Little big woman : revealing the female dwarf figure through the lens of feminist disability aesthetics

![CDATA[Dwarfism has been a source of fascination for centuries as evidenced by the depiction of this readily recognisable form in writings, paintings, sculptures and photographs throughout history. Despite consistent representation of this unique physical condition, the portrayal has been predominantly of the masculine form. The treatment of the female dwarf in the visual arts is a discourse initially of silence, then exclusion and perversion. I propose to address the silence and misrepresentation surrounding the female dwarf in the visual arts at the intersection of feminism and disability aesthetics (Garland-Thomson, 2014; Siebers, 2013), through the methodology of hermeneutic phenomenology in portraiture, employing in this discussion, the media of photography and 3D print, rendering images of the female dwarf form that captures and communicates both the complexity of the physical condition and challenges the marginalised social status through the use of the ‘oppositional gaze’ which Cachia (2015) refers to as the traditionally marginalised and objectified subject returning the gaze of the hegemonic viewer and thus reclaiming agency. The representations to be examined are images of the author of this work – I am a woman with achondroplasia dwarfism; and as a female, and artist, a psychologist, and the mother of a daughter with achondroplasia dwarfism I am acutely aware of the power of images to communicate, silence, empower, and change and as such, it is an aim of this work to challenge the predominant stereotype of the female dwarf and extend the current understanding of the disability aesthetic.]]