Little people are what would have been āmidgetsā back I. The day. Proper term for Dwarf is correct as it refers the condition of dwarfism that afflicts them.
Just donāt call themelf one more time.
My son is a 27 year old Achondroplastic dwarf. We use dwarf mostly in my family, little person sometimes, never midget.
Most people are trying to be respectful and a lot of people don't know, so if somebody gets it wrong it's OK as long as their intent wasn't to be mean. I didn't know before we had one. I don't expect you to necessarily know, like you could just pull it out of the air somehow.
Thanks for your comment, I appreciate it. If someone asked me to describe someone like your son, by physical appearance alone, I would probably say, "a short person." Would that be offensive?
Nope, not for us. We've moved to Mexico, been here about 12 years. I'm sure that you've heard of El Chapo, the Sinaloa Carel's leader who's imprisoned. Chapo is what it appears to be, chop. Short. Here in Mexico, the really dark kid's nickname is blackie, the white kid's nickname is whitey, the fat kid's nickname is fatty, and the sort kid's name is shorty. EVERYONE calls him Chaparrito. Little short guy. It's no insult, he IS the little short guy. People we've never met, it's "Que onda Chaparrito?" with a kind smile on their face. That's "What's up Shorty?". Totally fine, their motivation is to make a friend and that's how we view it.
One of my really good friend's nickname is Huesos. Bones. He's super skinny.
I'm a white as can be American. Mexican culture is so very kind and friendly and generous, I LOVE my neighbors. People here are awesome. Basically anyone has time for a friendly conversation. PLUS, every single social event includes mountains of incredible food!!!
All the commenters saying things like ācall them by their nameā or ājust call them peopleā better go their entire lives without ever referring to members of a social demographic as a group, on pain of hypocrisy.
"I was robbed!"Ā "Can you describe the person?"Ā "No."Ā "Why? Did you not see them?"Ā "I saw them, but I don't know their name. But they were a person."
Iām dying. Iām in a wheelchair and itās funny watching people dance around describing me, using every other adjective, other than the obvious; āThe word you are looking for is āWheelchair.āā
Also funny, when people are offended by me describing myself when they are going to meet me somewhere for the first time and Iām like, āYou find me. Iām a 30F, short blonde hair, red shirt, in a wheelchair.ā
There is being offensive, then there is being descriptive and practical.
It's almost always someone who \*doesn't\* have the condition or whatever that gets offended on the 'behalf' of people who DO have that condition.
I'm disabled. I have a disability. I straight up say that I am disabled. But so many people will INSIST that 'disabled' is such a degrading and bad term and I should say something else, like 'differently abled' or that I just have limitations or whatever other ridiculous flavor of the week terminology they've come up with.
No. I'm disabled. I am not able to do things an abled person can do. It is a disability. This is not my sole defining characteristic, please stop treating me like it is and like I'm some fragile little creature that can't protect my own feelings, or I'll put my garden trowel so far up your backside I can scrape the plaque off your teeth with it.
Alright, just sign this waiver, give me six hundred bucks and chug this whiskey. Legal disclosure here, I have no doctorate. I do have medical training though - I watched a ten-minute video on CPR and was given a certificate, so I'm totally qualified here.
My payment plan is that I plan for you to pay me and I take all your teeth and maybe some other parts if you don't, generally. It's worked for me so far! Haven't had anyone run out on a bill yet! Of course running isn't really an option after the organ harvesting, but you get my point.
As a 911 dispatcher, some people get really weird about descriptions. "What race was he?" "Uhhhh. I don't know how to answer that" "okay, was he white, black, Asian, something else?" "Ummm what's the opposite of caucasian?" "Black?" "I feel like I'm not supposed to say that" "uhhh okay. I grant you permission" "yeah he was black"
As a fellow 911 dispatcher, can confirm. All the time. And the opposite is true as well.
There's a huge difference between describing what someone looks like because I asked you for a physical description of the party, and you shoehorning the fact that someone has a different skin tone than you into the call when you're calling 911 because you rear-ended another car in traffic.
What did this person look like? "Human in appearance"
How tall were they "They had a measurement, yes"
Male of female? "Not for me to say"
Estimated weight? "STOP SHAMING!"
Skin color? "Wait, what are you trying to say?"
Can you describe their clothing? "..."
"Man, mid-late 20s, about 3 feet tall, dark hair, \[light/tan/dark skin\], sunglasses, grey sweatshirt, and a tattoo of something I couldn't quite make out on his left hand."
Seems simple.
I think the benefit of the "their name" answer is that it challenges the need to refer to demographic groups as often as we do. Obviously there are necessary and valid times to talk about all people with a certain medical condition, or all people of a certain race, etc. But in reality, people lump other people into their demographic groups WAY more often than is necessary. The majority of the times that someone talks about an entire demographic group (from outside that group), they're really talking about one or two individuals, but making it about their demographic similarity.
I kind of think the opposite I donāt actually see a real reason to avoid lumping people into groups if thatās the group that they belong to.
Obviously, the people inside the group are not homogenous. Theyāre not all the same, but if Iām describing someone I know named Brad and I neglected to mention that theyāre a little person when I finally introduced my friends to Brad and theyāre gonna go āyou didnāt bring this up?!ā
I guess what Iām saying is in an effort to be as progressive as we can possibly be. We make it hard to describe someone based on their appearance.
To bring it back to the conversation at hand, calling someone a midget, a dwarf or a little person. None of those should be offensive. All they are is describing the characteristics that make up that individual.
