A few days ago, Danny Brown posted an article called Social Media – It’s not just for white folks. The post was inspired by Jay Baer, who was struck at SXSW by the noticeable lack of non-white people in the crowds. Jay wrote a post cleverly titled Blinded by the White: Social Media and Diversity.
Here on this blog, there has been a lot of conversation about gender and Social Media, and that inspired me to start the Women and Social Media series. But there’s one issue that I don’t think too many people are talking about, and it’s one close to my heart. As a 4’5 woman, I am wondering where the other Little People are in the world of business and Social Media.
Why it matters
The seeming absence of Little People of note in the business world is bothersome because of the way Little People are *generally* portrayed and thought of in our society. If you go to Google and do an image search for the word “midget” you will encounter, immediately, offensive images that are not safe for work, children, or sensitive individuals. I myself was thrown into a recycling bin in college and picked on by bus drivers and janitors when I was in high school. This is not to say that Little People have it the worst or worse than anybody else. It’s just to say that in our society, we seem to need something to even the scales a bit. So it is with many groups of people who have been marked as “different.”
Why the gaping void?
There are a lot of blogs out there asking why there are not more powerful women in the world of Social Media. Jay Baer and Danny Brown are asking why there isn’t more race diversity. These are all really good questions, but I feel it is important that we also ask, “Why aren’t there more Little People?” In fact, I’m the only Little Person I know in the Social Media space at this point who navigates in the world of business and marketing. That could just be the limits of my own community, but there certainly aren’t many or any Little People on all of those “tops” lists. Why is this?
I really don’t have a good answer for this other than to say that Little People undergo so much maltreatment that there is perhaps a hesitation to open yourself up to the wide world of Twitter and Facebook. Also, there are people like me who prefer to self-identify as “me” rather than, “that Little Person.”
Yes, I know about Matt Roloff
For those of you who are fans of Little People, Big World, the hit TV show on TLC, yes, I know who Matt Roloff is, and yes, he is a highly respected businessman. So that’s one. He hasn’t made a name for himself via Social Media, however. He probably would not have gotten a whole lot of notoriety beyond the Little People community if he had not done his show.
I don’t have any answers
I really don’t have an answer to my own question. I just wanted to put it out there as we discuss diversity in the realm of business and Social Media. It’s something that I am thinking about. What do you think?
Image by B S K: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/spekulator
Margie,
I don’t have any answers either, but your post (along with Danny Brown’s and Jay Baer’s) really make one stop and think.
You are telling your readers, most particularly those of us who have not met you in person or had a personal conversation with you, that you are a Little Person. I began to think about this a few weeks ago. On March 11, 2011, Chris Brogan published a post titled “The Story of You.” As usual, I read it and the comments; however, I was taken by your comment. “Darn it, Chris. You just made me realize a major element that has been missing from my blog posts, for the most part. Although I think it’s a fine line. You don’t want your blog posts to be so “me” centric that people visiting are feeling like they should say, “Woah, um, I’ll leave you to your thoughts.”
When I read your comment I said to myself – “I need to make sure to read Margie’s next few posts, because she is going to share something important about her life.” Sure enough, on March 13, 2011, you published a post titled “Why you need a censor button”. In that post and the comments you talked about a lot of things including good parenting, thinking before you speak, and you mentioned that you are under 4’11”…but you never said you were a Little Person. I just got the feeling you were short, but you were also a teen-ager in the related stories and for all I knew you grew taller as you grew older.
Today I learned you are 4’5” and you are a Little Person. I don’t know where the Little People are in social media. But I do know I am glad I have met you and glad to know more about you. What makes us who we are cannot be known or shared in 140 characters or even a blog post. I remember sitting in a session during BlogWorld 2010 and Jeremy Schoemaker (shoemoney) was on a panel. All of a sudden he tells the audience that he once weighed 420 lbs and his blogging audience began by people following him through his weight transformation. I was so taken by his story. Then recently I was reading another “on-line” friend’s blog and she casually mentioned that in the last few years she had lost 100 lbs. Again, I was shocked, but I did ask her why she didn’t choose to share this fact about herself with her readers…who might want to learn more about this part of her life. She said…someday she would.
