ABSTRACT
In this chapter I examine conversations within critical animal studies that claim agency for animals exhibited in the zoo and circus and conversations within critical disability studies that claim agency for disabled humans exhibited in the freak show. This cross-movement analysis reveals commonalities within critical animal studies and critical disability studies discourse that work to challenge dominant narratives of non-agency and voicelessness that surround these institutions of display. This analysis highlights two distinct models of agency relied upon to assert agency: critical animal studies presents a model of agency associated with the physical resistance of animals, and critical disability studies presents a model of agency associated with the rational decision-making of disabled freak show performers. I argue that these models of agency exclude certain animals and humans from critical claims to agency. A cross-movement analysis exposes these gaps, encouraging us to imagine more nuanced models of agency and ask how those excluded from discussions of agency may have lived as more-than-victim.
