Also

[pantryslut]

The history of the Circassian Beauty sideshow attraction has got to be one of the hottest slabs of fucked-up intersectional fail ever.

Comments

[bifemmefatale.livejournal.com]

Weren't most human sideshow attractions giant slabs of fail? Except for maybe the strong man, they were all fucked up and squicky.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

It's debatable. Certainly very few were fail-free. I might downgrade some to merely problematic. Circassian Beauties are not among that group.

[anarqueso.livejournal.com]

I've been reading about this in The History of White People. There's some complex history behind it that's a tangled remnant of European slavery and tribalism, American racialization of slavery, and general imperialism. It's a hot mess indeed.

Which reminds me, I need to finish that book. It's amazing.