EXCLUSIVE: Benidorm tourism operators have a history of hiring performers with dwarfism to entertain stag dos and birthday parties and, despite criticism, claim they are doing a good thing by providing employment opportunities
Benidorm has long been known as a place that plays by its own rules, but the threat of crossing the line never seems to be far away.
A tour operator in the Spanish party town feels he is doing a good thing by hiring performers with dwarfism to handcuff themselves in fancy dress to people on stag and hen dos, much to the outrage of commentators.
Frank the Stag Man, owner of JUST FK IT, JUST FK IT PARTIES and infamous boozer Miller’s Bar, says he helps give people a good wage for easy work, and slammed naysayers who think the work is ‘demeaning’.
Most of his workers are British men, and are paid to handcuff themselves to stags or people whose birthday it is for around an hour.
He said: “The idea is… You’ve got [an entertainer with dwarfism], he’ll be handcuffed to the stag, but the real [important] part of it is that handcuffing.
“The stags hanging out the front of the bar and the [performer] with a costume on [comes over and] ‘clack’ handcuffs straight on him and it’s more that shock factor of like ‘what the f***’ that they’re paying for. After that it’s a bit boring because it’s just going around with a [performer] handcuffed to you, how exciting can that be?”
Frank claimed that the business was good for all involved, claiming the performers took home the majority of the money involved although admitted he did take ‘a booking fee and all that’.
He explained: “The [performers] do really well with it because it’s a big booking, it’s expensive. It’s usually about 200EUR for an hour and the [performers] usually win most of that, we usually get a booking fee and all that, but the [entertainers] do really well and make a lot of money and it kind of works.”
Frank then, says he’s doing a good thing by giving the performers the opportunity to earn well. He explained: “I know in the past there were people who were saying… it’s demeaning but my opinion was, if you have a [person living with restricted growth]… there’s certain things they can’t do in the same way that [other people] couldn’t do the job they do.
“Who is who, to decide who should be able to do what they wanna do to make a living? You’ve got mascots in football games in costumes and all that, what’s the difference? It’s fancy dress, you’ve got people going out dressed as minions, they’re not demeaning themselves.
“[Entertainers] should be able to do what they want without people judging them for how they make money.”
“I’m all for people doing well,” he added. “I swear to god I LOVE people doing well.”
However, not everyone sees the matter the same way. Dr Erin Pritchard, Senior Lecturer in Disability Studies at Liverpool Hope University, said: “There is nothing positive about this, except for the company’s profit line.”
She claimed that the business was unlikely to be doing it for the right reasons.
“Let’s be honest the event company is not doing this as a way to provide people with dwarfism work,” she said. “They are doing it to profit from using dwarfism as a figure of entertainment. This is not different from the freak show.”
She pointed to the profit made by such entertainment services, noting: “They aren’t doing this without making money from it. If they are that concerned about employment for disabled people, why not hire out wheelchair users or people? Would that be tolerated? Maybe the tour operator should try it?
“Most people with dwarfism work in everyday occupations, it is a minority that do this. It is insulting to claim that it provides us with work, when in actual fact it makes us look incapable of anything else hampering our employment opportunities.”
She said she was fearful too about the safety of the performers.
“There was a dwarf in Australia who did this kind of thing and was set fire to by those who had hired him out,” she said. “Would the tour operator be willing to compensate their commodity – that is basically what they are – if this happened to them?
“What if the stag, who is much bigger than the person with dwarfism and more than likely inebriated, decides to do something silly? Let’s say they are handcuffed to the dwarf and they want to jump in a river or the sea? That puts the dwarf in danger.”
She added: “The problem is it doesn’t just impact the dwarf who has chosen to make a fool of themselves, it impacts every other person with dwarfism, who is stared at, mocked, photographed and called names as a result of a minority pushing the outdated narrative that we are just figures of entertainment that are permissible to treat in a derogatory way.
“My research found that most people with dwarfism have experienced abuse which is influenced by media representations of dwarfism. Many people with dwarfism are afraid to leave their homes due to constant abuse.
“It is not just about money, but the ethical implications. I can’t believe that in the 21st century, we are still having to educate people that disabled people are not here for other people’s entertainment.”
During his chat with the Star, Frank had explained that the popularity of booking performers living with dwarfism is in decline, perhaps marking the beginning of the end for Benidorm’s involvement in the practice.
It’s news that will no doubt bring joy to campaigners, perhaps finally a sign that society has clicked into gear with Dr Pritchard’s comments.
But, if the work with Frank dries up, will the performers be able to find similar jobs in Benidorm? “Probably not,” he said.