Dwarfism Pride Month: How One Woman Is Reclaiming Representation for Little People
What does it mean to be a strong dwarf woman — and why does the internet think she only exists in fantasy? If you Google the phrase, your screen will fill with images of mythical and fantastical characters, imagined beings, who are human-like, but not human.
This Dwarfism Pride Month, New York-based content creator and disability advocate Jillian Curwin set out to change that picture. Through a new photo series and personal essay, she reclaims the phrase “strong dwarf woman” — showing that strength is not mythical but human, not imagined but real.
Curwin, whose past projects have explored the absence of little people in media, fashion, and culture, from reimagining Disney princesses and Barbie dolls to celebrating the real bodies of women with dwarfism, continues her mission to reshape how society sees, and fails to see, people with dwarfism. Below, she shares how her latest project challenges centuries of stereotypes and invites us to see dwarf women not as symbols or curiosities, but as women: successful, capable, and profoundly real.
What does a “strong dwarf woman” look like?
Jillian Curwin for FEMINIST
Photography by Caitlyn Gaurano
Make-Up by Mariadeliz Santiago
Hair by Marcus Cunningham
October is Dwarfism Pride Month and, for me, it is a time of year where I really try to celebrate simply being a little person, celebrate simply existing in, living in, moving in a little person’s body. As a little person I have an understanding that, when I walk into a space, people see my body before they see me. They make assumptions and judgments based on perceptions, prejudices, and stereotypes. Depending on the viewer I may be perceived with more questions than answers (usually through the eyes of a child who is just trying to make sense of the person in front of them), or as an object of entertainment or amusement. I may be perceived as someone who does not belong in the space (or otherwise). I may not even be perceived at all, just simply overlooked. I am used to that. I expect that. Yet a part of me will always be surprised when I am forced to see and understand just how pervasive society’s perceptions of my body, my disability, my identity, are.
About a year ago, in seeking inspiration for a different piece I was writing at the time, I went to Google Images and entered the terms “strong dwarf woman” into the search bar. The results had me taken aback. Of the images found, approximately 90 - 95% were of animated, mythical, fantastical dwarves, characters that are not real, that are human-like but not human. Google Images, the world’s largest image search engine, was telling its users that if strong dwarf women are real, that if they were to exist, it was only in a fantastical, made-up world and not our real one. To name a few: Judy-Lynn del Rey, the science fiction editor who helped launch Star Wars; Sammie Bryant, a gospel singer who collaborated with Aretha Franklin, Rebecca Cokley, presidential appointee under Barack Obama and program officer at the Ford Foundation; Selene Luna, the actor who has appeared in various film and television projects; and Ann Cupolo Freeman, author and disability rights activist. Strong dwarf women are successful, they are capable, they are real, and to try and say otherwise is simply not true and perpetuates a harmful narrative that has been told throughout history.
Perceptions, prejudices and stereotypes of little people/people have been conveyed through politics, arts, and culture. They transcend all spaces and have dictated how people with dwarfism, going back to the beginning of time, have been treated. From the court dwarfs (or pets) of the Elizabethan era, to the circuses and “freak shows”, to the Seven Dwarfs and Munchkins of the 1930’s and the beginning of Hollywood’s Golden Age, people with dwarfism have been objectified, infantilized, and dehumanized, and these behaviors persist to this day. (For more information about dwarfism history, including those whose stories have not been told, I highly recommend following Aubrey Smalls).
Perceptions are not just shaped by what we can see, they are also shaped by what we don’t. For example, in regards to representation in media, entertainment, sports, fashion, etc., people with dwarfism have also, with few exceptions, been sidelined, such as what happened with The Time Bandits revival, or relegated to roles where they even continue to feed into the harmful stereotypes. But, what is perhaps more impactful, people with dwarfism have been completely left out or excluded. From conversations about accessibility to disability representation across all industries and in society in general, people with dwarfism have been, for the most part, excluded. Looking at the fashion industry, for example, with very, very few exceptions there has been no representation of little people on the runways nor in commercial or editorial campaigns. If we look even further at adaptive fashion, the brands who have entered the space, whether for a singular product or an entire line, are not designing for little people. Their designs do not consider the access needs of people with dwarfism who, like everyone else, get dressed in the morning in clothes that not only fit their bodies, but suit their style identities. When you see how people with dwarfism are being overlooked or excluded, it makes the moments of visibility even more powerful. So, when most representations you see of little people are stereotypical, objectifying, dehumanizing, it is hard for society to see them as anything else.
Which brings us back to Google Images. As a little person, as a person with dwarfism, I grew up surrounded by, knowing, and looking up to strong dwarf women. They are the mothers who taught my parents, both of whom are average-height, what it means to have a child with dwarfism, and how to be the best parent to a child with dwarfism. They are the friends I made at LPA conferences; friends who became family, who have always been there despite any geographic distance. They are the mentors and advocates that I am continuously empowered by. They are women that I am equally honored to know and look up to. They are successful, capable, and real. They are human.
