Friday, August 31, 2012

2013 Protest Cancelled

NOSSA is sorry to report that plans for the 2013 protest in Washington, D.C. have been cancelled. The reason for the cancellation is due to a lack of interest from the short statured community. We appreciate and thank the folks who did respond and were willing to participate. We hope to organize similar events in the future, however we need a minimum number of confirmed participants in order to host an event. We encourage our members and supporters to take an active role with the organization and our programs and events.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Post your height

Sunday, August 05, 2012

Prejudice or Preference? - One man's opinion

I have been looking at the attitudes of many different types of women from different cultures regarding the preference versus prejudice debate and I am inclined to believe that this is prejudice (heightism). Dictionary.com defines "prefer" as "to set or hold before or above other persons or things in estimation; like better; choose rather than." Prejudice is defined as "An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts." So we have to ask ourselves why do these women prefer tall men? What exactly influences them to favor tall men over short men? Many of these women who refuse to date short men have responded to these questions quite bluntly on social media websites such as twitter. Their answers reflect the seeds of prejudice...stereotypes about short men and prejudgments that are often inaccurate. For example, some claim that all short men have a "napoleon complex" and are angry and aggressive all the time; some women claim that tall men are smarter or nicer; Some women believe that tall men can protect them better than a short man; Others feel that a tall man makes them feel more feminine; This tendency to "prefer" tall men is based in its root in stereotypes and prejudiced beliefs. I think these women use the preference thing to justify themselves and make themselves feel as if there actions and beliefs towards short men are OK. Likewise, I think it is weightism for a short man to hold similar types of beliefs about overweight women. Of course people are free to be attracted to whomever they choose and for whatever reasons. But these people also ought not mislabel this phenomenon as "preference". It is "prejudice" that makes them feel the way that they do and this prejudice has a name.....heightism.
 

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