Dwarfism, whose international day is celebrated on Saturday, is not a "joke" or "a vulgar source of entertainment" but a "disability with more than 500 rare diseases," Violette Viannay, president of the Association of Short People (APPT), emphasized in an interview with AFP.
Thirty years after the Morsang-sur-Orge ruling that banned "dwarf-throwing" shows in the name of "respect for human dignity," people with dwarfism continue to be "looked at, pointed at, and mocked," laments the young thirty-year-old, chief of staff at the Ministry of Culture.
Although in theory "dwarf throwing" no longer exists since the ruling of October 27, 1995, "other recreational activities are similar, such as dwarf rental or dwarf fights in nightclubs," she adds.
She cites in particular a "dwarf fight" that was announced for March 2024 in a Toulouse nightclub, an events company looking for "dwarves" to play Santa's elves in a shopping center, and the hiring of short people to host the 18th birthday party of Spanish footballer Lamine Yamal last July.
Added to this are the photos taken on the fly in the street, experienced as "real attacks", which are then broadcast on social networks "for the purpose of mockery".
"People tend to justify this by invoking humor, except that it legitimizes these forms of discrimination that are completely trivialized and it structures the mental health of the people who are directly affected," insists Violette Viannay. That is "around 10,000 people in France, all dwarfism combined."
In the construction of these clichés, Fort Boyard played an important role in conveying stereotypes, she said. The show eventually revised its copy "by giving voice" to the smaller extras, but the damage was done.
"The number of people who have been called Passe-Partout...it's not insignificant and it's not how a small child develops," she emphasizes, calling for questions to be asked about the way "in which culture or the cultural sector can have a positive or negative impact" on disability.
– A few centimeters –
"Dwarfism is no joke. It involves several forms of rare bone diseases that progress over a long period of time, requiring extremely rigorous medical monitoring. Clearly, we are never on vacation from this disease," she continues.
"At 30, at 50, you're going to encounter significant difficulties with surgical interventions, sometimes significant mobility losses," she adds. "A bone that grows poorly isn't just a question of size, it's also a question of balance in the inner ear, the rib cage, a whole bunch of things that then affect the ENT area, the heart, the lungs, and rheumatology."
There is still much to be done to support those affected, as well as their parents who "come to see us with many questions."
"Some parents who are expecting a child don't know if they will continue the adventure and we realize that their anxieties revolve a lot around the way others see them: will this child be able to rise above the mockery?"
The picture is not entirely bleak, however, and progress has been observed in recent years, both in terms of research into achondroplasia – with treatment that is more accessible for children and "allows them to gain a few centimetres" – and in the medical monitoring of children.
In an attempt to mobilize people around the issue, his association will publish a book in January, "Pour quelques centimetres en moins" (Éditions du Cherche midi), a collection of testimonies and contributions from specialists in the form of a manifesto.
"We tend to forget that 90% of short people are born to parents of typical height; anyone can be affected by dwarfism in the future, just like Down syndrome or other forms of disability," emphasizes Violette Viannay. "It's not just a phenomenon affecting 10 poor people who should be warding off bad luck."
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