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
>
> ________________End of message______________________
>
> Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List
> are now located at:
>
> www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
>
> You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.
________________End of message______________________
Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List
are now located at:
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.
|