sideshow star was Joseph Merrick. Dubbed the Elephant Man due to the leathery grayness of his skin and its rough, mottled texture, and the gross deformity of his face and body,
Joseph lived a tortured life. Shunned as a child and suffering from what has now been diagnosed as Proteus syndrome, he went into the sideshow
business after several failed attempts in sales. But as the shows fell out of
fashion in England, his handlers sent him on tour throughout Europe, where he ended
up beaten and robbed. After making his way back to London, he was taken in at a
local hospital and through the generosity of the medical staff and an
outpouring of public support, was granted a permanent room where he lived out
his short life, dying from asphyxiation at the age of twenty-seven.
May they find peace.
I leave you with a favorite poem of Joseph Merrick's...
