Beautiful People

Everybody's a Freak to Somebody

I consider myself to be a pretty normal person. I am relatively well-adjusted, possess a solid moral foundation, and put forth the effort to be a productive member of society, just like every other normal person. I admit, however, that I do sometimes silently judge other people. I don't do anything with that judgement. I don't show any outward signs that I think poorly of some people when I encounter them, and if I'm laughing at someone in my mind, I make sure that laughter doesn't make it to my face. But I do judge people, and sometimes, I rather enjoy doing it. If I think mean thoughts about people, but they don't know about it, then no harm done. Nobody gets hurt. So, what's the big deal?

Let's face it. There're a lot of freaks out there. Why should I deny myself the enjoyment of reveling in their freakiness?

One day not long after I moved to San Francisco, I decided to take the bus home from work. I live along the routes of four San Francisco bus lines, but it was just my luck the first bus to come along was a 71 Haight/Noriega. For those of you who don't live here and don't know anything about this bus...it's a traveling freak show. I've seen things happen on that bus that I never imagined I would ever see happen on a bus. Spit ball fights, physical altercations involving multiple random passengers, paranoid idiots trying to involve everyone else in their delusions, and many other bizarre twilight zone moments are common occurrences on this bus. I typically avoid the bus as a matter of practice, and I considered waiting for another bus that day. But even during peak times, busses can be few and far between in this city, and I was in a hurry to get home, so when the bus pulled up and the door opened in front of me, I hopped onboard. I'm a people watcher by nature, so I immediately started looking around at my fellow passengers. Sitting across from where I was standing, there was a huge white woman who had an interesting scarf around her neck that I realized was not so much a scarf as it was a neck full of hickies. Sitting next to her with his arm around her shoulders was an even huger black man who was apparently the guy responsible for her hickie scarf and who was knawing on the largest chicken drumstick I have ever seen. Grease was dripping into his lap as little bits of meat flew this way and that way from his mouth as he chewed. I let out an internal, "Freaks!", which seemed to satisfy me in that moment. I noticed they were looking and laughing at a little old lady who was sitting in the back of the bus going to town picking her nose and flicking the nastiness off her finger letting it fly wherever it happened to fly. I let out another internal, "Freaks!". Lady Lovely was staring intensely at a drunken Santa Claus whose outfit looked like it hadn't been washed for decades. I might add, this was sometime in the summer. Another freak! Drunken Santa, in all of his blurry eyed glory with a look of derision on his face, was trying his hardest to focus on someone, and from the direction of his booze rattled gaze, I realized that someone was close to me. I looked around me to see who the newest freak was and realized I was the only person there, just me. I looked back at the drunk to make sure I understood where his gaze was going. I did. He was staring right at me.

That's the day I realized everybody's a freak to somebody...even me. It doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, what you do for a living, how much you earn, or who you know. There is somebody in this world who will look at you, and upon laying their eyes on you, instantly decide you are a freak.

Freaky Is as Freaky Does

The word freak is actually the short form of the term freak of nature, which originally referred to animals and plants that developed physical characteristics that were not natural for its type, such as six-legged calves or two-headed snakes. There was no underlying implied negativity in the term freak of nature. It referred to the deformity, not the animal or plant, and described that deformity as not natural. It eventually began to be used to refer to human birth defects and other deformities caused by extreme medical conditions. The implied negativity crept into the term because of changes in the usage of the word freak. Originally referring to something that was unnatural, it eventually began to be used to refer also to something that was unusual. In the 1500s, it was used to refer to capricious or whimsical behavior in humans, then in the 1800s, the term freak of nature became popular in variety show advertisements for bearded ladies, albinos, and other circus sideshow regulars. The term freak show derived from these advertisements in the early 1900s. This derivative developed with a distinct and undeniable underlying negative context. After all, it referred to people (not deformities) who had physical features that were not common. It didn't take long for that explicit negativity to grow into contempt for the undesirability of those who had the uncommon physical feature, the freaks.

Works Cited

Belsky, J. (2006). Socioeconomic Risk, Parenting During the Preschool Years and Child Health Age 6 Years. European Journal of Public Health, 17(5), 511-512.

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