What I Learned in St. Louis

"...dwarfs are, in a real sense, the Jews of the freaks..." Psychology Today, August 1977.


Yep. I got a stack of free copies of Psychology Today from the library in De Soto, Missouri. They're dated from 1974 to 1977, and they're pretty amusing. People thought weird things in the 70s.

I really wish I was taking that above quotation out of context, but I'm not. Here's the entire excerpt concerning dwarfism:

"Every child knows what a dwarf is long before he meets one; and it therefore remains hard for us ever really to see one past the images first encountered in stories our mothers told us.

"Monstres per défaut they may be; but the lack that distinguishes them stirs only subliminal horror in the ordinary beholder. Sentimental onlookers want rather to kiss or cuddle creatures who remind them irresistably of children; and who combine, at their best, the wit of adults with the charm of a child.

"Jew and dwarf! How often that conjunction has occurred. ... [their ellipse, not mine] Looking back over their 5,000 years of recorded history, it seems to me that dwarfs are, in a real sense, the Jews of the freaks: the most favored, the most successful, the most conspicuous and articulate; but, by the same token, the most feared and reviled, not only in gossib and the popular press, but in enduring works of art. ... [their ellipse] They have been, in short, a 'chosen people,' which is to say, a people with no choice."

So, yeah. Pop culture, old pseudo-intellectual magazines, and the most racist stereotypes I've seen in ages.

This is hilarious.