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Post by fjohnson on Aug 27, 2017 23:55:42 GMT
I was reading in this site about a member advocating going to the gym to get bigger and stronger. The reason if you can’t grow up, then grow out. And he was criticized for this by members of this site, a short man’s site. I just don’t understand the criticism. To me it makes sense. If you get bigger and stronger, you are no longer an easy target.
I wish I had thought of this when I was 12-13 years old. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but there was no shortage of people who had any problem in making my life miserable or in wanting to hurt me, based upon my height. If I had worked out and knew how to defend myself, my entire life would have been different than today. And society does not like it when a small man has the power to fight back either physically or politically, just read newspapers or blogs as proof.
I will provide my own personal experiences to justify doing exactly what the other member advocated, getting bigger and stronger.
EX 1 I was 12. My best friend had moved to a new sub-division. It was about 1 ½ miles away from my parent’s home. I knew how to get to his home, so I biked the distance. It took me about 15 minutes, but it was safe and away from traffic. The new sub-division was being developed, so land was being cleared. My friend and I went biking through the sub-division. We were looking at homes under construction, when a boy, walked up to me and wanted to fight me. I never met this boy in my life. He was at least 1 year older, maybe 2, and was 2-3 inches taller. A classic bully, for he didn’t choose someone bigger to fight, but someone smaller, me. I avoided the conflict, by not taking the challenge, and took some insults in the process. But I was singled out, due to my size. My mother was 5’2” and my dad 5’5”, and they should have placed in me in a self-defense class years earlier, for both knew that goons, creeps, thugs and bullies would target me, for they must had experienced this themselves. (To this day, it angers me that they did not get into a self-defense class, as I have done with my boys)
EX 2 I moved to Houston, for job opportunities. I soon found out that it was easier to meet girls in C&W bars than regular bars. On 2 separate occasions in C&W bars, men attempted to trip me. Both times, I could feel a leg/foot place in front of my right foot as I was walking by. Fortunately for me, both times, I had stepped over to my left foot so my weight was already on my left leg when they attempted to trip me. I simply lifted my right foot up over their leg/foot and kept on walking. But I knew exactly what had happened at the time. 2 different men thought it would be a good laugh to trip the short man and have him fall in front of everyone. If I came up swinging at them, they could claim that I started the fight. And they, it just so happened were bigger than me, and after all, I stated the fight, not them. I did not see the man who did this the first time to me, but I did clearly see the man who did it to me the second time. He was 6’1” or 6’2” and was the only one within 10 feet of me at the time. I did not see him extend his leg out, for I was looking at the dance floor, not directly in front of me or at him.
EXC 3. I have had tall men invade my personal space, intentionally, to either intimidate me or humiliate me in public. A few times, I thought they were trying to get a response from me, but I knew I was over matched, and I didn’t have the fighting skill set to take them on. So I moved away from them.
Since I was ostracized when I was young (being bullied), I had plenty of time to work out and take self-defense classes. (But my parents never did this for me.) I have watched my sons at their karate classes, and I wish I had known some of their moves when I was their age.
For those reading my words, if I had to do it over, I would become an expert at kicks, to kick bully balls, break goon knees and to keep away from someone who has a longer reach. You need strength and knowledge to defend yourself against a larger person. There is a male karate instructor who is about 5’6” and in his late 30’s or early 40’s, and he is lightning quick. His advice, you don’t want a fair fight. Someone who is bigger or stronger says things like that because it plays into their favor. You use everything to your advantage i.e. deception. If you are forced to fight, ask a question of your opponent, like what is your name? Just as the person begins to answer, this is when you throw the first punch or kick. Their mind will be in gear to talk, not fight. You will have about 1 second where they cannot begin to respond. In that time, you kick them in the balls or kick their knee out. Again, I wish my parents had done this for me, as I am doing for my boys.
If this sounds harsh, it is, for goons, creeps, thugs and bullies don’t care in the least about you. They derive pleasure in targeting someone smaller, who they feel they can easily harm. I am no MMA wane-be. What I want is to pass along some advice that I wish someone had given me when it would have made a difference in my life. And for the life of me, I can’t understand why getting bigger or stronger is so abhorrent to members of this site. I guess I am the only short male here to ever have experienced heightism and being bullied. Also, didn’t I read at this site where short men seem to attack their own? Am I the only one who remembers this? Isn’t this what is happening here?
