When I took one of my many sociology classes for my degree years ago, one of the things I learned from our textbook was that increased height (as in how tall you are) is positively correlated with economic status, which is already weird to me, because who gives a shit unless you’re literally a fireman or something,
BUT this statistical advantage, economically, only goes up until about 6’7 (or even shorter in certain countries) because going above that height, means basically needing disabled-levels of accommodation in your house and car and clothes shoes (and a million other things). this is why I can’t believe in things like fate . there are stunning graphs about human problems you’ve (an average height person) never even considered before.
anyways if you have a disability related to your height (or even if you’re just. really short or really tall.) feel free to enlighten me about all the stupid things you have to pay extra for. I like to learn about how other people live
im at a weird in-between when it comes to being an average height person vs a little person.
im 0.01% height percentile for males, and 3.25% height percentile for males. i stopped growing at 12 y/o due to early puberty causes by my intersex variation, which also led me to develop male and female secondary sex characteristics.
parts of my apartment are inaccessible to me, and the structure of the world basically exacerbates my chronic pain. it also increases my risk of injury - ive injured myself from being too small for furniture or cars many times.
people always call me cute. they infantilize me in combination with my autism. they don't take me seriously when I'm angry. my mom, grandma, and sister deal with heightism too.
we are all under 5ft tall. there was a time my grandma was introducing us to a friend and the friend went "Oh! I didnt know you were all-" *gestures showing our short height* Which was uh. Funny and offensive lol.
so i dont really know whether i have proportionate dwarfism or if. im just short. turner syndrome short stature is recognized as dwarfism so why wouldnt i be... they did give me a growth shot to stop me from being even shorter than i am afterall.
i know im on the taller side of short stature but there are people with more recognized conditions who are my height and still seen as having dwarfism.
but i still dont feel like i have a right to be part of the community... and maybe i dont, i really just dont know if i count or not. i understand there are a lot more heightist experiences i haven't dealt with.. yet, at least, or maybe never will.
Hello, I really wanted to express my personal gratitude to you for having this blog and sharing your voice. For context, I am an able-bodied and intellectually disabled person of color who is of short stature (not a little person). You are the *first* online activist I have encountered who takes seriously the cultural and accessibility issues that come with being short (LP or not), and having related proportions like small hands and short legs. These traits are also very often racialized in my experience as an Asian person, another angle that I have seen no one talk about despite its prominence in my life.
It pains me immensely how normalized it is even among "progressive" circles to mock and shame short stature, and to dismiss the people who vocalize being hurt. It reminds me of how my disability is treated, even amongst the most otherwise progressive people. The things you say about "physical comedy" strike a chord in me because it is deeply damaging to see my proportions only emphasized as comic relief, and even more damaging to see otherwise inclusive people laugh along. I often feel universally ostracized and belittled; I have been denied the dignity and respect of adulthood due to my race, my disability, and yes, my stature, and very, very few people take me seriously on this issue. Again, you are the first person I have seen online treating this with any measure of dignity. Even though I am not myself a little person, I thank you sincerely for helping me feel seen and for allowing me to discover a community with which I feel solidarity.
Hello!! I'm so glad you've found my blog helpful!! Yes, there are several access and social issues that go beyond simply people with dwarfism, to all people of short stature! We may not have the same history or face the same medical discrimination, but the culture surrounding being short and the world that is built for the average heighted (white man) can be just as debilitating and easily overlooked!
I'm happy to provide this solidarity, especially when it means that blogs like mine can be valuable to a variety of demographics. Little people are a small minority, and face one of the last socially acceptable forms of discrimination - all allies are welcome here.
Heightism feels so fucking stupid half the time I complain about it. Woe is me. I have to strain my shoulders to use the standard counter height in America.
And then I cant find any fucking kink gear or play gear in my size without having to pay so much extra for customization that its just.
This ended up being longer than I planned, so I'm sorry beforehand. It was about a whatever video of a girl using heightism, saying something stupid but possibly insidious, and me reflecting on our culture toward smallness, particularly with men and how it deals with gender.
(There's a fun present for those who read the whole thing, I promise!)
I saw a tiktok of a girl candidly and cheerfully saying she'd never date a short guy (5'8 or below, she was 5'2) because of a Napoleon complex.
