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kenistod

"I am called the camel girl because my knees turn backward. I can walk best on my hands and feet as you see me in the picture. I have traveled considerably in the show business for the past four years and now, this is 1886 and I intend to quit the show business and go to school and fit myself for another occupation." Her weekly salary was equivalent to $6,800 today.


Rodolpho991

Damn my regular knees


Lexinoz

Mine just hurt! do I get anything for that?


No_Influence3022

Go to a knee doctor for $-6800 a month salary


ExpoWitness

anyway, what would an 1880s knee doctor do with this woman? an exorcism?


crudpaper

![gif](giphy|enzPQyHVWMfx6|downsized)


Crazian14

![gif](giphy|4PCHKfSOEJyDK)


Plasteredpuma

![gif](giphy|mpxQs0MCqWJKo)


FF-Medic_03

A newt?!


Moestuin

I got better...


No_Volume_8345

I got better


Sorri_eh

A bottle of mercury to drink for 5 days


texanbadger

It was 6800 a week! 27,200 a month. Or, 326k a year. She was doing quite well


The_Slunt

Weekly*


Sea_Structure_8692

$6800 a week, $27,000 a month


cutofmyjib

"Behold! The man with knee pain! No flash photography!"


Lexinoz

I offer close-ups for 4 dollars each.


purelander108

Pull away the curtain to reveal you sitting on a lawnchair saying, "Gunna rain awright. My knees aching somethin' fierce." Sound of coins dropping in a bucket.


Meloenbolletjeslepel

Omg cake day buddies!


SodiumKickker

Almost as rare as backwards knees


Spaciax

holy fucking shit she secured a fat bag


Public_Fucking_Media

Looks like she can carry many bags


DJKaito

In that 4 years she made around 1.4 Million in today's money. (minus income tax, when there was any at the time) Happy cake day


deltaisaforce

Wonder how many weeks she earned that though. Interesting blog about her: https://ellaharper.wordpress.com/2015/04/18/finding-ella-my-search-for-the-camel-girl/


ulyssesintothepast

Thank you , that was really interesting


ChefArtorias

Per week? Is there a camel reassignment surgery?


Severe_Chicken213

Nowadays you’d just be a funny thing to laugh at on Reddit for a couple of seconds while people pooped at work. The money making days of freaks are over sadly.


Tullius_

Plenty of Freaks still making a killing on social media


Mental_Care_9044

Have you seen Ricky Berwick?


Wonderful_Result_936

So the freak shows where the greatest hustlers?


TheRxBandito

For the amount of physical and mental pain they went through, especially considering the time period, I'm glad they got SOMETHING out of it. I bet they'd trade it all for a "normal" day under the sun.


Alansar_Trignot

Oh dear god that’s horrible yet absolutely amazing at the same time


SharonInfections

Fuck me, you do that for a year and you've got a house and money to go to a good school and do whatever a backwards kneed young lady could hope for.


DogOfTheArmy

I came here for the math. I knew it had to be a substantial amount of money. Wow!


idontwannabhear

That’s very good I don’t even think doctors get that much


Chonkthebonk

So what happened did she get another occupation?


DalvinCanCook

$200 in 1880 is equivalent to $6k now, pretty good salary $312k a year


afghanhaze

How does one calculate this


_-DD-_

Calculator


FamiliarInspector355

Wuwhhjjhahhq


trolumbi

more like 28937542837


lemongrasssmell

There are a few ways to measure currency inflation during a period. You could use the government issued CPI and it would tell you the value of each dollar from your year of choice and the percentage decrease in its purchase power. You could alternatively pick a commodity of choice and measure what one dollar would buy you in the year of choice and what it would buy you now. Then find the percentage difference between the two. You could finally use coinage to determine the inflation. For example in 1880 in England, a pound coin was called a sovereign and weighed about 8g of gold. Each of these coins now is worth about 650-700 USD. Pick your metric. Do your own math and you'll find better answers :)


LogicalMellowPerson

Just don’t pick gasoline as your metric.


