Dwarf tossing in legislation?

[My Higher Self]

Tossed? Well, yes, it's actually done around the world, often in bars. Men compete to see who can throw dwarves the farthest.



The whole thing repulses me, and maybe you, too. But do we get to decide for Flood?

He said he can make money being tossed. He's already a showman in Tampa, Fla., earning cash doing other seedy things like working as a referee in a strip bar, as women pretend to wrestle.

And he's a regular on a radio show that is fighting a Florida law banning dwarf-tossing.

Little People of America

Several years ago, Robert and Angela Van Ettan, members of a group called Little People of America, convinced Florida's legislators that dwarf-tossing should be illegal. The vote wasn't close. Dwarf-tossing is not a sport, they argued, and the dwarf is objectified."

"Think of football," said Angela Van Ettan. "The dwarf actually is the ball. He's the object of the competitions … Being objectified is dehumanized." And, they argued, it's dangerous.

"You're dealing with individuals who are tanked up on some alcohol," said Robert, "and when you're in this kind of activity you have a higher risk of paralysis or possibly even death."

But, asks Flood, why do the Little People of America and the politicians get to decide for him? Don't we own our own bodies? Don't adults have the right to use their bodies as we see fit?

"I'm a grown man. I'm 37 years old, I could protect myself," he said. "I don't need them to tell me what I should and shouldn't be able to do."

Making Money With Your Body

Flood just wants to use his body to make money. "I'm capitalizing on what I have. If I was 7 feet tall, I'd get paid to put a basketball through a hoop. I'm not 7 feet tall. I'm 3-feet-2 and a dwarf, so I'm capitalizing on getting tossed."

Lots of people make money with their bodies: Boxers, football players, fashion models. Plenty of actresses have enhanced their careers by having their breasts enlarged, and other surgeries. Is that less risky than being tossed?

"That is a little different," said Angela Van Ettan. She said dwarf-tossing could put all dwarves at risk.

Little people will be grabbed out of bars and thrown around? I asked.

"That has happened," said Angela. "But primarily, probably, it's more a threat and a fear which impacts on the way people live … it is the discrimination that results."

This fear justifies a ban? Why should the Little People of America decide for all dwarves? If activists get to decide for everyone, then the busybodies, in the name of perfect safety, will eventually take all our freedom. Give me a break!

Okay....do you think that the law should have passed or do you think that dwarves who want to be tossed could, and should be allowed to?

 

[ThePhoenix]

Okay....do you think that the law should have passed or do you think that dwarves who want to be tossed could, and should be allowed to?

Law should not be passed.

 

[ZiSunka]

Human beings are not toys. If the law has to be passed to protect people from their own stupidity, then so be it.

 

[ThePhoenix]

Human beings are not toys. If the law has to be passed to protect people from their own stupidity, then so be it.

Lets call christian youth groups stupid, and protect people from their own stupidity. That line of reasoning is a very sharp double edged sword.

 

[EvolvEarth]

We passed this law last year at my school for mock legislature.

 

[ZiSunka]

Lets call christian youth groups stupid, and protect people from their own stupidity. That line of reasoning is a very sharp double edged sword.

Wow! I never knew skull fractures resulted from going to Christian youth groups? When did you get your fracture and what were you doing at the time?

Yet dwarf tossing often results in fractures, strains, sprains, pulled muscles lost teeth and bruises. And that's just the people who are tossing the dwarfs. The dwarfs get hurt, too. So this law would be of the same ilk as those requiring the use of seatbelts and outlawing street fighting. When people get drunk in bars, the last thing they should be doing is tossing other human beings around like toys.

 

[ThePhoenix]

Wow! I never knew skull fractures resulted from going to Christian youth groups? When did you get your fracture and what were you doing at the time?

Yet dwarf tossing often results in fractures, strains, sprains, pulled muscles lost teeth and bruises. And that's just the people who are tossing the dwarfs. The dwarfs get hurt, too. So this law would be of the same ilk as those requiring the use of seatbelts and outlawing street fighting. When people get drunk in bars, the last thing they should be doing is tossing other human beings around like toys.

So cite safety concerns. If you can get it passed on safety concerns then I don't have much objection. Don't cite protecting people from their own stupidity though.

Street Fighting is outlawed because it is two people assulting eachother. That's illegal.

 

[My Higher Self]

Yet dwarf tossing often results in fractures, strains, sprains, pulled muscles lost teeth and bruises.

So does football, baseball, soccer, basketball, hockey, golf, softball, kickball, volleyball, lacrosse, paintball, snow skiing, water skiing, rock climbing, wakeboarding, skating, inlining,running, motorcross, NASCAR (death even), drag racing and on and on and on....yet these are all perfectly legal.

