dwarfism arts and advocacy: creating our own positive identity

When you think of a person with dwarfism, what image springs to mind? Now, hold onto that image and consider how you are expected to respond to it. Is your response laughter, amusement or maybe curiosity? Do you even see them as human, or just a novelty for the entertainment of others?

Rectifying the lack of representation of dwarfism in Disability arts, Dwarfism Arts and Advocacy brings together leading activists, both academics and arts practitioners with lived experience of dwarfism, to raise awareness within academia and society and challenge ableist representations of people with dwarfism. Raising a collective voice, authors offer their thoughts, experiences and, most importantly, recommendations for improving representations of dwarfism and counteracting ableist attitudes both in popular media and in everyday life.

Disputing derogatory representations of this condition, Dwarfism Arts and Advocacy opens up a new avenue for disability studies, encouraging advocacy and challenging able-bodied readers to re-examine their perceptions of this community.

Erin Pritchard, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in Disability Studies and core member of the Centre for Culture and Disability Studies at Liverpool Hope University. Her work examines both the socio-spatial and socio-cultural understandings of dwarfism. Erin’s previous book, Dwarfism, Spatiality and Disabling Experiences, explored the socio-spatial experiences of people with dwarfism in public spaces. Currently, Erin is acting as a consultant to Walt Disney Productions in regards to representations of dwarfism.