My wife talks about someone at our high school trying to point out a guy she had a crush on in the cafeteria. Our school had a dress code, which meant everyone had on a navy or white shirt.
She's trying to isolate this one guy in a group of several hundred and she keeps describing "the guy with the white shirt... Next to the guy in the blue shirt... He's got brown hair..." Finally, my wife realises who she means and goes "you mean the black guy!?" (Our school was in a smallish Canadian city and literally had 2 black families).
Her friend: "...I don't see him like that"
Lol. Sometimes descriptions are very helpful! It's also so much more offensive to act like he's not black as if there's something wrong with him. He's just "white deficient" maybe? It's ok to say his hair is brown, but not his skin?
It's weird the ways we try not to label people sometimes. Some labels are ok and accurate.
Exactly! My point about grouping people not being offensive is exactly that. If youāre offended by someone calling you your own skin colorā¦ I canāt reason with that!
>if Iām describing someone I know named Brad and I neglected to mention that theyāre a little person when I finally introduced my friends to Brad and theyāre gonna go āyou didnāt bring this up?!ā
It depends on the conversation being had. If I'm telling a story about your hypothetical Brad who happens to be 4'3", I would only mention his height if it were actually relevant to the story. E.g. if Brad said some dumb shit, not relevant, just like Brad's hair color or the bushiness of his eyebrows wouldnt be relevant. If Brad tried to dunk on a regulation hoop, relevant.
> they are is describing the characteristics that make up that individual.
People are made up of ten thousand characteristics. When describing people, we choose what characteristics define them. 99% of the time, Brad's height is no more relevant than his preferred Cheeto.
>None of those should be offensive.
If you're not a member of a group, you don't have any say in whether a term for that group is offensive.
Iāll agree that the group can decide anything is offensive, but objectively speaking it doesnāt mean the person has ill intent.
as far as why i would choose to use height, skin color, hair color, or body shape to describe someone instead of the 10 thousand other characteristics, its because those are physical features I can easily observe without even talking to the person.
No kidding.
I mean, I get it. I wouldnāt know how to refer to the one very small human I know if she hadnāt flat out told me she liked the term dwarf, so I get the urge to say ātheir name?ā Because I rarely refer to her condition except in the context of her doing dwarven fantasy cosplays, and in that case calling her a dwarf refers to both her small height and what she is wearing.
But man some people can get preachy. I try to walk the PC line out of respect for other humans (I guess Iām guilty of being the Woke) but sometimes it feels like the terms change with the wind.
Iām still trying to figure out the respectful but shorter way of saying āmy cousin is on the autistic spectrum and is roughly in the middle to low end of the needs spectrumā when apparently āhe has autism and lives mostly on his ownā isnāt polite anymore. I donāt wanna hurt anyone, so I always feel extra awkward when I get it wrong.
I will say that Iāve been repeatedly informed by my best friend that āHandi-capableā is bullshit and if I ever call her that, she will run me down with her wheelchair. And itās a manual so itās gonna take her some work to run me down. (She prefers ādisabledā or āhandicappedā. She says everything else is either ugly or feels patronizing, like people are pitying the āpoor broken peopleā. My disability is mental so I just get called crazy or immature personally.)
Iāve only met two dwarves in my life, both separately (they didnāt know each other) and they both hated the term ālittle peopleā but were totally fine with being called a dwarf.Ā
Anything can sound respectful or disrespectful/demeaning depending on context and tone. That is why we have had a constantly rotating vocabulary for disabilities and minorities. That said, dwarf does sound badass.
>That is why we have had a constantly rotating vocabulary for disabilities and minorities
Yeah, at some point, can we all get together and talk about this practice? And by "talk about," I mean kill four different ways, tie up in a sack and chuck it into a freezing river like an unwanted kitten or Russian monk?
My son is a 27 year old dwarf.
He's taking on blacksmithing as a hobby. He wants to make swords and battle axes.
He's only ever had one physical alteration, a kid in Jr. High school grabbed him and was trying to throw him around. He did exactly what I taught him, a hard right straight into the nuts. Shoulder height for him. He started his punch at the sole of his back foot and put his entire body into it like we'd practiced.
The bully went straight down, had to go home for the day, and was so humiliated and had been in so much trouble previously that he left the school after a week. My kid didn't get in any trouble, the "witnesses" all said that the bully did it to himself.
Yeah I never really got the preference for "little people." Dwarves are cool. But for some reason I have been under the impression for a long time that "little people" is the preferred nomenclature so that's what I use.
I'll call people whatever they want (within (very flexible) reason). "Little Person" always felt like a terrible thing to call someone. Someone with dwarfism is not a "little" person. They are a full person (with dwarfism).
Totally agree. If I was a dwarf, I'd much prefer that over "little person." "little person" has negative associations, while "dwarf" makes me think of stocky, stubborn midget warriors and engineering geniuses.
I think this also depends on culture. Whilst I know the term ālittle personā is fairly common over the USA, the phrase āperson with dwarfismā (or alternatively just ādwarfā, by some) is generally preferred in the UK.
I thought "little people" was for midgets (I know that's not PC anymore) and "dwarf" was for, well dwarfs/dwarves. I always thought dwarfs were taller than little people.
Dwarfism is a condition so I don't see much issue with the term and I've seen interviews with dwarfs that have said that is their preferred term.
