The New York Times changed its stylebook earlier this year to discourage the use of the term “midget” after a public outcry was raised over its description of a 1930’s-era photograph of circus performer Lya Graf with financier J.P. Morgan, Jr. (left).

Apparently the Washington Post missed the memo. A Post story this week by Brady Dennis used the same word to describe the same photo.

Explaining the Times’ decision, public editor Clark Hoyt wrote that the paper had received a cascade of complaints over the word, which advocates described as an epithet. An excerpt from Hoyt’s column in April:

The new style entry says that people with a genetic condition resulting in unusually short stature should be referred to as dwarfs. “Midget, once used to describe dwarfs of otherwise normal proportions, is now widely considered offensive and should be avoided,” it says.

But the Post editors apparently weren’t the only ones to miss the memo. A month after Hoyt’s column, the word was back on the Times site describing the same photo, this time in a blog entry by Kate Phillips. She was quoting a description of the same photo from an op-ed by Ron Chernow that had run in the Times in January.

(Photo from Great News Photos and the Stories Behind Them, by John Faber)

Writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Luaine Lee compares reality television to a P.T. Barnum sideshow of “freaks and geeks.” An excerpt:

Of course, when Barnum turned tiny Charles Sherwood Stratton into Tom Thumb, the most famous little person in the world, he had no idea that 21st-century America would follow his lead with The Little Couple and Little People, Big World.

… Barnum never had it so good.

(The Roloffs from “Little People, Big World,” TLC photo)

Writing in Salon.com, Lynn Harris says the campaign by the Little People of America against the word “midget” is not an attempt at censorship but rather a bid for public sensitivity and respect.

Prompting the group’s effort was an episode of Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” last April in which contestants created “Jesse James Dirty With Midgets,” a detergent commercial featuring little people.

On the show, celebrity contestant Jesse James assured the audience that actors with dwarfism would not mind being the butt of the joke. “[Little people] know that people point and laugh at them and they are comfortable within themselves and they have fun right back,” he said.

LPA advocates say mockery and bias against people with dwarfism will not disappear until dwarfs are portrayed realistically and respectfully in pop culture.

Earlier posts here and here.

See earlier story: We wish to welcome you to Munchkin Land — USA Today. Some of the original Munchkins from the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz” said they didn’t mind being called midgets.

From Newsday, Associated Press:

At the annual Little People of America (LPA) conference, the national advocacy organization called for the Federal Communications Commission to ban the word “midget” from broadcast TV. The group said it had filed an official complaint with the FCC.

The request was prompted by an April episode of Donald Trump’s NBC reality show, “Celebrity Apprentice,” in which contestants created a detergent ad called “Jesse James Dirty with Midgets.” Contestants, including Melissa and Joan Rivers, used sexual innuendo in talking about little people actors and suggested that they be hung up to dry.

The LPA described the episode as “demeaning” in an open letter to NBC, and said the word was just as offensive as racial slurs.

An accompanying, unscientific reader poll on the Newsday site reported the following results:

Should the FCC comply with the Little People of America request to ban the word “midget” from broadcast TV?

Yes, the government should set an example (13 responses)

4.5%

Yes, but awareness needs to be raised in movies, cable TV and other media, too (47 responses)

16.2%

No, but the group should raise awareness of how slurs can hurt others (230 responses)

79.3%

290 total responses

Extended video here.

Clark Hoyt, public editor of the New York Times, says the organization’s style manual now decrees that the word “dwarf” — not “midget” — should be used to refer to people with a genetic condition resulting in unusually short stature.

The recent change came about after a public outcry was raised over the use of the word “midget” in an article by David Segal last month. Hoyt said Segal had “no idea” he was using an objectionable term when referring to a 1930’s-era photograph of financier J.P. Morgan, Jr., and circus performer Lya Graf (left).

“Midget, once used to describe dwarfs of otherwise normal proportions, is now widely considered offensive and should be avoided,” [the style guide] says.

… Betty Adelson, a psychologist who has written two books on dwarfs and is the mother of one, said midget has become anathema in the United States because it is derived from the name of an insect (midge), is associated with circus spectacles and is flung as an epithet on the street (“Look at the midget!”).

We’ll be watching carefully to see how the Times covers the premiere of “Midgets vs. Mascots” at the Tribeca Film Festival this weekend. Decribed as a “mockumentary,” the film stars Gary Coleman and features fictional teams competing in ridiculous contests for cash prizes.

From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

Entertainers from the Micro Wrestling Federation say they enjoy their work as “midget wrestlers,” but the Little People of America group asserts that the shows reinforce stereotypes.

Gary Arnold, vice president of public relations for the Little People of America, a 6,000-member national organization which advocates for people with dwarfism, said the word “midget” is degrading and that “events such as midget wrestling reinforce archaic stereotypes; specifically that it is acceptable to objectify and gawk at people based upon physical difference.”

The Micro Wrestling Federation expects to perform 125 shows across the nation this year and can charge up to $25 per ticket for an audience of 500 adults. Each wrestler is under contract and receives a cut of photo sales and merchandise, like T-shirts that say “I Support Midget Violence.”

“People don’t come for the wrestling,” said federation owner Jack Darrell. “They come to see the midgets.”

(Star-Telegram photo)

From the Seattle Times:

University of Washington law professor Paul Steven Miller, an expert in disability and employment discrimination law, has been named a special assistant to the president. He will advise the administration on political appointments, including those in the Department of Justice, the Department of Education and a host of regulatory agencies.

Miller is a former commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He has also served as the White House liaison to the disability community and as Deputy Director of the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs.

An excerpt from an article in the Harvard Law School ‘spotlight’:

Born with achondroplasia, a genetic condition that results in dwarfism, Miller got his chance only after 45 law firms rejected him during law school, with one member of a firm telling him the reason: Their clients would think that they were running a “circus freak show.” The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 has made such overt discrimination rarer and has changed the culture of the American workplace, Miller says.

“I think that the reality for students with disabilities, for professionals with disabilities, is dramatically different today than it was a scant 15, 18 years ago,” he said. “I think that’s attributable to the ADA, to an education process that employers have begun to journey down. . . . It has made America stronger, because it forces employers to focus more on people’s qualifications than on stereotypes about that individual’s disability.”

See also:

• Miller previously worked on transition team — UW press release
• Miller presentation at Georgia State University College of Law: “Good Intentions and Eugenics: Avoiding Genetic Genocide.” With audio.

Earlier posts here and here.

(Seattle Times photo)