elf or stripper - a Hobbesian choice?

[Guest guest]

In the aftermath of the MTV documentary, my attention was not focused on

butt-wipers, but the choice of one of the participants to be an elf but not a

stripper. I was reminded of Colonel while under siege at the

Alamo by General Santa Ana and the Mexican Army. drew a line in the

sand; all who wanted to leave on one side and all who wanted to stay and

fight on the other. Noone chose to leave.

To be an elf or a stripper presents a moral dilemma to me. I realize

this may seem odd to some of you since I'm an attorney and the temptation to

retort that why would there ever be a problem with ethics for a lawyer since

lawyers don't have any ethics. Years ago, I represented a woman charged with

possession of cocaine and prostitution. In her pre-sentence report, the

probation officer mentioned that she had worked as a topless dancer. While

going over the report with her, she told me, " I may be a prostitute, but I'm

not a topless dancer. " Again, the image of drawing his line in the

sand on the moral landscape occurred to me. I found her statement odd. My

choice, if I had to make it, would be to be a topless dancer before I'd be a

prostitute. But I digress.

I've had a cold the last couple of days. Yesterday, one of my best

friends called to chat. She is also a person with dwarfism While under the

influence of Alka Seltzer Cold Plus Medicine and Sudafed, I posed the

question to her.

Her first reaction would be to choose to be an elf. I chose the

stripper, and not just for the point of argument. The idea of portraying an

elf is so repugnant to me, I elected being a stripper. She mentioned that

I'm not a female, and therefore would not understand the utter degradation of

being ogled in such a manner. I pointed out to her that I was a feminist and

understand; however, not being a woman I could never fully feel the impact.

I continued to argue my position. While in the midst of the discussion,

I stated, " so in one of these Danny Black notices, if it called for being an

elf or a stripper, you'd choose an elf? " She paused. She then mentioned

that I didn't say it was in one of those situations. She'd assumed it was to

be a stripper at a topless club or to perform as an elf at a frat party. She

then told me she would opt for suicide or a hot poker in the eye - two

options which also seemed appealing to me under the situation.

My point was that by portraying an elf, you are perpetuating the

stereotype of dwarfism that affects us in an extremely negative way. She

mentioned that the same could be said of a stripper. I agreed, but argued

that being a stripper doesn't go to our dwarfism. She countered that people

would be saying, " Look at the naked midget! " At which point I understood

that I didn't know the full impact of doing such an act as a female dwarf. I

had been focusing solely on the dwarfism element.

If any of you are offended by this post, I'll just point out to you that

I'm still under the influence of medication. That's my story and I'm

sticking to it.

Davey Lamb