Dwarf, not 'Little Person'...
I know a chap called Graham who is a professional Dwarf. That's right, you can make a living off it, stage shows like panto, films, kids shows, all need the occasional dwarf. He lives an interesting life, he knows celebs, he tells many an interesting tale of his worklife and the wrap parties and such, and it's hard to think of him as 'disadvantaged'.

Through knowing him I have learned a few interesting things: The difference between a dwarf and a midget is a midget is all in proportion, a dwarf isn't, they have the big head small arms thing going on, and this is at times genuinely a disability, there are many things that can't be done, basically try and imagine doing all your normal everyday stuff if you were still 4 years old, can you reach those pedals, that yale lock, that postbox? And you really do need some kind of transport, little legs make short distances into a marathon!

Anyway, what I want to talk about here is the recent (I think American sourced) PC term 'little people', as heard when anyone talks about The Wizard Of Oz on TV shows for example, and basically this guy hates that, he is stead-fastedly a dwarf and proud of it, he makes a living out if it FFS why would he wish to 'reject' it? So he gets really annoyed when anyone uses it in any other context than talking of a large group of both dwarfs and midgets, as he says, 'I'm not a fecking leprechaun!!'

I don't know who decides terms like this are 'ist' and must be changed, but I often feel as the primary reason is meant to be to avoid offence to the subject, aren't a lot of these madder pissy little PC-isms, like calling a blackboard a chalkboard, more to do with making the middle class do gooders feel warm and smug at being 'morally superior' rather than actually helping any of those who are 'disadvantaged' in their eyes? Isn't that just a tad patronising and more indicative of their prejudices anyway? Maybe we should just take each individual as an individual, maybe they'd rather be treated as such than a generalisation of others' distant perceptions of 'their kind'?

Or am I being a bit gay...? ;)
( ..wil, Mon 26 Nov 2007, 13:18, 8 replies)

There's something a bit like this in Discworld;
there's an Equal Heights lobby that calls for scrapping of terms like 'dwarf', but it consists almost entirely of humans; the dwarfs themselves mostly don't give a shit.
( Bob Todd whee, Mon 26 Nov 2007, 13:21, closed)

definition
Plus it's a description of someone who has dwarfism.

Also, I knew a dwarf once, he had +2 strength and advanced mining skill.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Mon 26 Nov 2007, 13:32, closed)

So...
What are elves?
( Weejock, Mon 26 Nov 2007, 13:34, closed)

Tall
slim people?
(Belgaer is, Mon 26 Nov 2007, 13:41, closed)

I recall the discworld one
including a very tall dwarf, as being a dwarf is a race rather than a state of being in fantasy novels this is a real possibility, and it really got my head whirring did that one...
( ..wil, Mon 26 Nov 2007, 13:46, closed)

Little people
I suspect I'd fucking hate being referred to as a "little person" - "little man" is what doting relatives call 4-year-old members of the family. "Small" is, for some reason, much better than "little" here.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 26 Nov 2007, 13:55, closed)

there was a programme on tv
once when i was a child showing the problems dwarfs face on a daily basis.

one of them is that they are so out of proportion that their little arms can't reach their arses. they have to have a brush to - well, to brush their arses...
( rachelswipe with a fork, Mon 26 Nov 2007, 14:09, closed)

I'm tall and slim
and I'm certainly not some pansy, big-eared elf.
( Kroney, Mon 26 Nov 2007, 14:17, closed)