<
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/dec/13/fantasy-dwarfism-problem>
"When I was young, the on-screen representation of fantasy dwarves was hard to
watch. Seeing people who look like me with their faces painted orange in
Willy
Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, merrily singing as they worked away their lives
in a windowless building, felt othering and weird. The reductiveness of the
dwarves in
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was insulting, to put it mildly,
and I couldn’t exactly relate to being an Ewok (in
Return of the Jedi).
This winter has seen the release of two new major fantasy series,
Willow
(Disney+), set years after the original film, and
The Witcher: Blood Origin
(Netflix), a prequel to the hugely successful series
The Witcher, based on
the books of the same name by Andrzej Sapkowski. Both feature actors with
dwarfism playing fantasy dwarves in central roles.
You might be thinking “hurrah for diversity!”, but the existence of fantasy
dwarves on screen holds a complex and sensitive history for those of us who
have dwarfism off screen."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
