Last month I got promoted to general manager. Some little guy in the company thought he was going to get it. Nobody wanted him anyway. Who was going to listen to him? Not me. My wife could beat him up. If we can't think we're superior to little bastards, who can we think we're superior to?
Joe discusses experimental evidence for the existence of heightism and also mentions the opinions of academics on the influence of height and warms the listeners up for his interview with Dr. Jeff Gardere.
A barn-burner of a broadcast as the distinguished and articulate Dr. Gardere lends his knowledge and expertise to Joe Mangano's to further confirm the heightism phenomenon and educate people on its existence. Dr. Gardere also advises short people on what they must do to help make a dent in the armor of heightism.
The
webmaster discusses the recent remarks by the Korean teenager who
negatively characterized short men. He compares the treatment
accorded tall men as opposed to short men and mentions poignant moments
involving hypocritical, cowardly and even unscrupulous so-called
"activists". Some of the reasons heightism promulgates are also
discussed.
Joe Mangano really lays it on the line in this broadcast as he reveals the incredible depth of the phenomenon known as 'Heightism', a phenomenon that can permeate even a dictionary.
Joe Mangano discusses the recent proposed legislation in Massachusetts for making discrimination in the workplace against short-statured people and also fat people illegal. He also discusses a recent brief debate on CNN concerning the proposed legislation. The listener can view the CNN video segment here.
The second article I’m going
to mention here is the real doozy.It’s
title is ‘Pedophiles tend to be short men, study finds’ www.thestar.com/News/article/269404
written by Joseph Hall, Health Reporter.Now I’m not going to read the entirety of this article I’m just going to
quote snippets of it.But the first two
paragraphs of the article sum up the conclusions of the researchers quite
nicely.Here we go:
Pedophiles
are significantly shorter on average than men who are attracted to adults,
according to a new study out of Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Similar
height differences can be found in men who crave sex with pubescent teenagers,
say study researchers, who speculate the link between stature and pedophilia
might be traced to conditions in the womb.
Okay.That’s the first two paragraphs, and I’m going
to conceal my anger here, or at least I’m going to try to.The article quotes James Cantor, a CAMH psychologist
as saying, “There are still a great many people who believe that this is purely
learned, or (a psychological) reaction to something that happened in
childhood.”And fairly apparent to me
that what he’s really trying to say is this:There are still some people who are behind the times on this.This is really a genetic trait, inborn in
short men.Still another quote from the
article, “What’s important about this entire branch of research is that it
demonstrates pretty conclusively that it is indeed about how the body grows and
how the brain develops,” Cantor said.Well
this is just the pseudo-scientific way of saying, ‘Short People got no reason
to live’.Most people who read a quote
like this will just naturally dislike short men even more than they do now, and
make no mistake, short men are convenient targets all around.Reading these quotes are likely to fuel the
fires of dislike of the short – in this case specifically short men.And really this kind of a conclusion is the
medical equivalent of Randy Newman’s infamous song – ‘Short People’.It’s
fairly obvious that he’s attempting to demonstrate that short men are natural
predators of young girls simply because they’re born that way.Short men have a proclivity for young girls
and it’s genetic.Short men’s bodies
didn’t get out of adolescence and neither did their minds.That’s what this bastard is really saying. It’s
like this:We already know we don’t like
short men, so hey we’ve found in one study that pedophiles just happen to be a
little shorter than men who are attracted to adults, so why not put another
nail in the little ones’ coffins – shall we?Who’s gonna care?
Now listen to this, the
article states, “ . . . Cantor said it is a uniquely male condition . . .” I guess the distinguished
psychologist James Cantor never heard of female teachers seducing young teenage
male students. They highlight them in
the news every so often. You’ll see a
few links in the text of this broadcast by the way. I guess the distinguished Mr. Cantor never
heard of these.
Incidentally all defendants
are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, but there’s no question
that the phenomenon of female pedophilia exists.So why would this psychologist state that it
is a uniquely male condition when there is more than ample evidence of female
pedophilia?Don’t you wonder?
I wonder what would have
happened to James Cantor if he had announced that the results of the study indicated
that people of a given race, or religion, or sexual orientation, or any other
group under the sun were more likely to be pedophiles?Well I think we know the answer to that
question don’t we?James Cantor would no
longer have a job or maybe even a career.
By the way there was no
deluge of e-mails from angry short men bombarding Toronto’s Center for Addiction and Mental Health as far as we
know.
There were no protests by
righteous short men picketing in front of CAMH headquarters.
There were no media outcries
by the usual suspects who like to call anyone that they can on the carpet for
even the tiniest bit of political incorrectness as long as it doesn’t involve
short people, that is.
There wasn’t even a protest
as far as we know from the prestigious group that calls itself
NOSSA.
Sometimes people quote
statistics that are available and come to conclusions about some subjects that are-shall
we say- politically incorrect. It seems
that when any researcher or even the most distinguished of researchers make
statements in reference to some groups the way psychologist James Cantor made
his statements in reference to short men, those researchers, doctors,
psychologists-whatever they may be-are lambasted from one end of the earth to
the other.And the conclusions can
involve topics like crime or even intelligence.
To give you an example, In
2007 seventy-nine year old Dr. James Watson, was quoted as saying that Black
Africans were not as intelligent as Europeans. Many of us learned about Dr. James Watson back
in high school biology class.He was the
guy along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins way back in 1953 who discovered
the “double helix” structure of the DNA molecule. The group of men were later awarded the Nobel
Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for their achievements - and they were
great achievements.Dr. James Watson is
as distinguished a scientist and researcher as can be found anywhere.According to the BBC, The Science Museum in London cancelled his scheduled lecture there.The Bristol Festival of Ideas also cancelled
an appearance by Dr. Watson.Dr. Craig
Venter, a scientist/businessman who led the private effort to decode the human
genome, was also visiting the UK at about the same time to promote a book. According to the BBC, Dr. Venter stated, “Skin
colour as a surrogate for race is a social concept not a scientific one.”“There is no basis in scientific fact or in
the human genetic code for the notion that skin colour will be predictive of
intelligence.”
Here’s another article out of
the UK, and it’s strange that all of the material that I’m
speaking about in this broadcast and also in the last one seems to involve the UK in some way.It
wasn’t chosen that way by the way.This
article is from the http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article3067222.ece.Here’s the title:‘Fury at DNA pioneer’s theory:Africans are less intelligent than
Westerners.’ Okay.I thought it was Europeans?Hmmph.The article quotes Keith Vaz, the Labour Chairman of the Home Affairs
Select Committee as saying:“It is sad
to see a scientist of such achievement making such baseless, unscientific and
extremely offensive comments.I am sure
the scientific community will roundly reject what appears to be Dr. Watson’s
personal prejudices.“These comments
serve as a reminder of the attitudes which can still exist at the highest
professional levels.”
You know when I mentioned in
a broadcast of mine not too long ago about Dr. John Money’s quote about short
people being in charge or working for short people and the prestigious doctor
saying words to the effect of, “No I haven’t worked with short people.I’ve worked under them, but not with
them.I’ve never had a great admiration
for Napoleon.”*And that’s basically
what the good doctor said, all according to ‘The Height of Your Life’ written
by Ralph Keyes, but unfortunately nobody appeared to come out of the woodwork
to condemn the great Dr. John Money.That’s strange isn’t it?Hmm.
But anyway, to get back to
what I was talking about.Another
distinguished professor of biological sciences at the Open University and a
founder member of the Society for Social Responsibility in Science, said: “This
is Watson at his most scandalous . . .” Which
is a statement that tends to make one think that Dr. Watson has made
‘scandalous’ comments before.By the way,
the board of directors of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Suffolk County
New York, (not to be confused by the way with any airport policemen or building
inspectors from Suffolk County, New York or Pensacola Florida now) suspended
Dr. Watson after he made his comments that appeared in the Times of London on
October 14th of 2007.Dr.
Watson also resigned his position as chancellor of the laboratory.Dr. James Watson, pioneer in human genetics
was talking about intelligence - IQ.Can
you imagine what would have happened to him if he had said that another group –
ANY GROUP – was more likely to be pedophiles?
You know, I mention these events because it either
works one way for all-or it doesn’t.They’re either politically correct for all groups or they aren’t.They either state the facts for all groups as
they are or they don’t. If they’re going
to lambaste Nobel Prize Winner and pioneer in human genetics Dr. James Watson
for stating what he believed to be the facts then they also should lambaste a
two-bit psychologist hack named James Cantor for his comments.It’s immediate grounds for dismissal and
ostracism to say that there’s so much as a link between race and intelligence
but it’s perfectly fine and dandy to state that short men are far more likely
to be pedophiles, and to even go so far as to infer that it’s genetic all on the
strength of one study.But unfortunately
the world doesn’t always seem to function correctly, although it does seem to
function ‘politically correctly’-except of course when short people are
involved- you know, short people-the ones who “got no reason to live”, while,
of course, every other group does.This
is Joe Mangano.Thank you very much.
