Managers and political correctness.

[DistantStar]

To me there is a degree of difference between "hard of hearing" and "deaf." Hard of hearing implies, to me, that you can hear enough for it to be useful to some degree. Deaf, again to me, implies that you pretty much can't hear anything at all, or if you can hear anything, you can't hear enough for it to be useful.

I'm 4'2". Technically, I am an honest to god dwarf, though I have a particularly rare condition that nobody -- even a lot of doctors -- has heard of. I don't much like that term. I don't like "little person" either. Either is far better than "midget," which I do consider to be at least potentially derogatory. Mostly people don't mean it that way, I know, but sometimes they do. I don't consider it PC to not use that one word, just polite. How about "f***ing short," people? I think that's an accurate description. Yeah, the f***ing short chick in softlines. That works.

I detest the "people with (blank)" terminology. Dude. I know I'm a people with. I don't need other people to affirm that because if they don't know that to begin with then they're a dumbass.

[Jester]

I agree, DS. Hell, I come from a short family. No condition, other than just being freakin' short. I am the tall one....at 5'8". No woman in my family tops 5'. Which causes some amusing conversations and comments.

MOM: "I need a tall person over here."
ME: "Why are you looking at me?"

[When I had just gotten engaged, Mom was asking about my fiancee...this was part of the converstaion...]

MOM: "How tall is she?"
ME: "5'3". 5'5" in her boots, which she wears most of the time."
MOM: "Good Lord! A giant!"

From my friend FE, who is 6'5": "In the picture on Jester's driver's license, you can see his feet!"

ME: "Women are always looking for men who are tall, dark, and handsome. I'm close. I'm short, dark, and goofy!"

I may suck at most aspects in basketball, but I can rebound with the best of them...and the way I learned the game, no blood, no foul. I have ACTUALLY had a guy I was playing against who was 6'2" complain I was playing too physical. Everyone else on the court looked at him and laughed, and told him to shut up or go put on a skirt. The prevalent philosophy being, dude...he's 5'8". How do you EXPECT him to play this tall man's game?

The point of all this is that I know I am short. I know I am a lot of things, both positive, negative, and neither. Short would be neither. So I laugh about it, and make jokes about it. Too many people, especially in this country, get their panties too in a bind about stuff that they don't need to. And from what I have seen and read in here, mostly the people getting all bent out of shape are not the people with the issues that are getting these people all bent out of shape. In the words of The Eagles, "GET OVER IT!"


Me? I'll be flirting with the short chick at Softlines.

[Broomjockey]

I've always found PC language to be disingenuous. It seems to be a way for people uncomfortable dealing with those who aren't [sarcasm] normal [/sarcasm] to assuage their guilt at being uncomfortable. Using PC language, people aren't different, they are disadvantaged.
Frankly, I prefer to describe the condition accurately. No hearing whatsoever = deaf. Some hearing = hard of hearing, etc.
I'm tall (just shy of 6'6"), does anyone refer to me as vertically advantaged? No. PC language is only used to label so-called "undesirable" traits, making it doubly evil in my mind. I'm tall, overweight, and geeky. So sue me.

[Seanette]

I agree, DS. Hell, I come from a short family. No condition, other than just being freakin' short. I am the tall one....at 5'8".

Isn't that around average height for a man? (My DH is around your height and I think of him as about average-size.)

I really like "Get Over It" myself.

[ArenaBoy]

I've always found PC language to be disingenuous.

I don't even bother with it anymore. PC language has gotten so bad that I witnessed the most hilarious thing over the summer. I was watching the news, and they did a segment on the world cup. When they were talking about the French team, they referred to the black players as African-Americans. I am sitting there, my mind trying to figure out what the heck she just said. How can they be American? THEY'RE FRENCH!!!!!!!!! That was just a prime example of how PC language is over the top.

[Jester]

Isn't that around average height for a man? (My DH is around your height and I think of him as about average-size.)

They say that 5'8" is average height for a man. Maybe in the WORLD, but in America, I find myself to usually be one of the shorter ones. Not always the shortest, but definitely toward that end of the spectrum. Amusingly, the only guy in the hotel shorter than me calls me a midget. I, of course, refer to him as a garden gnome.

As for the people referring to the black French people as African-Americans....um, if you don't want to call them black, how about, oh, I dunno, African-French? African-Franco? Afro-Franco? African-Rude? (They are French, after all.) Unless every black member of that team emigrated from America, they aren't African-Americans. And maybe I am crazy, but just a guess....not one of those black Frenchmen refers to himself or his teammates as African American.

Of course, here we are trying to insert logic into PC speak and the news. What the bloody heck are we thinking?

[Broomjockey]

Must be all the fumes from work, you've gotten a perma-buzz!
Logic + PC language does nothing but give ya headaches.