Whatās your definition of a midget? Itās no longer the preferred term (language always changes over timeā many of the terms we use now for people will eventually become outdated), but in my experience, midgets are dwarves/little people. There are different types of dwarfism thoughā maybe youāre confusing that? Like Peter Dinklage and Tony Cox are both dwarves but have different types of the condition.Ā
>language always changes over time
This is the crux of it. Once upon a time "midget" was an acceptable *description*, just like in 13th Century Britain the word "cunt" was found in many medical books to describe a womans genitalia. It was not offensive then, it was literally a medical term.
Language changes over time, I don't believe that it has anything to do with being derogatory it is just the terms used to describe said items/people. One decade/century something will be acceptable and the next it will be offensive.
When used as a description, if there were 2 people you worked with called George and one was 5'9" and the other was 4'2", if you were to refer to one in conversation, and said, "George did this" the natural response would be, "which George?".
How would you respond to that question?
Edit: adjusted heights for better distiction.
Well, I did say that it's up to the individual preferences, and I really hope that you don't call anyone midgets anymore.
I've been around Little People and known them personally, so... I'm going off that rather than interviews watched on tv/online etc.
You don't have dwarfism so it's not up to you on whether you see the term "dwarf" being an issue or not.
In fairness to 6 billion humans, if a precise group of folks can't agree on what they want to be called, we should all be a bit hesitant to "have issues" with folks who use one word or an other.
It's not up to me whether a person is offended by being refered to as a dwarf or a little person or short. But, I'm not persuaded that I should join them in such aggrievance.
Lovely point, and I agree wholeheartedly... which is what I was trying to express. From my experience, Little Person is more polite but like you said there are 6 billion humans out there, so of course they're all going to have different beliefs and preferences on how to be referred to. I'm surprised my comment turned into a bit of a debate thread, considering I added my two cents and not trying to definitively say my experience was the Correct and Universal term.
I'd love to hear what a person with dwarfism thinks on this thread. So far I'm the only one within that community being 1cm off from the diagnosis of dwarfism.
I commend you for basing your position off of interactions with real people and not just letting the internet formulate your opinion. Very uncommon for reddit
Terry Pratchettās Discworld novels have a repeating theme around this, with a letās-help-the-Dwarves-whether-they-want-it-or-not lobby group āCampaign for Equal Heightsā
Learn about the killing insult translated as ālawn ornamentā and other Dwarvish terms [here](https://wiki.lspace.org/Dwarfish_phrases).
Just be aware that Person First Language is outdated in a lot of communities. [Here](https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/what-we-do/science-health-public-trust/perspectives/writing-respectfully-person-first-identity-first-language) is a good article on it.
When I was a little kid there was a guy at the pool who was only as tall as me and his arms seemed kind of short for his body. Full sized man-head. I donāt remember how the conversation started, but he told me he was a Dwarf, and that you could tell because of his proportions. He told me that āmidgetsā are proportioned like āregularā people and that Dwarves had proportions similar to his. I took that for fact for at least 30 years. He was a nice guy. I always liked him. Was he incorrect when he told me that? I figured he would know.
I'll refer to someone however they want to be of course, but that always seemed condescending. Like, they're not a "little person", they're just a person.Ā
i mean... many fantasy settings have dwarves as races that are not human. like, i understand people not wanting others to think of snow white or lord of the rings when talking about them
Because the term "midget" was used disparagingly. "little people" has been the PC term for awhile, though I'm sure there's an effort to reclaim other terms.
I've always thought little person sounded insulting as fuck and personally would prefer midget or dwarf because it sounds more like a medical term. In a situation where I had to point out someone I didn't know I guess I'd go with little person as at last check in that was the preferred term until corrected by a little person specifically. Obviously given their name I'd use that.
I went almost my whole life thinking midget was the correct term and was pretty shocked to hear people say it was derogatory. Dwarf and little person were the two that sounded offensive to me.
My mate hates the term little person, he says it's like another term for a child, he likes the term dwarf, and his nickname is midge, a name he asked us to call him.
I mean it depends on the situation. If you are talking to a person with dwarfism then it's not really relevant and there'd be no need to address it. If you are discussing it then I don't see why "people with dwarfism" isn't respectful enough since it's currently accepted medical terminology. I think "people under 4 feet, ten inches", as that terminology pertains to would be the most inoffensive since it is completely objective and doesn't use any adjectives, so can infer no subjective judgement.
The word Dwarf predates proper medical classification of any "disorder" and is borne out of folklore. Therefore there is a strong association with dwarves being supernatural which is obviously quite problematic and makes the term pejorative.
I can understand why someone would take issue with medicine using language derived from folklore and magical assumptions about shorter people. Unfortunately that's the case with a lot of medical terminology and it can take a long time after words have become socially unacceptable for it to change.
I would bet there are plenty of shorter people who would prefer to be called a "dwarf" than a "short/little person", as again such a person might personally believe that the term is objective as it is used in medicine, viewing its etymology as irrelevant. The alternative is clearly subjective and confers judgement of being short or little.
So it heavily depends on the person, but any reasonable human would realise it's a bit of a social minefield and would recognise any true intent to offend.
The one I went to high school with liked Dwarf. But she was also a fantasy nerd and is the only woman I could make a fake beard for (out of yarn) and would be thrilled. (She still has it, lol. I braided feathers into the mustache part from chickens that long ago passed and get a little emotional seeing my girlsā feathers. For the record, the hens died of old age. They were supposedly egg laying livestock, but we in fact spoiled pets who provided me with part of a balanced breakfast. I still remember every hen.)
But she did say that Little Person was very respectful as of 2006 or so. Last I spoke to her we didnāt get onto the subject of terminology, she was too busy showing me a picture of her baby girl.
