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Post by HeightismAOS on Oct 19, 2019 20:38:04 GMT
WWE ran a storyline where a short dude named Chad Gable ( a 5'8 Olympic wrestler) kept getting derided about his height. Not just by the villainous characters, but the good guys, commentators, interviewers, and even the WWE social media accounts were in on it.
Yesterday, his name was officially changed to "Shorty G". The explanation is that it's meant to signify him "embracing his height." We've all heard this one before. "Make fun of yourself, or else you're insecure, have a complex, you don't accept who you are, etc. etc." What's funny is, WWE did a storyline last year where a 270 lb woman was being bodyshamed, yet they never renamed her "Fatty" or anything like that in order to prove how proud she is. I wonder why...
Anyway, the only good news here is that I've seen some people think this gimmick is stupid and outright bullying:
All the short jesters out there won't be happy too about that, when even people who aren't short think this is demeaning.
Personally, I think the fact that WWE has reduced a 5'8 Olympian to having a name like a soundcloud rapper does not bode well. Imagine if you were an actual super short male, without a ripped physique and an amateur wrestling background. If Gable is Shorty G, what are you? More importantly, if you don't call yourself Shorty, then you'll be labeled as the root of the issue. You're just no fun. Again though, I don't see many of these same people daring to pressure a woman into calling herself fat. To me, this whole shtick is not commendable, but rather another push into making a short person's identity revolve around their height. If you don't play along then shame on you.
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Post by Heightism Report on Oct 19, 2019 21:05:29 GMT
So, let me get this right. They take an Olympic wrestler, gloss-over the fact that he was an Olympian as a storyline, and instead, heroes, villains, commentators, and everyone else involved decides to unify on degrading him for his height, and now, the storyline they're running with is that short men need to embrace their height. They spend all of that time making insults and snide remarks that indicate short men have nothing to be proud about in life all because they're short, and now, they're trying to signify that short men need to learn to be proud of their height. To them, it's up to short men to feel proud of their height, even though this ilk believes short men have no reason to have any pride whatsoever. This is just more of the hypocritical foolishness short men are supposed to endure. Short men are just supposed to let people, society in general, institutions, and in this case, mega-billion dollar entertainment entities contradict themselves from one moment to the next, and use us as target practice no matter which angle of approach they're using. The implication of this storyline is of course the belief that short men live sad, unfulfilling lives, and sit around sulking all day without doing anything productive in society, thus, their sick-and-twisted idea of social justice is that it is ok to degrade short men in the way that they have done to this former Olympian because short men deserve it. You don't get to all-out demoralize a group of people and then throw them some scraps with a cheesy after-school special moral about "being proud of who you are."
Just like you said, now, all we have to do is kick back and wait for all of the Garminsmithing to begin. Changing his name to Shorty G gives them a portal into making his height even more of a punchline now. It's the same old story again-and-again.
Edited to Add:
Let's also point-out how hard WWE hypes their "Be A Star" anti-bullying campaign, yet, they have reduced a former Olympian to a prop to be used for schoolyard insults, while everyone who gets anywhere near the spotlight in the WWE just laughs uncontrollably at the tired short jokes everyone recites on an endless loop. Let's also remember that kids are a substantial percentage of WWE's viewership, so what message do you think kids are receiving from a promotion that is anti-bullying, yet, encourages all-out bullying of short men? The tall kids absolutely love having their first taste of superiority, while the short kids are getting a crash course in the lifetime of ridicule, hatred, smugness, and flippant distaste that they are going to be greeted with.
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Post by HeightismAOS on Oct 20, 2019 13:21:00 GMT
Nailed it. When WWE ran the fat shaming story, the message is that there's a problem with how we view women's weight, and the responsibility to change one's mentality is on us. Don't be a bully, be a star! When WWE does a short guy gimmick, the lesson they leave you with is that it's up to the short guy to change his mindset regarding height prejudice. A peculiar difference, and one that's often found outside of WWE as well.
I've already appalled many people by simply asking how they would feel if WWE did a similar name change, but with a female wrestler and her weight. I received the usual double think about eating disorders and such. Basically, the mental health of the obese matters, but not the short. The twofold suicide rate of short males be damned. It was also often short people talking like this. "I'm much shorter than Gable, and I think talking about a person's weight is much worse!" They're so desperate to be praised for not rocking the boat, that they're letting these double standards persist.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2019 6:12:36 GMT
Wow, this is disenchanting. They make it sound like he didn't even have a say in the name "Shorty G", but of course he knows how not self-deprecating will go so I can understand why he would be a garmin. This is just more subliminal and overt programming for fans of all ages that short men are supposed to be the class clowns of the world, and you should bow down to your tall overlords. On the other hand, the amount of outrage on twitter is a really good sign people must have at least somewhat of a clue about the short double standard if they can see how this is bullying.