This is Joe Mangano. I just happened to see a few articles in the
recent past and one caught my eye and that one was on yorkpress.co.uk, and the
title of that article is, “Size simply does matter”, by Jo Haywood.And Jo Haywood is a woman in the UK and I’m going to read this.Some of it I think some of the listeners will
find to be surprising, but I find it rather run-of-the-mill.I’m going to read it and I’d like people
listening to the broadcast to e-mail me with your opinion on it if you
could.Just let me know what you think
of it.This is, “Size simply does matter”, by Jo
Haywood.Here we go:
AS a
right-thinking, right-on, left-leaning woolly liberal - which is what I like to
think I am, despite reams of evidence to the contrary - I am obviously an
incredibly tolerant person.
I
welcome people of all nations, especially that nice Polish shopkeeper on
Walmgate with all his imported beer, and believe people have a right to air
their views - even David Cameron and Davina McCall - no matter how stupid they
are.
But
I'm afraid I do have one teeny, tiny prejudice. It's not something I'm proud
of, but I feel I'm among friends here and able to share my innermost demons
without fear of retribution.
Much
as it pains me, I have to admit I would find it very difficult, if not
impossible, to have a meaningful relationship with a man shorter than me (not
that anyone is offering). I realise this makes me a shallow, heightist, female
chauvinist pig, but at least I'm an honest old snorter.
When
I see photographs of Sophie Dahl - six-foot in her Versace, diamond-encrusted,
cotton socks - with her latest beau, the diminutive ivory-tickler Jamie Cullum,
who, at 5ft 4in, needs a booster seat to reach the keys of his piano, I can't
help but stare in wonder.
She
is a striking woman and, bar a slightly duff haircut, he is not a bad looking
little fella, but that is not what draws my gaze. All I can see is the physical
oddity of them as a couple, and all I can think is that she must be a much
bigger woman than me in more than just inches.
This
isn't to imply that I think small men are some sort of dating charity case, who
only saintly women are big enough to tackle. It's just a graphic reminder of my
own shortcomings (it's difficult to avoid the puns once you start). [These are
her words]
I
have only once been out with a chap who was shorter than me. I reckon he was
about 5ft 3in to my 5ft 8in. He was very good looking, all blonde hair, blue
eyes and bulging biceps, he was attentive and fun and, as if he hadn't ticked
enough boxes already, he was younger too. But I just couldn't get past the
height difference.
It
probably didn't help that my previous boyfriend had been 6ft 3in and the one
before that 6ft 5in (his nickname was Moose, but maybe, to quote TV's Kath
& Kim, that was more to do with him being a complete hornbag).
If my
gorgeous, funny, good natured, 5ft 3in fella had been a few inches taller, I'm
sure our relationship would have lasted longer. Not forever - his mother was a
neurotic nightmare - but a while.
I
think it's safe to say that little episode sums up the murky depths of my own
shallowness quite nicely. But I'm pretty sure I'm not the only woman not big
enough to handle a short man. Why a great many of us still feel the need to be
physically overshadowed by men is a tricky one, especially as we (or most of
us, at least) live in a modern world where equality between the sexes is such a
driving force.
I
imagine it is partly a genetic throwback to times when women needed to hook up
with ginormous hunter-gatherer types so they didn't fall foul of passing
sabre-tooth tigers.
But I
think today it is more to do with not wanting to stand out from the crowd
which, as a 6ft woman, Sophie Dahl most certainly does, and wanting to retain,
and indeed relish, our femininity. We don't want to be overshadowed by men in
the workplace or at home, but sometimes it is nice to feel like "the
little woman".
Tall
men make us feel relatively dainty, while small men make us feel like
heffalumps. I know that going out with my dinky toy boy made me feel like a
rugby prop-forward in drag, which is hardly what a woman wants from a
relationship, is it?
I
know some of you might be thinking that I would soon change my tune on this
whole heightist thing if I found out that George Clooney was only 5ft 2in on
his tippy-toes. But I honestly don't think even he could help me overcome my
prejudice. 'd let him have a damn good go though, especially if he brought Brad
Pitt along to give him a leg-up.
I
might be heightist, but I'm not completely insane.
Okay.That was the lovely Jo Haywood’s
article.I think I’ll just comment on her
piece, if I might.Some of those words
and phrases were quite British, but I think you gather her meaning.She claims she’s 5’8”.Now 5’8” for a woman is equivalent to
approximately 6’1” or so for a man.So
she’s a relatively tall woman.When
she’s wearing high heels she’s 5’11” or 6’0” or even taller.She freely admits she’s prejudiced against
short men, and I thank her, I really do for her candor.I happen to be a short man-as you know-and so
are most of you.I really don’t expect
her to be interested in men of my height.I really don’t.As I said, I
appreciate her candor in admitting it.But I can’t help but wonder about some things.I notice in the beginning of her article she
writes that she’s a “right thinking, right-on, left leaning wooly liberal”,
which seems to me to be a contradiction in terms, but nevertheless she sounds
like a puppet of sorts.What the heck
does she mean by “right-thinking”?How
can you be right-thinking and left-leaning??I guess right-thinking is correct thinking and correct thinking is
left-leaning in her view.I’m
assuming.Maybe she means that a man of
another race, religion, creed, nationality, weight, eye color, hair color,
bald, or totally uneducated is dating material?I wonder if she would dare admit that if she had one teeny, tiny
prejudice and that prejudice was based on, uh, oh, any of the above that I just
mentioned, she would admit it?I
wonder.Don’t you?
She does have one teeny, tiny
prejudice.Well put Jo. Well put.It’s not something she’s proud of, but she
feels she’s among friends here and able to share her innermost demons without
fear of retribution.I wonder if she
would feel she was among friends if she expressed dislike of a man based on any
of the characteristics that I just mentioned?You know if she were referring to almost any other group of people on
the face of the earth that she was prejudiced against I wonder if she would
have “no fear of retribution” as she likes to put it?But of course, she only has little shrimps to
worry about here.What can they do?
She was out with a guy of
5’3” once, but she just couldn’t get past the height difference she said.How willing would she be to admit her
preference for just her own skin color I ask myself?Or just her own religion?Or just her own nationality?Or just her own anything else for that
matter?
It’s so wonderful that she
thinks, “it's safe to say that little episode sums up the murky depths of my
own shallowness quite nicely”.She’s
actually proud of it.Oh!It’s so wonderful that there is one group of
individuals that we can express our prejudice towards.Isn’t it?Oh c’mon listeners get over it will you?!Miss Haywood just wants to be overshadowed by
a ginormous hunter-gatherer type.Is
there anything wrong with that?Oh by
the way, this was the first time I’ve ever heard of the word ginormous.I looked it up in an online dictionary and I
understand now that it’s actually a real word; it’s a combination of the word
giant + enormous giving you ginormous - as if either one of those words
expressed alone is not enough.I’ll bet
nobody listening to this broadcast ever heard the word either.(Mrs. Tallman:I’ve heard the word ginormous and that’s what
my husband is!)Well I know you’ve heard
it Mrs. Tallman.Oh see how it is, the
more you hate short men and admire tall men, the more you know about these
things.Okay. Got it.Oh those big men and the words we use to make
them even bigger!
She states at the end of the
article, “I might be heightist, but I’m not completely insane”.I guess it’s good to be only partly
insane.As long as the part that you’re insane
about is disliking the short.I guess that’s
what she really means by “right-thinking”.How acceptable would it be for her to admit she was racist?How acceptable would it be for her to admit
that she was a homophobe?How acceptable
would it be for her to admit that she was against any other group in all of
God’s creation?This is the prejudice
against short-stature my friends.A
prejudice unlike all of the others.A
prejudice all its own.It’s very simple.
It really is.It’s like this; they can, therefore they
do.The short of stature are a group with
no identity and people know it – subliminally.The short of stature are a group without a voice and people know
it.The short are a non-group to put it
simply.People know it.They don’t have to have 160 IQ’s.They don’t have to be PhD’s.They don’t even have to be rocket
scientists.All they have to have is
natural predatory instincts, nothing else.Show an animal in the wild weakness and he attacks.He doesn’t have to have the intelligence of a
human being to know when he has his prey where he wants it.They don’t even have to think about what they
do – they ‘just do it’ like the old Nike commercials used to say.
There was only one post about
this and that one post was-ironically-from a tall woman.Oh those poor tall women!Look at what they go through.You know Gandhi supposedly said, and I’m sure
most of you have heard this quote at one time or another, and I think I’ve
mentioned that quote before, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you,
then they fight you, then you win”.I say
about the problems of the short of stature, “First they ignore you, then they
laugh at you, then they defend their tallers, and then – unfortunately - the
Tallers are the ones who usually win”. And
this is true, really, because I’ve found, and I’m sure a handful of those
listening have also found that others will ignore you first, and then their
next reaction is to laugh at you.The
next step if they’ve gone through the first two or if they take you even
half-seriously, or are forced to take you seriously by circumstances, is to
automatically, instinctively, almost reflexively defend tall people.They’ll say something like, ‘What about tall
people?’, and then go into a ridiculous list of some minor inconveniences like
walking through doorways or sitting in a car or buying clothes or standing out
in a crowd.Even more often they’ll
mention the problems of the tall woman.A very tall woman or man will often fight you for top complaining rights.This is Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).I’m going to read that one post there-from a
tall woman, because I think short people will get an idea of what I’m talking
about.The grammar and spelling here isn’t
100%, which is a bit of an understatement by the way, but here it is:
I
would like to firstly say that everyone is entittled to their own views about
different people and aspects of society but this article and its way of
thinking is why many girls of above average height face years of bullying and
resulting in low self esteem.
