Only days ago, Greene King had announced that The Midget in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, would be rebranded after a lecturer with dwarfism deemed the name offensive.
Now a petition favouring the original name has received more than twice as many signatures as the original one calling for a change.
The pub, which opened in 1974, was named after the MG Midget car that was once manufactured in the market town.
It’s ‘disablist hate speech’
Earlier this year, Dr Erin Pritchard, a senior lecturer in disability studies at Liverpool Hope University, started a petition demanding the pub be renamed as because she claimed the term midget is “disablist hate speech”.She said: “I have dwarfism and like the majority of people with dwarfism find the word offensive.
Possibly you do find the word offensive. Maybe others with dwarfism also do so. But neither of those make it either disablist or hate speech.
And here’s the thing about being an adult in a free and liberal society. All sorts of people will do all sorts of things you find offensive. We all find large portions of what other people do offensive. But putting up with them is the very marker of living in a free and liberal society.
Something that has to be definded by telling the illiberal to bugger off.
How’s her petition against midget gems going?
By the end of their production runs the MG Midget and Triumph Spitfire were badge engineered versions of the same car.
Maybe the pub should just be renamed the Spridget?
More seriously – the English language has many words, and many of them have multiple meanings. This is one of them.
I guess she couldn’t just be the bigger person about it all?
Next she’ll be complaining about Midget Submarines, although they were manned by full sized sailors.
Why do businesses do this, rather than recognising it’s some left-wing offendotron? Offend some people. Lots of people who would never go in a Wetherspoons are pissed off with Tim Martin for being pro-Brexit.
I once spent a summer with a touring circus, billed as the world’s tallest midget.
I was good friends with another attraction, the world’s smallest giant.
@Battery Chicken
Titfire has a better ring to it, albeit being slightly less relevant to dwaffs.
DocBud
“Vertically Challenged Gems” if you don’t mind.
a senior lecturer in disability studies at Liverpool Hope University
That’s not a real job. Her concerns aren’t real concerns.
Of course this is all too little (boom tish) too late as Greene King has already grovelled and given in, like the worthless corporate ballbags they are.
@BatteryChicken – Wasn’t it the Austin Healey Sprite (not the Triumph Spitfire)?
How’s her petition against midget gems going?
Maynards changed the name of their midget gems to mini gems last year.
Shockingly, she has a Snow White complexion.
@O t s Coast: quite right – the ‘Spridget’.
At some point no doubt it will be discovered that my MGA denotes some esoteric sexual orientation with its own flag and everything.
I’m sorry that she drew the short straw but couldn’t she use the bar at the Grande which will make her feel ever so much better after14 large Scotches?
Dr Erin Pritchard, a senior lecturer in disability studies at Liverpool Hope University
That tells you absolutely everything you need to know, about both parties.
I have dwarfism
Nah, lady! You’re just a shortarse
By the end of their production runs the MG Midget and Triumph Spitfire were badge engineered versions of the same car.
Utterly different cars. Midget was the A series engine. Essentially, the engine in a Mini., derived from the Morris Minor. Live rear axle. Monocoque shell, Spitfire/GT6 had Triumph designed engines derived from the Standard. Independent suspension rear end with half shafts. Body on a separate chassis. The only thing in common between the two cars was SU carburettors & a tendency for the softops to leak..
As OtSC says, the “Spridget” nickname was derived from the combination of MG Midget & Austin Healy Sprite with the Midget being based on the Mk1 Sprite.
I was just a kid at the time and am happy to be corrected by others on here clearly more knowledgeable than me.
If Greene King had painted pub signs instead of corporate branding the woman would look like an even greater idiot.
Knowledge based on having owned every single variation of the Spitfire*/ GT6 Herald/Vitesse range bar the Amphicar. But we used to build & race Midgets in the modified sports category.
*Including a 2.5 litre with triple twin chokes. Once timed at 167mph.
Is she really so ignorant that she can’t distinguish a midget from a dwarf?
She’s obviously not an afficionada of the competitive dwarf hurling circuit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfhI0bjddK0
Incidentally, there’s no connection between the words midget & dwarf.
Midget comes from the word midge. English for mosquito & thus something small. No doubt related to other words commencing mi, indicating small. So derived from Latin.
Dwarf is Germanic & is a species of fairy.
So the two words are going in different directions linguistically. One is a word for small being applied to people of small stature. The other is a word for people of small stature being applied to other things. So if she wanted to change plant catalogues from offering dwarf conifers she might have a point.
@ Battery Chicken
The picture in the article where I came across this story was indeed of a pub sign with a picture of an MG Midget, full face. This is in Abingdon, home of the MG marque and a long way from diminutive grievance mongers in Liverpool.
Incidentally, there’s no connection between the words midget & dwarf.
Midget comes from the word midge. English for mosquito & thus something small. No doubt related to other words commencing mi, indicating small. So derived from Latin.
Dwarf is Germanic & is a species of fairy.
That reminds me ….
Earlier this year when we were touring Scotland we were looking at reviews for an off grid overnight stay. It took a couple of seconds to work out. It went something like:
“Lovely site but the dwarfs are really irritating”.
I can’t remember the nationality but we assumed they selected the wrong choice when they looked up “midge”.
Dwarf v Midget; one thing I have noticed living in East Asia is the number of very small adults, particularly women*. They are definitely not dwarfs because they do not have the dwarfish anatomical characteristics and are, as they say, small but perfectly formed.
* short enough to give a standing BJ without bending her knees.
Isn’t Liverpool a Long way from Abingdon?
The always excellent Marius nails it – her job should not exist, and all courses in this field should be closed forthwith and the money refunded to the taxpayer, arguably with loss of pension rights as well.
Midget Gems still exist in their original Lions branding, Maynard version are an abomination
I had a black midget once.
Went like a rocket and would out accelerate anyone, for about 10 yards. 1500cc twin su carburettor. Great fun.
Some other guy.
Completely misconstrued your first sentence, corrected only at the end of your second.
Midget was one of many nicknames I acquired during my teens & early 20’s. Should I now pursue a claim for “Compensayshun”??
bloke in spain said:
“… owned every single variation of the Spitfire*/ GT6 Herald/Vitesse range bar the Amphicar.
*Including a 2.5 litre with triple twin chokes. Once timed at 167mph.”
I had one that had been fitted with the Triumph 2.5 litre fuel injected engine. That was fun. Don’t know how fast it went, because the speedo only went up to 150. Good acceleration, and superb cornering. Would get through 2 or 3 rear diffs a year, and rear tyres pretty much monthly, but worth it.
I’d rename the pub
The spastic grifting 30cm legged senior lecturer in Disability Studies at Liverpool Hope technical college who leaves a snail trail.