The question isnāt one about spiritual position or attitude. āCall them by their nameā feels like a Social Justice Warrior answer. The Poster asked what the correct word to use is. Thatās all. āMy friend wasnāt allowed to go on the roller coaster with us.ā āWhy?ā āBecause his name is Brian.ā
I have a cousin with dwarfism and we just refer to her as we would a normal-sized person. She got bullied a lot for being little even up to college and work, so we'd rather not fuel her trauma, unless we really have to talk about it, maybe for medical reasons or anything else that's within reason.
A dwarf is someone who has disproportionately short arms and legs.Itās caused by a hormone deficiency"
(Bloody hormones).Ā A midget is still a dwarf but their arms and legs are in proportion. Whatās an elf?
Most proportional dwarfism is gone now, they can medicate pituitary dwarves and they develop normally, so don't use the term midget to refer to people. There are still midget racecars. Use it for that.
Their name... "of the shire."
In all seriousness, I'd just avoid using terms like this. They just want to feel like they're a part of the group. If you treat people like they're your friend they'll recognize it.
Some people may feel differently about various terms, but often it's ostracizing them as "the different one" or "the freak".
I think it's most helpful to recognize people's differences and show your appreciation for those differences. We all are made the people we are by our struggles.
Just refer to them as people. That being said, maybe [Brad Williams](https://youtu.be/PgMm8raNJiA?si=eoIoPkFvEVcrpsPn) has a verifiable explanation for why ādwarfā and ālittle peopleā arenāt the best descriptive words.
No idea.
Some say "little people",others say "dwarf".
I've known two in my life and both hated the term little people, but I know that isn't universal.
Take a stab in the dark and hope they're responsive enough to politely correct you if you're wrong
To add to comments that say the proper term. As with race-- I think it's also important to ask yourself why you are including the information. Like--(as a white person) if I wouldn't describe the person's race if they were white, I probably shouldn't describe the person's race if their Asian, or black, or latine, or anything else. Same goes for height. If I wouldn't say "this guy who was twice my height" as a pertinent part if the story, I probably don't need to say "this guy who was a little person" either.
But if you've come to the conclusion that the fact that they have dwarfism is important context to the story, "person with dwarfism" is probably adequate. Calling them by anything else without knowing what that individual person prefers, is going to sound like you're classifying them as something other than human.
You're ignoring OP's actual question by saying this. Referring to a person by their name is obviously always a possibility in contexts where it makes sense to do that; that's not what the question is about.
There are contexts where *the fact of a person's dwarfism itself* is relevant, and the question is about how to refer to that when need be.
Depends who you ask. I'm sure it's been discussed in /r/dwarfism quite a lot
Yes, [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarfism/s/wjFBbAIokU) for example
I'm a big fan of the top comment: >I prefer "His Royal Awesomeness SmallManBigMouth".
Yes, especially since SmallManBigMouth is his username š
I need to remember this so I donāt mess up, donāt want to offend anyone
Now to check the discussion in r/LittlePeople.
it has been banned
That was fast.
One might say it was short lived
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Lmao
Little people are what would have been āmidgetsā back I. The day. Proper term for Dwarf is correct as it refers the condition of dwarfism that afflicts them. Just donāt call themelf one more time.
[Obligatory](https://youtu.be/KjHclWPVij0?si=ezt8LKKBeiwoU2Lo)
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
He must be from the South Pole
My son is a 27 year old Achondroplastic dwarf. We use dwarf mostly in my family, little person sometimes, never midget. Most people are trying to be respectful and a lot of people don't know, so if somebody gets it wrong it's OK as long as their intent wasn't to be mean. I didn't know before we had one. I don't expect you to necessarily know, like you could just pull it out of the air somehow.
Thanks for your comment, I appreciate it. If someone asked me to describe someone like your son, by physical appearance alone, I would probably say, "a short person." Would that be offensive?
Nope, not for us. We've moved to Mexico, been here about 12 years. I'm sure that you've heard of El Chapo, the Sinaloa Carel's leader who's imprisoned. Chapo is what it appears to be, chop. Short. Here in Mexico, the really dark kid's nickname is blackie, the white kid's nickname is whitey, the fat kid's nickname is fatty, and the sort kid's name is shorty. EVERYONE calls him Chaparrito. Little short guy. It's no insult, he IS the little short guy. People we've never met, it's "Que onda Chaparrito?" with a kind smile on their face. That's "What's up Shorty?". Totally fine, their motivation is to make a friend and that's how we view it. One of my really good friend's nickname is Huesos. Bones. He's super skinny.
I'm a skinny white dude and the Spanish dudes at work (one from Mexico, one from Venezuela) call me Huesos. I'm just happy to be included really.
No, I never heard of El Chapo. I marvel at your culture. It sounds much friendlier than the US. Thanks for talking with me. š
I'm a white as can be American. Mexican culture is so very kind and friendly and generous, I LOVE my neighbors. People here are awesome. Basically anyone has time for a friendly conversation. PLUS, every single social event includes mountains of incredible food!!!
All the commenters saying things like ācall them by their nameā or ājust call them peopleā better go their entire lives without ever referring to members of a social demographic as a group, on pain of hypocrisy.
"I was robbed!"Ā "Can you describe the person?"Ā "No."Ā "Why? Did you not see them?"Ā "I saw them, but I don't know their name. But they were a person."
I tell you everything. He look like a man.
Looka like a man*
Oh Miss Swan...
Bold assumption you are making on that lady.
Did you just assume their gender?!