It is fine for people of "normal" height to comment on matter such as
this but speaking from experince of 6ft1" then this article is very
hurtful.
I cant understand why it was seen ok to state that tall women may feel like
heffalumps or write that it made you feel like a women in drag or a prop
forward. After years of bullying through school because i was too
"odd" to hang out with the girlie crowd and therefore had to either
spend 5 years of loneliness or spend my time acting as one of the boys, the
later was a better choice. This making my school and accademic life a miseery
and i left school as soon as i could to try to escape this, only to find that a
day doesnt go by without someone saying "arent you tall" (as if i
hadnt noticed!!) or is it cold up there?? And by the time ive got to the age of
32 it is still happening and it gets pretty depressing.
As for Sophie and Jamie why not, least he doesnt mind being seen with her, i
have been in relentionships where i can not where heels as the fella feels im
too much taller than him.. and his own inadquances kick in. It is only now that
i am with someone who after all this time doesnt care if i put on my 3 inch
heels and i tower above him making me 6ft 4" compared to his 5ft9" he
has been the only person who has said to me he doesnt find it a problem and has
given me the confidence to walk tall.
It is hard enough in this day and age for people to find a partner without
peoples prejudices and stereotypes coming into play. Tall women and girls are
not all confident outgoing people many are very shy about there height and the
last thing they want is to stand out in the crowd but when two people are
really happy doesnt size really matter??
Okay that’s her post. And again, I’m going to comment on this post. Now she states that all this time he doesn’t
care if she puts her 3 inch heels on and she towers above her current boyfriend
making her 6’4” compared to his 5’9” and she says, “ . . . tall women and girls
are not all confident outgoing people, many are shy about their height and the
last thing they want to do is stand out in the crowd”.Well if she doesn’t want to “stand out in the
crowd”, why does she put the 3-inch heels on that make her “tower above him” in
making her 6’4”?Doesn’t that sound a
little bit strange?Now she also states,
“It is fine for people of "normal" height to comment on ‘matter’ such
as this but speaking from ‘experince’ of 6ft1" then this article is very
hurtful.”
That’s her quote.Okay.Now let me ask you, how was
this article hurtful towards her?I’m
asking you, the listener.I mean, I
understand that tall women and exceptionally tall people have a few logistical
problems; I really do.But, I mean, this
is the absolute insanity of it all.You
heard Jo Haywood’s article.I read it
verbatim.You just heard this woman’s
post.I read that verbatim too. Project
this:You’ve got a tall woman writing an
article about her preference for taller men, putting down short men, freely
admitting that she-the taller woman, or tall woman-is prejudiced against short
men and actively discriminating against short men and a tall woman makes a post
that that same article is hurtful somehow, in some way towards her-the tall
woman.Shouldn’t short men be posting by
the hundreds stating how hurtful this article is towards them?I mean correct me if I’m wrong here, but is
this or is this not just complete insanity?But you know this is something that’s par for the course.You don’t believe it?Believe it.She’s upset that someone didn’t write an article talking about the problems
of Tall women I suspect.And I also
think that she wanted to pre-empt any little shrimps who had the cahonas to
dare to make a complaint about the heightist article against them, and make no
mistake this was a heightist article on the part of Jo Haywood.She freely admitted her prejudice toward
short men.The woman who made the post
just jumps right in there, not making a lot of sense complaining that she’s hurt-as if the article was
denigrating tall women.Incredible isn’t
it?The gosh-durn article showed a
taller woman’s prejudice toward short men and a Taller woman comes along to
complain that she’s hurt.All the
while 0 comments from short men.This is
the poignancy of the short of stature my friends. This is where we are at this point in time.A tall woman freely expresses her prejudice
toward short men in an article and ANOTHER tall woman comes forward to claim
that the same article is hurtful towards her.Ironic isn’t it?What’s that
song, ‘Who knows where love grows’? That’s a good question.
I make observations of people
occasionally.I make observations of
things like their body language for example; what they wear, how they walk, how
they talk, and of course how short people including myself get treated by
others and how those others treat people who are taller.I mentioned something along these lines in my
essay.I wrote, and this is to
paraphrase, ‘Observe how taller others are treated in comparison to you, words,
tone of voice, body language, etc’.You
should be doing this all the time and verbalizing it too, so that you can
explain it.Did you ever see the body
language of some short people?I see
short people walking on their toes a lot so-to-speak, and you know when they do
that it looks almost as if they’re doing a calf raise on a step or on an
exercise machine and they usually have over-developed calves when they’ve done
this for a long period of time.Virtually all of the short people that I see doing this are kids or
adolescents.I do however, see some short
adults doing it too.They’re virtually
always men.And they don’t realize what
they’re doing or why.Try mentioning
this to them and they’ll probably either blow you off, or have some ham-handed
reason, if they do give you a reason, which they probably won’t, or ignore you
or even attempt to attack you.Because
you’re in the process of revealing or almost revealing an unconscious
deep-seated need to be taller. This will happen if you mention this even if
you’re short too.As a matter of fact
they’re more likely to attack you because you’re short too.These are the guys who will deny with their
last breath that their short stature poses any kind of a problem for them.I was in an elevator once and I gave another
short guy my “elevator pitch” so-to-speak.And he must have been about 5 or 6 inches shorter than me, maybe about
4’11” or so.I told him about my website.He said his height didn’t bother him.This is the phenomenon called ‘Denial’.By the way, he was pushing a cart, obviously
he had some sort of menial position or at least it appeared that way.It probably didn’t pay too much money I would
imagine.This was a man in his 40’s I guess.When I gave him my website, he said he didn’t
have a computer.
You know, the Richlee
Shoe Company, you know the guys who make elevator shoes for men, this same
company doesn’t make elevator shoes for women.Why? You might wonder.Well the
simple reason is every woman’s shoe store makes them, or uh, excuse me, every
woman’s shoe store sells them and there’s lots of companies that make them, only
they don’t call them elevator shoes.They call them ‘high heels’ or ‘platforms’.And they’ve been around for many a year.This is why girls or women don’t have to walk
on their toes; they just wear their high heels or platforms.Ain’t that nice?I know one little lady about 5 feet in height
who, in the five years or so that I’ve seen her has NEVER not worn them, not
even a day, as far as I can see, at least not a work day.I’ve never seen her without high heels
on.I don’t know how her feet can take
it.And she wears her hair up slightly
sometimes to make herself appear taller from the top up.She also likes to associate with very tall
women.By the way this is a phenomenon
that is characteristic of some very self-protective very short women.The association with very tall women is for
self-protective purposes, to deter would-be predators, both social and
otherwise.You’ll also notice that very
short women usually have boyfriends or husbands that are considerably
proportionately taller in reference to their height than the average
woman.But I believe that the reason
women like to wear high heels so much is one reason and one reason only and you
know what I’m gonna say don’t you?The
reason is it makes them taller, pure and simple.It also conveys the image of their legs as
being longer, which of course contributes to the illusion of greater height or
taller stature.The ‘leggy’ look is a
look women like, that is, where a woman’s legs appear longer in relation to her
torso.And of course a woman doesn’t
have to be short to like to wear them-you know that.You see very tall women wearing them.One would think that a tall woman would have
no need for 3 ½ inch or 4 inch heels, but alas they can’t get enough – of tall
height.Once you start noticing some of these
things and verbalizing them to yourself, they will no longer seem to be unusual
to you.
You short folks who listen to
my broadcasts should try some unusual things.Now you’re gonna go through the gamut of emotions; you’ve probably
already been through the gamut of emotions and you’ve probably already run the
gauntlet.Well you’re going to continue
running the gauntlet no matter what you do but,I’ve said in other broadcasts that you shouldn’t bring up the topic of
heightism, but I’ve got the feeling that some of you – mostly adolescents –
adolescent males mostly, are going to do it anyway occasionally.Here’s my suggestion:try bringing it up gently, and look and see
the reaction you get and remember that reaction.Try playing on a baseball team for example, although
it doesn’t have to be a baseball team, it can be a football team, basketball
team whatever, that is, if you’re athletic and you play sports and I used to
play on baseball teams when I was a youngster and an adolescent and I can
remember receiving some cat-calls from people occasionally, not too often,
things like“Come-on little guy”,
“Come-on little-man”,“Come-on shorty”,
etc. and I never heard comments directed at any over-weight kids that made
reference in any way to their weight.Basically, they have large size on their side.They get attention, respect and whatever else
comes along with large size.Even if
it’s obesity, they get respect – strange as that may seem. Obviously these
larger kids were not severely overweight otherwise they wouldn’t be able to
play to begin with, but you see my point.I certainly never heard any cat-calls based on anyone’s race, or
religion, or ethnicity.You know when I
was in 8th grade I was playing on my 8th grade baseball
team and my teacher came out to watch one of the school’s games and the next
day she said to me, at school this was, “Mangano, you’re quite a little
ballplayer out there!”
