Ok, that’s clear. What about the fax?
I sent it to you. If you didn’t get it that implies that you aren’t actually you. It’s now your turn to supply medical records.
Sorry, but I checked all available phone lines, cell and voip accounts, all urls, email accounts, and IPs of computers that you could have intended to send a fax to, but none were receieved. Come up with the medical records, or admit that the actor is not any taller than Gimli actually was.
Reread what you quoted.
I’m short (5’6"/5’7"), and I’ve never felt particularly discriminated against. I’ve dated plenty of women who were taller than I am, and never noticed my height affecting my job prospects. In my experience, not being an asshole gets you farther than most other factors in life.
Ok, I wasted less than a second doing that. It changes nothing. Which is also the amount of sense it makes. You may have inferred something from something, but what you stated implies only that you have no medical records, and did not send them anywhere. If somewhere in your mind you believe that I am not me, you are wrong. I am me. Nobody knows me as well as me, and I checked with him, and he confirmed that I am me. If you are referring to a different you than me from your perspective, than you are just confused and should look to yourself to see why.
Not if you do it right.
Have fun with that.
That implies that the actor is no taller than the actual dwarf.
I think we’d all be assuming that NEITHER the tall man nor the short man in a given situation is being an asshole. I imagine taking a shower, shaving, and not dropping your pants and peeing on the floor would improve ones job prospects, too. What’s your point?
I think it’s a no-brainer that short men are discriminated against in certain arenas. Like dating. Tall height is often one of those “must haves” for picky women, just like weight is for picky men.
But besides instilling a sense of decency and fairness in people from an early age–and nipping bullying in the bud as soon as it rears its ugly head (which I can’t see happening any time soon)–I can’t see this type of discrimination ever going away. People will always discriminate against each other for stupid reasons. For instance, we all know ugly people get discriminated against all the time, and while we recognize this is unfair, we also know that you can’t make people accept ugly people the same exact way they accept beautiful people. Sad to say, but if you’re a short ugly person, you’d be better off getting lifts and plastic surgery than pining away for the same treatment that tall, beautiful people get. Ain’t. Gonna. Happen.
I have to admit, when I entered this thread I thought it was going to be a discussion about “little people” being discriminated against, rather than men who are just a couple of inches shy of the average. When you look at it in that light, it does sound like the OP is making light of “real” discrimination. But that also sounds like a mean thing to say. Pain is pain.
By the way, I’ve had two male bosses in my adult life who were short men. Both were probably around the neighborhood of 5’6", or at least short enough for me to notice the height difference between us (I’m a 5’7" female). Both guys were very successful in their careers. I have never observed short men having more personality flaws than their tall counterparts. But if they have them, I’m betting they are due to the way people treat short people, rather than some inherent quality of short people.
However, I think there comes a point in life when you have to stop comparing yourself to what others have and become content with what you have. If you have all your civil rights, few to no worries of violence and acts of humiliation, and a reasonable expectation that you can reach your career goals through hard work, then–in my very humble opinion–you are good to go in this life. There is ALWAYS going to be some group of people who have an unfair and undeserved advantage. Bitching about it isn’t going to improve your quality of life.
I disagree. Sure, you don’t want to make people defensive by being rude about it, but if you are discriminated against unfairly, you do need to let people know. Since you’re the one experiencing the discrimination, you are the one most likely to actually say something about it. Sure, it may not improve my quality of life, but it might improve the quality of life of others like me.
I will continue to point out that the harmless mentally ill are discriminated against.
IME one career where heightism’s impacts seem to be much lessened, maybe even nonexistent, is Engineering. I’ve met plenty of short men, even shorter than me, in very senior positions, up to the VP level and such. Further, I’ve never in my life heard a negative comment towards a short person, except good-natured joking between friends. I suppose I can attribute this to the fact that Engineers are quite a bit smarter and better educated than the public at large.
However, once you get to the President/CEO level there does seem to be a definite strong trend towards being taller than normal.
Further, overweight people are just not mocked by Engineers I’ve met. This could be because a shockingly large number of folks who work at power plants are overweight or even obese. I’d say the mean BMI of power plant control room operators has to above 35. And racism seems to be rare.