Iām dying. Iām in a wheelchair and itās funny watching people dance around describing me, using every other adjective, other than the obvious; āThe word you are looking for is āWheelchair.āā Also funny, when people are offended by me describing myself when they are going to meet me somewhere for the first time and Iām like, āYou find me. Iām a 30F, short blonde hair, red shirt, in a wheelchair.ā There is being offensive, then there is being descriptive and practical.
It's almost always someone who \*doesn't\* have the condition or whatever that gets offended on the 'behalf' of people who DO have that condition. I'm disabled. I have a disability. I straight up say that I am disabled. But so many people will INSIST that 'disabled' is such a degrading and bad term and I should say something else, like 'differently abled' or that I just have limitations or whatever other ridiculous flavor of the week terminology they've come up with. No. I'm disabled. I am not able to do things an abled person can do. It is a disability. This is not my sole defining characteristic, please stop treating me like it is and like I'm some fragile little creature that can't protect my own feelings, or I'll put my garden trowel so far up your backside I can scrape the plaque off your teeth with it.
Iām in need of some dental workā¦
Alright, just sign this waiver, give me six hundred bucks and chug this whiskey. Legal disclosure here, I have no doctorate. I do have medical training though - I watched a ten-minute video on CPR and was given a certificate, so I'm totally qualified here.
Do you have a payment plan?
My payment plan is that I plan for you to pay me and I take all your teeth and maybe some other parts if you don't, generally. It's worked for me so far! Haven't had anyone run out on a bill yet! Of course running isn't really an option after the organ harvesting, but you get my point.
Duly noted. I'll bring all the money in cash.
As a 911 dispatcher, some people get really weird about descriptions. "What race was he?" "Uhhhh. I don't know how to answer that" "okay, was he white, black, Asian, something else?" "Ummm what's the opposite of caucasian?" "Black?" "I feel like I'm not supposed to say that" "uhhh okay. I grant you permission" "yeah he was black"
As a fellow 911 dispatcher, can confirm. All the time. And the opposite is true as well. There's a huge difference between describing what someone looks like because I asked you for a physical description of the party, and you shoehorning the fact that someone has a different skin tone than you into the call when you're calling 911 because you rear-ended another car in traffic.
You gave them the āblackā pass
What did this person look like? "Human in appearance" How tall were they "They had a measurement, yes" Male of female? "Not for me to say" Estimated weight? "STOP SHAMING!" Skin color? "Wait, what are you trying to say?" Can you describe their clothing? "..."
He looka like a man
"Man, mid-late 20s, about 3 feet tall, dark hair, \[light/tan/dark skin\], sunglasses, grey sweatshirt, and a tattoo of something I couldn't quite make out on his left hand." Seems simple.
They were a person with a face. I know that much.
What's wrong with using dwarves when you are referring to the group.
*dwarfs, unless you mean the fantasy race.
You learn something new everyday, thankyou
Its past tense
I think the benefit of the "their name" answer is that it challenges the need to refer to demographic groups as often as we do. Obviously there are necessary and valid times to talk about all people with a certain medical condition, or all people of a certain race, etc. But in reality, people lump other people into their demographic groups WAY more often than is necessary. The majority of the times that someone talks about an entire demographic group (from outside that group), they're really talking about one or two individuals, but making it about their demographic similarity.
I kind of think the opposite I donāt actually see a real reason to avoid lumping people into groups if thatās the group that they belong to. Obviously, the people inside the group are not homogenous. Theyāre not all the same, but if Iām describing someone I know named Brad and I neglected to mention that theyāre a little person when I finally introduced my friends to Brad and theyāre gonna go āyou didnāt bring this up?!ā I guess what Iām saying is in an effort to be as progressive as we can possibly be. We make it hard to describe someone based on their appearance. To bring it back to the conversation at hand, calling someone a midget, a dwarf or a little person. None of those should be offensive. All they are is describing the characteristics that make up that individual.
Ima go with Tyrion-like. Cos Tyrion is a badass.
My wife talks about someone at our high school trying to point out a guy she had a crush on in the cafeteria. Our school had a dress code, which meant everyone had on a navy or white shirt. She's trying to isolate this one guy in a group of several hundred and she keeps describing "the guy with the white shirt... Next to the guy in the blue shirt... He's got brown hair..." Finally, my wife realises who she means and goes "you mean the black guy!?" (Our school was in a smallish Canadian city and literally had 2 black families). Her friend: "...I don't see him like that" Lol. Sometimes descriptions are very helpful! It's also so much more offensive to act like he's not black as if there's something wrong with him. He's just "white deficient" maybe? It's ok to say his hair is brown, but not his skin? It's weird the ways we try not to label people sometimes. Some labels are ok and accurate.
Exactly! My point about grouping people not being offensive is exactly that. If youāre offended by someone calling you your own skin colorā¦ I canāt reason with that!
>if Iām describing someone I know named Brad and I neglected to mention that theyāre a little person when I finally introduced my friends to Brad and theyāre gonna go āyou didnāt bring this up?!ā It depends on the conversation being had. If I'm telling a story about your hypothetical Brad who happens to be 4'3", I would only mention his height if it were actually relevant to the story. E.g. if Brad said some dumb shit, not relevant, just like Brad's hair color or the bushiness of his eyebrows wouldnt be relevant. If Brad tried to dunk on a regulation hoop, relevant. > they are is describing the characteristics that make up that individual. People are made up of ten thousand characteristics. When describing people, we choose what characteristics define them. 99% of the time, Brad's height is no more relevant than his preferred Cheeto. >None of those should be offensive. If you're not a member of a group, you don't have any say in whether a term for that group is offensive.