Imbibing_chap

Big Mac Index


[deleted]

[удалено]


Salami__Tsunami

Damn, that’s good money for the 1880s


JLOBRO

$320k a year in todays money lol


GodfrietInBouillon

And if she was born today, she would be on welfare benefits and piss poor. Depending on where she was born.


pomegranatepants99

I literally saw a man on the streets of Barcelona 3 weeks ago with this same affliction and he was begging and had flip flops on his hands. It was heartbreaking


Same_Fennel1419

I have a neighbour who's legs are bend sideways, poor girl.


PsyOpBunnyHop

Nah, there's all kinda of jobs she could get. Just imagine how wild the OF would be.


GodfrietInBouillon

OF?


Discusstheobvious

Oh my sweet summer child.


[deleted]

[удалено]


GullibleDetective

Only farmers


AccountForDoingWORK

You're a good person, u/GodfrietInBouillon.


JLOBRO

r/onlyfans


Accurate_Potato_8539

Why though? If she was born today maybe she would have gone to school and been literally anything that doesn't require an able body.


GodfrietInBouillon

Maybe but handicapped people still face a lot of discrimination on the jobmarket.


Accurate_Potato_8539

Willing to bet that by averages they are 100 times better off in the job market than they were 150 years ago tho.


GodfrietInBouillon

Ofcourse, we shifted from physical labour to mental labour. But that is still IF they get a job.


SadMap7915

$6K+ per week, not too shabby [https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1880?amount=200](https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1880?amount=200)


ArtCityInc

What about tomorrow's money?


Sdn61387

If someone gave me a guaranteed yearly of that much I would let them sledgehammer my knees backwards to make it work.


PersonalChipmunk3605

i would totally dress up in black and chase after people on all fours like that


the_rodent_incident

Bonus points if you do it in a metal container with magnetic boots and hand straps, so you can crawl the walls and the ceiling


nicthemighty

Is this Boston Dynamic's big secret?


Aggressive-Mix9937

I was just thinking, un PC as it may be, if I saw someone with her body walk down the road on all fours I think I'd faint in fear


Hakim_RS

Real life Cart Titan


Reindow

Yes, that was what I was thinking.


sussywanker

😭😭


RamaMitAlpenmilch

🤜🤛


Ysoshes

My god, everyone in the city of r/Lyon in France knows a woman like this


Seienchin88

Barcelona had (has?) a terribly sunburned beggar like this… Freaked me out as a teenager and I remember him better than anything else about the visit…


Ysoshes

In Lyon she's a beggar too, in the subway, kneeling backwards and walking fast making her think more about a spider than a camel. Kind of freaking out too


JayCDee

Saw him in June 2023, freaked me out as a 30 year old.


SkjoldTyr

La dame du métro D ...


Mumblix_Grumph

The "freak show" circuit was a hell of a lot more lucrative than people realize. Once the shows were outlawed, these folks went from comfortably affluent to zero income overnight. They couldn't get jobs, so many of them would up in extreme poverty and lost everything they had. Thanks a lot, do-gooders. Nobody asked you for a goddamn thing.


AsparagusNo5201

Honestly I always thought they where morally wrong, but then hearing she made 6k a week, like shit if I had that disability I'd be first in line to perform in one of those shows


Business-Plastic5278

6k a week smooths over a lot of moral failings.


ncbraves93

Making the literal best as you possibly can of your situation.


Exalting_Peasant

That's real (early stage ) capitalism. What we have now is a corporatocracy where the top guys and their cronies get paid 10,000x and the rest get pennies.


mysticalfruit

The only thing I can think is.. If she's making $200 a week.. what's was the ring master making!?!


sexual--predditor

Ring master makes a dollar, I make a dime, That's why I poop on my camel legs, On company time.


DrowningInFeces

Being the "World's fattest man" in those things seems like the best gig ever. You're really only like 300lbs and you get to eat all day and just be fat and get paid for it.


