Is midget an offensive word?
By howhigh
@howhigh (757)
Canada
6 responses
@PsychoDude (2013)
• Netherlands
6 May 07
The correct medical term is dwarfism, the preferred term by some is "little person". I guess it is pretty much like the entire stuff with black people a couple of years ago as well, many people called them [the oh so big bad n-word mylot doesn't allow], the medical term is negroid and the preferred term is "colored".
Meanwhile there's quite a lot of people of every single group there's a multitude of words for like that which simply don't care about it, but because of a minority which thinks it is inappropriate they come up with the most neutral form of it all which also is the least descriptive.
Best thing is to just use the "most appropriate" word first, and depending on what they say themselves is ok to call them just keep that in mind.
2 people like this
@PsychoDude (2013)
• Netherlands
6 May 07
The historical difference btw though between midget and dwarf is that a midget is in proportion but a dwarf has too short legs and arms, but midget got ditched and now you have proportional and disproportional dwarfs.
2 people like this
@filmbuff (2909)
• United States
6 May 07
I've noticed that recently it has become politically incorrect to refer to a person with dwarfism as a midget. Now the politically correct term is "little person" as you've stated. Wait a few years and the next new PC term will probably be "Vertically Challenged" or some such.
I really do think political correctness has gotten out of control. To illustrate my point. In my life time I have seen the PC term for a black person go through the following changes:
Negro, colored, african-american, afro-american and black. Several of those terms are now considered offensive. Plus ca change (or in english for the censors: "the more things change...the more they stay the same)
1 person likes this
@kataztrophy (1836)
• United States
6 May 07
They prefer to be called "little people". in all honesty though, I cannot see how that is any better. Unless I were a little person myself, I can't know what it is like or understand just how offensive the word really is.
1 person likes this
@Sissygrl (10912)
• Canada
6 May 07
I dont know if they are offended by it or not, but i've caught a glipse of that show, little people big world, and they call eachother little people. Maybe it goes back to the time when they used to be "circus freaks" cause they were smaller then others. I am in no way calling little people freaks, or saying they belong in the circus. NO OFFENCE to any of the little people of mylot! lol.
1 person likes this
@Misty44 (35)
• United States
6 May 07
I don't know much about the history of this, but i call "little people" midgets all the time. I have had friends before that were midgets, and i called them midgets. Half the time i asked them if they represented the Lollilop Guild. I guess it just depends if you know the person or not. I wouldn't say something like that to someone i didn't know. Maybe call them Dwarf, or height challenged.
@MissCat (1)
• United States
21 Jul 09
I am the wife/daughter in law to little people. My husband is a 4'2" dwarf, my mother in law is a 3'8" dwarf. I am 4'10", very short by average standards, but not considered a dwarf. My husband and mother in law both have achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism. As a short person I have been called a "midget", a "munchkin" and other unpleasant nicknames.
People with dwarfism prefer to be called little people, dwarfs, or ultimately by their names. If you had big ears would you want to be called Dumbo, or if you had a large nose be called Pinocchio? I don't think so.
"Midget" in the LPA world is akin to the "n" word to African Americans. Keep that in mind the next time you see a little person and want to use some derogatory term to refer to them.
@vulgarlittleprincess (919)
• Canada
28 Mar 08
It seems to me that once a week all politically correct terms are renamed so to confuse us poor souls who are not given the oppertunity to use these terms in everyday life. I try to keep up to date on the new politicaly correct terms but they change so fast that by the time I get used to one there is a new one and the passé term is now offensive to use.
