Short Man Syndrome t-shirt

You know that people are having a great time degrading a group of people when they start making t-shirts to try to profit from their hatred. A month or so ago, I posted about a brewery that sells a Napoleon Complex beer, so this isn't the first time that we have seen people try to profit from heightism. Of course, it doesn't end with half-assed t-shirt sales and fly-by-night craft breweries because we've seen numerous major corporations try to profit from heightism as well. DirecTV's "Little Randy Moss" commercials is one from the not-too distant past, and as those who follow this forum and places like SupportForTheShort know, there are dozens of other commercials that use heightism to try to sell products.

Look at the the shirt designer's comment.
"I really hope this doesn’t offend and people see it as a bit of fun. It’s supposed to be very tongue-in-cheek Thanks for your comment"

There's nothing tongue in cheek about not only spreading, but expanding stereotypes that are used to demean, bully, attack, discredit, mock, and hold people in their place. What is tongue in cheek about saying someone doesn't deserve to be in power, doesn't deserve to date people they find beautiful, doesn't deserve to own certain types of pets, doesn't deserve to work out, doesn't deserve to choose what vehicle they drive, doesn't deserve to joke around at work, doesn't deserve to participate in recreational sports, doesn't deserve to referee sports? That's not humor, it's a bullet point list of normal things that short men should be disqualified from on account of their height. As HeightismAOS says, "Is it really a joke if people actually believe the stereotype?"

The thing is, when they expand these stereotypes, none of the expansions have to be based in fact. Short men own large dogs more so than other people? Short men drive larger vehicles than others? None of these things have ever been established as being remotely true. On the contrary, people who aren't short men make a tremendous deal every time they see a short man driving a large vehicle or walking a large dog, thus, they use confirmation bias to turn it into an outright hateful stereotype. They don't care whether the short man drives a large truck because he tows heavy equipment, or, if he adopted the large dog because an older relative could no longer handle it, they merely care about finding any and every reason to degrade short men for having the audacity to exist. No matter how many short man drive smaller cars and own smaller dogs, there will never be enough evidence to overturn their hateful stereotypes. As a matter of fact, if a short man lifts a small amount of weights, drives a small car, owns a small dog, doesn't joke around the office, etc., he's categorized as a weak half-man who is so pathetic that he won't joke around with his co-workers. This is the actual truth about the beliefs that go into making t-shirts like this one "funny," thus, no one here is going to buy Jules Eff's half-assed amends stating that the t-shirt isn't supposed to be offensive.