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Post by cwallay on Sept 10, 2015 17:19:47 GMT
I am working on a "position paper" on height discrimination. The paper will include a brief summary/background section about discrimination based on height in society, but I mostly want to focus on the following four areas and would like to ask those who have had real-life events or stories that represent one or more of the following areas to contact me if you would like to contribute to this effort.
1. Workplace discrimination - which can be in one or more of the following forms: A. actual, factual knowledge of lower wages than equally-qualified taller workers performing substantially the same job B. being rejected for a promotion primarily or solely due to height (either being told directly that it was due to height, or some euphemism such as not having sufficient "presence" or "gravitas") C. being subjected to a hostile work environment such as constant teasing, unwelcome comments or unwelcome physical contact
2. Medical - i.e., the "idiopathic short stature" diagnosis of healthy short kids, the pushing of hGH therapy on healthy short kids, etc.
3. Education - discrimination against short students (k-12 as well as college level). This could take the form of juvenalizaton by teachers or school officials, bullying that remains unaddressed due to failure to act on the part of school officials, or similar.
4. Product design issues that carry risk of serious personal injury for short people, but there are no or insufficient regulations that require manufacturers to either make them safe or to warn the public about the danger - for example, air bags in cars
Please let me know if you are interested in discussing off-line or otherwise. |
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Post by Heightism Report on Sept 11, 2015 18:21:59 GMT
How is this project going? I certainly have plenty of stories in regard to work discrimination and education, but you might want to branch-out and get more voices. Perhaps, you should post something like this on r/short.
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Post by cwallay on Sept 11, 2015 18:43:04 GMT
Nothing yet. I did post it there this morning but my post is in limbo waiting for moderator review. I'd love to get your stories. As you pointed out previously, the effort will probably take a long time. I'm going to post it on my website and tweet it too, but I don't have a lot of followers yet. If you can think of other resources or know of people who would want to contribute, I'd appreciate your passing it on. Thanks!
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Post by Heightism Report on Sept 11, 2015 22:06:57 GMT
It wouldn't shock me if your r/short post doesn't get approved. The moderator who carries most of the weight there is at least a 75% Garmin. He doesn't believe in fighting heightism, he believes that "showing heightists how awesome we are" is how to solve heightism. This is of course grossly idiotic because it assumes that we aren't "being awesome" to begin with, it takes the focus of where it needs to be, and it asks us to sit timidly in the corner waiting for heightists to give us scraps. He's too much of a coward to utter a harsh word toward a heightist, but he obsessively rails against people who fight against heightism He's also a mod on r/tall where he tries to show that he's "one of the good ones" by carrying on inane chatter, which is always ended with a treasure trove of smileys. He's an adult Garmin too being that he's in his 40s, which is really sad. He's also 5'8, but pulls the "I live in a tall country" card, which I would be more inclined to believe if he didn't conduct himself in the manner that he does because he sounds as though he doesn't have any experience with heightism other than what he's read online. R/short has a bit of an epidemic of guys well into their adult years who want to be recognized as the "inspiration for short people" with their braggadocio about mediocre accomplishments, and are more concerned with being rewarded for being "uplifting" and "positive" instead of taking on the actual issue. This is an issue that transcends r/short though because many short men never advance past the "Look at me! I'm a special snowflake" phase, and the rest of us suffer for it.
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Post by cwallay on Sept 11, 2015 22:14:35 GMT
Well it's still not posted even though I sent it at 7:30 this morning. Sounds like you're right. Are there any other forums that you know of that I can try?
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Post by Heightism Report on Sept 11, 2015 22:22:20 GMT
Due to time zone differences, it sometimes takes a few days before they approve things. I didn't mean to go off on a "Here's what's wrong with r/short" tangent there, but the fish rots from the head down, so that does color the content to a great degree.
Really, r/short is all we have now. I'll be more than happy to send out a tweet or a Tumblr post to call for participants, but the people who follow me aren't ready to stick their heads out of the shadows. I'm not sure what level of anonymity you guarantee, but even with full anonymity, feedback will be minimal at best. Still though, we absolutely have to try, so let me know what I can do.
I don't know, maybe we should brainstorm other social justice forums that could help us. I know that the site "Sociological Images" has made posts that frame heightism as a serious issue, and the site seems to be onboard, so maybe that would be a good place to start.
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Post by cwallay on Sept 11, 2015 22:32:04 GMT
Yeah that sounds good. I'm not famous or anything so there's about zero chance of being exposed in public. I would ask for permission before using anyone's real name. I'm not even using my own real name so I completely understand the concern and would never put anyone's privacy at risk.
If you can send something out you can reference my email address cwallay (at) outlook (dot) com. I'll look for the sociological forums too.
The legal road will take a decade or more, but as they say, every journey of a million miles begins with a single step.
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Post by Heightism Report on Sept 11, 2015 22:36:06 GMT
Cool. I'll make sure to send something out. I like this working together thing! This is how it's supposed to be. I just remembered that I also was interviewed by a young lady named Jane Webb for her doctoral dissertation. She's a tall girl, and her dissertation was about "height and identity." I'm not sure if she interviewed any short people other than me, but it's possible. Here's a link to Geoff Arnold's blog where she was calling for participants. thesocialcomplex.tumblr.com/post/32499668151/dear-mr-arnold-my-name-is-jane-webb-and-im-a |
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Post by Heightism Report on Sept 11, 2015 22:40:57 GMT
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Post by cwallay on Sept 13, 2015 11:43:08 GMT
Thanks for your help with this.
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Post by Heightism Report on Sept 13, 2015 21:21:37 GMT
No problem. I love the things you're doing because they will help all of us. I'll definitely give you some stories of my own too, so we'll talk sometime
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