Consider contemporary sideshow performer Mat Fraser. A charming and provocative white man from Britain, Fraser was a thalidomide baby—he has, as he describes them, “flippers” instead of arms. He is a musician, an actor, a performance artist, and a burlesque performer. He is also the self-proclaimed “Sealboy.” Disability scholar and artist Petra Kuppers writes that “in the creation of ‘Sealboy,’ Fraser was searching for his historic role model, his roots, his heritage.” By doing so he was “designating the disability experience not as an individual or singular fate, but as a cultural minority
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