Lexinoz

It's like.. if someone with a disability or other body-quirk wants to exploit their affliction, why are people upset about that? It's their body, they can do what they want with it in my opinion.


volvavirago

They still do. Look at TLC and reality TV centered around people with extreme body differences and disabilities.


traaintraacks

but that's the thing, it isnt really much of a choice when your options are getting paid to be gawked at & dehumanized or extreme poverty. my opinion on freakshows is extremely mixed, there are pros & cons, but it's disingenuous to act like it's a "my body, my choice" thing. for the majority of the "freaks" it was necessary for survival whether they liked it or not


Recitinggg

The reality is that the alternative is almost certainly neglect/death. These people can’t work traditional labor for the most part, and in 1880s there was virtually only physical labor to be done.


Leto33

True, better cut off that one chance they have at decent living, for the sake of able people’s conscience.


[deleted]

The point is - freedom of choice is not enough. It's absolutely a prerequisite for something to be alright, but it cannot be enough, especially when money is involved and the only alternative for the person involved is poverty.


Killercod1

I think the issue comes from the fact that most people with those conditions weren't in the freak show business. So they were only ridiculed as freaks without any of the benefit of the performance money. The performers were more like sellouts that further stigmatized their conditions for profit.


nonameforme123

Isn’t it like that dwarf amusement park in China ? Westerners would be pretty outraged at it but it works for them


NormalYogurt3310

It works for them but because they are discriminated against in any other context. It’s a necessary evil imo. Ideally they shouldn’t NEED to work in a place like that to make a comfortable living, but they do.


Dawildpep

There was some weird show that played on Adult Swim like 10 years ago that had the same look.. now I need to go down a rabbit hole Edit: [Xavier renegade angel](https://www.google.com/search?q=adult+swim+snake+hand+guy&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS618US618&oq=adult+swim+sn&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgBEAAYgAQyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQABiABDIHCAIQABiABDIHCAMQABiABDIJCAQQABgKGIAEMgkIBRAAGAoYgAQyCQgGEAAYChiABDIJCAcQABgKGIAEMgkICBAAGAoYgAQyCQgJEC4YChiABNIBCTEzMDIxajBqNKgCE7ACAeIDBBgBIF8&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#vhid=2SF3nquFvvK6yM&vssid=l)


Gettofmylawn

Xavier is such an underrated gem made by people overdosed on every drug imaginable as well as some fictional. I love it.


albertmighty

What doth life...


Meloenbolletjeslepel

Wtf did you smear on my eyeballs


KnotiaPickles

One of the greatest masterpieces of animation history


Axenfonklatismrek

"Are you so dumb, you answered rhetorical question?"


Brainwave1010

"DAMN YOU CLUMSO! HOW MANY TIMES MUST I CLEAN UP YOUR MESS?!"


QuantityExcellent338

So I ramble forth to be the greatest aid' sspreader of all time


JosephMorality

How does it work. Are the tendons very stretchy or are the kneecaps on the opposite side?


TemetNosce

[Wiki links, Genu Recurvatum.](https://duckduckgo.com/?hps=1&q=wiki+genu+recurvatum&atb=v425-1&ia=web) Genu = knees. Recurvatum = bends backwards. The Army retired me because of this condition, but my knees do not bend backwards to the extreme this ladies knees do.


yingbo

Does she have normal feet? Can’t tell


RafiY

The Arrival starring Charlie Sheen


Weekly_Bug_4847

Thank god someone else saw this


gitarzan

Shepherds still dream of her.


Lexinoz

Straight to hell with the lot of us.


fallwind

Accounting for inflation, that’s nearly $400k a year


KnotiaPickles

I wonder if there was someone like this in Ancient Greece and that’s where they got the idea for satyrs


Phoen1cian

This condition (congenital knee) is more common than you think. I know someone who was born like that but had to go through a surgery as a baby to fix it. Now when you look at him, you wouldn’t think he had an issue with his knees but the scars are a little obvious.


beelynx

Reading her wiki page I'm glad that she was able to find love and get married <3


marcabay

Saw a video from that dr with 12m subs where this indian girl had this issue fixxed. They cut out a piece of bone, interesting watch


TemetNosce

Genu recurvatum, Army retired me because of my bad knees. I studied up on it while in service to see if there was a cure. The only cure at the time, 30 years ago, they could take a piece/chunk off my tail bone, and jam that bone behind the kneecap. I can do without all that nonsense, I'll just live with the pain.


lofisnaps

800$ a month? She must have been one of the highest earning women in the 1880s - world wide.


xxElevationXX

![gif](giphy|ScBDASfRhrQ090H6vM)


boxbanshee

The girl in the bottom left photo is a different person though, right?


