Book Review: Dwarfism Arts and Advocacy

Ed., Erin Pritchard

When I was a kid, as I say on my homepage here, I was desperate for a hero who had some of the same experiences I did. I wanted that feeling of commiseration. The closest I came, which was not really close at all, was Danny DeVito. He did not know I existed, and his experience as I saw it – an actor, somewhat self-deprecating, etc.- was not really what I was looking for.

It didn’t help that my doctors liked to tell me that I was the only one in the world to have the specific set of conditions I had. To them I was the greatest ever guinea pig. To me, it was a sentence, or, perhaps, more accurately, a condemnation. Like the Incredible Hulk, I was destined to walk alone.

All of a sudden along comes Dwarfism Arts and Advocacy. Not only is the editor a woman with dwarfism, but all of the participants are as well. So many things resonated with me. Not liking to go out or meet new people because you never know how people are going to react to you totally made sense to me. Feeling like you have to outdo others to show you have value is something I’ve long struggled with. Suddenly I had these amazing people in this book who reflected what I have gone through my entire life, and they have made it! They are actors, artists, podcasters, advocates, teachers/professors, and more. I don’t know how to really explain this kind of experience if it’s not something you will experience yourself in some way. It is perhaps easiest to say that I was no longer alone in the world.

I would say there are a few major points that were reiterated throughout the chapters, even though they differed in many ways.

1. There should be a sense of dwarfism pride and dwarfism culture. We are of the disability community but also kind of separate. We need to name and claim our identity as a community within a community.
2. There are many issues that are dividing the dwarfism community, including whether to take roles that seem demeaning to others, whether to pursue limb lengthening or other means for becoming taller, and more. These are complicated issues and often I can see both sides. I wish they were not so divisive.
3. Dwarfism needs to be considered in an intersectional manner. One of the authors mentions that a member of the LGBTQ+ community did not feel free to pursue love at an LPA conference even though that’s one of the ways the conference gets promoted. They did not find a place of comfort there.

My only criticism of the book is that some of the chapters were just simply not presented well. It was very difficult to tell where the editor’s words were ending and the author’s were beginning. There were a surprising number of typos and grammatical errors, and since this is presenting people with dwarfism who are at the apex of their careers, this bothered me. I wish it had been presented better in some cases.

Like I said, I can’t really explain what it’s like to find out there are tons of people who are feeling just like you when you’ve never thought there were. It is a great gift. For that reason, among others, I will forever cherish this book. Thank you to everyone who participated!