Body positivity is such a strange concept to me. There’s efforts to reclaim words while simultaneously calling them bad if used as an insult. Ideally, people wouldn’t be offended by someone describing their body with common descriptors, but socially there is so much value attributed to certain body types that it’s almost impossible to avoid having an emotional response of some kind to various descriptors.

For example, It’s not bad to be fat, but calling someone “fat” is almost universally considered a bad thing. The same definitely seems to go for the idea of being “short.”

I’m asking this question because I can’t put my finger on why but something seems to be different about the use of the term “short” from the use of the term “fat.” I think that part of it is how, to me at least, the term “fat” is so generic and hard to nail down to a discrete definition, implying that the word really doesn’t have a clear connection to reality. On the other hand, height is a single-dimensional number. You either are above a certain threshold, or you aren’t.

I recently learned that May 6th to May 10th is “short king week” because it’s 5’6" to 5’10" which then prompted me to search for the origins of “short king” and apparently the person most-credited with popularizing the term is Jaboukie Young-White who claims the term was meant to include all men under 6 feet tall. The average adult male height is 5’9" leaving men considered roughly average to be called “short” which is still considered an insult by many.

I dunno. As a term that was intended to champion body positivity compared with how the term is actually used, what do you think of “short king?”

  • Dr. JenkemA
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    6 months ago

    Do you have any platonic relationships? Like family or friends? Are these relationships transactional for you as well?

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      There are people who have some of the same ancestors as me that I hear from once every couple of years when they need some furniture moved.

      • Dr. JenkemA
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        6 months ago

        Damn that’s sad to hear man.

        I think I now understand why you believe women are only interested in extracting value out of you. It’s because that’s how you’ve been treated. And further, you’ve accepted this as a universal truth. And when entering new relationships yourself, you start with the question, what value can I extract from this other person? That’s probably why you don’t have any male friends, because you can’t extract any value from them. And you self-select for romantic relationships in the same way. You’re stuck in a cycle. If you remain set in your view that relationships are transactional, it’s hard to imagine you ever experiencing one that is not.