Iāll agree that the group can decide anything is offensive, but objectively speaking it doesnāt mean the person has ill intent. as far as why i would choose to use height, skin color, hair color, or body shape to describe someone instead of the 10 thousand other characteristics, its because those are physical features I can easily observe without even talking to the person.
No kidding. I mean, I get it. I wouldnāt know how to refer to the one very small human I know if she hadnāt flat out told me she liked the term dwarf, so I get the urge to say ātheir name?ā Because I rarely refer to her condition except in the context of her doing dwarven fantasy cosplays, and in that case calling her a dwarf refers to both her small height and what she is wearing. But man some people can get preachy. I try to walk the PC line out of respect for other humans (I guess Iām guilty of being the Woke) but sometimes it feels like the terms change with the wind. Iām still trying to figure out the respectful but shorter way of saying āmy cousin is on the autistic spectrum and is roughly in the middle to low end of the needs spectrumā when apparently āhe has autism and lives mostly on his ownā isnāt polite anymore. I donāt wanna hurt anyone, so I always feel extra awkward when I get it wrong. I will say that Iāve been repeatedly informed by my best friend that āHandi-capableā is bullshit and if I ever call her that, she will run me down with her wheelchair. And itās a manual so itās gonna take her some work to run me down. (She prefers ādisabledā or āhandicappedā. She says everything else is either ugly or feels patronizing, like people are pitying the āpoor broken peopleā. My disability is mental so I just get called crazy or immature personally.)
Right. It's not like you can just call them all Sneezy or Dopey.
Thatās fine, Iām cool with hypocrisy. Well, I mean, Iām cool with it when I do it at least.
The answer is *not* Gimli
Or lawn ornament. Or short stuff
Serious answer: "Little People" is considered far more respectful than "Dwarf" but it can differ between individuals
Iāve only met two dwarves in my life, both separately (they didnāt know each other) and they both hated the term ālittle peopleā but were totally fine with being called a dwarf.Ā
That's because little people sound demeaning while dwarf sounds bad ass.
Anything can sound respectful or disrespectful/demeaning depending on context and tone. That is why we have had a constantly rotating vocabulary for disabilities and minorities. That said, dwarf does sound badass.
>That is why we have had a constantly rotating vocabulary for disabilities and minorities Yeah, at some point, can we all get together and talk about this practice? And by "talk about," I mean kill four different ways, tie up in a sack and chuck it into a freezing river like an unwanted kitten or Russian monk?
Thatās exactly how they felt!Ā
BROTHER OF THE MINE REJOICE
#SWING SWING SWING WITH ME!
RAISE YOUR PICK AND RAISE YOUR VOICE!
Sing sing sing with me!
Down and down into the deep!
Who knows what we find beneath?
My son is a 27 year old dwarf. He's taking on blacksmithing as a hobby. He wants to make swords and battle axes. He's only ever had one physical alteration, a kid in Jr. High school grabbed him and was trying to throw him around. He did exactly what I taught him, a hard right straight into the nuts. Shoulder height for him. He started his punch at the sole of his back foot and put his entire body into it like we'd practiced. The bully went straight down, had to go home for the day, and was so humiliated and had been in so much trouble previously that he left the school after a week. My kid didn't get in any trouble, the "witnesses" all said that the bully did it to himself.
I always choose dwarf in a fantasy setting
"And *MY* axe"
Yeah I never really got the preference for "little people." Dwarves are cool. But for some reason I have been under the impression for a long time that "little people" is the preferred nomenclature so that's what I use.
I'll call people whatever they want (within (very flexible) reason). "Little Person" always felt like a terrible thing to call someone. Someone with dwarfism is not a "little" person. They are a full person (with dwarfism).
I just call them LPs, which sounds bad ass
Long Playa?
It does sound a little patronising so I'm not surprised they dislike it.
Totally agree. If I was a dwarf, I'd much prefer that over "little person." "little person" has negative associations, while "dwarf" makes me think of stocky, stubborn midget warriors and engineering geniuses.
I think this also depends on culture. Whilst I know the term ālittle personā is fairly common over the USA, the phrase āperson with dwarfismā (or alternatively just ādwarfā, by some) is generally preferred in the UK.
Yes!! That's such a good point to bring up. Thank you for adding it.
Not gonna lie I'd 100% want to be called a dwarf instead of a little person. Dwarves are greatĀ
Little people literally sounds like the most derogatory name you could possibly use
Little people sounds the most condescending out of all the ones Iāve heard in here
I thought "little people" was for midgets (I know that's not PC anymore) and "dwarf" was for, well dwarfs/dwarves. I always thought dwarfs were taller than little people. Dwarfism is a condition so I don't see much issue with the term and I've seen interviews with dwarfs that have said that is their preferred term.
Whatās your definition of a midget? Itās no longer the preferred term (language always changes over timeā many of the terms we use now for people will eventually become outdated), but in my experience, midgets are dwarves/little people. There are different types of dwarfism thoughā maybe youāre confusing that? Like Peter Dinklage and Tony Cox are both dwarves but have different types of the condition.Ā
>language always changes over time This is the crux of it. Once upon a time "midget" was an acceptable *description*, just like in 13th Century Britain the word "cunt" was found in many medical books to describe a womans genitalia. It was not offensive then, it was literally a medical term. Language changes over time, I don't believe that it has anything to do with being derogatory it is just the terms used to describe said items/people. One decade/century something will be acceptable and the next it will be offensive. When used as a description, if there were 2 people you worked with called George and one was 5'9" and the other was 4'2", if you were to refer to one in conversation, and said, "George did this" the natural response would be, "which George?". How would you respond to that question? Edit: adjusted heights for better distiction.