Standard stuff, though still crossing into prejudice.
But then she goes off, in a chipper mood, about deleting them. That really stuck with me.
Best scenario, she just means deleting them off dating sites. Which is still crass and wouldn't fly if she said something similar about other attributes.
Worst scenario, which wouldn't be the first time I heard it, she means literally and physically delete them. She was talking to a guy out on the streets too, so this isn't done terminally online jerk. A lot of women saying they want men dead isn't cute or funny.
I hope people understand that having a preference or having a bad history with whatever group are different than this rhetoric. Even if that person can control something, as opposed to the near permanence of height, it shouldn't mean this group is inherently bad. The issue is the personality, not how long your limbs are or what genes you have. It's a really weird bioessentialism that says if you look different than your gender norm, you are a suspect and a creep in waiting.
There's also this other connection with many men smaller than (the US) average being men of color, which can have a racist and nativist tone. And since height can be affected by the environment, along with making many short people less likely to have high paying jobs and roles, there's probably a classist element, too. A lot of trans men are also short if you want to include transphobia, who already get barely any acknowledgement about how they're treated.
With a lot of women saying "it's in our genes or brains," and one I saw saying for short men to Stay In The Gym, there is this unspoken rule that men MUST be large and dominant or they're not seriously men. With the whole obsession over genetics and strong men, there is a dangerous overlap with trad and fascist ideals, especially with how radical right wing propaganda works (in the 30s/40s and now with the Chad Trad shit).
I don't think a lot of people, men or women, consciously think about this stuff. They could just be shallow assholes. But smallness is almost always seen as infantilism or criminality with no nuance in humanizing, let alone respect as lovers and workers. Maybe there's some taboo part of our private brain that still latches onto "big = strong against predators and rivals" and we don't want to admit and question it like with women and how we judge their looks.
When people say Napoleon complex, it's always vague, like it can mean anything from being aggressive to just being confident to someone taller. It doesn't mean anything and it just causes a Catch 22; you either accept your place on the arbitrary social ladder or you're insecure and in the spotlight. You can't win because you're not supposed to win.
For every short jerk, there's also a tall jerk. A tall jerk who has popularity, fans, girls, money, and literally more weight to throw around. Am I surprised there's a preference? No. I can still be upset about it because I'm human and I'm naturally going to be mad at things that feel unfair and need leverage. And I'm going to be upset when it feels ignored or derided because people don't want to admit they have biases that are more socially acceptable. I'm going to be upset that I and others who are around my height or even shorter have to push limits every day just be treated equally. I can't imagine having dwarfism and seeing these videos or hearing others on the street.
I hear pretty much everything from "short men are rapists for wanting women to be attracted to them" to eugenics and wanting us just dead. There's definitely other traits that compound the toll on a person (weight for myself) that can be greater or lesser, but it's definitely consistent and I've been seeing it rise over the years after some acceptance in the mid '10s.
We need to have honest conversations and reflections about our relationship with size and what it means to be a man. If you want to abolish the patriarchy but still insult a guy because he doesn't look as big and strong and dominant as other men, then you're playing the same side as the men in power or manosphere chuds. The amount of radfems I see hating short men is honestly funny. Like there's no tall misogynists or abusers out there.
If short men, or just A short man messed you up, I'm sorry you had to go through that. But it wasn't like he was infected with the Small Virus, he might've been just a jerk, the same way tall people might be jerks. Just understand that you're overlooking many people because of a bad experience and how dangerously close that mentality is when applying to other people, or toward yourself.
If you read long enough, I congratulate you, and I offer you this one hell of a title I saw in a flea market the other day.
I didn't know that this was a thing that could happen until recently but I beg of you, please do not call short people "smol beans." Idk if the internet has rotted people's brains or what but we are real people and not your blorbos from your fandoms. It's extremely infantilizing and dehumanizing. I am a grown woman with a degree and being under 5 feet tall (as a symptom of a disability I might add) does not take away from that.
A video of the woman pulling out a measuring tape to measure a man's height at a bar has gone viral. Watch viral video!
Women aren't dating anymore, they're accessory-hunting. It's over for all of Gen-Y and Z. Sorry guys but the last good women were born in Gen-X. It's all downhill from here.
