Salon.com article addresses something I personally understand

I happened on a Salon.com article today titled "Who you calling a 'midget'?" which tackles the degrading nature of the word "midget" as a description for people of short stature. There is nothing directly pertaining to Tecumseh or Britton or Clinton in the article. What brings it close to home, however, is that while most people in the Herald's reading area may catch the TLC show "Little People, Big World" once a week, or so, to see what life is like for people of short stature living in world created for those taller than 5 feet, four inches, I don't have to watch the show because I witness my daughter's daily struggles.

My daughter was born with a rare form of dwarfism called Kniest syndrome. We talk about the word "midget" quite often, now that she's getting older and is more aware of her self-image. She doesn't like to be called the "M" word and she has been called it more than a few times by people who don't understand that it's improper. We also talk about the way people stare at her. It's become noticeable in the past couple of years, I have to admit. We will go somewhere and inevitably people stare at the way she walks. I suppose like Jesse James said in that horrifying episode of "Celebrity Apprentice" where the "M" word was slung like nobody's business, she's gotten used to the staring, but that doesn't mean she likes it. I think a more fitting term that James could have used to try to understand what people like my daughter feel is the word "tolerate." She tolerates being stared at, because there is really no other choice than to tolerate it. Unfortunately, there will always be people who stare. She can't go off on every person who does. We've had many heart-to-heart talks about how she might handle the situations when she feels uncomfortable because people stare at her. A lot of times the best answer I can give her is to just brush it off and move on, but that's hardly a reason to think it's okay to exploit her or encourage people to stare at her.

I thought Lynn Harris's Salon.com article did a thorough job of explaining the issues with the word "midget" as well as the issues with the horrible notion that people like my daughter are not regular human beings because they happen to be small. This is the ignorance we face more and more as she gets older and her short stature becomes more apparent. I share this article in hopes that more people spread the word that these actions are intolerable and to make people aware that this affects people much closer to home than they might think.