’Society’s fixation on beauty and physical appearance is not new and even dates back to ancient Greece. It simply changes its costume with time.
Back in the 19th century, the obsession was loud, unapologetic, and highly commercialised. While fascination with such beauty standards remains, it has become quieter, more refined, and algorithm-driven.
However, it must be noted that the fundamental nature of this addiction remains the same – to stare, compare, and judge. Previously, it was conducted through a ticket booth; now, it is conducted via a “For You” page on social media.
So, let us dive in to know more about this transition from freak shows to filters and see how the beauty standards have changed during the past few decades:
Spectacle for Sale: The Victorian Freak Show Era
In Victorian England and America, difference was perceived as a business model. Traveling exhibitions and “freak shows” reduced people to their physical disabilities, genetic conditions, and visible differences.
As a result, they were turned into commercial attractions. People soon converted into paying customers, investing in a fantasy that placed them safely on the side of “normal”, while others stood under the spotlight, ready to be stared upon and mocked.
These shows blended pseudoscience, moral superiority, and voyeuristic thrill. Promoters developed elaborate backstories, exaggerating conditions to make them more shocking and hence more profitable. Audiences gathered not to understand humanity but to consume it. They paid for the privilege of staring at someone else’s suffering and called it entertainment.
Though it may feel distant, this era reveals something uncomfortable: our collective willingness to reduce human beings to products and to label it as ‘harmless fun’.
The Digital Age: Filters, Feeds, and Polished Perfection
Fast forward to today, and the way people chase sensationalism has changed, but the essence remains intact. A smartphone screen has replaced the circus tent. Instead of performers being displayed by a ringmaster, people perform for algorithms, views, likes, and followers.
Social media, replete with its endless filters, beauty apps, and ranking systems disguised as engagement, has created a new kind of reality that feeds on attention.
The currency has changed from tickets to views. A face is no longer simply a face but content. It must be smoother, smaller, sharper or, at the very least, interesting enough to spark interaction. Filters offer impossible perfection, reshaping bone structure and erasing pores, creating faces that don’t (and can’t) exist in the real world. These standards seep into self-image quietly. And gradually they tighten their grip without ever announcing their arrival.
As in the crowds of the 1800s, modern audiences gather to watch and to judge. Viral mockery spreads within hours, turning the comment section into a hotspot for public humiliation. The medium of consumption might have changed, but the instinct remains startlingly familiar.
One of the significant differences now is the scale of this spectacle. Billions of views, unlimited screens, and an unending appetite for consumption and comparison. All of this was done in a matter of minutes. Meaning, digital cruelty travels way faster than any travelling show ever could.
A Bridge Between Eras: Old Instincts, New Platforms
When you place the Victorian freak show next to today’s beauty-driven social media, the parallels become difficult to ignore.
At the time, audiences paid for tickets and seats.
Now, we pay with clicks, likes, shares, and watch time.
The economic model has changed forms and media, but the outcome remains unchanged. Human appearance remains a commodity but is more widely subject to criticism. This is also because it is easy to package, sell, and access. And since there is no ringmaster, we all participate. We yearn to be a part of this race – posting, watching, commenting, reshaping ourselves to match expectations that grow daily.
Society no longer uses velvet curtains and wooden stages; it uses algorithms, filters, and an attention economy. The ones who adapt are rewarded, and the ones who don’t are punished.
History offers many reminders of how far public condemnation can go. Mary Ann Bevan’s story is one of the most disturbing examples of it.
Mary was a woman who lived with a medical condition that impacted her physical appearance. As a result, she was marketed ruthlessly and labelled in language that stripped her of dignity as circus owners made money from her supposed title of being the ‘ugliest person in the world’.
Her experience shows that when someone’s appearance becomes public property, empathy is often the first to be tossed out.
Beneath the Surface: How Much Has Really Changed?
Although it is comforting to believe that we have moved beyond the days when people paid to stare at others, once you scroll long enough, this illusion will soon fade away. The platforms are new, the language a little more refined, but the impulse remains. We turn human beings into content – something to be consumed.
The world may look more refined now with no shows, no tents, no ticket booths, and no crowds lining up for a glimpse. Yet the gaze remains, and it is now faster and more widespread.
The truth is that the circus never truly ended. It simply moved online.
