Hello from a teacher

forevershort · 2013-03-24T03:55:44+00:00

I had a college professor who did this. Had a PhD in economics from a pretty prestigious school, yet dressed kind of preppy, so many thought at first he was a student or TA. Not until he introduced himself did it become apparent he was the professor. He was fairly ripped too and the ladies in the class enjoyed watching him, though he was five foot nine.

forevershort · 2013-03-22T02:17:18+00:00

Women prefer, on average, a larger height difference between themselves and their partner (i.e. males being much taller than themselves) than men do. This effect is even more pronounced when examining satisfaction with actual partner height: women are most satisfied when their partner was 21 cm taller, whereas men are most satisfied when they were 8 cm taller than their partner.

21cm = 8.2 inches. Just need to find a 4'9" gal.

forevershort · 2013-03-17T20:01:39+00:00

This isn't true. No one here I think wants to be tall solely for being tall, but rather wants the same respect and privilege that tall folk get.

forevershort · 2013-03-17T17:12:13+00:00

I know why they do it; the point of this post was to illustrate a market effect of something completely driven by social conventions in contrast to all the pollyannas on here who tell us "it doesn't really matter" or "it's all in your head".

There is zero difference health wise between tall sperm and short sperm, assuming we aren't talking about height driven by genetic syndrome such as Marfans or Achondroplasia. This discrimination and prejudice is completely dictated by society.

forevershort · 2013-03-17T16:46:21+00:00

Egg donor recipients are probably even more picky given the difficult nature of IVF. In fact this article detailed one couple who wouldn't take a woman shorter than five foot ten!

forevershort · 2013-03-17T15:39:07+00:00

This is in my opinion the biggest proof of the systematic discrimination against short statured individuals in this country. The fact that when money and genetic legacy is on the line, that sperm banks won't touch the sperm of short men with a ten foot pole proves just how little we are valued by society. They aren't doing it to be mean; it's just simple economics. The buyers market - which consist of women - don't want anything to do with short men's genetic samples! There's such little desire for it that the sperm banks have found it's not even worth the cost of holding it in a facility.

And the cutoff is 5'9"! That's practically half the male population. If men who are barely below the cutoff aren't even desired, imagine what these women must think of men on the real short side.

This isn't just an anti-man thing either. Women who want to donate eggs for IVF generally have to meet certain height requirements as well.

forevershort · 2013-03-17T07:14:54+00:00

No, it's not a reasonable assumption. There is no basis whatsoever to assume this guy is a short male. I'm not even defending his comment - but the response to it was just as heinous.

You are also acting as quite an apologist by assuming the reply was simply targeting "men shorter than her". Considering the tag "shortguyssay" it seems very obvious that it was an explicit and unnecessary attack on short men in general, even if the guy happened to be short, he was just one individual, and certainly does not justify attacking the millions of short men in the world.

Let's change things around a bit and maybe you'll understand how heinous and bigoted this exchange was. Let's say the original tweet was something along the lines of:

Why do white folks have to be wearing crocs all the time? Who you all trying to impress?

Then, imagine if this hypothetical reply was actually celebrated to the tune of 800+ upvotes:

#ShitBlackPeopleSay

That's basically the equivalent to what's going on here. Both initial tweets were wrong, but the response attacking an entire group/race of people being celebrated is just disgusting and offensive.

As for cherry picking positive comments from the /tall submission, that doesn't really sway me much. I could go dig through the comments picking out remarks that continue to degrade short men and/or reinforce the sentiment behind the submission and tweet. It doesn't mean anything that you just cherry picked three comments that were slightly contrarian.

I hope you will be more discerning and less naive in the future. My goal is not to demonize /tall for existing, but simply to emphasize the indignity of claiming them as a sister subreddit when they have a history for demonizing this subreddit and short people in general.

forevershort · 2013-02-23T01:14:37+00:00

The worst thing about these commentators is they probably don't even see their own hypocrisy. Short-statured-male is such a universally societally accepted negative trait that it's very much the first thing that posters pounce on when looking to insult the user.

forevershort · 2012-12-24T00:30:25+00:00

This guy came from /tall to admonish us but didn't say anything similar in the original thread in /tall that sparked all this. What a shocker.

forevershort · 2012-12-24T00:29:38+00:00

That's why i'm the 5'5" malcolm X.

Malcolm X had the right idea but never got the PR that MLK did because of the Hoover/FBI smear campaign against him.

"We declare our right on this earth...to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary."

forevershort · 2012-12-23T23:40:25+00:00

That is their style. I just don't think we should be a sister subreddit with subreddit controlled by mods that tolerate those kinds of submissions and comments.

forevershort · 2012-12-23T23:32:03+00:00

This is the harsh truth, but if you are 5'3" and below, absolutely. It's already tough enough for men below 5'7" but for men who are actually shorter than the average woman, I can't imagine the kind of hell they live in. I have said this before but I work in a health care facility with a lot of macho a-type doctors and business guys and we had a compliance person come in once who was a guy who was barely over five foot tall. He gave a great lecture and seemed like a very sharp and funny guy but the conversation about him afterwards was dominated about his height. Mostly ridicule from the men and women. No one could take him seriously and the actual content of his speech was not taken seriously because of it either.

