Hi Sarah,
There was a debate once on the restricted growth community discussion list
regarding whether we should challenge media images of Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs and the issue was virtually driven off the list, by mainstream
members, saying that people would laugh at us even more. It seems to be one
thing challenging 'safe' politics from the desktop computer, like TV
programmes, and of course we need to do this as well but it seems to be
another when it comes to challenging fairy tales and children's fantasies and
into the bargain have mainstream parents and hard up for work, unpoliticised
mainstream, short actors attacking us in oppositional protest. When the
Women's Movement first challenged patriarchy didn't men laugh, but that
didn't stop women from challenging their (men's) sexism towards women!"
http://www.disabilitynow.org.uk/features/features_2.htm
In the current edition of Disability Now (UK) there is an article by Warwick
Davis founder member of Willow Personal Management, an agency which finds
'work' for actors who have restricted growth. He states "I know I am not
particularly hard done by. I have physical limitations and a few aches and
pains. But if you believe in yourself, you can achieve anything". If a child
age four is put into the special needs segregated systems, it is more than
likely that at aged 17 she/he will be programmed into further segregated
system's. This is not the personal responsibility of the individual, this is
a collective political responsibility. I am making a specific reference to
Warwick Davis reference to the fact that if you believe in yourself you can
achieve anything and this is a common statement within the British restricted
growth community (e.g. individual problem/responsibility as opposed to
collective political/responsibility). Self worth within the British
restricted growth community is generally measured on whether one has a BMW
car or not, I kid you not.
He goes on to say, " I look at a job and think, 'is the character going to be
fulfiling to play? Is there a message in what I am doing?' I try not to do
things that reflect badly on small people." What is so positive about
projecting negatives images and stereotypes of people who have restricted
growth as figures of fun and ridicule? Or it is more to do with the fact that
if people like Warwick Davis were to address the politics around his 'career'
he might have to address the fact that he may lose his income and popularity
or is it more to do with the fact that portraying negative images of people
who have restricted growth within an acting career is better than no acting
career at all?
Hope this helps a little.
Liz Fetes
Subj: Re: 'performing midgets'?!
Date: 12/9/02 6:05:44 AM Pacific Standard Time
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent from the Internet (Details)
Thanks, Sara. I've also been told that there was a programme on Channel 5
last month called 'Dwarfs in Showbusiness' - did anyone see it?
There was also a front-cover article in Guardian Society in September called
'Shows of Defiance', which discussed the issue. It opened by saying: 'With
disability rights now being pushed up the agenda, it's hard to imagine the
not-so-distant days when severely "physically challenged" people faced two
stark options - either put up with poverty or suffer the indignity of making
a living as a freak in circuses and fairgrounds.'
Are those days really so distant - or still occurring, I wonder?
Sarah Goode
-----Original Message-----
From: Sara Ryan [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 09 December 2002 1:56 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 'performing midgets'?!
Hi Sarah,
There is a recent film (which may not have come out yet in the UK) that
stars Gary Oldman in a role in which he is supposed to be a person of
restricted growth and is filmed on his knees..... Sara
"S.Goode" wrote:
> I'd really welcome a discussion on this issue, please.
> I'm raising the issue of 'performing midgets' because I notice that
> Ozzy Osbourne, in a typically tasteful extravaganza to renew his
> wedding vows, is including the attraction of 'performing midgets',
> according to a UK newspaper, the Sunday Mirror, yesterday (Sunday, 8th
> December, page 57). Does anyone have any comments on this? I'm
> preparing a lecture for undergraduate students on a Social Care
> Studies course, in which we're looking at models of disability,
> including the issue of 'freak shows', which it has been argued were,
> for some, an opportunity for autonomy and economic independence (see,
> for example, work by Vanessa Toulmin of the National Fairground
> Archive at Sheffield University). I notice an increasing number of
> people of restricted growth on the televison recently - maybe it's
> just Christmas and adverts with 'Santa's elves' in, but there do also
> seem to be more films as well. Has anyone else got any thoughts on
> this? I'm thinking of the Munchkins in the Wizard of Oz, of course, as
> well as the Oompa Loompas in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
> There was also a film by Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin called Time
> Bandits. And (although I haven't seen it myself yet) I'm told the
> Hobbits in Lord of the Rings are mainly people of restricted growth.
> The only example I can think of at present of one person of restricted
> growth who appeared apparently on his own merits (and by himself, not
> in a fairly homegenous crowd) is a character alongside Malcolm McLaren
> in The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle. Not that he actually gets to say
> very much. And again that raises another issue - disability as
> perversion? There's a poem called The Battle of Lepanto (I think) by
> G K Chesterton which describes the corrupt and evil court of some
> member of the Spanish royal family - one of the Philips - and includes
> a line about a curtain 'which is soft and black as sin / and little
> dwarfs creep out of it / and little dwarfs creep in.' Final point on
> all this - I watched some kind of film or made-for-tv drama years ago,
> back in the 80s, which I'm convinced included that Fonz actor, Henry
> Winkler (although I cannot find it in any of his published
> biographies) which was a very sympathetic treatment of the issue of
'circus
> freaks' - can anyone give me any further pointers on this?
> As a society, are we moving back towards making people of restricted
growth
> 'special' and 'freakish' again, and how does this tie in with recent
> legislation and the whole approach - as I thought - to treating people as
> individuals?
> Flame me if you wish, but I really would value some thoughts around the
> critical analysis of this phenomenon.
> Sorry for the length of this email.
> Cheers,
> Sarah
>
> Dr Sarah Goode
> Programme Director, BSc (Hons) Social Care Studies
> Applied Social Studies, Medecroft
> King Alfred's College
> Winchester
> SO22 4NR
> 01962 827283
>
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