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Limb lengthening surgery is becoming more popular

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Re: Limb lengthening surgery is becoming more popular

#101

Post by xvector »

omginternets wrote: post #53
chrischen wrote: post #35

> “Don’t be so sure of yourself, short man!” The problem is that it's still socially acceptable to see short stature as some objective faux-pas. There's really no difference between a person proudly declaring they only like "white" people and a person declaring they only like "tall" people. If the guy said "Don't be so sure of yourself, black man" maybe it would have been acceptable in the 1920s, but it surely isn't…

>There's really no difference between a person proudly declaring they only like "white" people and a person declaring they only like "tall" people. I get where you're coming from -- criticizing people for what they are, rather than for what they do, is exceedingly unfair -- but I can think of at least three important differences, chief among which are: 1. The shortness of men (barring outright dwarfism) has never bee…

no one is comparing the historical treatment of short people to slaves; they are comparing how preference for some unchangeable attributes are somehow acceptable but preference for others are not.

you are forcing additional context where there is none.

Re: Limb lengthening surgery is becoming more popular

#103

Post by Teever »

sonicggg wrote: post #51
chrischen wrote: post #35

> “Don’t be so sure of yourself, short man!” The problem is that it's still socially acceptable to see short stature as some objective faux-pas. There's really no difference between a person proudly declaring they only like "white" people and a person declaring they only like "tall" people. If the guy said "Don't be so sure of yourself, black man" maybe it would have been acceptable in the 1920s, but it surely isn't…

You're comparing apples to oranges. Not trying to guess your height, but it seems you got personally attacked by the fact that society in general looks down on short guys. Different from skin colour, there's an evolutionary trait to height preference. Studies have shown that heterosexual women prefer partners taller than them. It's understandable this subconscious bias. And what seems like discrimination, it's just a…

> Different from skin colour, there's an evolutionary trait to height preference.

Does this difference exist? I recall studies that showed that babies are afraid of people who look very different from them and their family members. As such I was under the impression that there was a genetic basis for discrimination of people based on some outward difference in appearance like skin colour that was due to people having an inherent distrust in the 'other.'

If that's the case it's not unreasonable to desire that society progress in a way that mitigate these biases against short people in the same way that we desire that society progresses in a way that mitigate biases against people of colour.

> Similarly, men have always shown preference to larger breasts and hips, signs of fertility. We can't, even shouldn't, shut down our instincts due to politically correctness.

What kinds of things that you feel are due to an instinctual bias to discriminate against short people, and why should we not attempt to shut down this discrimination? If your children were short and they felt like they were discriminated against for being that way, what sort of advice would you give them?

Re: Limb lengthening surgery is becoming more popular

#104

Post by Jtsummers »

paulpauper wrote: post #79

yeah but your arms will now appear short

Not if the lengthening is in the legs and only 2-3 inches. Your torso may appear short when compared to the legs (but probably not at just 2-3 inches), but the arm length's appropriateness to body size is more often going to be based on comparison to the torso itself. People don't normally fold up so their arms and legs are near enough to make a proper comparison.

Re: Limb lengthening surgery is becoming more popular

#105

Post by robotresearcher »

_vdpp wrote: post #91

Being tall isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Always hitting your head on things, and being short of breath all the time because the air is thinner up there.

Unable to buy pants, kitchens and bathrooms are too short so cooking and washing dishes are back-aching activities. Economy seating in airplanes is almost impossible. Vacuum cleaner handle not long enough. Few car brands have seats that go back far enough.

It’s very hard to buy a bicycle.

Nothing terrible, just annoyances. No big deal compared to dumb social prejudice against shorter men.

Re: Limb lengthening surgery is becoming more popular

#106

Post by mellosouls »

Avicebron wrote: post #74

I mean women suffer from this too, my gf is 5.1 and constantly complains about not finding things in her size, not being able to reach stuff, so I mean, i suppose it is a real disadvantage I can imagine how humilitating it must feel if someone has to get a milkcrate to put in your garage so you can reach a shelf.

For "normal" shortness (eg non-dwarfism), there is no way women generally have a comparable negative experience to men (that is not to comment in any way on the many other prejudices women face); the latter have a significant part of their social place and psychological health influenced by it.

Re: Limb lengthening surgery is becoming more popular

#107

Post by messe »

rootusrootus wrote: post #60
ReactiveJelly wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to get a few letters of sanity to get genital surgery. It'll probably turn out the same with stuff like this.

I know it's not what you're referring to, but I just have to say that the first doctor to figure out a really plausible way to add a couple inches of penis length without serious side effects is going to be very wealthy.

They’ll have a hard time marketing it though (no pun intended), given the state of spam filtering.

Re: Limb lengthening surgery is becoming more popular

#108

Post by daenz »

chrischen wrote: post #35

> “Don’t be so sure of yourself, short man!” The problem is that it's still socially acceptable to see short stature as some objective faux-pas. There's really no difference between a person proudly declaring they only like "white" people and a person declaring they only like "tall" people. If the guy said "Don't be so sure of yourself, black man" maybe it would have been acceptable in the 1920s, but it surely isn't…

Yep. Nobody wants to talk about it, but the amount of abuse that is directed from otherwise-socially-conscious women towards short men is pretty disgusting. It's extremely common for groups of women to laugh at and deride short men, both online and publicly in real life. It's eye-opening. (And before you ask, no I am not short, I've just witnessed the abuse first hand).

Re: Limb lengthening surgery is becoming more popular

#109

Post by PretzelPirate »

omginternets wrote: post #78
thaumasiotes wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me?

You seem to be defending the thesis in the original comment, so yes.

I think you may have misunderstood the OP and didn’t align with the HN rules of assuming the best meaning.

They didn’t equate racism and discrimination based on height, they said that there’s no difference in someone discriminating based on that - meaning discriminating based on something that wasn’t a choice and cannot reasonably be changed.

Re: Limb lengthening surgery is becoming more popular

#110

Post by chrischen »

Brybry wrote: post #95
sonicggg wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're comparing apples to oranges. Not trying to guess your height, but it seems you got personally attacked by the fact that society in general looks down on short guys. Different from skin colour, there's an evolutionary trait to height preference. Studies have shown that heterosexual women prefer partners taller than them. It's understandable this subconscious bias. And what seems like discrimination, it's just a…

"just a natural product" is an argument that has been used for racism as well. White people claimed to be naturally superior to black people which is one way they falsely justified slavery. See "appeal to nature" fallacy. Obviously taller men are naturally superior to shorter men and so it's just natural that they make more money. /sarcasm And saying men have always shown a preference for larger breasts is begging th…

Yes thank you! My whole argument is that we should reconsider the ingrained belief that short == bad and is some natural truth.

Also I would like to add that not even all cultures like big asses. Some even find the practice of injecting cement into buttocks (to enlarge them) to be repulsive. Different cultures have different preferences. Heck, different cultures can even be sensitive to different colors in their eyes[1].

Once people open their eyes and broaden their minds they'll see that perceptions are extremely malleable.

Height didn't work out for the dinosaurs, and being small works great for the cockroach. There is no objective short == bad in reality.

[1] https://gondwana-collection.com/blog/how-do-namibian-himbas-...

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