{"id":45563,"date":"2012-03-10T12:14:48","date_gmt":"2012-03-10T17:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=45563"},"modified":"2012-03-08T18:30:54","modified_gmt":"2012-03-08T23:30:54","slug":"a-more-nuanced-look-at-death-from-below","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2012\/03\/10\/a-more-nuanced-look-at-death-from-below\/","title":{"rendered":"A More Nuanced Look at “Death From Below”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year we uncritically posted a spoken word poetry performance about prejudice against short men<\/a>. \u00a0Geoffrey Arnold, who uses his blog,\u00a0The Social Complex<\/a>, to highlight heightism, had this to say<\/a> about our tacit approval…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve gotten some e-mails and criticism lately for an entry on this blog which was recently featured on the\u00a0Sociological Images<\/a>\u00a0website.\u00a0 In this entry, I posted a video of a Def Poetry Slam entitled \u201cDeath From Below<\/em>\u201d and asked the rhetorical question whether the video depicted \u201cShort guys making fools of themselves?\u00a0 Or poetry with a message, delivered through humor?\u201d\u00a0 I should have elaborated further, but I neglected to at the time.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

The problem with Dan Sully & Tim Staffor\u2019s poetry slam about being short is that it does not clearly convey the message that heightism is wrong.\u00a0 In fact, as one commenter put it, the pair seem only to perpetuate numerous false stereotypes about short men.\u00a0 Quite simply, the commentary which may underline their performance is too subtle for a general audience.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They are humiliating themselves and their bodies for the entertainment of others.\u00a0 Any point which they are trying to make (and I\u2019m not so sure that there is a point here) is lost in their performance.\u00a0 Additionally, beyond their performance itself, some of their comments actually have the effect of supporting heightism instead of undermining it (\u201clittle man complex\u201d as motivation for being healthy and \u201ccan\u2019t date girls in heels people\u201d).<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 There is already a stigma against short men as people who are not to be taken seriously and so it doesn\u2019t help when a short man publicly presents his body as a target for ridicule.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Geoffrey Arnold is an associate with a mid-sized corporate law firm\u2019s Business Litigation Practice Group.\u00a0\u00a0When Geoffrey isn\u2019t 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:\u00a0The Social Complex<\/a>. \u00a0See also Geoffrey\u2019s guest post introducing the concept of\u00a0heightism as a gendered prejudice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year we uncritically posted a spoken word poetry performance about prejudice against short men. \u00a0Geoffrey Arnold, who uses his blog,\u00a0The Social Complex, to highlight heightism, had this to say about our tacit approval… \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 I\u2019ve gotten some e-mails and criticism lately for an entry on this blog which was recently featured on the\u00a0Sociological […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[55,2087,2098,283],"class_list":["post-45563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gender","tag-gender-masculinity","tag-gender-prejudicediscrimination","tag-prejudicediscrimination"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45563"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45567,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45563\/revisions\/45567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}