ABSTRACT
Building on the previous chapter, this chapter examines how midgetism is used in professional wrestling. This chapter refers to midget entertainers who partake in wrestling as ‘midget wrestlers’, not because many refer to themselves as such, but because their performance is saturated in midgetism. The chapter focuses both on the ‘sport’ of midget wrestling and how midget wrestlers are used as comic fodder in professional wrestling. This chapter explores some of the audience responses to demonstrate how midget wrestling encourages problematic attitudes. Whilst midget wrestling has been met with protests, I show how average-sized promoters defend the performance, which they frame as a non-normative positivism for their own financial gain under the guise of disability equality. The chapter argues for a more ethical representation of dwarfism within wrestling, where any signs of midgetism are removed.
