Erin Pritchard – författare

This book provides an in-depth analysis of the social and spatial experiences of people with dwarfism, an impairment that results in a person being no taller than 4'' 10".

This book engages with the concept that dwarfism’s most prominent feature – body size and shape – can form the basis of social discrimination and disadvantages within society. By ignoring body size as a disability, it is hard to see the resulting disabling consequences of the built environment. Using a mixed-methods approach and drawing on the work undertaken by human geographers and disability studies academics, this book analyses how the relationship between harmful cultural stereotypes and space shapes everyday experiences of people with dwarfism and works to socially exclude them in diverse ways. Showing how spatial and social barriers are not mutually exclusive but can influence one another, this book responds to the limited academic work on the subject of dwarfism, whilst also contributing to the study of geographies of body size.

It will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, human geography, the built environment, sociology and medical humanities.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of the social and spatial experiences of people with dwarfism, an impairment that results in a person being no taller than 4'' 10".

This book engages with the concept that dwarfism’s most prominent feature – body size and shape – can form the basis of social discrimination and disadvantages within society. By ignoring body size as a disability, it is hard to see the resulting disabling consequences of the built environment. Using a mixed-methods approach and drawing on the work undertaken by human geographers and disability studies academics, this book analyses how the relationship between harmful cultural stereotypes and space shapes everyday experiences of people with dwarfism and works to socially exclude them in diverse ways. Showing how spatial and social barriers are not mutually exclusive but can influence one another, this book responds to the limited academic work on the subject of dwarfism, whilst also contributing to the study of geographies of body size.

It will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, human geography, the built environment, sociology and medical humanities.

There exist problematic attitudes and beliefs about dwarfism that have rarely been challenged, but continue to construct people with dwarfism as an inferior group within society. This book introduces the critical term ‘midgetism’, which the author has coined, to demonstrate that the socio-cultural discrimination people with dwarfism experience is influenced by both heightism and disablism.

As a result, it unpacks and challenges the problematic social assumptions that reinforce midgetism within society, including the acceptability of ‘midget entertainment’ and ‘non-normate space’, to demonstrate how particular spaces can either aid in reinforcing or challenge midgetism.

Drawing on the tripartite model of disability, this book demonstrates how midget entertainment is framed as a non-normative positivism, which makes it an acceptable form of employment. Using autocritical discourse analysis, the book exposes, examines and responds to excuses that are used to reinforce midgetism, thus critiquing the numerous beliefs influenced by cultural representations of dwarfism, such as people with dwarfism being acceptable figures of entertainment.

It will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, social history, sociology and cultural geography.

There exist problematic attitudes and beliefs about dwarfism that have rarely been challenged, but continue to construct people with dwarfism as an inferior group within society. This book introduces the critical term ‘midgetism’, which the author has coined, to demonstrate that the socio-cultural discrimination people with dwarfism experience is influenced by both heightism and disablism.

As a result, it unpacks and challenges the problematic social assumptions that reinforce midgetism within society, including the acceptability of ‘midget entertainment’ and ‘non-normate space’, to demonstrate how particular spaces can either aid in reinforcing or challenge midgetism.

Drawing on the tripartite model of disability, this book demonstrates how midget entertainment is framed as a non-normative positivism, which makes it an acceptable form of employment. Using autocritical discourse analysis, the book exposes, examines and responds to excuses that are used to reinforce midgetism, thus critiquing the numerous beliefs influenced by cultural representations of dwarfism, such as people with dwarfism being acceptable figures of entertainment.

It will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, social history, sociology and cultural geography.

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.