That aside, I will admit IME sexism, rabid homophobia, and religious intolerance are much more likely than average to find among Engineers.
Heightism in dating is seriously problematic IMO - through my door I hear the women at my office nearly every day talk to my secretary about men and how tall they are, about how “so and so is soooooo sweet, and he’s got a good career - but I don’t want short kids.” Really, in exactly those words - “I don’t want short kids.” Or they worry about how “I’d go out with them, but I couldn’t wear heels, or else everyone would laugh”, or “how could I dance with them; they’re shorter than me!” etc. Heightism among these sorts of women - who sometimes go out of their way to tell everyone on a daily basis how “tolerant” and “open minded” they are - is as ingrained as anything.
That’s how I’ve always seen it. I’m a 5’4" ABC and I long ago accepted that those are two things I never had a choice about or can change so it’s a non-issue. I take care of the things I can affect about myself and that’s the best I can do. I’m a good person; everyone who meets me likes me. I was always the shortest boy in school but I never had a problem with it; I hung out with the cool kids and the rare attempts by others at bullying me were promptly met with my knee to their grill. I have a good job, a nice home, and a gorgeous, intelligent woman to share it with. People who have a problem with my (or their) height, well that’s their problem.
Their loss.
I know a woman who screens men by their height and takes it quite seriously. If they aren’t at least 5’9" (and even that’s pushing it, she says), then she won’t give them the time of day.
She’s also a celebrity “gusher”. She loves to talk about how gorgous all these celebrity guys are–people I don’t even know because they’re in soap operas. You’d think she was in the 7th grade or something.
So I like to look up the height of her fantasy lovers using the internet. There have been more than a few that I do not reach her height requirement, much to her disappointment (as if she even had a shot in the first place!)
Then she complains about the lack of “good” guys and about how she’ll die a lonely old spinster. :rolleyes:
So you’re right, DCnDC. It is her lost. Why would anyone even want to be with someone as superficial as that?
I’m not saying turn the other cheek in the face of blatant discrimination. But I can’t imagine a whole lot of situations where a person will KNOW they lost a job simply because they are 5’9" rather than 6’2". Maybe if I were 4’5", my paranoia would be warranted. But 5’9"? The amount of discrimination you encounter when you’re average is so low that you’re probably wasting your time even thinking about it.
The mentally ill ARE discriminated against, but in terms of employment and civil rights, they do have the law to protect them. It’s unfortunate that people say “don’t stick your dick in the crazy” and everyone talks about how “crazy” so-and-so is, but it’s also unfortunate the people say things like “She’s so ugly you have to put two paper bags over her head when you sleep with her!” All you can do is take your lot in life and do the best with what you have. “Pointing out” the obvious does not really change the world.
As a short guy the only time I feel minor soul crushing is with women. But that’s a purely emotional response. All else being equal, it really makes zero sense for a woman to want to have sex with a short guy. As alluded to earlier, having short sons is putting a needless handicap on your genetic line. Although the dynamics are a little different, I’m sure women feel similar emotions when they see another woman grabbing the majority of male attention because she has long legs or big boobs or whatever. People come like this out of the factory, so there’s no sense wringing your hands over it.
My advice, only half joking: asians and latinas.
That’s a little off. I’m a heightist, despite being short. If I break it down objectively I can catch myself but the intuition that taller people are more serious or are better leaders is very strong.
I think it breaks at the sex divide though. Men don’t really care about a woman’s height until she’s taller than he is, then he feels uncomfortable. Maybe it comes into play in leadership roles but any effect there is swamped by just the fact she’s a woman in the first place.
Gladwell deals with this in Blink and argues that at least there is a plausible reason for the lack of women and minorities as fortune 500 CEOs currently. The systemic discrimination over the previous decades have left few women and minorities, currently, with the experience necessary to be CEOs. That would assume that if we fixed this problem (and it seems we have with women at least, as they are going to college and succeeding there considerably above men) that in the future this will change.
But, the fact that as of the time of his analysis there were only ten CEOs below 5’6" (hardly tiny), means that this discrimination is simply inherent and not going anywhere.
Handicap? In what way is being below average height a handicap?
It isn’t.