You have to start doing some
unusual things. Make a little protest
now and then.See the reaction that you
get and remember back to some of the statements I’ve made on my broadcasts and
you’re gonna say to yourself something like, ‘Yes, it happened the way he
described.If you’re going to bring up
the topic of heightism bring it up very gently, don’t try to convert people
over to your point of view, just bring it up very, very, gently, little by
little.If you try to argue with them
and get very arrogant they’re going to really try to put you down. If you bring
it up gently and you battle back just a little bit, you’re going to get the
reactions that I’ve mentioned previously.You’re going to get the reactions of them ignoring you, laughing at you
or trivializing it.If you persist
they’re going to fight you.You don’t
have to get into an argument with someone, but just battle back just a little
bit and see the reaction or reactions you get.If they don’t ignore you, they’ll laugh at you.You know sometimes when they laugh at you
they try to recruit others as allies against you. And they do this simply because they’re about
99.9% sure others are going to agree with them and take their side. They
wouldn’t do that if they didn’t believe and know in their hearts that others
were going to take their position.They
might say something like, ‘Hey, did you hear what this little guy over here
just said?You should try being too tall.This utter guy ova hea is 6’8”He hits his head every freakin’ time he walk
tru a doorway, and dis liddle guys’ ova hea’s complainin’.Or maybe you’ll get another stupi-uh-I mean another
individual who’s in need of education saying something like, “What’s your
problem?! Hey man have you got a problem?Take it somewhere else.There’s
people starving in Bangladesh man. Get over it.”And then he’ll get on to more important matters, like hitting on that
5’6” hottie that wants nothing to do with you, even though you’re better
looking than this intellectually challenged person.
Go to groups.Make comments.They’re going to ignore you, then laugh at
you, dismiss you, and then if you persist they may have to fight you.Now they don’t want to hurt you, but you’re
so small you’ll probably just dry up and blow away.So why don’t you just go away little
man.Can’t you see you’re annoying us
with your petty problems?My tall friend
has so many problems, she can’t find clothes, men are threatened by her and
don’t want to date her, and when she goes out she always sticks out in the
crowd – and you’re complaining.How dare
you?!How dare you you little man?!Who are you that you can annoy me?! What are
you?!Okay.Okay.Enough
of that, but you get the idea.This is
the way some people will react to you if you complain.And you have to understand too, one of the
very common retorts that you get from people if you mention the fact that
you’re discriminated against based on your height – especially if you’re a
short-statured male, is a response talking about the ‘problems’ of tall people
- especially women.It’s a very common
rebuttal.Tall women are usually given a
great deal of sympathy; they’re given a great deal of sympathy and your
situation is mocked and dismissed and laughed at.It’s really quite incredible when you listen
to some stories.As a matter of fact
I’ll tell you one.I was on a talk radio
show in Philadelphia a few years ago and the broadcast just happens to be
on this website.And it’s on the
audio-visual page.A six-foot tall woman
called in to say that she was set up for a date with a 5’7” man and she wore
high heels on that date.Now you have to
ask yourself why a 6 foot in height woman would wear high heels on a date with
a man 5 inches shorter than her.What
possible reason or reasons could she have?She was already 5 inches taller than the man.Is it possible she just liked the ‘look’ of
high heels on herself?Did she have some
sort of need to appear 9 inches taller than this man I wonder?And if she did have a need to appear even
taller than she was or even taller than her date, I wonder why?And the call itself to the radio station, it
was as if she was trying to trivialize the problems of the short and maximize
people’s understanding for taller women, even though the broadcast, the show
that I was on was about the problems of short people.It was as if she couldn’t stand to see a
little shrimp get sympathy, she wanted to get some for herself.It was like – ‘Don’t feel sorry for him, feel
sorry for big old me’
But, what I would recommend is - do some unusual
things.Think-even if it’s for a very
short period of time-when you’re in a situation with a taller, think-even if
it’s for a minute-think that you’re as good as they are.Think that you’re on the same level that
they’re on.Make a comment like you’re
as good as they are or better than them.Now I don’t mean tell them this; what I mean is give an opinion that
could be viewed as more intelligent than theirs and see the reaction that you
get from the group, and remember back to some of the statements I’ve made on
this website and in my broadcasts and you’re going to say something like, or
you’re going to think something like, ‘Wow, that did happen exactly the way it
was described.’And you know if you
listen to that interview that’s on this website, the one with the 6 foot tall
woman calling in, you’re going to start realizing that people in general do not
want another group coming forward to claim their rights – especially, most
especially short people, and in particular – short men.And
you know, some people want you to feel like that little insect that I described
in my last broadcast.They want you to
feel like it, act like it, and then they want to step on you too.This is Joe Mangano.Thank you very much.
This is Joe Mangano.The short of stature have to deal with all
kinds of unusual things.And unusual
things can be very positive or they can be very negative.In the case of the short-of-stature,
obviously they’re usually very negative.Go into companies, I guess in every state, I haven’t been in every
state, but in New York City they’ve got all this stuff hanging on the wall – information
about discrimination based on race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, creed,
national origin, disability, etc.Everything but height.And you
know people trivialize short-stature as mostly everyone listening to this
broadcast knows well.But yet, and uh,
if you’ve listened to my broadcasts, you know, and if you’re a short-statured
person, you probably realize that height is not a trivial physical trait.It’s a very important trait in the minds of
other people that they use to judge you and they use against you if you happen
to be short-of-stature.
There are lots of unusual
things and the short-of-stature usually get the worst unusual things.Discrimination that people would not tolerate
if they were a member of any one of the groups that I just mentioned.Nobody would tolerate what the short-statured
tolerate.Nobody.Nobody on earth would tolerate these things;
at least no member of any group that’s recognized as a group would tolerate
some of the indignities that the short-of-stature tolerate.And I hope you’ve listened to other
broadcasts of mine, because I go into all of this stuff.The short-of-stature are a group of victims
that just keep their mouths shut perpetually.They say nothing.They do
nothing.And this is how unusual their
situation is.You know, your size is a
very, very important factor in the world in determining your fate and your
destiny on this earth.I could go into
some unusual things.One unusual thing
involves an insect.That’s right an
insect.Now I don’t mean to laugh at you
and call you a little insect.So don’t
misunderstand me now.Did you ever see
an insect crawling across your living room floor?I’m sure everyone has seen insects in their
house at one time or another, right?You
know what your living room probably looks like to that insect?It looks like 2 or 3 consecutive football
fields, if it’s an average sized living room.The ceiling is about as high as a 30 or a 40-story building would be to
you or I.That’s pretty big in relation
to that insect.Now, I know what you’re
thinking, ‘You don’t propose to compare we short people to insects do you?’ Well, that’s not my purpose here. Obviously the difference in perception of the
world between the short and the average heighted or taller person is not
anywhere near as great as the disparity between the perceptions of the world
between an insect and a human being but you see my point though, don’t
you?The tall look at the world from a
completely different perspective than you – the short person.The short-of-stature don’t realize this, and
of course the tall don’t realize this either.The world looks slightly different to them as opposed to you.They don’t care either, even if I point it
out on my broadcasts.You see, the
tall-of-stature used to be in your position.Right?They were as tall as you
once.But they don’t care to remember
the height aspect.But if you think back
to those days when you were a small boy or girl you have to admit that everything
seemed bigger to you then, and I mean everything.Now it wasn’t because of your age that
everything seemed larger, it was due to the fact that YOU, yourself, your body
was smaller or shorter. But most of you
don’t think about that now.Just like you
don’t think of that, the tallers don’t think about when they were your height
either.
You’re 5’0” or 5’1” or 5’2”
or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 4’11”, 10, 9, 8, 7 6 and down and these taller people,
5’10”, 11, 6’0”, 6’1”, 2, 3, 4, etc.They were in your shoes at one time, but you were NEVER in their
shoes.Have you ever thought of it that
way as a short person?Probably
not.God forbid a taller got reinstated
in a short person’s body, you know what they’d do?What’s that?You don’t know?Oh yes you do.Some of them would commit suicide.That’s what some of them would do.They’d kill themselves – very, very quick.They would jump off the nearest roof.They would grab the nearest gun and put a bullet
through their head.Now the ones that
didn’t kill themselves might lose their minds or at the very least they’d
become very, very depressed.They would
become very depressed in the sense that people who have suddenly become
disabled get depressed. They’d find the
nearest psychiatrist.And you know what,
if all tall or taller people found themselves in a short person’s body the
psychiatrist’s couches would be chock full of patients, and that would be a
wonderful thing for the psychiatrists’ bank accounts.And you know something else, your nearest
two-bit shrink would finally take the issue of heightism seriously.
Imagine your local 6’4” guy
being reinstated in a 5’4” body.Imagine.Imagine the reaction of
his 5’10” wife.“What?You’re 5’4” now? Only as tall as that little
shrimp Joe Mangano?I was married to a
man.Now I’m married to, to, I don’t
know what I’m married to.I want to get
a divorce.We have to get a divorce.”Of course she won’t be so candid about the
real reason WHY she wants to get a divorce.She’ll make up some excuse or excuses otherwise.Anything but the real reason.
