If a man used a few (or even many) bad experiences with women to justify a sexist worldview, I doubt anyone would buy that (even if all these experiences really happened). When it comes to height, I've seen even other short people saying, "well, maybe if short men didn't offend people, people wouldn't hate short men."
Crazy, only because this excuse is very prevalent and socially acceptable, as if it's a display of great logic:
- "Some short man beat me up, now I hate all short men."
- Some short guy I dated was insecure about his height, now I dislike all short men."
- "Some short man said something I didn't like and failed to address me like I'm their master, fuck them all."
- "I don't have to stop hating short men, short men should stop confirming these stereotypes."
This excuse literally does not work with any other group.
- "I've run into numerous rude women. Now I hate women. One can never tell when the PMS types show up..."
- "Hey guys, this one flat-chested girl cheated on me. Let's start a hate-fest against all small-breasted women!"
- "Ran into some tall guys who were total bullies. Now I hate all tall men. Can't help it."
Would others join me to shit on these groups, the way they band together to hate on short men? I wouldn't bet on it.
Hell, there's way more science behind the PMS thing than any short man stereotype, yet I doubt most people these days would tolerate me labeling numerous women with PMS. That's because most people don't care about discrimination, they only care about political correctness, which is why even things like "fat-shaming" are taken more seriously than height discrimination.
Some of the most heightist people I've ever seen hide behind egalitarian fronts, not because they care about hurting others, but because they want social brownie points. Since heightism is socially encouraged, and these people seek social validation, why wouldn't they target short men? They're only cooler that way.
These people condemn using stereotypes as insults, unless it's against short men, then they even partake in it themselves. "Hey, don't randomly accuse that Asian person of eating dogs, that's rude! Oh wait, you look kind of short... Must be short man syndrome."
Simply put: if some guy had sexist worldviews, then women are obligated to watch their mouths around him, or else they're validating his hatred. Correct?
Nope. This only works against short men.
I'll have some longer posts on this topic (using stereotypes and confirmation bias to justify bigotry): Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