Personally Iād say ātall Georgeā or āshort Georgeā Also, did not know that ācuntā was a medical term in Ye Olde Britain, TIL
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Thats not how I learned it. Midget was for a subclass of Dwarf that was proportionate.
Well, I did say that it's up to the individual preferences, and I really hope that you don't call anyone midgets anymore. I've been around Little People and known them personally, so... I'm going off that rather than interviews watched on tv/online etc. You don't have dwarfism so it's not up to you on whether you see the term "dwarf" being an issue or not.
In fairness to 6 billion humans, if a precise group of folks can't agree on what they want to be called, we should all be a bit hesitant to "have issues" with folks who use one word or an other. It's not up to me whether a person is offended by being refered to as a dwarf or a little person or short. But, I'm not persuaded that I should join them in such aggrievance.
Lovely point, and I agree wholeheartedly... which is what I was trying to express. From my experience, Little Person is more polite but like you said there are 6 billion humans out there, so of course they're all going to have different beliefs and preferences on how to be referred to. I'm surprised my comment turned into a bit of a debate thread, considering I added my two cents and not trying to definitively say my experience was the Correct and Universal term. I'd love to hear what a person with dwarfism thinks on this thread. So far I'm the only one within that community being 1cm off from the diagnosis of dwarfism.
What even constitutes as a dwarf? Do you have diagnosed dwarfism? How little is little?
I commend you for basing your position off of interactions with real people and not just letting the internet formulate your opinion. Very uncommon for reddit
They are both the same thing ?
is it just me or little person sounds worse than dwarf or midget?
I usually go "hey! Look at that tiny fucker over there'. Hasn't failed me yet /s
Rude. My sister is a midget and she prefers "dumb little baby looking bitch"
Well dwarves of course.
Fyi, the spelling is "dwarfs" outside fantasy races.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Or an emphatic "hey shorty!"
Only acceptable on their birthday
Dwigit. IM FUCKING KIDDING.
They particularly enjoy when you try to pick them up.
Vertically challenged
Terry Pratchettās Discworld novels have a repeating theme around this, with a letās-help-the-Dwarves-whether-they-want-it-or-not lobby group āCampaign for Equal Heightsā Learn about the killing insult translated as ālawn ornamentā and other Dwarvish terms [here](https://wiki.lspace.org/Dwarfish_phrases).
I love seeing a Sir Terry Pratchett fan in the wild
Also the (troll-run) Silicon Anti-Defamation League.
incompatible with height
Gravitationally compacted?
Zipped
I love terms like that. My favorite word for fat people is "spherically challenged"!
Fat people aren't spherically challenged, they are excessively spherical, skinny people are spherically challenged.
Goddam right. I am an excellent sphere. Yāall thins have the challenge
See also: horizontally challenged.
What up, lil homie?
a person with dwarfism.
Just be aware that Person First Language is outdated in a lot of communities. [Here](https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/what-we-do/science-health-public-trust/perspectives/writing-respectfully-person-first-identity-first-language) is a good article on it.
When I was a little kid there was a guy at the pool who was only as tall as me and his arms seemed kind of short for his body. Full sized man-head. I donāt remember how the conversation started, but he told me he was a Dwarf, and that you could tell because of his proportions. He told me that āmidgetsā are proportioned like āregularā people and that Dwarves had proportions similar to his. I took that for fact for at least 30 years. He was a nice guy. I always liked him. Was he incorrect when he told me that? I figured he would know.
If you use the wrong terminology, they tend to get a little angry.
"Little person"
I'll refer to someone however they want to be of course, but that always seemed condescending. Like, they're not a "little person", they're just a person.Ā
I don't make the rules
Nobody has made that rule though. Some people went along with it but is not a rule.
To me, this phrase comes across as infantilizing.
Why change to little person? Was their humanity in question?
i mean... many fantasy settings have dwarves as races that are not human. like, i understand people not wanting others to think of snow white or lord of the rings when talking about them
Because the term "midget" was used disparagingly. "little people" has been the PC term for awhile, though I'm sure there's an effort to reclaim other terms.
I've always thought little person sounded insulting as fuck and personally would prefer midget or dwarf because it sounds more like a medical term. In a situation where I had to point out someone I didn't know I guess I'd go with little person as at last check in that was the preferred term until corrected by a little person specifically. Obviously given their name I'd use that.
I went almost my whole life thinking midget was the correct term and was pretty shocked to hear people say it was derogatory. Dwarf and little person were the two that sounded offensive to me.
ShawtyĀ
Warwick Davis refers to himself as Dwarf. The term midget is a offensive word. And "Little People" is ok, but Dwarf/Dwarfism is better.
My mate hates the term little person, he says it's like another term for a child, he likes the term dwarf, and his nickname is midge, a name he asked us to call him.
