So when you have an issue as what to call another person, whether they be short, tall, skinny, thick, black, white, brown, or purple, just ask them their name! God Bless! Love the humour Brandon. Maybe you can answer a question for me. I know you can suffer with joint problems but could someone with dwarfism be pain free without medication and otherwise fit and healthy? Appreciate your contribution to my book. Thank you. I am not using the word to be offensive so please no one take it that way.
I genuinely want to know. Is it just a matter of they are a small person? How about the term Humoncoulous. Not sure of the spelling it means perfectly proportional small person. Are you okay with having a midget for a friend? We might offend someone!??! What the crap is that? Horizontally successful? Some of them? Or was it just a ridiculous statement, as dumb as it sounded? Some are successful in a few areas. Most are jokes to everyone else.
Yes they are similar; it is the conditions that are not similar. Just like dwarfism? They could be called waistline challenged. This could refer to either one of them. The problem is with the person who is labeling the person by their physical appearance instead of who they are as individual. I had helped make the word midget such a powerfully negative word that it was endangering my son! And we had never actually talked about the word -- he just picked up the value from growing up with little people.
So we sat him right down and began desensitizing the word midget. We also enrolled him in Karate class so he would learn that violence was a last resort. I had made a classic mistake. I had confused the word midget with the way it was used by people who intended to make me feel bad.
Ironically, midget is the newest term for people like us. It was coined by PT Barnum in the mid 's to describe members of the dwarf community who were the most socially acceptable, i.
The rest of the dwarf community, those of us whose bodies are shaped differently enough to look more than just "really short," were relegated to the back stage or freak shows. In fact, even into the 's, it was still considered more socially acceptable to be a midget than to be any other kind of dwarf!
I remember hearing parents say "if my child has to be small, then thank god she's a midget, and not a dwarf. So what happened? First, LPA happened. Originally to be called "Midgets of America," the folks who could afford to attend the early meetings were as likely to be non-midgets as midgets. So a compromise was made to call the group Midgets and Dwarfs of America notice who came first. It didn't take long, however, for the fledgling members to notice that the non-midgets by Barnum's standards were greatly out-numbering the midgets.
So a second compromise was struck to call the group "Little People of America. Second, PT Barnum was so good at showmanship that the term midget became common vernacular, and used for almost anything smaller than usual.
As a result, It became the word that most people learned and used. Which meant that when people wanted to call attention to short stature and body differentness, midget was the first word to come to mind. Those of us raised in this country from the fifties and after came to associate "midget" only as a bad and hurtful word.
In the 's, perhaps as a parallel with the civil rights movement and the women's rights movement, some of the younger members of LPA began using the term "dwarf" and "dwarf power" as a symbol of self and group pride.
At first, the older little people and their average sized families and friends were horrified! To them, "dwarf" was as negative as "midget" seems to be today. However, the intent of the people using the term was empowerment. The message was strength and unity. When the Dwarf Athletic Association of America was formed in the mid 's, there was still quite a stir about the use of "that" word. But again, the intent was empowerment and pride; the opportunity for people like us to excel in athletic competition, to be America's best at something.
It was pretty hard to resist that kind of positive appeal. As a result, I can refer to us as the dwarf community today without raising too many eyebrows. I can also refer to us as the LPA community with a similar reaction. Why can't I write about us as the midget community?
I imagine just about everyone reading this just had a visceral reaction that wasn't positive, even though in much of the rest of the world it is the preferred terminology. But I admit it wasn't all that easy for me to write it! I have let myself be a victim of my times, and maybe that's why I wrote it. My Mum was 4'8" and happily referred to herself as a midget. She was clear to point out that she was not a dwarf - which is genetically passed on. She was just little. I don't think anyone uses 'midget' as a professional diagnosis.
I am small 4 ' I know now I am not a dwarf and if I was called a dwarf, I would find this offensive because there is a difference.
Alot of people are midgets but their are few dwarfs. I do like seeing people shorter than me. Anyway we are cute and small. I am small 4' Anyway my friends have called me c-4 because dynamite just doesn't pack a large enough punch. To whomever wrote "I am actually a tall person shrunk down," I think I'm going to use that one Any way, I also am a bit on the short side; I'm usually up to the shoulders or the mid-chest area of those surrounding me.
I stand on my counter to reach the cupboards in my kitchen because the stools are too small for my little legs and arms to allow me to reach high enough. I'm often called a midget, or my nickname - Short Shit - and I am not at all offended in any way.
I dont see why people are making such a huge fuss about it. Honestly, grow up. And think about it - being small isnt always a bad thing. It often makes it easier to escape when you need to. And hell, if people didnt pick on me for being short every once in a while, I'd think they didnt like me. But obviously they like me enough to notice my shortness and take the time to think about it long enough to pick on me for it.
Not to mention, you hardly ever have to duck under things. Also, havent you ever heard the saying "it's the little ones you gotta look out for? Seriously poeple, get over it. It's a name. It's not the end of the world. And if you're mad cause it's "incorrect" then point it out to them that they're wrong and be done with it. Didn't your Mamma ever tell you when you were a kid to ignore the bullies in school? Why try to run from it or make a huge deal out of it - I embrace it.
And the way I like to put it sometimes, is that I am not short, everyone else is just tall :. I always tell my beautiful niece , "The best gifts come in small packages". The love she gets and gives really makes the name game so irrelevant! I am a 42 year old woman who stands 4'8". I am married to a man who is 6'3", I have 3 children who all tower over me and a 6 year old granddaughter who stands up to my shoulders already.
I am what you consider proportionate. My friends have called me c-4 because dynamite just doesn't pack a large enough punch. When people ask me about being so short I just laugh and tell them God had to make me small to control the size of my extremely large personality. I have been a model, ran cross country, played baseball, was a scuba diver on a research boat, was an actress, a bartender, a restaurant manager, and have become a machinist in the last year.
Do you know how hard it is to find sexy shoes in the kid's size 2 section???
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