How Little People Deal with Big Problems

Essay from the year 2012 in the subject Sociology - Miscellaneous, , language: English, abstract: According to statistics, one person in every 25,000 is affected by dwarfism. A dwarf, or little person, can be defined as a person with a height of less than four-feet, ten-inches. Often times little people are bullied or teased, and they wish for people to recognize them as people and stop the abuse. An example of this shows itself in the fact that many dwarfs prefer to be called “little people.” Little people want to be treated with respect because they are still human at the core, they are determined to be treated like humans, and they cannot help being short. In the past and even the present, a contributing factor to the determination dwarfs possess to be treated well is that they have been treated poorly, both emotionally and physically. Only two decades ago a barbaric and dangerous sport called dwarf-tossing was banned across the United States and Canada (Legislative) in which dwarfs wore thick padding and are thrown by men contesting to see who can through the farthest. Recently Mitch Workman, a Florida state representative, proposed the idea of abolishing the ban on dwarf-tossing in Florida (NPR). Many dwarfs were opposed to the idea and one dwarf spoke for all when he wrote about his feelings on the matter in a letter to the Washington Post. In the letter he says his life has gotten better since the ban on dwarf-tossing because he has been treated like a “normal” person, and he is strongly opposed to the idea of abolishing the ban (Flock). Sadly, in today’s society and in the past, little people have been abused and mistreated which is a major cause of the want little people have to be treated like anyone else.