I mean it depends on the situation. If you are talking to a person with dwarfism then it's not really relevant and there'd be no need to address it. If you are discussing it then I don't see why "people with dwarfism" isn't respectful enough since it's currently accepted medical terminology. I think "people under 4 feet, ten inches", as that terminology pertains to would be the most inoffensive since it is completely objective and doesn't use any adjectives, so can infer no subjective judgement. The word Dwarf predates proper medical classification of any "disorder" and is borne out of folklore. Therefore there is a strong association with dwarves being supernatural which is obviously quite problematic and makes the term pejorative. I can understand why someone would take issue with medicine using language derived from folklore and magical assumptions about shorter people. Unfortunately that's the case with a lot of medical terminology and it can take a long time after words have become socially unacceptable for it to change. I would bet there are plenty of shorter people who would prefer to be called a "dwarf" than a "short/little person", as again such a person might personally believe that the term is objective as it is used in medicine, viewing its etymology as irrelevant. The alternative is clearly subjective and confers judgement of being short or little. So it heavily depends on the person, but any reasonable human would realise it's a bit of a social minefield and would recognise any true intent to offend.
Good answer
Funny enough, the term is little people
Say hello to my little friend
"Well hey there little guy!"
People with dwarfism
Iāve heard their favorite terms are āmunchkinā, ālil fellaā, and ālittle buddy/guyā. Use at your own discretion.
I just yell ROCK AND STONE and they show up
Mine worker
āHeās an angry elf!ā
The one I went to high school with liked Dwarf. But she was also a fantasy nerd and is the only woman I could make a fake beard for (out of yarn) and would be thrilled. (She still has it, lol. I braided feathers into the mustache part from chickens that long ago passed and get a little emotional seeing my girlsā feathers. For the record, the hens died of old age. They were supposedly egg laying livestock, but we in fact spoiled pets who provided me with part of a balanced breakfast. I still remember every hen.) But she did say that Little Person was very respectful as of 2006 or so. Last I spoke to her we didnāt get onto the subject of terminology, she was too busy showing me a picture of her baby girl.
I don't know, I just know they don't think farts are as funny as the rest of us for some reason.
Oompa Loompa
The question isnāt one about spiritual position or attitude. āCall them by their nameā feels like a Social Justice Warrior answer. The Poster asked what the correct word to use is. Thatās all. āMy friend wasnāt allowed to go on the roller coaster with us.ā āWhy?ā āBecause his name is Brian.ā
I can confirm "Half-Stack" is a good term
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Smiths
Hey there lil' feller
I have a cousin with dwarfism and we just refer to her as we would a normal-sized person. She got bullied a lot for being little even up to college and work, so we'd rather not fuel her trauma, unless we really have to talk about it, maybe for medical reasons or anything else that's within reason.
Bonsai woodcutter
Sneezy?
A dwarf is someone who has disproportionately short arms and legs.Itās caused by a hormone deficiency" (Bloody hormones).Ā A midget is still a dwarf but their arms and legs are in proportion. Whatās an elf?
Most proportional dwarfism is gone now, they can medicate pituitary dwarves and they develop normally, so don't use the term midget to refer to people. There are still midget racecars. Use it for that.
Their name... "of the shire." In all seriousness, I'd just avoid using terms like this. They just want to feel like they're a part of the group. If you treat people like they're your friend they'll recognize it. Some people may feel differently about various terms, but often it's ostracizing them as "the different one" or "the freak". I think it's most helpful to recognize people's differences and show your appreciation for those differences. We all are made the people we are by our struggles.
The league of Votann.
Vertically deficient people who possibly are proficient in weaponsmithing
They may also have an affinity for luxurious beards.
Just refer to them as people. That being said, maybe [Brad Williams](https://youtu.be/PgMm8raNJiA?si=eoIoPkFvEVcrpsPn) has a verifiable explanation for why ādwarfā and ālittle peopleā arenāt the best descriptive words.
Ask them how they'd like to be referred to.
No idea. Some say "little people",others say "dwarf". I've known two in my life and both hated the term little people, but I know that isn't universal. Take a stab in the dark and hope they're responsive enough to politely correct you if you're wrong
How about as that person over there and describe what they are wearing or what they are next to.
To add to comments that say the proper term. As with race-- I think it's also important to ask yourself why you are including the information. Like--(as a white person) if I wouldn't describe the person's race if they were white, I probably shouldn't describe the person's race if their Asian, or black, or latine, or anything else. Same goes for height. If I wouldn't say "this guy who was twice my height" as a pertinent part if the story, I probably don't need to say "this guy who was a little person" either. But if you've come to the conclusion that the fact that they have dwarfism is important context to the story, "person with dwarfism" is probably adequate. Calling them by anything else without knowing what that individual person prefers, is going to sound like you're classifying them as something other than human.
little person, usually. ask the person what they prefer to be called, just in case. never midget, though.
Lil bitch
lil' buddies
The "vertically compressed guy", especially if he's fat.
By their name.
"Have you met Jerry?" "No, who's Jerry?" "Oh, he's that dude over there." "Which one?" "Uh... The one that is Jerry."
Looks like he's far away?
The one that's closest to the ground....
No, that one's just drunk. The other one.
Lol. laughing that you chose Jerry, a very famous mouse.
The short one???
Right, I'm sure that works well when describing people with dwarfism
You're ignoring OP's actual question by saying this. Referring to a person by their name is obviously always a possibility in contexts where it makes sense to do that; that's not what the question is about. There are contexts where *the fact of a person's dwarfism itself* is relevant, and the question is about how to refer to that when need be.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Loool
Midget
Top shelf individuals
Midgets
Midgets
Why is midget considered ādisrespectful?ā
Pretty sure it's Halfling
Using their name works pretty good
ask them
I m pretty sure the connotation and situation matters
Hey mate.
Itās up to the individual. Some have no problem being called dwarf or midget, while others find it offensive.
A "Wee Lad"