Just because a group of people believe something doesn't make it right
or true.
Reality is, shoulder length hair
isn't long, despite the fact that so many black people have convinced themselves that it is.
But gradable adjectives like "long", "short", "big", "small", "short", "fat", etc. are notoriously subjective and context-dependent. So for these things I generally wouldn't say that there even
is a "true" short or long. It's going to have to be evaluated in context of those around you. Like that particular group of Chinese women who all grow very long hair traditionally (wish I could remember the group) might think anything shorter than wl is short and I'm not going to say that is flat out "false" so much as I'd say for
my surroundings and upbringing it's not true.
eta: see, guess i shoulda read before writing, kels had already said it:
I don't think it's necessarily that the standard should be lowered. But 90% is the majority. So that 10% is usually something special that you aren't used to seeing. Whether the potential is there or not.
Our perception is determined by our reality. If my reality is that I'm surrounded by tall people, then someone who is 6'3 isn't really that tall in my perception. But if my reality is that I'm surrounded by short people, 6'3 is a friggin giant.
Hope this made sense.
but yeah, sl is short, apl medium, bsl is long. generally. the fuller the cut, the longer i consider it (because it is, right, the sides have to be actually longer to get a blunt cut vs. a v). But this is for straight hair. even though i do the "pull the hair thing", my hair always feels short because it is natural and the 99.999% of the time that i'm not pulling on my hair
it is around shoulder length or higher. my hair gets bigger or smaller more than it gets longer or shorter, haha.