Since the distinction isn’t made, and little people actors/actors altered to look like that are used, the “dwarfs” are effectively little people, regardless of the context of the original story or intent of the filmmakers. Just the use of the word itself becomes problematic.
In terms of the original stories, there’s ambiguity; some variants place Snow in the home of diminutive faeries (based on the folklore of the region), but some place her with thieves, bandits or even knights (And some have even suggested that the story might have originated in an area that employed children as copper miners, toxic exposure leading to stunted growth as adults, who were known as “poor dwarfs.” That would actually be a really interesting take on the story, but that’s not what’s being proposed.)
I guess the confusion is that because it’s debatable in terms of the origins of the idea (folkloric notions of diminutive fair folk don’t really match up with human little people) - but it’s certainly true in the sense of the basis for current depictions. They’ve become conflated in modern culture, especially since little people are used in those roles, and the current cultural context is absolutely the relevant one.
Isn’t THAT what we’re talking about? But also, it’s not like people with achondroplasia just popped up in the modern era? And that before that people did not base their myths and stories on what they were familiar with in the real world? Why do we think that’s only a thing in modern times?
I was more surprised at the fact that in Elf his condition is clearly played as a joke when Buddy assumes he’s from the North Pole. Of course, that movie came out quite a while ago and jokes on little people were fairly common in popular culture such as in Austin Powers and even Wolf of Wall Street. Point is, I’d be interested to hear more from him on the subject, especially how his prior roles look to him now.
It’s funny how the complaints on that never seem to touch on the paired problem of inherited privilege. Aragorn might have spent decades of hard slogging, but in the end, he gets to be king because thousands of years ago, someone on his direct male line was king. Even the fucking hobbits, except for Samwise, have a special lineage, and no apparent employment.
There’s some constructive thinking here and I agree that any of these considerations could have added real depth to an otherwise shallow (and sexist?) tale.
I guess the idea for that gag was supposed to be that Buddy was clueless to the point of being over-the-top-offensive rather than a suggestion that Dinklage’s stature was inherently funny in and of itself, but I leave it to the little people of the world to judge how effectively the movie pulled it off.
I’m fairly certain if you searched hard enough in the literature on Tolkein’s work, you’d find that kind of criticism… but also, I’d argue that that notion is assumed to be the flip side of the argument about orcs.
But that doesn’t mean that racist assumptions still aren’t part of Tolkein’s world building.
In the case of seeing small, supernatural beings there is also Charles Bonnet Syndrome as an explanation, as well as the pretty well documented effect of seeing small humanoids under the effects of some psychedelic drugs (esp DMT)
But yes, I would expect you are right that a lot of the modern conception of fantasy dwarves rests squarely on conflation of them with real-life, human, little people
Agree with you. Most folks went in knowing Dinklage was in the movie and even easy guessing the character as the scene approaches. But the reveal was the best upending of expectations and reshaping of assumptions.
All of a sudden, I found myself thinking of dwarfism more as a body shape than just height and size. I think that choice in the movie addresses the reality of short(er) people in the midst of tall(er) people. Height does confer a social privilege of authority that easily and often excludes those shorter. Seeing a towering Peter Dinklage was a revelation that flipped the script.
All of the humans allied with Sauron are specifically described as people of color by Tolkien, while all the good guys are lily white. You don’t even need to go digging around in the Orc pits to find racism in Tolkien
The way I interpreted it was that we always assumed that the dudes who made the hammers in Norse mythology were dwarves in the sense of people with a form of dwarfism, but it was just a misunderstanding and it turns out that’s just what you call folks who live and work next to a dwarf star. Like how someone from Mars is called a Martian. Casting a person with dwarfism in the role was just a coincidence.
He was also in that other Marvel movie as the guy who created the Sentinel robots to hunt down Mutants, which was a nice touch because it’s not often that little people get to play roles that weren’t specifically written for little people (his character was depicted as a person of normal stature in the comics).
The whole issue with making a live action version and including or not including people with dwarfism is a topic i feel woefully under qualified to give an opinion, but definitely the best starting place would be to include them in the creative and decision making process. I’m glad that Latino’s have a voice in this movie/setting when they weren’t part of it in the first place but under that consideration why don’t people with dwarfism get the same TLC?
Yeah, he was pretty frightening, tbh. You really got the sense that if Thor made a wrong move he’d find himself floating through space. Probably my favorite character from the later Avengers films.
