Stop the Panto Stereotyping

5th December 2022

A new poster urging pantomime producers to give better representations of people who stammer.

As the festive season approaches, many of us will be enjoying that good old Christmas tradition of a visit to the pantomime. Oh yes we will! (sorry). 

However, here at STAMMA we were made aware of a new production of The Wizard of Oz that depicts the cowardly lion as having a stammer, which is miraculously cured once he's granted the gift of courage from the Wizard.

This damaging depiction of stammering in the arts was exactly the kind of thing our recent campaign 'No Diversity Without Disfluency' put in the spotlight, and we urged film, TV and theatre producers to do better.

• Buy our Christmas cards and help support people who stammer

Share our poster

In light of this, we've put together a poster to raise awareness with pantomime producers and show them how representation of people who stammer could be improved (see below).

If you go to the panto this Christmas period and see a negative portrayal of stammering, help us to make a difference. You can download the poster below and send it to the producers, or email us at editor@stamma.org and we'll send it.