Heh, no. I am pocket sized, so I look up at pretty much anyone besides my wife (but I did date several women taller than myself). When I was a kid and played football, I played tackle or guard on the offensive line. I found that defensive players who were taller than me were particularly easy to hit so they would stand up straight and then I could pretty much drive them anywhere I wanted to on the field while I leaned into them. A short guy who weighed as much as me, he could be an actual problem.
So yeah, it’s really a “the taller they come, the harder they fall” situation with me most of the time. Of course, my 6’4" (a good foot taller than me, at least) ex-roommate and current guitarist is someone I look up to. He’s usually far kinder than I am (and a little less vindictive when you actually do piss him off), and a better guitarist to boot.
Ah, but why envy them? Is it not because other humans (mostly subconsciously) treat them as if they are more worthy of attention or something?
I have argued in the past that the leadership and CEO height disparity (a large percentage are taller than average) is due to the fact that they were tall when they were kids. Boys who are tall are treated as if they are older than they are, and thus required to mature and accept responsibility earlier in a hundred tiny ways. They are more likely to be put in charge by adults and kids alike. More likely to be placed in star positions on sports teams, and overall to have more expected of them.
But over the years I’ve come to believe that this does not end with childhood. It’s not everybody, but some people do continue to assume maturity and wisdom from taller people, just as we did when we were children. Taller = (more) adult is not always a conscious construction; it’s innate.
Doesn’t affect me, of course. I am much too intelligent and evolved to fall prey to such instincts.
My instinct is to say no, of course I don’t, but.. I had an early growth spurt and I’m taller than average for a woman. I was literally a head taller than all the other kids at my primary school. I have a vivid memory of being around 10 or 11 and being told off by my teacher when I suddenly realised that she was having to look upwards to look me in the eye and I found it really hard to not start giggling at someone shorter than me bossing me around.
So I guess subconsciously I still probably do associate shorter people with people I don’t have to take so seriously, however wrong that is. Like.. it’s not as though they can physically make me do stuff like someone bigger than me can.
The Freakonomics guys examined this, and came to pretty much this conclusion.
They wanted to explain the $1,000 per inch correlation between height and annual income for men between 5’6" and 6’.
They analyzed it by looking at not just correlation between a man’s income and height as an adult, but also his income and height as an adolescent.
And they found that a man who was tall among his peers as an adolescent but average as an adult earned the same as a tall adult man. And that a man who was short as an adolescent but grew to be tall as an adult earned the same as a short man.
So they concluded that the correlation between income and height could not be attributed to ongoing discrimination (conscious or subconscious), because an employer (or peer) wouldn’t know how tall a man had been as an adolescent.
The Freakonomics guys might counter that the height/income correlation is due to the greater skills learned by taller men while growing up, which they apply as adults. As opposed to ongoing discrimination in their favor.
I’ve told part of this story on these boards before, but it may bear repeating.
I was a college kid chosen for a jury (criminal case). We got into the jury room and someone said “We need a foreman.” “Let’s make the tallest person the foreman,” said somebody else. I looked at Mr. Hennessey, who I thought was the tallest by an inch or two, but everybody else looked at me. So, I was foreman. An “honor” which I had not anticipated even a little bit.
I suspect the speaker thought they were being random, like saying “First surname in alphabetical order” or “Last birthday in the year.” But it wasn’t as random as all that, given that men tend to be taller than women. And I don’t imagine that anyone would have said, “Okay, let’s make the shortest person the foreman.”