[Lace Neil Singer]

5ft 8in??? I'm 5ft 9in in flats. When I put on my platforms, I tower over a couple of the guys down my local, cuz I'm around 6ft.

I've refered to short people as midgets, dwarfs etc just in a jokey kind of way; they in return called me a giant or a skyscraper. I didn't take offence, neither did they. I exchange blonde jokes with people; I'm a natural blonde. Guys sometimes make remarks about my big boobs; I just laugh it off and say "Look, don't touch". Don't know why some people get all bent out of shape anyway; after all if you get in the first laugh, people will like you better than if you s*** bricks over what is essentially just a word.

[protege]

They say that 5'8" is average height for a man. Maybe in the WORLD, but in America, I find myself to usually be one of the shorter ones. Not always the shortest, but definitely toward that end of the spectrum. Amusingly, the only guy in the hotel shorter than me calls me a midget. I, of course, refer to him as a garden gnome.

I get *alot* of crap like that from my brothers. I'm only 5'9", and they're both over 6'. However, when I they bitch about how "small" my car is, I simply tell them that it could be worse--I *could* have picked them up in the MG...which has much less cabin room than the Mazda. Hehe I'm only a few inches shorter, yet I have plenty of room in there, even though I can't quite see the end of the long hood

[Tanasi]

They say that 5'8" is average height for a man. Maybe in the WORLD, but in America, I find myself to usually be one of the shorter ones. Not always the shortest, but definitely toward that end of the spectrum. Amusingly, the only guy in the hotel shorter than me calls me a midget. I, of course, refer to him as a garden gnome.

As for the people referring to the black French people as African-Americans....um, if you don't want to call them black, how about, oh, I dunno, African-French? African-Franco? Afro-Franco? African-Rude? (They are French, after all.) Unless every black member of that team emigrated from America, they aren't African-Americans. And maybe I am crazy, but just a guess....not one of those black Frenchmen refers to himself or his teammates as African American.

Of course, here we are trying to insert logic into PC speak and the news. What the bloody heck are we thinking?

A guy I grew up with was 5'7" in sixth grade, he was a giant, unfortunately that's as tall as he got. We reminise about the days when he used to be a giant. Now I refer to him as the world's shortest giant or the world's tallest midget (no offense meant). I think average heigth in America is between 5'10" and 6'. My 12yo son is 6'2" and 230#, he older brother is even biggest, I guess I fed them too well.

A solution to the French thing, call them all frogs, problem solved.
All the black people I know refer to themselves as either black or negro. I was wondering how black folks in other countries refer to themselves?

[Banrion]

When they were talking about the French team, they referred to the black players as African-Americans.

I could be wrong here, but if I remember my french classes correctly, I believe the majority of black frenchman are actually Senegalese or descendants thereof. So they would be Franco-senegalese.

5ft 8in??? I'm 5ft 9in in flats. When I put on my platforms, I tower over a couple of the guys down my local, cuz I'm around 6ft.

I am 6' in flats, and anywhere from 6'2"-6'4" in heels. My b/f is 5'8" and we get no end of stares and comments when out together. At least he finds it amusing, and when they get really obnoxious out at the bars or what not, he just tells em "The other 9" is hiding in my pants"

[DGoddessChardonnay]

[quote=Banrion;35579
I am 6' in flats, and anywhere from 6'2"-6'4" in heels. My b/f is 5'8" and we get no end of stares and comments when out together. At least he finds it amusing, and when they get really obnoxious out at the bars or what not, he just tells em "The other 9" is hiding in my pants"[/quote]



Beautiful comeback. I'm sure the recipient's face was priceless.

[Lace Neil Singer]

It's certainly true that short men are often well hung.

[Jester]

Hehe I'm only a few inches shorter, yet I have plenty of room in there, even though I can't quite see the end of the long hood

Despite being 5'8", I do a few things "tall." For instance, my bicycle is designed for someone taller. When I was shopping for a new one, they sales people would size me up, and show me something far too small for MY personal preference or comfort, something I would consider a toy. And I would test ride something designed for someone 6' tall, just as the bike I finally settled on is. I also find it amusing when one of my taller friends is driving a vehicle after I have, be it mine or otherwise, and they find they have to pull the seat forward. The look of abject confusion on their faces is priceless.

A guy I grew up with was 5'7" in sixth grade, he was a giant, unfortunately that's as tall as he got.

My mom towered over everyone in her 5th grade class at 5' tall.
My mom is now in her seventies, and is still a towering....5' tall.
Nature can be cruel.

It's certainly true that short men are often well hung.

At this time, I would like to invoke my Fifth Amendment rights and refuse to answer that question, Senator.

[Worker-Intellectual]

Jann Arden was offended? Did they make fun of her or something?

A while back they had her on her show and pissed her off somehow... I think they kept interrupting her with the chicken cannon while she was singing or something