Men sexually harass Rachel Webster every day.
“I get it every single day and it ranges from, ‘hey baby, wanna come home with me’ to ‘I wonder what it would be like being with you. I’ve never been with a midget before,” Rachel Webster said, adding that the sexual comments are the points when she feels the lowest.
As a little person, the 28-year-old has had to endure a lot of ignorance and rude behavior from people her whole life.
“Dwarves are still the butt of jokes. It’s one of the last bastions of acceptable prejudice,” she said, quoting “Game of Thrones” actor Peter Dinklage.
Children gawking, parents laughing and strangers taking photos of her are a few examples that don’t begin to scratch the surface of what she’s been through.
But the catcalls top them all.
“It just makes you feel like a piece of meat,” she said. “It makes me feel like, so dehumanized, I guess.”
Humiliating interactions with parents and children are also a frequent.
“When an innocent child asks a question and the parent just hushes them and rushes off, what are they teaching them? Are they scolding them? Are the parents laughing? It’s infuriating to me,” Rachel Webster said. “Most of the time I try to reach out to educate with kindness.”
Other times, she calls them out with “it’s not polite to stare.”
“I think it’s so frustrating that we’re in this world, this country that’s so progressive but it’s astounding to me that society seems to be forever stuck in this realm and this regard,” she said.
This is why the American Sign Language interpreter partnered with good friend Stephanie Jarstad, a photographer living in Federal Way, to create a photo essay for Dwarfism Awareness Month in October.
Jarstad and Rachel Webster met at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Living in northeast Tacoma, Rachel Webster attended Fife High School while Jarstad went to Federal Way High School.
Jarstad describes Rachel Webster as loving, kind, social and seemingly secure with herself but she knows her friend has “a struggle that’s so real and apparent for so many.”
The photo essay consists of powerful quotes and experiences from Rachel Webster and her parents Chris and Nancy Webster, also little people.
“My family means more to me than anything else in my life,” Nancy Webster said. “When we are together, I feel completely content. My husband and I feel so blessed to have each other, a son, daughter-in-law and daughter. A special gift we were given is to have a child with dwarfism and one who is average size. They are blessings in our lives.”
In the photo essay, Nancy and Chris Webster are pictured in their custom kitchen and home – a more intimate setting, Jarstad said.
Nancy Webster said it’s been interesting to see how other cultures react to her family’s “unique situation” as they’ve traveled throughout their lives.
“Educating the world is important,” she said. “Knowledge is power.”
Having grown up in a small town in Canada to a farmer with four siblings, Nancy Webster now teaches special education at the Tacoma School District. Although she leads a happy life, she’s had challenges related to her short stature.
“Job discrimination, dating, walking long distances, stairs, shopping (finding shoes and clothes), health issues related to my dwarfism (it’s not just being short), being made fun of, bullying, acceptance in general,” Nancy Webster lists. “I think it’s important to mention that I also feel that life can be beautiful and it’s overcoming those challenges that mold us into who we eventually become.”
Jarstad’s photo essay showcases Rachel Webster in a crowd of people walking around Pike Place Market, her own neighborhood.
“We had a think-session of ‘when do you feel most vulnerable and noticed,’” Jarstad said. “We talked about standing in a crowd. She can’t walk anywhere without people pointing and saying something to their friends.”
Jarstad said the photo of her in a crowd was the highlight of the project.
The friends also worked together on a similar project five years ago when Jarstad was assigned an assignment from her college photography class. The assignment asked her to photograph a controversial issue. She chose accessibility.
For the assignment, one photo depicted Rachel Webster standing on a public bathroom toilet, unable to reach the women’s sanitary box.
Jarstad said her photography, specifically this photo essay, is a vehicle to promote awareness and acceptance.
“The main point is for society to just be a little kinder and I feel like education helps that,” she said, adding the work she does aligns with the Aristotle quote, “’Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your calling.’ Photography is my vehicle for change. It’s my mouthpiece. With a camera in hand, my goal is to leave my piece of this world a little better than I found it.”
Growing up with a brother who’s 6-feet tall, Rachel Webster wants the world to view little people and dwarfism like her brother does.
“His experience is unique, being in a family of little people,” she said. “If everyone looked in the mirror and accepted they were different, there would be no need for dwarfism awareness or talks on racism.”
Nancy Webster said her hopes for the future are summed up in a quote from her daughter: “I wait for the day when we can just pass each other on the street and it’s just understood that we are all a little bit different. The child doesn’t look at me like a monster, but instead smiles. I’m not immediately rejected on a date because of my size. The manager doesn’t blink an eye when he greets me for my interview. In a world, populated by diversity, we could all use a lot more understanding.”
Becoming aware
To view Jarstad’s photo essay for Dwarfism Awareness Month, visit www.stephaniejarstad.com/blog/2014/11/14/dwarfism-awareness-month.
Jarstad’s photos will also be on display at Northwest University, where she is working toward her masters in business administration degree.
A special reception to view the photos will be from 4-5:30 p.m. on Nov. 11 at the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Building (second floor, 6710 108th Ave. NE, Kirkland, at Northwest University). The Websters will speak and answer questions during the reception. The photos will be on display from Oct. 15 through December.
Rachel Webster is part of the local chapter of a national organization called Little People of America and encourages those with questions to visit their website, www.lpaonline.org.
The nonprofit, which works to provide support and education for dwarfism, offers these facts:
• There are more than 200 distinct forms of dwarfism and skeletal dysplasia.
• People with dwarfism are generally not taller than 4-feet, 10 inches at adult height. The typical height range is 2-feet, 8-inches to 4-feet, 5-inches.
• Eighty percent of people with dwarfism have average-height parents and siblings.
• There are an estimated 30,000 people in the United States and 651,000 internationally with a type of dwarfism.
• Little People of America has 6,500 members across the United States and includes 70 chapters active in all 50 states.
• Little People of America hosts an annual national conference each July which draws more than 2,500 attendees for a week of activities, including educational and medical workshops, sports, and social networking and events.
• In July 2009 the word “midget” was declared inappropriate and offensive. Preferable terms are: average-height, having dwarfism, short stature, little person, lp, and the medical terminology use of dwarf. A person’s name is always the most preferred.
• Little People of America has registered a complaint with the FCC over the use of the “m” word. Our goal is to raise awareness around the offensive impact of the word in order to eliminate use of it in media, popular culture and in everyday language.
• Little People of America has 6,500 members across the United States and includes 70 chapters active in all 50 states.
• Skeletal dysplasias affect bone growth, but generally do not affect cognitive abilities.
• Little People of America hosts an annual national conference each July which draws more than 2,500 attendees for a week of activities, including educational and medical workshops, sports, and social networking and events.