But you know something, you
don’t know what it’s like to be their height.Mmm hmm.The tall have a
completely different perspective of the world than you do, the
short-of-stature.And I’m going to
explain what I mean by that.Every
object on earth, no matter what it is – it can be a chair, a table, a computer
station, a computer, a television, a bookcase, doorframe, ceiling, kitchen
cabinets, a car, SUV, bus, train, a tree, a bush, a building even.Every single object whether it is natural or
man-made, the taller man or woman is bigger in relation to than you the short
person.Now what does that mean for you,
the short person?Well I’m going to tell
you what it means.I believe that the
larger you are in relation to any natural or man-made object results in a
greater sense of competency, a greater sense of mastery and a greater sense of
control over that person’s environment – within limits of course.The tallest man in the world who’s 8’5” who
lives in the Ukraine; he has great logistical difficulties obviously
because the world’s man-made objects are not made for someone so large because
he’s so far out of the normal range.(In
woman’s voice – ‘You see, tall people do have it worse than short people’)At least they don’t have to worry about
getting stepped on Mrs. Tallman but I won’t go into that right now.They’re usually the ones doing the stepping
on, but I won’t go into that right now either.But the short-statured person views the world in a different way from
the tall person and vice-versa.
If you’re bigger within
certain limits, you have a greater sense of competency, mastery and control if
you’re larger in relation to both natural and man-made objects.But those natural and man-made objects are
not the only objects that you have to deal with, there’s one more class of
objects – and that’s other human beings.And again, the larger you are in relation to those other people – again,
within limits – the greater your sense of mastery, control and competency.I don’t think anyone has ever said this,
anywhere at any time.None of your
masterful psychologists.None of your
masterful sociologists who don’t give a Scotch Farthing about this topic.None of your learned professors in college,
none of your endocrinologists, and certainly no unscrupulous building
inspectors running to Pensacola to hide.Anyone
who says this in the future will be imitating this speaker.By the way, you people, the short-of-stature
don’t know this.The tall-of-stature I
think, sense this, but they can’t verbalize it, and even if they could,
wouldn’t tell you, after all it benefits them not you.Remember Tallers have to work at not getting
a superiority complex over you.They literally
have to work at it.You think they care
about working at it?I don’t think
so.You the short person though are
forced to work to overcome an inferiority complex.(In a little Napoleon’s voice)‘What?Look kid, get me a grown-up, I need some help.’
Most tallers know at some
level that their tall stature benefits them.The ones who know this usually keep it to themselves because they know
it benefits them.You don’t know what
it’s like to be in their shoes, but they were once in your shoes.They don’t ever want to be in your shoes
again.They wouldn’t tell you that
though.Stand on a chair and see how the
world looks, see how the room looks.It
looks better to you doesn’t it?You know
it does.You know as well as I do that it
looks better.Now get on your knees, and
you know I wrote this in my original essay, “Heightism:The Last Bastion of Discrimination”.It doesn’t feel too good when you’re on your
knees.It doesn’t feel too good when
you’re looking up at other human beings.
You start off on an even
keel.When you are shorter than others
you are at a psychological disadvantage usually because when we’re babies,
toddlers, little children, early adolescents – all we do is look up and when we
look up, the people we look up to are usually more intelligent (sometimes),
more knowledgeable, (occasionally) more experienced, have more money, and of
course have more physical power for the most part, so tall height is associated
with these things.The experience of
looking up is a childhood one and when you look up at others you feel exactly
that.It is a re-creation of the
childhood experience.Of course you as a
short person might not admit it to yourself because after all, you’ve always
been short so it’s virtually a part of you.And if you’re a short-statured man or woman you don’t like that, but
you’ve done that all your life.It’s
always there and you don’t admit it so I’m admitting it for you.And you know it works both ways.That’s right.Now let’s view it from the perspective of the taller person, shall we?When they look at you the short person, they
tend to get a sense of superiority over you, yeah – they do.They have a sense of physical, emotional and
psychological superiority over you, and it’s collective because they’re the
majority.When the tallers look down on
you, they look down on someone they feel superior to the way an adult feels
superior to a child in a way.You’re
very short and you’re the minority.Everything in life is more difficult for you; everything in life – or at
least most things - are easier for them.Of course they don’t look at it that way.If you were to get the idea in your head that
you’re part of a disadvantaged group, you know, like racial groups, ethnic
groups, etc. they don’t like that.Of course if your height is in the normal
range of short, in other words, just a little below the mean in a bell-curve,
there’s not much awareness although I’ve personally been contacted by men as
tall as 5’9” or 5’10 telling me they were having problems in the workplace or
with the opposite sex.That’s how bad it
can get sometimes even for a person in the average range.You don’t have the same sense of power,
competency, mastery and control that they do.You never will have it, at least not most short people at this point in
time, unless you achieve some sort of position of power.They know this on the subliminal level, and
they don’t have to be Sigmund Freud either to know this.“Gentlemen and Kings, Captains all” except
for you.
If you’ve ever brought this
topic up, you’ll get the most ridiculous arguments opposing you like Danny
Devito being successful and Napoleon being successful or your short uncle who
even owns his own house and actually has a wife.Imagine that.
You don’t have the same sense of power, control,
mastery and competency that they do.Most of you never will have it.They know this on a subliminal level.And if you look deep within yourself you’ll understand it.That is, a few of you will, not many of
you.Now you start off on a level
playing field and then gradually the field becomes stacked against you.You have most things more difficult for you
and on the other side of the coin most things are less difficult or even easy
for them-the tallers that is- and especially when they’re in the same situation
that you’re in-wherever or whenever it might be.They don’t notice.It’s so built-in to their persona that they
don’t even notice their ease in any situation, and you don’t notice it either,
but if you’re awakened you probably will notice it.Unfortunately there are only a few of us
currently on Planet Earth right now that can lay claim to this great
honor.These are unusual things, strange
things, things most people don’t notice. . . .
This is Joe Mangano.I titled this broadcast Olympic heights,
because as you’re probably aware, the Olympics are currently taking place in BeijingChina, which by the way is very coincidental because one of
the people who took part in the documentary, ‘S&M:Short and Male’ was Chinese and a resident I
believe of Beijing.Some of the
scenes in the documentary were shot in Beijing.I don’t know
much about that person, but it’s my understanding that he does have his own
website and the website is in Chinese, and talks or at least concentrates a
little bit on issues connected with height.
Since I’m so interested in
anything having to do with human height, the Olympic Games are probably the
ultimate venue to analyze height for someone like myself, and I’ve been doing
just that in the last two weeks – as much as time allowed me to do that
is.Not as much as I wanted to do, but I
did what I could.It’s been my
observation over the course of the last few Olympic Games that in certain
sports the athletes have been getting taller and taller – which is probably a
fact.Now before you conclude that
there’s something going on in the world and that people are getting taller and
taller, my advice is, don’t jump to any conclusions.I don’t believe people are significantly
taller than they were 30 or 40 years ago.If they are then it’s because short people are not having as many
children or possibly committing suicide before they have the opportunity to
have children, because of all the discrimination that they’re victims of, that
so far they haven’t been able to do anything about.There is however, no doubt that people in the
United
States
are far heavier than they were even 20 years ago, and the epidemic is
increasing.The obesity epidemic makes
people appear larger to us, because I know when I see a 6’6” person who’s very
slim, as opposed to someone who’s the same height and let’s say about 400 lbs.
the 400 pounder looks quite a bit more imposing.He appears bigger - period.But the heights of the Olympic athletes in
certain sports does appear to be increasing.
As I was watching all the
swimming events last week, I was struck by the tall heights of many of the
swimmers from different countries.As
the listener probably knows, Michael Phelps, the man who broke Mark Spitz’s
Olympic record of 7 Gold Medals in one Olympics with a new record of 8, is 6’4”
in height.I did notice many of the
other swimmers to be in the same height range or even taller.There was one swimmer, who’s name escapes me
at the moment who was 6’8” in height.If
we go back to 1972 and look at Mark Spitz, now I’m just guessing, but I believe
Spitz is 5’11”, and I wonder if Spitz was competing today if he would be on the
same competitive level as he was 36 years ago.This is a question that is very difficult to answer.My guess is that he wouldn’t be.Tall height gives a swimmer an
advantage.Tall height is usually
accompanied by longer arms too.The
bottom line is that all things being equal the taller swimmer needs to swim
less body lengths than the shorter swimmer.To give you an example, if one arm stroke can propel the 5’6” swimmer
and the 6’6” swimmer one body length, then that one stroke has propelled the
6’6” swimmer one more foot than the 5’6” swimmer.What this means is that with all factors
equal the taller swimmer travels farther with each stroke.To offset this advantage the shorter swimmer
must exert more energy to travel the same distance.This may be an oversimplification of fluid
dynamics and propulsion through water, but you get the idea.I don’t think I saw any short swimmers on the
victory stand for any of the swimming events.Mostly all of the medalists in both individual and team events were over
6 feet in height.
