The Social Complex

A Blog dedicated to the exploration of height bias and discrimination.

[thesocialcomplex]

I've been talking to a guy from online dating and he's shorter than me. He doesn't know it, he thinks I'm 5'5 but I'm 5'11 and he's 5'8-9. I haven't told him yet. Not cos I hate my height, just cos I'm already insecure about myself already and I feel like he's got this perception of me that won't be there when I meet him. So I've been avoiding meeting him and now it's put a strain in everything because he's frustrated that he can't meet me and he's been wanting to for ages. I'm just scared!

TSC: Don’t even sweat it.  Very few guys care that a woman is taller than them.  Most guys who don’t hit on taller women only don’t approach because they know that most women are very strict about height and so they’ll probably be rejected.  Chances are very high that this guy won’t care that you’re taller. 

[thesocialcomplex]

I'm a fit 6'3 male, and women are 0% interested in me. I think you're looking into things that aren't there.

My blog isn’t about dating.  It’s about heightism.

[thesocialcomplex]

TSC: Mother of God.  This is easily the most body shaming ad of 2015.  I don’t think I’ve seen an ad this blatantly heightist in more than a year.  What do you think?

[thesocialcomplex]

My phone buzzed with a text from a friend. "Important question: can I go out with a man who is five foot four?" My response was: "Yes, providing he's not a dickhead". Because, surely, that's more important, right?

[thesocialcomplex]

TSC: This is a compilation from the American TV show "Grey's Anatomy" about one episode which includes a short guy who's legs becomes infected after leg-lengthening surgery.  Please note that this is the only depiction of a short man in this show's 11 seasons.  Plus, none of the female doctors of the show were ever shown to have dated a short man, and none of the male doctors were short.  Plus, during the very episode where they're trying to suggest that being short is "no big deal", the doctor who is operating on this short clown of a character is using short stature as an analogy for the bad things in her life.  I guess this show could have been more patronizing, but I'm not sure how.

Once again, this is the ONLY example of a short man that this popular TV show presented to it’s audience over the course of ELEVEN YEARS.  I sometimes complain about “The Short Guy Episodes” of some TV shows, but this is ridiculous.  Most “Short Guy Episodes” are mildly patronizing because they try to show that being short isn’t a big deal, and then the short male character is never seen from again.  But this one is extremely patronizing because it takes all of the worst aspects of “The Short Guy Episodes” and makes the short guy a scarecrow for other characters to project their heightist and toxic ideas upon.   

[thesocialcomplex]

TSC:  A new post by our friends over at “Stop Heightism”. 

[thesocialcomplex]

[thesocialcomplex]

TSC:  A pretty run-of-the-mill analysis of the statistics around marriage and height.  It’s not particularly deep, but the statistics are good for those who haven’t really thought about these issues before. 

[thesocialcomplex]

TSC:  Mother of God.  Dairy Queen sells shitty chicken strips by depicting a short man being assaulted and humiliated for your enjoyment.  Wow.

[thesocialcomplex]

Friday Philosophy - Want to Get On in Business? Don't Start from Down Here

TSC: A pretty good blog post about a short guy who admits to humiliating himself in front of others as a self-defense mechanism, and the social stigma he has faced because of heightism. 

[thesocialcomplex]

On Heightism and Short Women

When people don't take you seriously, you might stop taking yourself seriously. That's what this author felt as she internalized the expectation for women to be small. People reference discrimination against short men as heightism, but nobody talks about the power struggles of short women.

[thesocialcomplex]

[thesocialcomplex]

TSC: Science once again shows us that heightism is a social construct. 

Abstract

Research in industrial countries suggests that, with no other knowledge about a person, positive traits are attributed to taller people and correspondingly, that taller people have slightly better socioeconomic status (SES). However, research in some non-industrialized contexts has shown no correlation or even negative correlations between height and socioeconomic outcomes. It remains unclear whether positive traits remain attributed to taller people in such contexts. To address this question, here we report the results of a study in a foraging-farming society of native Amazonians in Bolivia (Tsimane’)–a group in which we have previously shown little association between height and socioeconomic outcomes. We showed 24 photographs of pairs of Tsimane’ women, men, boys, and girls to 40 women and 40 men >16 years of age. We presented four behavioral scenarios to each participant and asked them to point to the person in the photograph with greater strength, dominance, social concern, or knowledge. The pairs in the photographs were of the same sex and age, but one person was shorter. Tsimane’ women and men attributed greater strength, dominance, and knowledge to taller girls and boys, but they did not attribute most positive traits to taller adults, except for strength, and more social concern only when women assessed other women in the photographs. These results raise a puzzle: why would Tsimane’ attribute positive traits to tall children, but not tall adults? We propose three potential explanations: adults’ expectations about the more market integrated society in which their children will grow up, height as a signal of good child health, and children’s greater variation in the traits assessed corresponding to maturational stages.

[thesocialcomplex]

TSC:  Height discrimination at Dunkin Donuts!  Is this how Dunkin does business?

(This picture was apparently taken at a Dunkin Donuts in the Philippines; not the United States.  But the photo is legitimate because there are a number of online postings with height requirements for Dunkin Donuts in the Philippines (Here, Here, and Here).  It's also relevant to note that the average adult height in the Philippines is 5'3.5 for men and 4'11" for women.) 

[thesocialcomplex]

TSC: So cute.  Sooooo cute. 

[thesocialcomplex]

TSC: GE is using heightism to sell light bulbs. 

Someone sent me this problematic ad from General Electric featuring Jeff Goldblum (6'4") as an over-the-top celebrity and his diminutive and nebbish manservant.  The ad is meant to appeal to the Millennial demographic of kids because it was directed by "Tim & Eric" of Adult Swim fame, and it has an absurdist ethic; much like the much beloved "man on a horse" Old Spice ads from a few years back.  

I personally don't find the ad that funny, but YouTube seems to love the ad.  But more importantly, notice how the short character is portrayed and dehumanized for comic effect.  I'd even go so far as to say that the short man portrayed here is not supposed to be regarded as an actual person, but as an idea (an archetype) of society's perception of short male stature generally. 

"OMG!  Look at the funny little man!"

[thesocialcomplex]

TSC: Double Standards.