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Post by Heightism Report on Aug 28, 2017 0:20:24 GMT
BTW- Everyone. FJohnson is banned. All he does is posts anecdotes about dating, and he obviously hasn't read any of the content of this forum if he still can't comprehend why we don't need to be talking about working-out and taking fucking karate. It's one thing to have healthy debate on here, but it's another to completely waste everyone's time with bullshit about how working-out is good for you and how knowing how to defend yourself is better than not knowing how to defend yourself. The aim of this forum is to get past discussing these heightist platitudes that tell us that heightism can be solved with karate and cologne. Knowing that taking care of yourself helps you in life is so obvious, there's no reason to post a long-winded post about it....EVER. He's more than welcome to go talk about working-out, taking karate, and ironing your shirts over at r/short. He'll probably become a God for doing so.
He also once said that dating is the most important aspect of heightism, thus, his philosophy isn't really what we look for on this forum. He has also been online on various forums and comment sections for several years, and it seems that his views still haven't progressed beyond dating discussion. He has argued with me stating that dating is the most important issue, and now, he thinks that working-out cures all of our ills. Next, he'll be telling us not to confirm that the stereotypes about us exist, and will be advocating that we all volunteer to dress as one of Santa's elves for Christmas.
If you guys want to submit your thoughts on this ban, either positive or negative, I'd like to hear your feedback, but this site is for people who are enlightened to the nature of heightism, and those who believe that dating, working-out, and martial arts are what need to be discussed, are better-off climbing in the clown car at r/short. We're here to confront heightism, not to argue with people who think the focus is dating, practicing Chuck Norris kicks in your bedroom mirror, and spray starching your shirts
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Post by luro2020 on Aug 28, 2017 0:45:56 GMT
You aren't wrong about anything. Basically, all he did was talk about martial arts and fighting elements, and then he went to claim he was the only one who experienced heightism, which he would find is not true if he took time to browse the anecdotes of this forum. Yes, short people should learn to defend themselves, but it shouldn't be height exclusive, and this focus distracts us from the important aspects such as the wage gap and gender discrimination. He obviously doesn't belong on this forum if he can't see why fighting is not overall important to heightism discussions.
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Post by luro2020 on Aug 28, 2017 0:52:01 GMT
and dating*, It takes up our server space when people make long irrelevant posts about self development, how to please society as short people and not rock boat.
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Post by Heightism Report on Aug 28, 2017 0:56:19 GMT
You aren't wrong about anything. Basically, all he did was talk about martial arts and fighting elements, and then he went to claim he was the only one who experienced heightism, which he would find is not true if he took time to browse the anecdotes of this forum. Yes, short people should learn to defend themselves, but it shouldn't be height exclusive, and this focus distracts us from the important aspects such as the wage gap and gender discrimination. He obviously doesn't belong on this forum if he can't see why fighting is not overall important to heightism discussions. Wow. I didn't even see the part where he stated that he's the only one who has experienced this type of heightism because I decided to ban him before I even got to that part of the posts. We have a multitude of posts here about the members of this forum experiencing heightism, yet, he refuses to participate in any of them. Also, a martial arts class wouldn't prevent him for being tripped like he mentioned in his one anecdote, and it wouldn't have prevented him from being challenged the way he was in the first example. Tall men invading your personal space also doesn't stop just because you have a purple belt in an after-school Tae Kwon Do academy. He ended his diatribe stating that he's the only one who remembers what tall tough guys and bullies are like. However, our entire focus here is to hold these type of people accountable instead of focusing on giving the short man obligations to fulfill(working out, martial arts) if he wants to be respected. In that thread he's referring to, there was ample discussion indicating why we don't need to waste time on his type of platitudes, and he chose to ignore them. Plain and simple. |
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Post by Heightism Report on Aug 28, 2017 1:02:12 GMT
Another reason he deserves a ban is because if we open the door to one person who believes dating and karate need to be our focal points, lurkers who feel the same way will be inspired to pepper the forum with such Just World Fallacies and pseudo-empowerment rhetoric. R/short doesn't police this type of rhetoric, and we all see what happened as the result.
Look at the title of his post too. "Bigger is better." No wonder he's so easily-misled by heightist platitudes when he's making it evident that he believes we're caught in an unfortunate situation where we really are inferior, instead of seeing this as a situation where we're actually in a situation where society has decided to treat us as whipping boys and can stop doing so any time they see fit.
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Post by HeightismAOS on Aug 28, 2017 12:05:23 GMT
I ain't reading his entire rambling, but I'm a big framed short man and compete at a much heavier weight class than most guys my height in powerlifting, jiu-jitsu, etc.