 

[SqueezetheShaman]

So does football, baseball, soccer, basketball, hockey, golf, softball, kickball, volleyball, lacrosse, paintball, snow skiing, water skiing, rock climbing, wakeboarding, skating, inlining,running, motorcross, NASCAR (death even), drag racing and on and on and on....yet these are all perfectly legal.

Yes, but those aren't distasteful. To many people in this country want to legislate what they dislike. it is quite annoying.

 

[Lotar]

I think it's horrible how it is perfectly okay to mock, and make jokes conserning little people, yet we are so pc on everything else.
I can understand why they would want to outlaw this, but I don't think it is something that should be made law.

 

[My Higher Self]

I too can understand why they would want to, but the fact remains that it is only the opinion of some. The dwarf being tossed apparently holds no qualms with it, and other dwarfs, who aren't being tossed are trying to make it so that he can't perform his job and earn income in his chosen form.

 

[MichaelFJF]

Who gets to decide what is and what isn't "distasteful"? It ranks right up there with mud wrestling - it may not be the classiest thing on earth, but a law? Naahh - not necessary. M

 

[ZiSunka]

So cite safety concerns. If you can get it passed on safety concerns then I don't have much objection. Don't cite protecting people from their own stupidity though.

Street Fighting is outlawed because it is two people assulting eachother. That's illegal.

Dwarf tossing is one person assaulting another, smaller person. What's the difference?

 

[ZiSunka]

I too can understand why they would want to, but the fact remains that it is only the opinion of some. The dwarf being tossed apparently holds no qualms with it, and other dwarfs, who aren't being tossed are trying to make it so that he can't perform his job and earn income in his chosen form.

People will do anything for money. Hookers are happy only in the movies, the rest do it for the money, even though they find it debasing and degrading. Likewise, dwarf-tossing pays a small person to be disrespected and injured for money. What country in its right mind would allow that to happen? The dwarfs don't walk up to people and beg to be thrown around, bars pay them to show up and allow drunks to throw them around, sometimes into tables or other patrons, sometimes on target. As a people, we have to agree that injuring people for money is wrong, even if the intent is to amuse yourself like they are toys, and not to hurt them. The fact that people are being used as toys and are being injured in the process should horrify all of us.

 

[ZiSunka]

I too can understand why they would want to, but the fact remains that it is only the opinion of some. The dwarf being tossed apparently holds no qualms with it, and other dwarfs, who aren't being tossed are trying to make it so that he can't perform his job and earn income in his chosen form.

In mud wrestling, the people aren't being used as baseballs like they are in dwarf-tossing. The mud wrestlers aren't being seen as sub-human things to be bodily handled by drunks, as in dwarf-tossing. Although mud wrestling is about sex and not sport, its effects are not to demean the humanity of the wrestlers, as in dwarf-tossing.

 

[MichaelFJF]

The dwarfs don't walk up to people and beg to be thrown around, bars pay them to show up and allow drunks to throw them around,

No, they show up to the bar on "tossing" night and let the owner know they're there and ready to go. Sheeesh.

The mud wrestlers aren't being seen as sub-human things to be bodily handled by drunks

LOL - Oh puleeez. M

 

[Nathan Poe]

Okay....do you think that the law should have passed or do you think that dwarves who want to be tossed could, and should be allowed to?

Well, it's not like guys are grabbing dwarves off the street and flinging them into walls.

Trying to outlaw stupidity is a hopeless cause. Bungee jumping, Body surfing, alligator wrestling, and mosh pits are all idiotic but legal.

Are dwarves entitled to any more protection from stupidity than the rest of us? Nope.

Are they unable to make decisions and need to be protected from the big, bad, tossers? Nope.

Has every other problem in society been solved so that we can turn our attention to this nonsense? Nope.

You want to make a living as a human projectile? Be my guest. Just remember to wear your helmet.

 

[Nathan Poe]

Dwarf tossing is one person assaulting another, smaller person. What's the difference?

Rugby is a mob of people trying to pummel whoever's got the ball into the ground. What's the difference?

 

[ZiSunka]

No, they show up to the bar on "tossing" night and let the owner know they're there and ready to go. Sheeesh.

For money. They are doing it for the money, not for fun. People with disabilities such as dwarfism don't always have a lot of job opportunities, ADA notwithstanding, and will sometimes resort to doing things they don't want to, so they can pay the bills.

My nephew is profoundly deaf. If there were "deaf tossing" nights at bars, would you support that? What about "blonde tossing" nights, or "flat-chested woman tossing nights" or "bald man tossing"? If the one being tossed allows it to happen, it should be okay, right? It's okay to abuse people physically and emotionally as long as they allow it to happen and are being paid, right?

 

[ZiSunka]

Rugby is a mob of people trying to pummel whoever's got the ball into the ground. What's the difference?

The point of rugby is not to demean the players. The point of dwarf tossing is to dehumanize them and use them as toys, and that is what makes it morally wrong. Using people as toys is wrong.