Is The Greatest Showman all that it seems to be?-Writing Wednesday
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
On Friday, we started paper 2 on the GCSE English exam board. Paper 2 consists of understanding different writers viewpoints and perspectives and compare and contrast them to each other. One of these controversial topics was about The Greatest Showman. Previously, in RE, I had already learnt about the supposed darker side to P.T. Barnum and Hugh Jackman's film romanticising the true exploiter. However, in English we were given an entire article about this. The Article said that P.T. Barnum "wasn't exactly a crusader for social justice" and he actually took advantage of those deemed to be outcasts of society. For example, he used African American women with birth defects to exhibit shows just to make money. One of them was Joice Heth, who was blind a partially paralysed, and although she was in her 80s, Barnum claimed she was 161 years old. His Circassian Beauties, were also given fake afro hairstyles using beer. These were deemed to be "savage tribes" but they were actually made up of indigenous people or fake ones.
Now although this all sounds awful, can we really blame a man of his time? I don't think so. People accuse Barnum of, as well as exploiting humans, also exploiting animals by sticking up hot pokers up elephants trunks that he got from Sri Lanka to get them to listen. Although that sounds awful now, and in modern day society we wouldn't allow it, I don't think that we can blame Barnum for his behaviour because people at the time were uneducated about animal rights nor did they exist as laws in the first place. Many circus showmen of his time also did exactly the same thing. Although we may see Barnum today as an exploiter of those who are different, he did take a huge risk in his time. He did get a lot of criticism as well as praise for his shows. This is shown in the film when people try to boycott the theater. Barnum found a unique way to showcase their differences in a way which stood out from the crowd and formed our society today. A society that is accepting of uniqueness. Had he not taken that risk, we wouldn't be as developed in our knowledge of things like birth defects as we are today.
What do you think? Is Barnum an exploiter or risk taker of his time? Let me know in the comments below and i'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
See you Saturday for another dance post on what I got in my medal test,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
My social media handles:
My Instagram
My YouTube channel
My second blog:
The Book Hub
On Friday, we started paper 2 on the GCSE English exam board. Paper 2 consists of understanding different writers viewpoints and perspectives and compare and contrast them to each other. One of these controversial topics was about The Greatest Showman. Previously, in RE, I had already learnt about the supposed darker side to P.T. Barnum and Hugh Jackman's film romanticising the true exploiter. However, in English we were given an entire article about this. The Article said that P.T. Barnum "wasn't exactly a crusader for social justice" and he actually took advantage of those deemed to be outcasts of society. For example, he used African American women with birth defects to exhibit shows just to make money. One of them was Joice Heth, who was blind a partially paralysed, and although she was in her 80s, Barnum claimed she was 161 years old. His Circassian Beauties, were also given fake afro hairstyles using beer. These were deemed to be "savage tribes" but they were actually made up of indigenous people or fake ones.
Now although this all sounds awful, can we really blame a man of his time? I don't think so. People accuse Barnum of, as well as exploiting humans, also exploiting animals by sticking up hot pokers up elephants trunks that he got from Sri Lanka to get them to listen. Although that sounds awful now, and in modern day society we wouldn't allow it, I don't think that we can blame Barnum for his behaviour because people at the time were uneducated about animal rights nor did they exist as laws in the first place. Many circus showmen of his time also did exactly the same thing. Although we may see Barnum today as an exploiter of those who are different, he did take a huge risk in his time. He did get a lot of criticism as well as praise for his shows. This is shown in the film when people try to boycott the theater. Barnum found a unique way to showcase their differences in a way which stood out from the crowd and formed our society today. A society that is accepting of uniqueness. Had he not taken that risk, we wouldn't be as developed in our knowledge of things like birth defects as we are today.
What do you think? Is Barnum an exploiter or risk taker of his time? Let me know in the comments below and i'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
See you Saturday for another dance post on what I got in my medal test,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
My social media handles:
My Instagram
My YouTube channel
My second blog:
The Book Hub
The film does romanticise Barnum's life and show but it's meant to be a light hearted musical. Your post really made me think. You write a solid argument and I agree with all your points.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I do get why people think he exploited people and animals but we've got to think back to his time and put ourselves in his shoes and ask ourselves, would we really be any different?
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