Earlier this year we uncritically posted a spoken word poetry performance about prejudice against short men. Geoffrey Arnold, who uses his blog, The Social Complex, to highlight heightism, had this to say about our tacit approval…
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I’ve gotten some e-mails and criticism lately for an entry on this blog which was recently featured on the Sociological Images website. In this entry, I posted a video of a Def Poetry Slam entitled “Death From Below” and asked the rhetorical question whether the video depicted “Short guys making fools of themselves? Or poetry with a message, delivered through humor?” I should have elaborated further, but I neglected to at the time.
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The problem with Dan Sully & Tim Staffor’s poetry slam about being short is that it does not clearly convey the message that heightism is wrong. In fact, as one commenter put it, the pair seem only to perpetuate numerous false stereotypes about short men. Quite simply, the commentary which may underline their performance is too subtle for a general audience. Instead of standing up for those who are the targets of height bigotry, it seems to me that these two are basically playing the role of the short male buffoon. They are humiliating themselves and their bodies for the entertainment of others. Any point which they are trying to make (and I’m not so sure that there is a point here) is lost in their performance. Additionally, beyond their performance itself, some of their comments actually have the effect of supporting heightism instead of undermining it (“little man complex” as motivation for being healthy and “can’t date girls in heels people”).
Just the fact that they attempted to deliver their message through comedy is troubling when one considers that other groups rarely engage in this sort of behavior. There is already a stigma against short men as people who are not to be taken seriously and so it doesn’t help when a short man publicly presents his body as a target for ridicule.
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Geoffrey Arnold is an associate with a mid-sized corporate law firm’s Business Litigation Practice Group. When Geoffrey isn’t chasing Billable Hours in the defense of white-collar criminals, he is most likely writing about social justice with a special emphasis on height discrimination at his blog: The Social Complex. See also Geoffrey’s guest post introducing the concept of heightism as a gendered prejudice.
Comments 18
El Guapo — March 11, 2012
oh god give them a break. I thought it was brilliant!
G — March 11, 2012
Too short: get leg/limb lengthening. Check out www.MakeMeTaller.com
Sunnysay — March 12, 2012
"Just the fact that they attempted to deliver their message through comedy is troubling when one considers that other groups rarely engage in this sort of behavior."
You're kidding, right?
You seem to be suggesting that other minority groups don't humorously lampoon stereotypes about them in order to make a point, which...really?
LeShives — March 12, 2012
Why does it need to include an informative message? Every time I've seen that particular performance I haven't thought that they were making a mockery of themselves. They're standing there demanding to not be ignored and saying that they're just as much of a man as someone tall. To call them buffoons and say they're humiliating themselves for entertainment is rude. Your comment that other groups rarely use humor to convey messages is misguided. Your alternate example of "Full Body Potential" isn't even in the same ballpark of Slam Poetry as "Death From Below".
You talk about their points being too subtle for general audiences but this was a piece performed in front a very specific audience that's accustomed to confronting various '-isms' in a myriad of ways.
These are two man broadcasting their point of view on a subject that's personal to them in the way they felt like it needed to be done. Your criticism of them is ridiculous.
Tim — June 8, 2012
Hey Gang,
My name is Tim Stafford and this discussion was just pointed out to me. As the principal author of this work, I'll address a few things. First of all, this poem was written to be funny. We like doing that kind of stuff.
I wrote the first version of this around 2003. It was a satirical response to a lot of over dramatic, generically political work that was prevalent in the poetry slam scene. Plus, we have a lot of tall friends and wanted to mess with them.
Since around 2002 I've been working as an artist and educator in Chicago's worst neighborhoods. I have students who suffer immeasurably due to their socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. As a white male who was born with all the privilege that goes along with it, I have never viewed my "suffering" as a short person to be anything close to what my students and their families go through.
That being said, we did include some parts toward the end that mention the statistics about short people getting paid less but HBO had to fit a 3 minute poem in a 2 minute slot so some parts got cut.
I still get emails and facebook messages from people who see the video on Youtube and are excited about it. A lot along the lines of "Thanks. I'm 5'2 and my best friend is 6'7. I feel your pain!" (from an actual email). Maybe we're not getting the word about heightism out there, but have made a lot of short people feel rad about being short.
Sorry this poem isn't what people want it to be. We wrote it when we were young and were lucky enough that people wanted to see it. I'm very proud of it still.