# vertically challenged **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 28, 2003, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718 "2003-04-28T17:21:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![captainQwark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@captainQwark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/captainQwark)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2003, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718/1 "2003-04-28T17:21:14Z")
was the term vertically challenged really used for short people, or is it some parody of PC terms? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718/2 "2003-04-28T17:24:06Z")
A parody, surely. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2003, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718/3 "2003-04-28T17:31:41Z")
I hear they prefer “undertall.” ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2003, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718/4 "2003-04-28T17:35:42Z")
I dunno, but I suspect this and many other terms supposedly espoused by PC types came from or were riffs upon ‘The Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook’ by H. Beard and C. Cerf. Beard is (partly) responsible for such things as _Bored of the Rings_ and Miss Piggy. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2003, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718/5 "2003-04-28T17:48:05Z")
It was _meant_ as a parody, although I’m sure some dipshit or other has used it in all seriousness. The only time I’ve ever personally heard it used was either in anti-PC rants ("Well, let’s not stop there! Short people are vertically challenged. Fat people are horizontally challenged. Bitches with PMS are hormonally challenged…) or in jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2003, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718/6 "2003-04-28T20:04:53Z")
I’m short and I have been known to refer to myself as being vertically challenged in converstaions. I have always used it as a joke, along with my threat to sue the city for building the sidewalks too close to my ass. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718/7 "2003-04-28T21:02:47Z")
It’s a joke. I’m short. I’ve always been short, and never ‘vertically challenged.’ Even for people shorter than me (only two inches shorter, alas,) the preferred alternative to ‘dwarf’ is ‘little person,’ not ‘vertically challenged.’ I love it when people think jokes are true. Except when they then try to act on that belief. Then it’s just annoying. ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2003, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718/8 "2003-04-28T21:13:08Z")
When the problem of “political correctness” was an especially popular subject for public hand-wringing (that is, when it was politically correct to be against being politically correct), the series **Murphy Brown** did an episode on the subject. Towards the end the members of the FYI staff attended a public forum where various people aired their grievances about how one group or another was, they felt, treated unfairly in the media. For instance, a Native American complained about the Atlanta Braves. Towards the end the moderator recognized “the tall woman in the back” or words to that effect. The woman then went on a long, humorless diatribes about various words which she felt should be stricken from the language, and concluded by saying “and I’m not tall, I’m vertically challenged”. While I certainly can’t claim this was the first use of the phrase, I suspect that this incident, and maybe a few others like it, gave the saying its widespread currency. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2003, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718/9 "2003-04-28T22:44:53Z")
I would not be surprised to hear that somewhere it’s been used seriously, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a joke. And I am extremely vertically challenged. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2003, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718/10 "2003-04-29T04:43:39Z")
The term “vertically challenged” was invented in the book _The Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook_ by Henry Beard, a parody of political correctness. It was never seriously used as a description of short people. I should know. I was one of the originators of the short rights movement more than thirty years ago. (It’s a long story, and I don’t feel like telling it now.) ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2003, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718/11 "2003-04-29T07:30:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wendell Wagner \* > \*\*I should know. I was one of the originators of the short rights movement more than thirty years ago. \*\* There was actually a short rights “movement”? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2003, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718/12 "2003-04-29T08:15:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FisherQueen \* > **I’m short. I’ve always been short** You don’t say. (If I was the sort of person to use smileys, there’s be one right here.) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2003, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718/13 "2003-04-29T10:57:06Z")
Spit writes: \> There was actually a short rights “movement”? Yes, though it didn’t last long and didn’t get that much noticed. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2003, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718/14 "2003-04-29T11:43:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \> There was actually a short rights “movement”? > > Yes, though it didn’t last long and didn’t get that much noticed. It was temporally challenged? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2003, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718/15 "2003-04-29T11:47:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tomndebb \* > \*\*It was temporally challenged? \*\* And probably overlooked. ---
**Author:** ![pierre72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b2d939/32.png) [@pierre72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pierre72)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2003, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vertically-challenged/171718/16 "2003-04-29T12:12:04Z")
Yes there was a Short Rights Movement. It encouraged those of lesser height to walk tall, to look the world square in the chest, and to stand up for what they believe in.