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Post by charismatholic on Jun 10, 2020 17:58:48 GMT
Does anyone else find the "short kings" garbage that's circulating around all forms of social media to be completely grating, ridiculous and patronising?
I think it's a very superficial attempt at positivity, one that doesn't address any of the actual issues to do with heightism. It's very easy for people to say that they "support short kings" without any other action to back it up. Such people will say that, but then when they see short people having a "public freakout" or anything like that, then the gloves are off and instantly they will insult the person in question for their height. Not their behaviour or anything like that, but their height, particularly if it's a short man doing it. If it's a tall person having a "public freakout" then it isn't because they have "tall man syndrome", it's because that individual is just a bad individual.
It also comes off to me as being overly saccharine and without substance. What I'd prefer a million times more is for short people's experiences to be listened to, instead of being constantly gaslit and trivialised by being told "it's all in your head" and "people don't care about height." But no, it's easier to just say "short kings" like it's some sort of magical spell that makes all heightism go away and then do nothing else.
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Post by HeightismAOS on Jun 11, 2020 4:55:38 GMT
Remember this thread? https://www.reddit.com/r/short/comments/ej4wj5/collegehumor_supports_short_kings_meme_my_friend/
You'll never see that sort of ultimatum being put forth when it comes to women's weight. But that's usually what people mean when they say "short king" (more like short jester). You're right about it being patronising. It's like calling a kid a "big boy" then patting him on the head. Might as well say "know your place little man and stop rocking the boat."
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Post by Heightism Report on Jun 14, 2020 3:44:16 GMT
I agree with pretty-much everything that has been said here, although I will admit that it's surprising to see short men mentioned in a way that isn't negative, even though in this case, it's just a silly pseudo-positive social media meme. It's not an extremely popular meme though so we can't even begin to piece together a theory about this being some type of narrative shift in the way short men are being viewed.
HeightismAOS also pinpointed another nuance about what makes a short man a "king," which is obedience to what society tells him to do. Show me the memes that say short men who challenge heightism are kings and that might be a sign of making some progress. No matter how you challenge heightism, people are going to assume you're Bagel Guy. It doesn't matter how diplomatic, calm, and backed by science your efforts are, you'll never be viewed as a king. Kings aren't told how to act by society and treated like pariahs for defending themselves, therefore, short men are far from kings in the eyes of society. We know the only role short men are supposed to play within the kingdom, and that role is that of the court jester. When people allow us to defend ourselves and discuss our issues without shifting the blame back onto us, and most importantly, allow us to take the leadership role in deciding how to address heightism, at that point, they can refer to us as kings being that we will have control of our own narrative.
I'm not even quite sure what prompted the short kings trope, but I'm guessing a few people have a short man in their lives who they know gets mistreated, thus, they push this meme as a "favor" to that particular short guy, or, maybe women who date short men post these memes as a way to cope with the judgment they receive for dating a man that is treated as "lesser" by society. Almost none of the people who push the meme have any concern whatsoever about heightism as a systemic issue, nor, do any of them care about actually becoming allies to help us challenge heightism directly. Least of all, absolutely none of them care about doing anything to attack the lifelong deluge of privilege that tall men receive. About all we can expect from society at this point is this "short kings" nonsense in a one-off fashion. Like I said, it's better than the usual hatred, but at its core, it's just a vapid way of making us feel like they're throwing us some crumbs without actually doing anything to change the way short men are treated, viewed, and despised.
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Post by HeightismAOS on Jun 26, 2020 21:41:32 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2020 22:30:49 GMT
Yea, it's very annoying, it's used as a form of distraction for all of the times that those people are heightism and to encourage short men that being short isn't a negative, which couldn't be true because then they would not need to use a positive label to try to "cheer" up short men. Sometimes it sort of addressed how short men are viewed but it mostly doesn't address heightism and gives an easy way for people to put up a positive facade, and give examples like that one short guy they know to focus on solutions that don't get to the causes of heightism.
Since it has so much traction in the topic of short male issues, it's an easy way non short people and ignorant short men try to make short men who are at least semi aware feel better, sometimes gaslight them like you said and escapism so they can pretend they are helpful when they are just giving the most simplistic, basic advice without looking at heightism. Silencing at it's finest.
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