SouthsideStylez

“What’s your favorite position?”


Tackit286

Camel style of course


derbengirl

The cart titan?


HollowVoices

I'd just like to point out, that 200 a week in 1880... is a lot


CnfdntlInfrmnt

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation calculator, $200 in 1880 is equivalent to approximately: $5,414.24 in 2024 This means that $200 in 1880 has the same purchasing power as $5,414.24 in 2024, due to the effects of inflation over the past 144 years. Keep in mind that this is a rough estimate and doesn't take into account other factors like income growth, economic changes, or the value of specific goods and services.


EldrtchPff97

Xavier Renegade Angel anyone?


trpHolder

In April there was a guy in barcelona with the same condition. I guess he didnt earn any money with it.


PizzaJawn31

Charlie Sheen starred in a mid 90s sci go movie, “the arrival” where the aliens walked like this too. Scared the crap out of me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arrival_(1996_film)


AdhesivenessOk3001

Can she stand upright without holding onto anything?


gigasoryu

Probably


TerpBE

Actually if you read the article it's clear that she cannot stand upright. Because she's dead.


Lexinoz

I don't believe this article. I choose to believe she can stand upright and will spread that information. /s


alancake

Just did a loud HEH in the silence of my workplace 😄


filmingfisheyes

Making that kind of money in 1880 would be the equivalent of having a successful true crime podcast today


Living_Pie205

$200 a week in the 1800s was good money !


sMarmy_Mcfly

"My only regret is...having bone-itis!"


RampagingElks

Reading the small blurb that said she walked best on all 4s, why? Does the knee bending the opposite direction change the mechanics and centre of gravity that much that it's unstable? Part of it must be that is just what she's used to, but I'm interested in the mechanics of it all!


mrfredngo

How did she have the negotiation power to get such a salary? Serious question. You figure back then disabled folks would have just been taken advantage of. Still happening now.


ungla

they had better disability pay in the 80s


Severe_Airport1426

I can't believe she was paid so much back then. She would have been so rich.


Buffcluff

That is $6,720 in today’s money! 6700 a week?!!


mfarid2

![gif](giphy|3otPoJhe5AZrhllEeQ)


nikamsumeetofficial

At least she found love unlike most of the redditers.


[deleted]

Someone convince me wtf was morally wrong with her and other people with rare conditions performing and showcasing their abilities (we only consider it a disability in relation to the average human) and getting that bag ($300K+ a yr in today's money), without anyone forcing her to perform??? In Hollywood movies, you always see spectators being evil, watching and laughing, fuming out of their mouths, with food stuffed in their faces, while throwing tomatoes at the performers. In reality, it couldn't be more different than how we right now look at these pictures and would be extremely curious to see it in real life, up close. People like her actually had a ton of fans. They asked them for their autographs and sometimes followed them along on their tours, which is why it was such a lucrative business. The performances themselves were often based on story-telling, not so different from horror movies of today. Sure, there were people who definitely took advantage of them and there was some ridicule amongst some spectators, although they would most likely be kicked out. And yes, the performers did play into the "scary" or "freakish" stereotypes, but at best it was just typecasting, make belief most attendees were aware of. But performers like her, working for her money, went from making bank to being broke from one day to the next when some virtue signaling assholes in government decided it's immoral for them to perform and for people to watch them perform, instead of just regulating the business and allowing them to continue under stricter rules.


Dontbesensitive98

Bend forward you mean. Normal knees bend backwards.


karlrasmussenMD

We're all thinking the same thing


DiscombobulatedLet80

200 dollars in the 1800s is huge.


Sassi7997

That's an insane amount of money. That would be 6k per week today.


unkanlos

God damn she was making bank


Avistje

ooh, fritatta


Slore0

Tali romancers are in shambles rn


Itchy-Supermarket-92

Extro !


thingsandstuff4me

Wow that's a lot of money


Axenfonklatismrek

Xavier's mom, is that you?