I also could not agree with "I think the fact that WWE has reduced a 5'8 Olympian to having a name like a soundcloud rapper does not bode wel. Imagine if you were an actual super short male, without a ripped physique and an amateur wrestling background. If Gable is Shorty G, what are you?" more. Since a lot of grown men watching WWE are much shorter than 5'8", not ripped, and clearly not olympians, they're taking in a really horrible message from this campaign that t signifies that they are worthless to society and will be policed into laughing at themselves to a much higher degree than an average heighted WWE star who was reduced to "Shorty G". Like I said though, the downpour of support on twitter could not be more positive, and these people had no obligation to speak out against this, so it alludes to awareness of heightism at some level.
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Post by HeightismAOS on Oct 22, 2019 18:11:26 GMT
Wow, this is disenchanting. They make it sound like he didn't even have a say in the name "Shorty G", but of course he knows how not self-deprecating will go so I can understand why he would be a garmin. Shorty G be like:
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Post by Heightism Report on Oct 22, 2019 20:45:04 GMT
the downpour of support on twitter could not be more positive, and these people had no obligation to speak out against this, so it alludes to awareness of heightism at some level. Don't get me wrong, the support is a good thing for sure, but let's remember that these people are mostly fans of "Shorty G," and they're protecting him more so than they are short men as a whole. Kevin Hart was hailed as the savior of all short men because he's rich and famous, but if you'll notice, heightism hasn't gotten any less severe all throughout Hart's fame, which doesn't surprise any of us here because Hart is as Garmin as can be, but regardless, his fortune, fame, and support have done nothing to diminish heightism. Jose Altuve continues to be one of the greatest players in baseball, yet, heightism hasn't improved since he has been in the limelight. In this WWE instance, at a bare minimum, like you said, at-least people are speaking-out against this wrestler being height-shamed, so that's a very good thing, but it's too bad that their support for short men ends with a 5'8 wrestler and doesn't extend to everyday short men who are much shorter. On the rare occasion when people support short men in circumstances like this, their support is extremely limited in that it only extends to that specific situation. We'll certainly take any support we can get though, and if it ever becomes commonplace to defend short celebrities against height-shaming, we might be able to make some progress. This is a good first step, but this momentum needs to be immediately intensified or this circumstance will just disappear, the support will go dormant, and business as usual will return.
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Post by HeightismAOS on Oct 22, 2019 21:17:09 GMT
the downpour of support on twitter could not be more positive, and these people had no obligation to speak out against this, so it alludes to awareness of heightism at some level. Don't get me wrong, the support is a good thing for sure, but let's remember that these people are mostly fans of "Shorty G," and they're protecting him more so than they are short men as a whole. Kevin Hart was hailed as the savior of all short men because he's rich and famous, but if you'll notice, heightism hasn't gotten any less severe all throughout Hart's fame, which doesn't surprise any of us here because Hart is as Garmin as can be, but regardless, his fortune, fame, and support have done nothing to diminish heightism. Jose Altuve continues to be one of the greatest players in baseball, yet, heightism hasn't improved since he has been in the limelight. In this WWE instance, at a bare minimum, like you said, at-least people are speaking-out against this wrestler being height-shamed, so that's a very good thing, but it's too bad that their support for short men ends with a 5'8 wrestler and doesn't extend to everyday short men who are much shorter. On the rare occasion when people support short men in circumstances like this, their support is extremely limited in that it only extends to that specific situation. We'll certainly take any support we can get though, and if it ever becomes commonplace to defend short celebrities against height-shaming, we might be able to make some progress. This is a good first step, but this momentum needs to be immediately intensified or this circumstance will just disappear, the support will go dormant, and business as usual will return. Yeah, unfortunately I've seen many responses like "why are they doing this to him, 5'8 isn't even that short." Basically saying this would be less lame if he was shorter. Like you said though, better than nothing at this point.
