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Paralympics and the Fabrication of 'Freak Shows': On Aesthetics and Abjection in Sport
Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Sport Sciences (IDV).
2017 (English)In: Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, ISSN 1751-1321, E-ISSN 1751-133X, Vol. 11, no 2, p. 224-237Article in journal (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Two years before the opening of the Paralympic Games in London in 2012, the British TV network Channel 4 launched a campaign called Freaks of Nature. As part of the campaign they produced the short film Meet the Superhumans by director Tom Tagholm. The film became an immediate success, but was also criticised for portraying the Paralympians as ‘freaks’ and for reducing the Paralympics to a ‘freak show’. But was it wrong to describe the Paralympics as a ‘freak show’? Is there even a point of using the term ‘freak show’ in relation to sports? There might be, and that is what I am discussing in this paper. To be more specific, I am proposing that the term ‘freak show’ can challenge and destabilise common aesthetic views in sport, simply by the adding of abject dimensions to the athletic performances. From this one can claim that the Paralympics reconnects to the freak show-tradition of the past. And that, in itself, can have a moral and political impact.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2017. Vol. 11, no 2, p. 224-237
Keywords [en]
Paralympics, freak shows, aesthetics, abjection
National Category
Humanities and the Arts
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-3344DOI: 10.1080/17511321.2017.1286375ISI: 000403717100008Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85013035974Local ID: 22680OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-3344DiVA, id: diva2:1400145
Available from: 2020-02-28 Created: 2020-02-28 Last updated: 2024-02-05Bibliographically approved

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Jönsson, Kutte

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