What had the most profound
effect on me though and what prompted the recording of this broadcast was what
I saw a couple of nights ago. I was watching the US – Russia volleyball game late at night and this was the
regular volleyball, that is, the volleyball played on a hardwood floor as opposed
to the beach variety.And by the way I
am opposed to the beach variety – but only as far as broadcasts go – but that’s
a story for another day.I noticed
something that struck me as quite incredible in more ways than one, and it will
probably strike you as being incredible too.I noticed while I was watching the game that there was one – and only
one – player on each side who’s jersey was a different color than the jersey’s
of all the other players on his side.You know, I immediately became curious.Now I have to admit that I don’t really follow Volleyball very
much.I did play it a good deal during
high school gym class though and the reason for that was everyone who wasn’t
chosen for a side in Basketball wound up playing Volleyball; this included the
fat kids, the uncoordinated, and of course, the short kids – like me.I know the rules fairly well, but hadn’t
really kept up with any changes in the sport, so I didn’t realize what this
player’s purpose was or why his jersey was a different color.I did however get the picture quite rapidly
as I watched the game.I noticed that
the players with the different color jersey never got close to the net, never
attacked, and never spiked the ball.I also
noticed that when one side scored a point, the players on that side would all
come together at once and the player with the different color jersey just
happened to be the shortest on both teams.Now the alarm bells started to go off in my head so I wrote down the
names of the players with the different color jerseys on both the American and
Russian teams.Then I did an Internet
search.I discovered that back in the
90’s a new position was developed called the ‘libero’ which in Italian means
‘free’.The libero cannot block, spike,
or get close to the net.He cannot
attack at all; as a matter of fact it is against the rules.I then checked the heights of the ‘Libero’s’
on all the Olympic Volleyball teams.The
liberos all happened to be the shortest players on their respective teams.Now keep in mind that these guys were not
short in the real sense of the word, for example as I watched the Russian
libero – Verbov is his name, his height was listed as 6 feet.On my TV screen he actually appeared to be
about 5’8” to me.The American, Richard
Lambourne, who was the US team’s libero stands a mere 6’3”.So these men are not actually short, as a
matter of fact they can be quite tall.The fact that they’re differentiated by a different color jersey and
also by the fact that they can’t score points is very, very interesting, at
least to me.(In a woman’s voice) –
‘What are you saying now, that there’s some sort of conspiracy against short
people or something?!’No, but I am saying
that all the libero’s on all of the teams just happened to be the shortest on
their respective teams, 100% of the time.And this shortest player is marked off with a different uniform to
differentiate him from everyone else.You know isn’t this the way it usually goes for the short person in the
everyday world?Isn’t this the way it is
for the short person socially, romantically, in the workplace, every
place?Obviously these men don’t mind it
very much because in the real world they are still tall men.They can still hold their heads up high.But you know what really struck me is that as
I watched the Russian – Verbov – standing next to the other players on his
team, he had to be about 5 or 6 inches shorter than most of the other guys,
which would indicate that the average heights of the players on his team were
about 6’5’’ or 6’6’’.There’s no doubt
that the heights of Olympic Volleyball players are now equivalent to the
heights of NBA Basketball players.
You know, Swimming and Volleyball heights were not the
only heights that I noticed.I – along
with billions of other people in the world – watching the Track & Field
sprints, could not help but notice the height of the new sprint sensation –
Usain Bolt.Bolt stands 6’5’’ in
height.He is without a doubt the
tallest world class sprinter that I’ve ever seen.I don’t think there’s ever been a world class
sprinter even approaching his height.The problem with very tall men running sprints is that they tend to not
be able to move their legs as rapidly as some of the less tall men.Bolt, however, defies this.If you couple that fact with the fact that
all things being equal, a taller man has a longer stride than a shorter man and
therefore covers more distance with each stride, some interesting things are
going to happen, and some interesting things did happen, like his two world
records in the 100 and 200 meters in one Olympics, which has never been done
before.The success of taller and taller
men in sports that select for tall height actually assists in making the plight
of the short individual more difficult and it does.I’ll tell you something else that I noticed
as well.The taller that these athletes
get, the more the commentators seem to mention their heights.Back in the 2004 Olympics in Athens I can
remember a commentator and I believe it was the same commentator that was
interviewing some of the athletes at ground level after their races at Beijing;
I remember him making some rather unkind remarks about Jerome Johnson who was
an American 800 meter runner who didn’t make the finals, by the way.But I can remember the commentator saying,
“The shorter runner is getting beat up by the taller runner.” I can also
remember him criticizing Lauren Williams who dropped the baton in the 4X100
meter relay and mentioning her height – as if that had something to do with it.You know, heightism being the wonderfully
acceptable little prejudice that it is allows all of this to occur.It allows free mention of height; free
mention of short stature as a negative; free condescion towards short people; free
ridicule of short-statured people; and free expression of tall runners,
‘beating up on short runners’.I guess
that’s why they call the shortest volleyball player on a team the
‘Libero’.He gets to stand in the back –
free.This is Joe Mangano.Thank you very much.
The webmasters prepared statement for the hearing before the Massachusetts Committee on Labor and Workforce Development on March 25th 2008 at the Massachusetts State House in Boston. ________________________________________________________________________
This is Joe Mangano.You know heightism is your quintessential ‘ism’. And I know I’ve said that before, but there’s no ‘ism’ like heightism, like there’s no business like show business.I mean let’s face it; let’s be candid with ourselves, shall we?Heightism is a situation where we, you, you’re short, most of the people who listen to this are short-statured people, listen to these broadcasts.We are victims and we have no redress.You know most short people go through life thinking that there’s either nothing they can do about their situation or just not thinking at all.The few who do think, probably think along the lines of, you know these people are doing this stuff to me and I can’t turn to anyone.You turn to authority figures they say something is wrong with you.You turn to others, uh peers, they say something’s wrong with you.“Oh just get over it.”“Oh, you’re too sensitive.”“Oh things like that don’t bother me.I just let insults roll off my back. HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!”Well, you don’t get any insults of this nature wiseguy.That’s why they roll off your back.They don’t exist.I know it took me a long time to really realize what this was all about, and most of what I’ve learned has occurred in the last 6 or 7 years or so.Before that it was an extremely slow progression.And if you put this on graph – a learning curve if you will.This would be a graph of my own increase in knowledge about height and height issues.The graph would show a very slow rise most of my life and then all of a sudden the line would get steeper and shoot up, almost like a stock that had stagnated in price for many years and then whose price went through the roof.Right now the line’s almost a peak I would say.Although I am still learning by the way.Still learning more and more about height and heightism.And I have to do something with this knowledge.When you get to this point you have to communicate your knowledge a little bit I think.
You know this height issue is really the quintessential issue of man.I know you think I’m exaggerating just a bit when I say that.This is not only an issue on an individual level, it’s an issue on a collective level as well.It’s even an issue on an international level.Big countries seem to have the right to invade little countries and all they have to do is doctor up 1 or 2 transparent pretexts in order to do this and get away with it – scott free.Who’s going to challenge them?This is the ultimate example of a size advantage.Now we’re just individuals.We’re not a country; we’re not a race; we’re not a people with a particular ethnic background; we’re not a people with a specific political ideology; we’re not viewed as even having a disability, etc.I have to say this over and over again.The reason I have to do that is that it has to sink in to people’s heads – the short I’m referring to.They have to listen to it again and again and again because the barrier to this is like a concrete wall in people’s heads and you have to keep hammering away.Finally the barrier gives way and you have these people and they start waking up and realizing what I’ve realized over the course of the last 6 or 7 years or so and you start thinking of yourself in a different light and you start becoming angry, very angry.This is what the short are deathly afraid of.This is what the vast majority of the short of stature don’t want to deal with.They don’t want to deal with this anger.They’d rather live in a world of illusion, a world of make-believe, and uh I can’t really blame them either, I really can’t.The reason I can’t blame them completely for that is because they don’t have any avenues of redress anywhere.
They’re short and you know you can go to a sibling and the sibling will take advantage of you in some cases.In many cases short statured kids can’t even go to parents.It was about uh, when was it?Two years ago that that 15 year-old in New York City was being harassed, he jumped into the East River and drowned himself.He was about 5 feet in height.When kids do this, uh commit suicide like this, it usually means that they don’t have any support at home.That means from parents and family, because if you have strong support at home, you’d never think of doing that sort of thing, really.To be in that sort of a situation, to be harassed like that, uh, committing suicide is a major thing, especially in the case of a 15-year old.How many 15 year olds think of committing suicide and then actually go through with it?Suicide is a major event, let’s face it.I remember being interviewed by Megan Kendall.I think I mentioned in another broadcast that she said to me in that interview words to the effect of, “Oh, we’ve all been bullied.”Well, you know, this goes beyond being bullied, and I don’t think Megan Kendall was ever bullied in her life about anything.Tall good-looking women are seldom – if ever – bullied by anyone, unless of course it’s a big strong, tall man, you know it and I know it so who’s kidding who.No.We haven’t all been bullied.A small percentage of us have been bullied.Some of us have been bullied into adulthood, and the people who have been bullied into adulthood have maintained silence.They maintain silence because how many adults are gonna talk?They’re utterly ashamed.Can you imagine an adult man who might be 35 years old walking down the street, gets harassed by a bunch of teenagers who think he’s a kid? Can you imagine a situation like that?You think that 35 year old man is going to talk about this?This is the big problem and this is one of the things that I saw at the state senate hearing in Massachusetts last month.I went there and a tiny handful of short-statured people showed up, including me, and there’s a big contingent of overweight people there.Incidentally, all the fat people who testified there at the hearing were women.There was not one overweight man who testified.Every single one of the people who testified were women; every single one of them had gotten a good deal of attention from the members of that panel and the three people – myself included – who made statements before the panel, were not asked any questions by the members of the panel and that’s significant.In my own case I think they heard enough, but in the case of the fat people my own personal opinion is that the members of the panel respected them more, for more than one reason.Large size, even if it’s weight gets its due, gets its respect, gets its attention.There’s no doubt about it.The fact that several high-level educators appeared on behalf of the large people – one of them a short-statured woman – as I mentioned in my last broadcast, assisted the fat people in their cause.This tends to make one angry.And if you look at the situation with the fat people, they have a situation where they can lose at least some weight if they really try, and I’ve mentioned this before and you don’t have to hear me say it.You know it as well as I do.These people were very, very large, and I remember one woman getting up there and saying words to the effect of, “Oh, 250 pounds is not a large size.”I mean think about that statement.I’m 5’4” and 135 lbs. and she’s saying that 250 lbs. is not a large size.Well I can remember a time when 250 lbs. was defensive end for the Dallas Cowboys.Not the Giants now.And this is weight.And these people on this panel are giving the overweight people a lot of respect and attention.A lot of this stuff is hurtful, and I’ve got to say it.You’ve got to call it what it is.You see a 5 feet in height woman, slim woman, getting up there, traveling 3,000 miles to fight for the problems of overweight people, and completely ignoring the problems of the short-of-stature, that’s a poignant situation and a hurtful one.I have to admit that I was hurt by that.I don’t think that I’m being hypersensitive or sensitive in any way to say that I am.But these are the kinds of things you face as short individual.And if I was beaten down by this stuff I wouldn’t be giving these broadcasts, I really wouldn’t.
I may be getting, uh, how should I say it, more and more tough, more and more candid about this issue and I heard once where J. Edgar Hoover supposedly said this, and maybe that’s not a good analogy, but J. Edgar Hoover once said, and J. Edgar Hoover was a short man by the way.J. Edgar Hoover stood 5’7”, yet in press releases, this is my understanding, I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am, they gave out his height as ‘just under 6 feet’.Typical short guy trying to cover up his short stature.But he would say, and uh, I heard this somewhere and I don’t remember where I heard it– supposedly he said - when faced with a difficult situation that, “The tougher they get, the tougher I get”.And this is fast becoming this speaker’s philosophy.Trying to achieve that.I don’t know if that’s entirely possible, but, we hope to try.And there’s things comin’ up, this month.Not too far down the road, in a few days as a matter of fact, they’re going to have the screening of the “S & M:Short and Male” documentary.I don’t know even at this moment if I’m going to be attending or not.That’s the bad thing about being an activist, especially with something like height, nobody pays you a salary, you have to sort of do everything on your own and there aren’t too many people who are rushing to support you, like when I went up to Boston last month and the Committee certainly didn’t pay my way.I paid my own way, although I drove the distance up there and I was glad that I did, it was a good experience, I’ll try to do it again if I need to.By the way, I would like to personally thank Howard Goldberg for his efforts in this endeavor and also his wife Ina Fichman.This is a first in the history of man I guess, for a documentary on stature issues – specifically short-stature.This is what the documentary is all about, really.I think also, it’s an expose about this issue.Size, whether it’s height or weight is an important one and that’s something that you and I both know.
I think we’re at a point right now where we’re at a small breakthrough, just a small one, not a large one.I’m completely awake.I only wish that so many short-statured people were also at the same point. If an average short-statured person only knew what I’ve had to go through to get to this stage.You see this is the problem.The short of stature have to run the gauntlet.Most of them – the vast majority of them – don’t want to do that.They would like an easy way out, as do most people for most things. Everybody wants the easy way out.Everybody wants someone to tell them how to do it the ‘easy way’.Unfortunately there is no easy way out, and once you realize that and accept it in your own mind you’ll be much better off, believe me.
You know, going back to the hearing in Boston, the people who were overweight, most of them, practically all of them were very heavy – in the 300 lb. plus range.That’s my best estimation of the approximate weight of the majority of the fat people.And when you look at them, you see that they are a very small minority.You have to understand that NAAFA is 39 years old, incredibly enough.It began in 1969.They don’t have that many members.It’s not like they have 100,000 members.They don’t, but they’ve been around those 39 years and there are a heck of a lot more short-statured people AND they have a characteristic that is NOT controllable and yet so far fewer short people testified at the hearing.This is what we’re dealing with, and it’s not something, and I’ve got to be frank, it’s not something that is going to be eradicated tomorrow or the next day.When you view other groups, people of different races – the feminist movement for example – go back to 1920 – women were parading in the street for the right to vote.Now I admit that short adults have the right to vote certainly (although I’ll tell you, the first time I voted, my age was questioned, as one might expect), but because the short-statured are not viewed as a group it has advantages and disadvantages – unfortunately mostly disadvantages.The advantage, because we’re not identified as a group – because there’s short people in all groups – nobody’s out to lynch us.No one is out to ‘Short-bash’ us, although we certainly are ‘short-bashed’ on a subliminal level.I believe, my contention is that small people are chosen as targets for bullies on the street, more often than anybody.I think in many cases women are chosen as targets not because of their sex, but because of their size, although you may not accept that contention at first glance.People choose the short or small as targets of discrimination, aggression, harassment, etc. because they can and because there’s no inhibitions or restrictions on them for doing so, and they laugh.They can laugh about it.There was a time when this applied to other groups.The listener I think, can see where we are at this moment.We haven’t come very far, but we’re a lot further than we were 10 years ago for example.I think we’ve come much further into the light than we were even as recently as 3 or 4 years ago.I think one of the main reasons for this is the advent of the Internet.The Internet has been a positive influence for this; of course it has its negative or down side as well.It’s downside is that you can get a lot of BS and you’ve got to be able to sift through the garbage.I think the listener knows what I mean.You get a lot of bullcrap in some places and it’s not like there are dozens of groups for the short-of-stature.You’ve got something like ‘Signs-on-San diego’, you’ve got ‘alt.support.short’.There’s less activity on these groups now by the way than there was a couple of years ago, and of the activity that exists on these few groups, there’s less quality from what I can see. I can speculate on why I think that is so, but it seems that a lot of the old posters are gone and new ones have taken their place and many of the new ones are not of the same quality as some of the older ones.In the last couple of years my website has come online and I think it might be a transition phase of sorts, although I’m just as new to this as anyone else – this particular phenomenon that is - so I can’t really come to any definitive conclusions about it.I do think that when one discusses this topic of heightism seriously, many people who just like to whine and complain, you know - not do anything, just sit around and wallow in their misery, so-to-speak, disappear into the woodwork when push comes to shove.When it gets serious, they wave bye-bye.That’s the way it is.You can’t change that.That might be a good thing when all is said and done.It would certainly be a good thing for the scam-artists to disappear.
I would recommend that people do post messages whenever and wherever they can – as long as the messageboards are free.What I mean by that is that I wouldn’t bother posting messages on some group that censors your comments because you happen to disagree with the moderator.No.I wouldn’t recommend that at all.
As far as groups where you can post freely though, I recommend that you make intelligent comments and intelligent rebuttals to others comments.Don’t degenerate into cursing and things like that.Many of these people who post have horrendous spelling and grammar and nobody is going to take you seriously when you can’t spell and your grammar is poor.That’s just the way it is.You know obviously you’ve been abused, and you’re angry and there’s been no redress and there still isn’t any redress, and I’ve been involved in so many situations, I could give dozens of broadcasts just on the experiences that I’ve had, so wherever the listener is, the webmaster has already been there and I’m probably going to be going to places where no one man has gone before so-to-speak, you know, just like Star Trek except this isn’t a TV show, it’s the real thing.
At this point in time I’m trying to be the closest thing to an activist as I think anybody can be about this issue at this moment in time, and that’s not saying really that much, because I don’t have much company in this endeavor at the moment, so I’m certainly not the kind of activist that I want to be.This is the nature of heightism at the moment.But I will say this before I sign off; more has been done in the last 7 years with this issue than in the previous 2000 years.And you can take that to the bank, and deposit it.This is Joe Mangano and you’ll hear from me again.Thank you.