I have known about Little People for a pretty long time. California State University Los Angeles is my alma mater. Billy Barty, the Founder of Little People of America, was also a graduate of CSULA. I worked for the school’s daily newspaper and it was not uncommon to have a story about Billy Barty. I have found that Matt Roloff‘s TLC series to be very helpful for people, especially children, to understand about Little People.
One last thought…people like you. They respect you. They respect your intelligence, your writing skills, your compassion, your passion and my guess is they want to know more about your story. If you write more about being a Little Person, my guess is you will find the Little People who are busy in social media? Do you follow @LPANational?
Thoughts?
Judy
Thanks so much for this lovely comment, Judy. Truly thoughtful and wonderful and very you 🙂
I am touched you remembered that comment I made on Chris’s post. I wasn’t lying. It is so easy to get on your pedestal as the teacher or the preacher – it’s easy to forget that you are really just chatting, and that there are probably tons of people who know more about things you’re talking about.
Just to clarify, I am not a dwarf as Matt Roloff is. I am a regularly proportioned person, just in miniature 🙂 There are lots of different kinds of dwarfism out there. What you see in the Roloff family is called Achondroplasia.
I think it’s important to give people perspectives that they might not otherwise have. As a Little Person in this space, and in the presence of those 2 other great posts, I thought it was time to go on that journey a bit. My hope is that this doesn’t become a “thing.” When people ask what they should call “people like me,” I say, “Margie will do just fine, thank you.” And I mean that.
Thank you for all of your wonderful support. So glad to have met you!!
Margie- thank you for opening up, sharing another piece of yourself, and offering us this perspective. I wish I could pinpoint the answer to your question. There are so many factors that swirl around the issue of diversity anywhere, and they all seem to be emotional landmines. People may shy away because we are afraid what appears on the surface to be curiosity may actually be criticism or judgment. (I can think of an awkward conversation quite early in the relationship with my good friend who is gay- luckily he wasn’t offended by my ignorance and trusted that my intentions were simply to understand better.)
We are supposed to celebrate our differences, but it is too easy to do the comparisons and gravitate towards those who we think are the “same” as we are. It’s ironic that all the self-development speak encourages you to find your special uniqueness, and yet we try so hard to fit into defined roles/responsibilities. It takes courage to be different and stand vulnerable in front of others.
In this whole social media world, I just want to meet and hang out with people that will make me a smarter, better person. People who make me laugh and who enjoy my company as much as I enjoy theirs. I’ve already met a ton of people across the world this way, and I’d say that many are different from me in some way, shape, or form. But we are speaking a common language (connection) that brings us together. It’s been pretty fantastic.
It would be my hope that there will be many other voices added from all different groups as we continue to build this online space. We all have something to share- but I really do think it comes down to if we feel comfortable sharing it.
Very well said, Christy. Thank you so much.
I agree, there are probably infinite kinds of posts like this waiting to be written. Where is the blind social media superstar? The deaf one? The one in a wheelchair? I can only speak from my quite limited perspective, but I thought that in sharing it, it might pave the way for other people to open up about themselves without that fear Suzanne talked about yesterday.
Thank you for a truly great contribution to this conversation!
My favorite example of this line of ponderance, was a friend of mine speaking with a potential suitor:
Friend 1: “You wouldn’t like me.”
Friend 2: “Why not?”
Friend 1: “I’m fat.”
Friend 2: “And I’m skinny. What’s you’re point?”
Diversity is helped not by disregard, but by conscious ignorance of differences. In the same way special consideration for minorities (minorities by visibility, not by ability, specifically) eventually creates a different kind of imbalance against the visible majority, intentional avoidance of specific differences can actually help us get past our communication differences.