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Post by Heightism Report on Oct 24, 2019 3:53:13 GMT
Don't get me wrong, the support is a good thing for sure, but let's remember that these people are mostly fans of "Shorty G," and they're protecting him more so than they are short men as a whole. Kevin Hart was hailed as the savior of all short men because he's rich and famous, but if you'll notice, heightism hasn't gotten any less severe all throughout Hart's fame, which doesn't surprise any of us here because Hart is as Garmin as can be, but regardless, his fortune, fame, and support have done nothing to diminish heightism. Jose Altuve continues to be one of the greatest players in baseball, yet, heightism hasn't improved since he has been in the limelight. In this WWE instance, at a bare minimum, like you said, at-least people are speaking-out against this wrestler being height-shamed, so that's a very good thing, but it's too bad that their support for short men ends with a 5'8 wrestler and doesn't extend to everyday short men who are much shorter. On the rare occasion when people support short men in circumstances like this, their support is extremely limited in that it only extends to that specific situation. We'll certainly take any support we can get though, and if it ever becomes commonplace to defend short celebrities against height-shaming, we might be able to make some progress. This is a good first step, but this momentum needs to be immediately intensified or this circumstance will just disappear, the support will go dormant, and business as usual will return. Yeah, unfortunately I've seen many responses like "why are they doing this to him, 5'8 isn't even that short." Basically saying this would be less lame if he was shorter. Like you said though, better than nothing at this point. You're exactly right in pointing-out the "5'8 isn't even that short" stipulation many are using to defend him. If they cared about heightism, they'd say something like "Wow, if a 5'8 guy is getting that much heat, imagine how bad this is for guys who are even shorter." None of the comments indicate any concern about short men as a group; They merely are presented in defense of the 5'8 guy in question. For these reasons, it's evident that the support starts and ends with Shorty G, while other short men who are wrestling fans are not granted consideration, nor, is anyone concerned that kids will mimic the short-bashing they see, nor, is anyone concerned that short boys will absorb and internalize the heightism that they see applauded in the WWE. There are people who are calling this out in the sense of generalized bullying, but none of them are articulating a desire to give short men consideration in society. When they paint all bullying with the same brush, they don't have to accept the fact that short men are granted a whipping boy status that remains unaddressed wholesale, and the other thing they accomplish by rubber-stamping all bullying as the same is they don't have to throw any heat toward tall men or women, who are either the beneficiaries and/or the main perpetrators when it comes to heightism against short men. Anytime you want to deny some consideration to a group, you just boil all of the nuance out of their situation so that you can lump them in with other issues, which serves to only give them half-assed "addressed by association" justice in society.
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Post by HeightismAOS on Oct 24, 2019 18:27:58 GMT
I'm guessing the average male fan is mad that he's one heavy squat day away from being a walking punchline. After all, the average western male is about 5'9 or 5'10, so he's literally a couple inches away from being "Shorty" himself. I'm guessing many of the female fans are also dating a guy is this height range, and thus they don't enjoy their partner being made out to be low status. If this storyline was about some 5'1 outlier or something then the backlash would be virtually nonexistent.
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Post by Heightism Report on Oct 24, 2019 19:55:24 GMT
I'm guessing the average male fan is mad that he's one heavy squat day away from being a walking punchline. After all, the average western male is about 5'9 or 5'10, so he's literally a couple inches away from being "Shorty" himself. I'm guessing many of the female fans are also dating a guy is this height range, and thus they don't enjoy their partner being made out to be low status. If this storyline was about some 5'1 outlier or something then the backlash would be virtually nonexistent. Wow! Those are really outstanding points, thus, a lot of the backlash is just self-preservation. This whole "He's not even that short" thing is just a way to send the hatred on down the line to the objectively short guys who they see as "deserving" of this level of condescension and mockery.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2019 20:07:21 GMT
I would also add that since most men are only 1-2 inches away from “ShortyG as Haos said, they feel personally targeted “if he’s short then I must be too” I.e 5’9-10 men don’t “want to be lumped with short men” as you said in another post. They want to make sure they verbalize they’re nowhere near short by implying if a short wrestler was mocked it would be justified since they’re a safe distance from objectively short heights like 5’4”-5’6”. In addition, wrestlers inflate their height so he could be 5’6-5’7 and shortish, but it would be just as unacceptable if that was true of course.
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Post by HeightismAOS on Oct 29, 2019 4:41:06 GMT
Insecure short man who doesn't embrace his height: The proud and likable short guy people want us to be: All he's missing now is a propeller beanie. If this isn't a clear indication of how short men are expected to behave, then I don't know what is. You're expected to either look like a total joke, or you'll be accused of being self-conscious and taking yourself too seriously.
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Post by Cole Geass on Dec 17, 2019 12:42:41 GMT
My favorite wrestler was Neville. Never got put down for his height. He was the king of the cruiserweights and a man respected in the industry...
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