Does anybody know? If anything I'd think if I were a midget I'd find it more insulting to be called a dwarf or 'little person', I find that SO condescending like when they call women 'little lady' or 'little girl' like no matter how old you are you are not close to equal to the real men the big strong men. I say midget and I don't care if it's politically incorrect.

I always thought it was the other way around?

Midget being more acceptable.

cheaps wrote:

I always thought it was the other way around?

Midget being more acceptable.

Where do you live, Cheaps? I wish it was like that around here but it seems everywhere you look they go for the PC 'little person' or 'dwarf' which I think is very stupid, it's like midget is suddenly a bad word, and I don't know why.

Because midget is more comical and you're not supposed to make fun of the condition.

Well when we see somebody who's tall we still refer to them as giant or Amazon or 'hey stretch!' instead of 'big person' or 'petuitary gland challenged person'. Besides, how is dwarf not a comical term when the most common placement to it is Snow White? That'd be like 'are you Happy, Doc, Sleepy, Dopey, Sneezy, Grumpy or Dopey?'

Supernova wrote:

Well when we see somebody who's tall we still refer to them as giant or Amazon or 'hey stretch!' instead of 'big person' or 'petuitary gland challenged person'. Besides, how is dwarf not a comical term when the most common placement to it is Snow White? That'd be like 'are you Happy, Doc, Sleepy, Dopey, Sneezy, Grumpy or Dopey?'

Midget is more condescending and it's basically a slang term for little people. Dwarfism is an actual, medical condition. Kinda hard to get mad at someone calling you a dwarf when you really are a 'dwarf'. Of course, people are going to spin that too if they refer to you as one of the seven dwarves simply because it's easy and it makes for great pun, but being called a dwarf stings less.

From what I understand, 'midget' is always degrading and never appropriate to use. 'Dwarf' is the textbook proper term, but is so clinical that it can sound belittling and smug, depending on the tone of which the person says it.

That being said, I thought the more inoffensive term to use was 'little person/people'.

Quote :

Dwarfism is an actual, medical condition. Kinda hard to get mad at someone calling you a dwarf when you really are a 'dwarf'.

Exactly that.

Maybe but we got us a dwarf pear tree out in the yard so I wouldn't find that a likeable description either, truthful or not, and in the tree's case it is not because it's twice the size it was supposed to be.