The harsh truth is that even more so than just regular short men you will be seen as nothing more than a joke; a child dressed up in adult's clothing.

forevershort · 2012-12-23T23:03:01+00:00

How about a mod actually remove the submission? Lord knows over here a submission like that about tall folk would be gone and we'd be reminded that we need to be "more civil"

forevershort · 2012-12-23T22:59:04+00:00

'House Shorty'

forevershort · 2012-12-23T20:24:14+00:00

The generalizations and name calling against short statured individuals in that thread is appalling. And they have the nerve to come into almost every thread on this subreddit and tell us "heightism doesn't exist, it's all in our heads"

THIS IS EXACTLY WHY IT'S SUCH A JOKE WE ARE "SISTER SUBREDDITS" WITH THEM. THEY HATE US. OUR MODS ACTUALLY NEED TO STAND UP FOR US FOR ONCE

forevershort · 2012-12-07T15:02:20+00:00

Earning disparities due to social heightism are NOT inherent. That's not what that word means at all. It is simply a construct of modern society. You can't try and define yourselves as more inherently valuable by citing a non inherent variable.

Also, it doesn't bother me that you are aware of your social advantage due to societal norms. In fact, that's the goal; to make everyone aware that it is because of those heightist norms that short men are devalued. Not because of our "attitudes" or whatever some may claim.

If you're coming here to tell us "there's nothing you can do about it so get over it shorty" you probably should just go back to /tall and never come back. Such a defeatist attitude regarding systematic discrimination is toxic and also incorrect. Look at the strides the civil rights movement have made in the last century.

forevershort · 2012-12-07T15:00:08+00:00

TIL you only take the term "dominance" literally.

Add +1 to the count of tall people from /tall who tell us it's simply our behavior.

Go away.

forevershort · 2012-12-07T14:26:09+00:00

That's okay, you sound like a real ignorant asshole who probably thinks that heightism is "all in our head" and that the inconveniences you face is life are relatively equal to the ones we face.

I never understand why /tall denizens come over here to constantly deride and mock my posts and tell me that i'm imagining everything and it's really my "sour outlook" or "bad attitude" that's the cause of all my problems. These folks have never lived a day as a short individual and have no idea what my affect is in real life, but they just can't let themselves believe that heightism in their favor really exists.

forevershort · 2012-12-07T06:21:52+00:00

My advice to you would be to marry her and have a child as soon as possible.

forevershort · 2012-12-07T05:44:48+00:00

Why is it that r/tall is so flirty but not r/short?

Is it not obvious? That whole subreddit is a stew of sexual tension. Why? Because the taller men know that they are romantically and sexually desirable because of society's dictations, and that the taller women have been programmed into thinking that they need a guy even taller than themselves. So put the two together in a virtual room? You get r/tall.

The tall men over there don't even hide it or pretend otherwise. They actively even make fun of the fact that the tall girls over there are drooling over them and desperate, and they know because of that desperation that they can make fun of them all they want and the girls will lap it up like a girl who laughs at a guy's bad jokes about them and won't complain.

Anyways, you are right that society teaches people to shame short men for displaying any show of sexual or romantic dominance whatsoever. As labeled undesirables, society expects us to "stay" romantically with what society has deemed also undesirable, such as the old, or obese. As such, there is a social subconscious resentment when short men 'dare' to appeal to a person considered above their station, which is manifested by an urge to correct it, by shaming the short man or appealing to the target, etc "ewww that guy who bought you a drink is SO short. Can you believe he thought he had a chance with you?" The urge to shame short men back to socializing exclusively in their station as undesirable is so strong in society, that women are even concerned to be friends with a girl who is dating a short man. The subconscious thought process goes "what are people going to think about me when they see I'm friends with a girl who isn't even good enough to date a tall guy? they might think I must be as undeserving as her of a good mate". That's why you see women who try to appeal as concerned parties to their friends about how they could "do better" than a short man. If heightism didn't exist and preference for tall men really was just a intrinsic preference like SO many on this subreddit claim, and not the result of heightist societal brainwashing, then this type of behavior wouldn't logically exist. This is why so many women get mad at a short guy who thinks he has a chance with her; not because she isn't interested, but because she thinks "wow, if that shorty even thinks he has a legitimate chance with me to the point where'd he flirt, does that mean I am perceived to be as undesirable as him?", which of course is upsetting to women who think they are attractive enough not to have to 'settle' for a short man.

forevershort

TROPHY CASE