The DLR will host a journal launch gala to showcase its freakshow work from this year on April 25 in the Schwartz Digital Complex in Bracken Library from 5 to 8 p.m. Anyone is welcome to attend.
Eileen Rosensteel, a self-proclaimed "fat activist" performed her “Bodacious Beauties” show April 4, after the Digital Literature Review (DLR) immersive learning class invited her to share the largely untold stories of circus fat ladies.
The DLR is a two-semester class in which students publish scholarly articles. This year, the class is focused on “freakshows.”
Rosensteel’s show was inspired by the stories of fat ladies in circuses from the 19th and 20th centuries. She regularly performs monologues based on research she has gathered on the women.
Joyce Huff is an English professor who works with the DLR project and focuses on fat in literature in her studies. She first saw Rosensteel at a conference and thought she would be a good addition to the material for the "freakshow" studies.
“This shows a different kind of view,” Huff said. “These women were in an exploitative situation, but they are empowered.”
Rosensteel’s messages revolved around equality and self-love. She said there is no easy way for someone to start loving themselves. She shared with the audience that she weighs more than 500 pounds.
“Be gentle with yourself and realize there’s no magic switch for you to love yourself,” she said. “It’s about owning your own space and taking pride in who you are.”
Rosensteel was inspired to create the show after being publicly mocked for her weight.
“I thought, ‘Maybe I should just sell tickets,’ and that got me thinking about the women who actually did this,” she said.
Once she started the research, Rosensteel found there wasn’t a lot of information on these freakshows.
“I got pissed because the stories aren’t collected anywhere,” she said.
Rosensteel gathered any information she could find and interviewed descendants of the fat ladies. She said this show was one of the easiest things she’s ever done because it was also personal for her.
“I live now. I live in this body. I live in a world where I don’t fit,” she said. “I want to honor [the fat ladies’] stories. I want to make their lives become real. Even if you do freak studies, you don’t hear from them.”
Besides working as a poet and performer, Rosensteel is a massage therapist in Madison, Wisconsin, and performs as a burlesque dancer.
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