Otherwise, I’d have to worry about being in the smallest demographic on the planet; tall, reasonably healthy blond haired blue eyed white men. We’re nigh on extinct, compared to the rest of the planet, but no one will ever care.
Unless I tell them I have a chronic illness (asthma), and belong to a non-Abramic religion. The deviance is where people get really interested.
Truism:No one cares about a bird flying straight; the crooked bird gets attention.
I so wish any of that made sense on second reading, but I can’t not offer it, given your frankness. You’re awesome, M.
Actually, that all made perfect sense to me. Should I be worried? 😀
I agree, when you have that moment of telling someone something major about yourself (I call it the 3 AM conversation), you are taking a risk, but you are also sending an invitation. You are saying, “Okay, look, this is another facet of me, but it’s just a piece in the puzzle. Can you accept it?”
You learn a lot about people based on how they react to different things you tell them. I wouldn’t advise making a practice out of it, but it’s been interesting, in my own life, to see how people treat me when they first meet me. The ones who greet me as if I’m a “regular” (whatever that is) human being – they’re the cool ones 🙂
Thanks, Ian!
So glad that made sense!
I love the “3AM Conversation” idea – might have to riff on that a bit, see where it goes. The idea of major revelation is something we struggle with in social media a lot, I think. Some people are all too comfortable giving the cow away with the milk when it comes to information about themselves – it’s not necessarily a bad thing for everyone, but it’s definitely not as close to being par for the course a some people would have you believe. Just one of those things.
We can’t all talk about our cats’ hygiene with a straight face.
Margie: Tremendous post (not, of course, that that’s anything new on this blog — but I’m a firm believer that excellence should always be noted & celebrated, regardless of how expected or “ordinary” it is =)
So much in this post that I’ll need to ponder for a while in order to fully grasp, but here are a few immediate thoughts:
1. Following on Judy Helfand’s comment, among the many qualities that make this blog (and your broader online presence) so impressive is your ability to blend the personal with the professional. It’s no secret that there are way too many “oversharers” out here in cyberspace — a problem that is especially unfortunate among those who claim to be here for professional purposes — but your ability to thread these two aspects of your life together is an ongoing lesson that I truly appreciate.
2. As Christy Smith observed, this post raises a number of intriguing questions regarding identity online & the intersection of our commonalities & our differences. In so many online spaces, it seems that folks self-identify with one group primarily to establish an “us” to stand in smug contrast to the lesser “thems” out there (ex: just about every political blog out there). I really like the way that you address differences as a way to unite, rather than divide.
3. “I really don’t have an answer to my own question.” Can’t tell you how much I appreciate this sentence, & admire you for writing it. Regardless of whether the topic is religion, politics, sports, identity or any of the countless other issues that get batted back & forth on the Internet, a willingess to admit one’s limitations — and to invite conversation rather than demand agreement — is, in a word, remarkable.
Whether here or on Twitter, I always feel like you’re talking *to* me rather than *at* me — & your willingness to extend that courtesy on such a personal topic as the one you address here should make this required reading to anyone who truly wants to understand the power & the potential of the “social” in social media.
Thanks so much for writing & posting this.
Wow, I really don’t know what to say to this lovely comment. Thank you doesn’t seem to cut the mustard.
My great fear in writing this post is that people would misconstrue it as a pity party or something of that sort. Not at all how I intended it, but you never know how your readers may react to things you send out into the ether. I am truly privileged to have such a great community around me – people who truly “get” what I am trying to say. Sometimes you all get what I’m saying better than I do 🙂
Big smush to you, sir. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Margie,
While your frame may be less than 5′ your heart and presence are pushing way beyond that. I can’t imagine the pain from ignorance and bigotry, I am grateful for the tireless way you give and reach out to others. Dynamite and valor can come in any package size. So while we may not have the answer for the external issues like physical size and shape we can celebrate the persona and heart.
With respect to the latter you are a lioness in every sense of the word. Keep on roaring. <3
With deepest respect and appreciation.
Joe
Oh, thank you so much, Sir Joe. I’m so lucky to know you 🙂