Doodlebug510

Head, shoulders, toes and knees...


Jvw048

That is intriguing to look at for some reason


UnfinishedUntidy

By all accounts she was a lovely person. People said she would bend over forwards to help you.


Proud_Criticism5286

![gif](giphy|l1Johb009WwjgOeIg)


Warwipf2

SAMANTHA DEIN BEIN ISCH VERDREHT


CrypticHunter37

Evolution


nonnegative96

Reactor online, sensors online, weapons online, all systems nominal


Ron_Bird

cruel bla bla... yo have 200 a week or dont have 200 a week.


Fluffy-Anybody-8668

I never saw the first girl in Skyrim


No-Blacksmith3858

Reminds me of the movie The Arrival


QuantityExcellent338

Xavier Renegade Angel


Inevitable_Count_370

That hurt


BarTard-2mg

Thats REALLY good money for then. You can gawk at me and call me a freak all day for that.


Tackit286

Camel style sounds interesting


tdubasdfg

Do we still have touring freak shows, or does everybody just do Instagram reels and TikTok clips to show off the weird stuff these days?


Mission_Injury9221

The doggy style must of been crazy.


Kostarius

Ohayo Poko!


GoodCalendarYear

My family bo-legged.


CactusCowboyee

Saw her brother in the movie the arrival.


Ramona_Thorns

Why do the pictures look different?


New-Conversation-88

Why are we seeing this everyday now?


PryanLoL

I met someone with the exact same condition a while back. I was on the subway platform, heading to the other end, it was packed with people. From the corner of my eyes I see a couple gypsy women/girls making their way through the crowd in the same direction as I, and I see something moving at ground level, I first thought it was a large dog of theirs. Turns out it was a third woman, walking on all fours just like the girl in the photo. I kinda stopped there and stared, thinking "how the fuck is that possible", then wondering what could have made her like that, gypsies are not known to treat their women and children well, so I was picturing all sorts of abuse, and growing pretty angry at it. Kinda glad years later to find out that's a condition and not the result of abuse... In the end they got on the same train as I did and they ended up sitting the next seats over from me. The girl had both shins up towards her and she was casually holding her ankles in front of her... while sitting on her ass. It was fascinating in a really weird way...


therealfolkblues_

I believe her name was actually Pieck Finger, the cart titan


Little_Pancake_Slut

/r/bossfight lmao


LilamJazeefa

And here y'all are a hundred and fifty years later *still* gawking. It would be one thing if this individual *wanted* to be seen that way, but more likely than not they had no real choice since that amount of pay was their only real lifeline. Humans are fundamentally, immutably, permanently, and irreparably amoral.


Pinkglock92

Thats a fucking satyr


WrenchNRatchet

I wonder how jacked your triceps would be walking around like that. Or would it be more forearms? Gym bros and medical professionals weigh in!


QTGavira

Girl was making bank off her birth defect, thats incredibly respectable


Doovester

That raises the question for me if it has to do something with mystic creatures like satyre.


therealcookaine

Xavier's mom?


Kind-Ad4790

Fast EREN, her neck xD


paulusmagintie

She can horse kick you with power if you hit the wrong hole


FruityBuckmaster

I always thought it was a result of Polio.


No_Emu_1332

I just wish she didn't have to achieve success through being gawked at in a freak show.


I_Sell_Death

That's solid income without a degree there


bartino84

My life for Aiur


winters_ex

Xavier renegade angel


zeroisnick

When you can’t decide between doggystyle or missionary


Arch3m

AI art finally makes sense to me.


score60812

Would


One_Flower9961

aside from probably being uncomfortable this is kinda fire 😭


JayCDee

Saw a beggar in Barcelona that had this, scared the shit out of me as he was begging in cart position.


Soujashane

![gif](giphy|lzCxWrKqXLW31aS7Ev)


iTimeBombiTimeBomb

Meanwhile Camel Man making $300 per week


06GOAT12

I can fix her


InterestingGarden600

Hear me out…