My lady and I have been talking about this for a while now, and wanted some other opinions.
She is FASCINTED with little people. Any show on TLC or Discovery Health, or whatever other channel – she’s gotta watch at least 8 times. I suppose this falls into a a broader category of medical anomolies (She’s also very interested in Lobster Boy, Elephant Man, Chang and Eng, etc.)
But she can’t get enough of them dwarves.
Anyone else really into this sort of thing? If so, why?
Nope.
I’d be lying if I said the concept of midget porn hasn’t made me curious, but I never bothered to check it out.
Also: little people are funny.
Synchronicity! I had dinner last night with a friend and we passed an Austin Powers poster—she shuddered and said she is dwarf-phobic. “I don’t mind midgets, but for some reason, dwarves totally freak me out,” she said. Admitted she has nothing against them personally and has no idea why she’s scared of them.
Eternal, I bet little people are so happy their stature provides you with amusement.
To answer the question, no, not fascinated particularly in dwarfism. I am interested in medical anomalies, especialy sideshow folk, but mostly their life stories - not what they look like.
If you guys don’t have the book Freaks: We who are not as others it’s wonderful.
Dammit, baby…you make me sound like a total wierdo. :rolleyes:
For the record, it’s not a sexual thing at all. For some reason, since I was a child, I’ve had a benign fascination with all sorts of side-show “personalities”…little people just happen to pique my interest a bit more than the others.
I remember meeting Lobster Boy at the fair in my hometown when I was little, then I found this book in the library a few years later called Very Special People by Frederick Dremmer that was a sappy, yet endearing account of the lives of several side-show performers. I suppose this fueled my interest as well (it’s bee out of print for a while, but I finally found a copy for myself a couple of years ago).
The way I see it, it’s human nature to be curious about people that are different. I just choose not to hide my curiosityanymore…thanks baby. since in this day and age, it’s un-PC to want to look at people who at one time would have been called “freaks”.
Just my $.02.
Eternal, I bet little people are so happy their stature provides you with amusement.
To answer the question, no, not fascinated particularly in dwarfism. I am interested in medical anomalies, especialy sideshow folk, but mostly their life stories - not what they look like.
If you guys don’t have the book Freaks: We who are not as others, it’s wonderful.
oooops
A little bit, because I’ve only missed being a little person by two inches, and instead am merely a short person. I once saw a pair of twin ‘dwarves’ who walk on their hands on Springer, and they were the same height as me. It was a little odd.
Well, not fascinated, really. But I did read an interesting book this year, written by a Tall Person who went to the Little Persons of America convention and then ended up following the stories of several people he met there. It’s called “In The Little World: A True Story of Dwarfs, Love, and Trouble.”
It was enlightening. One of the more interesting (and controversial) aspects of the book is that the writer does not mask his own reactions at the start–his naked curiosity and less-than-sensitive first impressions are all included. But he comes around.
Hmmm… why does Eternal think they’re “funny”? Let’s check his blog Friday - November 30, 2001
What’s the difference?
You betcha’. Always hanging out beneath the earth, hoarding their gold, working on their phenomenal metalworking skills.
What really happened beneath the earth in the caves of Moria? Is there dislike of Elves completely unwarranted, or is there something else there? Is the. . .
Ahem. Oh, you mean little people dwarves. Sorry about that.
Anyway, it’s my understanding that midgets are people who are just extremely little, but their proportions are roughly the same as regular heighted people. Dwarves, on the other hand, usually have regular sized heads and torsos, but their arms and legs are much shorter than usual.
Anyway, I saw a special about them a while back, and it featured a hilarious scene from the movie LIVING IN OBLIVION. Seems the director was trying to make a dream sequence, and it called for a dwarf to prance around the lead actress.
The dwarf took offense to this.
“Why does it have to be a little person? Every time some director wants to have a dream sequence, he has to include a little person. Ooooh, look at me. Look how weird this sequence is, it has a little person in it. Have you ever had a dream with a little person in it? No? I’m a little person, and I’ve never had a dream with a little person in it!”
From what I understand, a midget is someone who is “normal” but just happens to be smaller - not short, but smaller, like a small version of a normal-sized person. A dwarf has certain characteristic differences from the so-called normal people, such as stumpy (for lack of a better word) fingers and arms, facial features, etc. I’ve also heard though that “midget” has now come to be thought of as a derogatory term to some people who feel that all “little people” should be referred to as dwarves (rather than the “m-word.”)
Lobster Boy??
That was like reading American Psycho all over again. Very disturbing.
Cranky, I read that book, too. It was good, but kind of disturbing- the woman the writer becomes friends with, Andrea, was completely crazy. The saga of her bizarre dependence/control issues was almost too much, and I think it really detracted from the book as a whole.
I’ve noticed through talking to various friends in RL that some sort of mild obsession with dwarves is pretty common. I suppose it’s some sort of psychological archetype: the awe, curiosity, and revulsion most people feel when confronted with the human form in any but the most usual of shapes.
And I suppose on some level this is a normal thing- we’re curious about and slightly afraid of people who are different from ourselves. But on another level, it just seems so primitive and ignorant to be fascinated by people who don’t look like you. Dwarves have a medical condition which is unfortunately very noticeable, and marks them out forever in the eyes of society. I can sympathize with many of the little people in the book who make such comments as “I wish people would just get over my height.”
But then, I suppose that’s not really possible for most of us. If I really felt that dwarves were no different from the rest of us, I would not have been interested in reading the above-mentioned book. And that makes me feel sort of sad and guilty, that I’m subject to the sort of fascination with them that probably causes most of the problems dwarves have with society as a whole.
Lobster Boy!! :eek:
:o
:eek: