Post by Heightism Report on Sept 19, 2017 2:28:15 GMT
I just arrived at work, and there isn't any parking directly next to the office so I have to park a few blocks down the street and walk. I happen to work near a tourist area so it's not unusual for me to cross paths with tourists. Tonight, I'm walking and an upper-50sish couple is walking toward me, so I look at them and say "Good evening." Both of them looked me dead in the face, blatantly scowled, and said absolutely nothing. So, I said "Well go fuck yourself then." I didn't even wait to see their reaction because I didn't care about their thoughts or feelings, but this is the exact type of shit that those in sociological circles call "microaggressions" and they happen constantly to short men. I can't even begin to tell you the hundreds of times I've had this same scenario play-out when people of all genders, races, and other identifiers just looked at me like I was imposing on sacred ground just by offering a simple greeting. Also, on busier sidewalks, in stores, etc., it's not uncommon to bump into someone, or have to walk through cramped quarters, and I always instinctively say "Excuse me," and inevitably, the taller the person, the less likely they are to say "Excuse Me" back. It's so glaringly obvious that there's a sense of entitlement and a power-play going-on in these circumstances.
Once, on r/short, I posted of an instance where a Wal Mart door greeter enthusiastically greeted and damn near started spit-shining a tall man's boots who walked out in front of me, and he also greeted a woman who was walking inside at the time, but when I looked him directly in the face and said "Have a good evening, sir," he just got this annoyed look on his face and looked over the top of my head like I was a nuisance. Of course, when I posted this on r/short, everyone completely denied that this was height-related, and I was even told that by "always obsessing over my height," the door greeter could sense that I was insecure, which is what made him avoid talking to me. True to the spirit of r/short, people believed that pseudo-intellectual, semantic bullshit than would believe that I may know a thing or two about how short men are greeted differently than tall men and even women. Don't you just love that they'll deny heightism, yet, will always believe that any short man who addresses heightism is "just insecure about his height?" Denying heightism....with heightism. Great work, idiots.
The bottom line, is people see us as a nuisance, and they want us to just "shut up and be short." The couple on the sidewalk tonight probably thought I was "up to no good" or something even though I'm dressed prim-and-proper for a night of work. People are conditioned to believe that we're conniving, mischievous little jokers who are always up to no good, so we're to be treated with suspicion even when we offer a friendly greeting. For any of the deniers who read this forum, you're not going to convince me that if some 6'2 Prince Chodeley greets someone on the sidewalk that people are just going to ignore him and keep walking. The whole fictitious Tall Man Aura and the belief that the tall man is dripping with social competence is wrapped-up and proliferated by the belief that he "demands respect" and it conveys a momentous event to be addressed by a tall man, which is why tall men get treated with much-more respect in everyday social encounters.
I'm getting a bit fed-up with all of these "arbitrary indignites"(as Joe from SFTS calls them) because these scenarios are just examples of people disrespecting us because they can. We're not worthy of their time, and they view us spitefully because we're "adults who never progressed past being child-like," so we should just shut-up and speak when spoken to. Furthermore, they feel justified in their snide dismissals of us because we're probably in the midst of some sketchy scheme because our height is associated with being untrustworthy. These superficial displays of believed superiority alone are enough to classify heightism as a form of discrimination that needs to be addressed because reacting in such a snide manner to a polite greeting reflects an extreme level of contempt. We see right through this nonsense, and need to continue to call this behavior out. It's amazing that the world wants to police every move me make, yet, people are always taking the opportunity to show-us our place when we're merely trying to actively participate in proper social decorum. Then again, if we shut-up and don't talk to anyone we pass on the sidewalk, we're insecure, bitter, and people can magically sense our inner-bitterness, yet, if we do address people and they glare at us without offering so much as a half-assed response, it's probably our fault because of, you know, them sensing our inner-bitterness like before. It's damned if we do, damned if we don't, and what they really want us to do is to shut-up completely so they don't have to examine their own thoughts and actions.
Once, on r/short, I posted of an instance where a Wal Mart door greeter enthusiastically greeted and damn near started spit-shining a tall man's boots who walked out in front of me, and he also greeted a woman who was walking inside at the time, but when I looked him directly in the face and said "Have a good evening, sir," he just got this annoyed look on his face and looked over the top of my head like I was a nuisance. Of course, when I posted this on r/short, everyone completely denied that this was height-related, and I was even told that by "always obsessing over my height," the door greeter could sense that I was insecure, which is what made him avoid talking to me. True to the spirit of r/short, people believed that pseudo-intellectual, semantic bullshit than would believe that I may know a thing or two about how short men are greeted differently than tall men and even women. Don't you just love that they'll deny heightism, yet, will always believe that any short man who addresses heightism is "just insecure about his height?" Denying heightism....with heightism. Great work, idiots.
The bottom line, is people see us as a nuisance, and they want us to just "shut up and be short." The couple on the sidewalk tonight probably thought I was "up to no good" or something even though I'm dressed prim-and-proper for a night of work. People are conditioned to believe that we're conniving, mischievous little jokers who are always up to no good, so we're to be treated with suspicion even when we offer a friendly greeting. For any of the deniers who read this forum, you're not going to convince me that if some 6'2 Prince Chodeley greets someone on the sidewalk that people are just going to ignore him and keep walking. The whole fictitious Tall Man Aura and the belief that the tall man is dripping with social competence is wrapped-up and proliferated by the belief that he "demands respect" and it conveys a momentous event to be addressed by a tall man, which is why tall men get treated with much-more respect in everyday social encounters.
I'm getting a bit fed-up with all of these "arbitrary indignites"(as Joe from SFTS calls them) because these scenarios are just examples of people disrespecting us because they can. We're not worthy of their time, and they view us spitefully because we're "adults who never progressed past being child-like," so we should just shut-up and speak when spoken to. Furthermore, they feel justified in their snide dismissals of us because we're probably in the midst of some sketchy scheme because our height is associated with being untrustworthy. These superficial displays of believed superiority alone are enough to classify heightism as a form of discrimination that needs to be addressed because reacting in such a snide manner to a polite greeting reflects an extreme level of contempt. We see right through this nonsense, and need to continue to call this behavior out. It's amazing that the world wants to police every move me make, yet, people are always taking the opportunity to show-us our place when we're merely trying to actively participate in proper social decorum. Then again, if we shut-up and don't talk to anyone we pass on the sidewalk, we're insecure, bitter, and people can magically sense our inner-bitterness, yet, if we do address people and they glare at us without offering so much as a half-assed response, it's probably our fault because of, you know, them sensing our inner-bitterness like before. It's damned if we do, damned if we don't, and what they really want us to do is to shut-up completely so they don't have to examine their own thoughts and actions.