Masters Thesis

Stereotypes of little people and their depictions within fictional and non-fictional television

This thesis explores the way the media stereotypes little people, which functions as a way of portraying them as'others' in mainstream media. Specifically, it looks at how fiction and unscripted television programs are a distortion of reality. Further, it shows how television fails to represent individuals with dwarfism as they are. Using ideological criticism and applied media aesthetics as a guide, I offer a content analysis of the first 5 episodes from the first seasons of the television series Little People, Big World and Game of Thrones respectively, in order to demonstrate how the media consistently uses stereotypical images as a strategy of subjugation and as a way of disempowering the little people community. The results of this analysis demonstrate that the discrimination, prejudice and inequity towards little people is accurately portrayed in Game o f Thrones. However, in Little People, Big World, which is often viewed as an inspirational nonfiction television program, does not succeed at offering empowering representations of little people.

Items in ScholarWorks are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.