It doesn't change anything in the grand scheme of heightism. It'd be like telling women or minorities to hit the gym and all prejudice will be deterred. Sure, the self-improvement helps in our personal life, but until the masses are educated about the prejudice as a whole, this gym idea is just a bandaid on a leaking pipe.
For example, a big strong short man is just viewed as a compensating manlet by this society, but his tall counterpart is a stud. Why? Because this society hasn't been taught it's wrong to think that way. Since they were children, films like Shrek taught them these stereotypes are okay, funny, and encouraged. That's the real problem, and you can't karate chop that.
By the way, the fact that he thinks karate is the answer is also very ignorant. The moment a big tall guy knocks him off his feet, there won't be much karate anymore. Why would anyone listen to a guy who's this ignorant about heightism AND self-defense? He should go back to chopping wooden boards instead of posting on message boards.
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Post by HeightismAOS on Aug 28, 2017 12:28:53 GMT
Also, I commend your "take no shit" approach for this forum. If you didn't put your foot down, this place would turn into a less popular /r/short clone, full of "tough guys" and the usual ilk.
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Post by Heightism Report on Aug 28, 2017 14:39:33 GMT
I ain't reading his entire rambling, but I'm a big framed short man and compete at a much heavier weight class than most guys my height in powerlifting, jiu-jitsu, etc. It doesn't change anything in the grand scheme of heightism. It'd be like telling women or minorities to hit the gym and all prejudice will be deterred. Sure, the self-improvement helps in our personal life, but until the masses are educated about the prejudice as a whole, this gym idea is just a bandaid on a leaking pipe. For example, a big strong short man is just viewed as a compensating manlet by this society, but his tall counterpart is a stud. Why? Because this society hasn't been taught it's wrong to think that way. Since they were children, films like Shrek taught them these stereotypes are okay, funny, and encouraged. That's the real problem, and you can't karate chop that. By the way, the fact that he thinks karate is the answer is also very ignorant. The moment a big tall guy knocks him off his feet, there won't be much karate anymore. Why would anyone listen to a guy who's this ignorant about heightism AND self-defense? He should go back to chopping wooden boards instead of posting on message boards. I'll give you a TLDR of his entire diatribe. -He's pissed at us for challenging the logic of the r/short poster in the "hit the gym" thread you posted here heightismhub.freeforums.net/thread/149/short-heightism-sucks-yall-hit-He's angry at his parents for not enrolling him in self-defense classes -He's angry at himself for not getting into fistfights with taller guys who tripped, mocked, and bullied him. -He even provided an example of a 5'6 karate instructor who kicks everyone's ass as the parallel to the short male celebrity people introduce into every conversation -He accused us of contributing to hatred against short men for challenging little tough guys. Regardless though, whether you roundhouse kick, rear naked choke, or body slam people who do these things, you're going to end-up with legal trouble, in jail, hospital bills, potential job loss and unemployability thereafter, and a host of other issues if you think fists of fury are going to be your go-to method to combat heightism. Some of us experience so much heightism that we'd have to abandon all of our worldly pursuits if we got in a fistfight every time we experienced heightism. This problem is way too ubiquitous and systemic to be cured with Chuck Norris remedies. By all means, smack the hell out of people who deserve it, if that's the road you want to go down. I know I've done my fair share of retaliation for sure, but this notion that heightism discussion needs to focus on drumming-up the benefits of chilling at the dojo and keeping your beard well-groomed is completely ludicrous though. It's a total deviation from everything we need to discuss, and is tied-up in the Just World Fallacy stating that those who experience discrimination probably deserve it because they're not engaging in self-improvement. We're not going to play those games here. |
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Post by HeightismAOS on Sept 26, 2017 9:36:27 GMT
Have you guys seen this? shortguycentral.com/topic/kicked-out-of-heightism-forum-for-advocating-working-and-self-defense-1215When will guys like this realize that while lifting/self-defense is great for personal reasons, it has literally nothing to do with prejudice, which is a widespread societal issue, not a personal one. That's what this forum is about. It'd be like going to a forum about racism or whatever and telling people there to hit the gym, then blame them and get mad when they say it does nothing in the bigger picture. Just imagine if every social change came about by people lifting weights, that image alone is laughable. People all march on the street to do deadlifts and squats in front of big establishments. The other reason I want to hear nothing about this topic (even though I enjoy it) is that it places the blame on short men once again, like it's almost your fault as a short man if you get targeted, because you didn't do enough reps that day. Imagine telling women this when they complain about not being taken as seriously as men. Not to mention how the whole "overcompensating" thing goes unchecked so long as we hide in a gym instead of calling that shit out. Anyway, this whole thing is just funny to me because it's literally off-topic, yet these dudes get mad when they're told to stop. This is a heightism forum. What these guys are looking for is /r/short. The guys there can all jack each other off while the women and taller guys laugh at them. |
