Woman Touring A Baby Shower Location Says She Could Barely 'Keep A Straight Face' When She Saw 'What' Her Tour Guide Was
She needs to educate herself.
TikTok A woman on TikTok was rightfully catching a lot of flak after posting an offensive video she made after receiving a tour of a potential baby shower location she was considering.
As a result of all the heat, she decided to take down the video. However, other people decided that they wouldn’t let her get away with what she did and decided to repost it on their own accounts.
One woman reposted the video and received over 640,000 views in just a few days, explaining that she would take it down once the original video’s poster apologized.
She said in the video that she couldn’t ‘keep a straight face’ when given a tour by little people.
She starts off her video on a great note by saying “so yeah I’m going to try to be politically correct but um, this probably ain’t going to happen.”
“So we got to look at the one winery for the shower. Pretty place and I go inside and ask for the woman I’m supposed to be speaking with. She walked around the counter. I didn’t see her behind the counter.”
The entire time, this woman is making an indiscernible facial expression that one could interpret as an expression of disgust. She continues her story, making her case worse as she continues to speak offensively and disrespectfully.
“Little person, dwarf, midget, I don’t know what the right term is anymore,” she says exasperatedly as if it were the hardest thing in the world for her to have respect for another human being. “But, that was what was going to show me around the winery.”
“Everyone should be really really proud of me that I didn’t laugh.”
According to Little People of America (LPA), the term “midget” is a derogatory slur, and the correct terms to use are “dwarfs, little people, people of short stature or having dwarfism, or simply, and most preferably, by their given name.”
They want to be seen and treated as people, first and foremost, and this woman referring to the little person as a “what” instead of a “who,” makes it even worse. It shows a clear disregard for the woman who is giving her the tour.
She once again uses the ‘m’ word to refer to the women helping her out.
“She goes ‘oh let me get my partner that helps with the banquets.’ Okay, awesome,” she continues the story. “She comes out, she was like 4’5’’. Like, came up to my shoulder and I’m short.”
“I got shown around a winery by midgets and was expected to keep a straight face. No, I can’t do the shower there, just no.”
Not only did she say it once before, but she had literally used the correct terms previously in the video and decided against sticking to them, knowingly using a term that is widely seen as offensive.
According to the LPA, “When we surveyed our community about the usage and overall impact of the word ‘midget,’ over 90% of our members surveyed stated that the word should never be used in reference to a person with dwarfism.”
The ‘m’ word has been largely phased out around the world as we have progressed as a society toward the goal of treating everyone equally. It’s hard to believe that many people haven’t learned that at some point from the internet or the people around them.
However, it’s worth noting that the ignorant should be treated with a little more compassion, and instead of attacking them for not knowing, should be taught that there is actually a correct term to use and why the other word is offensive.
Instead of showing her capacity to learn, the woman doubled down on her use of the word.
The woman who had originally posted the winery video had posted another video — this time, “apologizing” for how the other video came off.
Except, this wasn’t an apology as much as it was a doubling down.
“It has come to my attention that people have taken my comments the wrong way and for that I do apologize.”
It’s like one of those apologies where the person is sorry you got hurt, but not actually sorry for causing the hurt, and she explains as much as she continues on.
She says “everyone who knows me personally knows that dark and sarcastic is me, it’s not hurtful or mean-spirited.”
“Hell, I poke more fun at myself than I do anyone else.”
Of course, making jokes at your own expense, while not always healthy, is generally okay because you’re not hurting anyone else. Making jokes at other people’s expense or refusing to recognize that some terms may just be historically offensive and should be eradicated makes you willfully ignorant.
When people, especially vulnerable groups, try to explain to you why the words you are using hurt, it’s smart to listen to them and respect those wishes. It’s okay to apologize for not knowing and not understanding, but it becomes a problem when you disregard those wishes entirely.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.