The Terror of Tiny Town: a dwarfsploitation movie with emancipatory value?
Submission to Popular Culture Association of Canada Annual Conference 2012. Accepted.
One year prior to the release of the all-time classic “The Wizard of Oz”, featuring the acclaimed Munchkins, Sam... more One year prior to the release of the all-time classic “The Wizard of Oz”, featuring the acclaimed Munchkins, Sam Newfield directed “The Terror of Tiny Town”, advertised as the first 'comedy western with an all-midget cast', starring “Jed Buell’s Midgets”. In this pastiche, conceived as a ‘weapon of mass distraction’ and categorized as a ‘pure exploitation movie’, diminutive actors are riding Shetland ponies and walking under the swinging doors of a local saloon. The “Terror of Tiny Town” is regularly cited among the Worst Movies of All Time. Various works of popular culture contributed to the movie acquiring cult status by recycling its title, re-interpreting its footage or through references in other movies; the film is ubiquitous on the internet and in social networks and blogs. The purpose of my paper is to demonstrate that the movie adapted American western genre stereotypes to a hitherto excluded category of actors and, by analogy to ‘blaxploitation’ movies, may have been instrumental in emancipating the short statured community. Although a black ‘midget’ featured in the film, it discriminated against ‘dwarfs’. It is likely that the absence of a ‘mirror audience’ prevented the movie to giving birth to a genre or even a sequel.
‘Thank god she’s a midget, not a dwarf’: dissociative behaviour of proportional short-statured people constructing a fantasy of normality
Submission to Conference on Sensualising Deformity: Communication and Constructions of Monstrous Embodiment @ The University of Edinburgh
In early modern times, dwarfs were considered deformed and, hence, socially discriminated, by average-statured... more
In early modern times, dwarfs were considered deformed and, hence, socially discriminated, by average-statured individuals as well as by other little folks we used to call 'midgets', who were conceptualized as “no freaks, no dwarfs but perfectly normal.”
We found that accounts and personal memoirs by hypopituitary little persons suggest that they perceived dwarfs as disproportionate human oddities, monstrosities with grotesque heads, arms and legs, and, therefore, belonging to a different species. Throughout the history of popular entertainment, midgets – who were preferred in show-business - were cast in a way that positively enhanced their status while dwarfs were relegated to the back stage or freak shows.
In search of social acceptance, midgets rejected their impaired self in an attempt to construct a portrayal reinforcing the illusion of normality, fabricated for their audience. This proved somewhat successful, as the public, at least partially, concurred with this fantasy of normality, although the social construction of the midget as (close to) normal rather validated the normality of the audience, eager to rationalize the socio-cultural imagery of marginalized or impaired individuals.
The spectator’s weariness to associate short-statured people to sexual behaviour may stem from a subconscious association of littleness with childishness. Traditionally, achondroplastic dwarfs were depicted as asexual, in line with the aversion of portraying sexual activity of people with disabilities; the more socially accepted midgets were represented as closely resembling the average-statured men and women with their sensuality, sexual desires and activity. In an effort of complaisance to demanding audiences, promoters frequently constructed fallacious midget couples, sometimes accompanied by a narrative involving babies or infants.
In the 1930s, movies challenged the proportional little people’s illusionary world of normality regarding sensuality and sexuality in relation to average-statured people, often portraying a – tragic - love affair between individuals from both sides.