Definition Essay: The Poot Freak Shows

There is an old woman who sits on a wooden park bench, curled up over herself as if to seek warmth. Her hair has lost its color, and it gleams a dirty gray in the soft light. Her skin is tan and wrinkled, dotted with spots that suggest that she has seen more sun than she probably should have. She has queer blue eyes that have become milky in their blindness, and though she cannot see she has a sense of watchfulness about her. Her nose is long and hooked, disproportionately large on her face, and her lips are thin and cracked. To the casual observer, she is ugly. This does not stop the wide eyed stare that balks at her visage. Human beings are an extremely superficial race, and the things we consider ugly also fascinate us on a deep level, to the point that

Humanity has always been fascinated by the ugly and the bizarre; we love to stare and make fun of the unattractive. Carnival sideshows, called ‘Freak Shows’ by their attendees, which were popularized in the Victorian Era, showcased grotesque or abnormal people for viewers to gawk at. A recent example of this trend would be the widespread use of the ‘Poot’ meme. A meme is a cultural phenomena that is spread across the internet, and is usually in the form of an image. This image is often accompanied by an overlay of text that mocks the image or relays the writer’s thoughts about the image. ‘Poot,’ was the unfortunate name that an unflattering close up of Demi Lovato gained after a fan posted it from a meet and greet. Immediately the internet jumped up to embrace this new image and collectively decided to name the ugly image of Lovato ‘Poot,’ saying that Poot was Lovato’s twin sister who had been kept in the basement her entire life. This image spread across the internet with the speed of lightning, gaining hundreds of thousands of variations, all of which mocked Lovato for taking an unflattering photo, for being