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Post by Heightism Report on Sept 26, 2017 16:14:35 GMT
Have you guys seen this? shortguycentral.com/topic/kicked-out-of-heightism-forum-for-advocating-working-and-self-defense-1215When will guys like this realize that while lifting/self-defense is great for personal reasons, it has literally nothing to do with prejudice, which is a widespread societal issue, not a personal one. That's what this forum is about. It'd be like going to a forum about racism or whatever and telling people there to hit the gym, then blame them and get mad when they say it does nothing in the bigger picture. Just imagine if every social change came about by people lifting weights, that image alone is laughable. People all march on the street to do deadlifts and squats in front of big establishments. The other reason I want to hear nothing about this topic (even though I enjoy it) is that it places the blame on short men once again, like it's almost your fault as a short man if you get targeted, because you didn't do enough reps that day. Imagine telling women this when they complain about not being taken as seriously as men. Not to mention how the whole "overcompensating" thing goes unchecked so long as we hide in a gym instead of calling that shit out. Anyway, this whole thing is just funny to me because it's literally off-topic, yet these dudes get mad when they're told to stop. This is a heightism forum. What these guys are looking for is /r/short. The guys there can all jack each other off while the women and taller guys laugh at them. HAHAHAAHAHA! That guy again. First off, he didn't get banned for merely suggesting that working-out and self-defense was a good idea, he got kicked-out for numerous instances of not being a good fit for the forum. As I've said before, it's so blatantly obvious that taking care of yourself is a good idea that there is no reason to discuss it at-all, especially on this forum. You are completely right that everyone is laughing at them while they run around puffing their chests out and acting like anything they do is going to get taken at face value instead of interpreted negatively by those who are predisposed by hating them. Like we've discussed before, Prince, who was as insanely talented as any human who will ever walk the planet admitted to feeling like no matter what he did, people still saw him as "still short." I also remember one time when Urijah Faber finished an MMA fight, during the post fight interview, he thanked the UFC for "giving us little guys a chance to be in the spotlight." My point, is no amount of talent or fighting prowess is ever going to get a short guy past the ridiculous amount of ill sentiments and beliefs about the inferiority of short men. Even famous guys, who are the top of their game realize that they are treated as second class, so there's nothing the Average Joe can do to diminish the systemic exclusion that short men face. As you said, it's completely off-topic to even suggest that working-out is some type of remedy. Heightism was not created in fairness, thus, it cannot be overcome by short men who follow a script, it can only be overcome by ripping these beliefs out of the collective conscious, shining a light on them, studying them, and reframing the way people have been trained to think about short men. Anything outside of that is mental masturbation and junk food thought. EDIT: BTW- It was disingenuous for him to say that he got kicked-out of here for "supporting another member" of this forum. The member he was defending was a typical lout on r/short whose post we were critiquing here. |
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Post by Heightism Report on Sept 26, 2017 23:14:34 GMT
Oh wow. I just remembered that he's 5'8. Of course, we appreciate our allies who are close to average height. We're not like the delusionites on r/short who have convinced themselves that guys on the taller end of short are a more substantial problem than actual heightists. Also, it is a fact that heightism has intensified to where guys around 5'7-5'8 feel the heat more than they used to. However, if you're 5'8 and think dating is what the bulk of heightism entails, you have absolutely no clue what it feels like to be a man who is closer to the height of the average female or even shorter, and you have absolutely no idea how hardcore the emasculation and the policing of every behavior feels. Yes, some guys that height do feel some of it, and have the ability to see heightism perpetrated against men who are even shorter, but any 5'8 guy who thinks dating is the #1 concern and believes that working-out is a cure-all for guys who are several inches shorter, obviously has no clue about the extent of heightism that extremely-short guys deal with. I wouldn't even have an issue with letting the man return if he had a revelation where he realized the severity of heightism because we do want to allow people to learn from their mistakes, but it's extremely hard to get someone to wake-up if their beliefs about heightism are rooted 100% in their own dating stories, and they don't seem to grasp how much of a burden is placed on guys who are at least as short as the average woman.
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