Ban 'Midget' From TV, Little People Group Says

NEW YORK — Little people are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to ban the use of the word "midget" on broadcast TV.

The group Little People of America said Sunday the word is just as offensive as racial slurs.

The request was prompted by an April episode of NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" that the group said was demeaning.

In the episode, contestants created a detergent ad called "Jesse James and the Midgets." The contestants, including Joan Rivers, suggested bathing little people in the detergent and hanging them to dry.

Calls to the FCC and "Celebrity Apprentice" host Donald Trump were not immediately answered Sunday. NBC Universal representatives didn't immediately respond to e-mail messages, and the telephone rang unanswered at their Los Angeles office.

Comments

[CyndiC]

The AP article is incorrect - we are not calling on the FCC to ban the word - a complaint was filed with the FCC regarding the offensive program Celebrity Apprentice. There is freedom of speech and I wouldn't want to ban a word but educate how derogatory of a word it is. In my case it has always been used to hurt or insult or defame or shame a little person. When you have experienced the horrendous nature that it's been used you will never understand. And in no way does use of the 'm' word even come close to the horrific experiences that African American/Blacks, Jews or GLBT have endured or died from. Just want to educate. You can go the the FCC website and see for yourself LPA is not asking for the word to be banned.

[airmikee99]

I did search for the word 'midget' on the FCC website. It found two results.. one of them an FCC report stating that the cable industry is no midget, and another report from 1985.

If you don't like what you see or hear on TV, stop watching it. All you've done now is bring more peoples attention to the "problem" and many people don't see it as a "problem." Rather than fighting against the word, you've given it free advertising.

It offends me when people demand that society change just to fit their feelings. Does that mean I can ask the government to stop you from doing so? What if that offends someone else? Can they stop me? What if that offends me? Can I stop them? Where does that kind of politically correct nonsense end?

[libertyreturns]

Exactly. It has no end point. It just continues in to the absurd.

[Darcman]

This country is truly doomed if people can't make a distinction between slavery, a hundred years of legal segregation and someone being called a midget! Poloitical Correctness is slowing killing this country freedom of speech and maybe eventually even our freedom thought! Its a short trip between telling people what they can and can't say and telling people what they can think!

[bellecloche]

I agree it is sticky to ever compare the suffering of different minorities. But people with dwarfism in America have a long, seldom discussed history of being forced into circus freak shows, being abandoned at birth by ashamed parents, being automatically placed into special education classes or institutions as recently as the 1980's, and facing an unemployment rate of 85% up until the 1994 Americans with Disabilities Act, aside from enduring the insults one can read here in this comments section. Is that not "enough" suffering?

One would hope that when confronted with a group's plea to prohibit an offensive word, the average person would be interested in knowing why the word is so offensive to them first, rather than immediately shooting down everything they have to say with accusations of thought control.

[CyndiC]

No one is asking the word to be banned and certainly not your freedom of speech. The Huffington Post posted an AP article that is incorrect. Whoever is the fact checker for the AP messed up. Of course you can say or think whatever you want that's what is great about America. It's not a matter of political correctness either just asking for understanding. When you see a dwarf child sob because of some ignorance displayed was was on Celebrity Apprentice it's time to open discussion. People don't walk by and yell to black people the 'n' word because they know it's offensive, like they don't say the 'r' word to a mentally challenged person out of respect etc. But at least once a week I get the 'm' word hurled at me in such a hurtful assault.

So if one person that uses the word and now knows it's offensive and hurtful maybe they will have second thoughts or not. It's their freedom of choice.

[LostRiverLedger]

Words are like handguns, left in the wrong hands they can both be devastating.

[SamKnause]

I would think Little People could also be construed as derogatory. I have heard people when giving speeches refer to the Little People and they were not referring to their size, but their station in life.

[Ponderus]

But they picked it. Respect it.

[jdoe2u]

sensitivity is key here.
why would using words one deems hurtful, even be an option?
i do have a sense of humor, but not at anyone's expense.
nor is my 'humor" thinly disguising my own feelings of inadequacy -
projected onto others.

[bugsbonzai]

Just as dumb as banning any other word on television. Don't do it.

[Ponderus]

So you're cool with the "N" word on TV -- OK for white broadcasters to call Michael Jackson and his family the "N" word if they want?

You cool with that?

[Apollonavigator]

The correct term is of course "vertically challenged".

[Ponderus]

And the correct term for you is sympathetically impaired.

[ScoutandBuckGoodDogs]

I do agree, use the term that is acceptable; It's not that hard. Just means we all have to be up on what is (and is not) appropriate. What a concept!

The term "little people" has gotten rid of the circusy/freak show feel of "midget." I totally see their point.

[CyndiC]

Thank you very much for your brief and insightful comment.

[ScoutandBuckGoodDogs]

I think we should bad the word "fat" because it offends me when someone calls me fat.

Wait... that's what I am.

[CyndiC]

Not asking to ban the hurtful word just educate that it's hurtful.

[discourse jockey]

Proving that they really are midgets, are they not?

[local21]

What about munchkin?

[CyndiC]

As a little person that even made me laugh! See we have a sense of humor. I know for myself I wouldn't like munchkin.

[wadenelson1]

Why exactly is "Little People" less offensive if it conjures up the EXACT SAME mental image as "midget."

It seems rather like like garbagemen demanding to be called "sanitation engineers."

In a few years they'll be telling us "Little People is offensive, just as people of color, err, african americans, err, blacks, err, negroes, ... have demanded a "name change" every 25 years.

[tugofpolitics]

"Jesse James and the Midgets."

I don't associate the word 'midget' being offensive, so pardon me.
If the FCC decides one way or the other, no big deal.
But I'm surprised how isolated, callous, banal, and pampered your life must be to think that this commercial was okay to create.

Either that, or they wanted to give midgets an opportunity to make good money acting in a commercial they thought would be funny and effective marketing. I haven't seen the commercial.

Motivations, like words, are nuanced.

[gurukalehuru]

I always thought that "little people" referred to Leprechauns. Maybe elves and fairies, too. Also, it could be misconstrued to mean just shorter than average people.
I also don't care for the term "African-American." Whenever I hear "police are looking for an African-American man who was seen...." I always wonder what makes them so sure their suspect is an American.
So, in conclusion, yes, everybody has the right to be referred to by the term they choose - I just wish they would choose a less ambiguous term.

[mouselion]

Agreed...

[RyanMuadDib]

I once saw a newsperson refer to Nelson Mandela as an "African-American".

[CyndiC]

Me being "they" has selected a term that refers to all types of dwarfism.

[sviolette]

How about just calling people what they want to be called? That isn't too hard is it?

[tkondaks]

What, specifically, is offensive about "midget"? I've heard Little People say they find it offensive but what exactly is the reason?

[Pyfagorus]

It doesn't really matter. "Oriental" doesn't seem like it should be offensive, since it merely means "Eastern" literally, and yet Asians find it offensive when used to refer to a person. What's offensive probably isn't so much the word itself, but the context in which it's historically been used.