< rant >
Oh dear, I’ve just watched BBC Question Time and was very saddened by the panels reaction to whereby some of our most senior politicians are using dwarfism to insult each other.
Not only am I alarmed at how it is brushed off by one audience member as ‘political correctness gone mad’, but at how unaware the panel is, not just the physical problems that we as people with restricted growth encounter, but the significance of their ignorance and discrimination we face at societal level.
Can you imagine what the reaction would be if politicians had mocked or likened to a person who is blind or from a particular ethnic minority group. There would be hell on and (one would hope) resignations abound and one wonders if the BBC would have gone near it …
Whilst Question Time is a very populist political show, I think it is frightening how unaware, not just in this area of disability, but when you see politicians who are supposedly there to protect your needs, are so wholly out of touch with the lives of the people that they are there to serve.
When you have comedians, people on the street and now politicians thinking it is acceptable to belittle people with our particular disability and then for us to be belittled for taking people to task, well it’s like hitting a very thick brick wall that other minority groups have had the success of breaking down many many years ago.
Using the term “dwarfism” in a negative stereotype only serves to fuel the ignorance and negative attitudes of people with restricted growth as something not worthy or inferior.
Whilst there has been great advances in tackling discrimination of certain disabled groups in this country, there is a hell of a long way to go for restricted growth/dwarfism. For restricted growth to be seen and accepted by wider society, not just as a disability, but for restricted growth people to be respected, not for our height, but as a minority group that has won the respect from the public to be protected from ridicule.
< rant over >
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