The webmaster talks about his recent trip to Boston and testifying at a state senate hearing to discuss the possible passage of a bill to make discrimination in the workplace on the basis of height illegal in the state of Massachusetts. ___________________________________________________________
You know, radio silence can be a good thing – sometimes.Sometimes you have to maintain radio silence.But there comes a time when you have to tell what needs to be told.There comes a time when you have to let people know the facts and that’s really what’s being done for the short-of-stature in these broadcasts.The facts are what you mustn’t be afraid to confront.You’re a victim, and you should admit that to yourself.You’ve been wronged as well, and you have to admit that to yourself too.You’ve been a pawn in other people’s games; none of this is that hard to admit. It really isn’t when you think about it.Many or most of the short-statured are ashamed like little children.You know why they feel like little children don’t you?It’s because of the height aspect of it; the short stature aspect of it is associated with being a child.They’ve got you thinking and feeling like you’re a little child.They’ve got you trapped every which way.They’ve got you boxed in from all sides.You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.If you complain you’ve got a problem and if you don’t complain well, you’re going to tolerate what you’ve been tolerating all your life.If enough of you make complaints, then I might get a few more e-mails than I’ve been getting.I wouldn’t mind getting a few hundred e-mails a week.It would be a little bit of a burden, but more is better than fewer in this case – to hear from people who are in touch with reality.I see the short all the time, the short attempting to be and feel taller or tall.Identifying with the tall is a common coping strategy for the short.Even the short defend Tallers.Some of them even think that by attending some Tall Club meeting that they’re going to convince the Tallers to “join with them” and fight heightism together.(In ‘Cool Short Mans’ Voice) ‘Hey man, that sounds cool man’.Ain’t gonna happen.The tallers concern is with the tallers.They form their clubs partly out of a feeling of superiority.Don’t want no short people round them.Even one or two of the so-called ‘activists’ – and I use that word very loosely here – even one or two of the so-called ‘activists’ have tried that thinking that those big, strong super tallers were going to assist them in their plight.I don’t see it happening.I’m sorry, but I have to call a spade a spade.But one of the biggest problems for the short-of-stature is the simple fact that they don’t think for themselves.They think the way others think or the way others want them to think.It’s difficult to apply logic to your own life.Very few people have this capability.When you apply logic to all of this, logic should win out in every case, or mostly every case, but sometimes people don’t think logically unfortunately.You think the way they want you to think.You think like a person who’s locked up in a prison.You think like a person who can’t think freely and think for himself.They’ve got you feeling – and I’m sorry but I have to say it – they’ve got you feeling like a ‘little rat’.That you have no power, no voice, no chance to do anything.And God forbid you protest, you’re a little baby.So they’ve got you covered on all sides.If you protest you’ve got a big problem and if you don’t protest, you’re in the same boat you’ve been in.You’re either in the frying pan or you’re in the fire.You’re either under a rock or between a rock and a hard place as they say.
It was Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, many years ago, several hundred years ago as a matter of fact, who wrote in Hamlet:
“Whether it tis nobler in the mind to bear the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take up arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing,
End them”
And that’s a worthwhile passage, a passage that short people would do well to consider.Because you’re 15 years old or you’re 25 years old or 40 years old or even older than that.If you bear the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” you’re only going to continue on your present course.Do you want to do that?Do you want to stay in the same place that you’ve been in, or do you want to do something about your lot in life?Do you want to take up arms?And you know you don’t have to take up arms literally.You don’t have to go out and get a gun and start shooting.All you have to do is open your mouth like I’m doing.When you listen to these broadcasts you have to understand one thing, what’s being done here is something that no one else at this moment in time is doing.There could be one person or two people, or even a few that might be able to do this as well.What I’ve figured out is nothing that can’t be figured out.What I know is nothing that can’t be known.You’ve already listened, and this is high-quality stuff you’re hearing.There is no website on the Internet that is going to give you the same type of information or make you angry like these broadcasts can make you – will make you – should make you.Of course there’s a little bit of humor too.We wouldn’t want anyone to just go out and fly into a rage.But as I’ve said, I don’t see millions of short-statured people going out and rioting in the streets.Religions and races and nationalities and sexual orientations and sex and even disability seem to trump height.But the short-of-stature are victims, just like some others have been and you’re going to stay victims unfortunately.You’re going to stay second-class citizens until you start thinking a little bit differently.This is Joe Mangano.Thank you very much.
And that’s what he really meant.You could hear it.And you know something, they wouldn’t say this about people who are overweight.You know, somebody asked me about weight and height and how they compare, well, you know when you give a description of someone, weight and height usually follow each other in consecutive order.But they’re very, very different and the differences are irreconcilable.The simple fact of the matter is:weight is a choice and height is not a choice.That’s the simple truth.You can choose NOT to be overweight.I understand that some people have glandular conditions.I understand about conditioning.I understand that obesity is a big problem in society today, and that there are different factors that affect how much weight one might carry around on their body.Nonetheless as an individual you still have some control over how much fat you have on your body.You don’t choose or control your height.Of course, they may argue with you there, they may say, “Ohhh! Now we have human growth hormone, you can be tall!”You can’t be tall.You know, if you’re 5 feet in height, uh, no, excuse me, if you’re 4 and half feet in height and you’re a kid and you’d be 5 feet tall without growth hormone, you might be 5’2” or 5’3” WITH growth hormone.You’re not going to be 6 feet tall, 6 and a half feet tall.It’s not going to make you tall if it’s not in your genes, because you hear all these stories about better nutrition today.(In a woman’s voice)“Uh OHH! Better nutrition that’s why we’re taller today!”You know, I think that’s a lot of bull.Just a lot of bull.I don’t believe people don’t eat any better today.You know how many basketball players, football players, and uh, they don’t even have to be Professional athletes you young kids see them all the time.The mother is never home to prepare a meal.The father is living somewhere else, they’re separated, the kid eats junk foods almost exclusively and he’s 14, 15, 16 years old and he’s shooting up past 6 feet in height, we see that right?I saw it when I was a kid.You see it today.We see it on a regular basis.
Unless you’re under severe stress, you’re probably going to reach the height that you’re genetically programmed to reach.I know that there’s ISS (Idiopathic Short Stature) – that’s what the medical profession calls it – unexplained short stature without any known causes.Unless you’re under severe stress you’re going to reach that height, or you’re severely malnourished or severely abused, or, God Forbid, you have some sort of a tumor near your pituitary gland, you’re probably going to reach your genetically programmed height.So you’re taking growth hormone, you’re having a problem with growth for whatever reason or for reasons unknown to medical science at this point in time, you’re gonna get 2, 3 inches from growth hormone.You can have your legs lengthened they’ll tell you now.Oh yeah, sure, I can have my legs lengthened.Yeah right.(In a ‘cool short man’s’voice) ‘Hey man. Ahm a cool short dude man. Let me get to mah favorit, short group man.Ahm ritin’.Hey dudes!Tomorrow Ahm gonna be travelin to Ethiopia or some place like that man.Hey dey be doin it for only $300.Hey ain’t dat cool!Take a fast plane back and won’t da chicks luv me man?!’Yeah, you just keep believing man.
You’re gonna go to a physician.You’re going to the center, I believe it’s in Maryland – the hospital and doctors that have the most experience with this rare operation and you’ve got to be psychologically evaluated before.And this is a long process.This is not in today, decide tomorrow.Of course even before that, you’ve got to be financially capable of the costs.Think about it:At least $75,000 for the operation itself. And that’s just for the operation.Money for medications, many of them to prevent unwanted infections, because it’s going to be an open wound – two open wounds – one on each leg.More money for medications to ease the tremendous pain you’re going to be in 24/7.How many more thousands of dollars for that?You have to spend at least, and I italicize the phrase ‘at least’, you have to spend at least 6 months in bed, incapacitated, assisted 24/7 to do anything. That means having nursing care round the clock. Go to the bathroom.Cleaning yourself after going to the bathroom.Cleaning yourself in general.Of course you can’t put any pressure on your lower legs.You can’t go outside.At least 6 months out of work and it could be a lot more.You’re in essence a paraplegic.You can’t claim disability for this either, so you have to give up your job if you have one.The bottom line is this:you have to be a rich person or have rich relatives who can afford all this and are willing to pay for it.The costs in both medical bills and time lost from work will probably be at least $250,000.That’s a quarter of a million dollars.How many people have that kind of money to spend on something like this?Especially the short man-who-as you well know makes considerably less money.Unless of course you’re (in woman’s voice) ‘Danny DeVEEEto or Joe Pesce’.Then you might have some money to do it.But unless you’re one of these actor characters you’re not going to have the funds.And you better pray there are no infections or complications.You see my point though don’t you?You could go to some 3rd world country and get it done much cheaper, but then you’re taking your life in your hands like that ‘cool short dude’.What if you do get infections?What if the bones don’t heal properly?What if they break?What if one leg gets longer than the other?These things happen, and they happen more than a very small percentage of the time.Gotta take all that into consideration mah man.It ain’t like going to the doctor and gettin’ a shot mah man.This is why the screening process is so thorough – here in the United States that is.And what you’re going to get out of this is 2 inches maybe a little more.You think about that.You might be better off with elevator shoes.
So this is what I mean when I say that height is not a choice.It isn’t.Height is like skin color or ethnic origin or race – you can’t choose it.You can’t really expand your genetic potential at this point in time easily-even with medical intervention.Height is there, but it’s trivialized.I mentioned earlier that first people ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.That’s what Gandhi said. I don’t know if you’re going to win yet.I really don’t.I can’t see millions of short people protesting at this point in time – except people like me. You know when you’ve had bad experiences, the problem with these short statured people is that they’re out of touch with reality, they’re in denial. Most of them are not even aware in their own minds what’s going on.It’s unfortunate to say, but it’s even more unfortunate that it’s the truth.The short of stature feel that they’re all alone with a physical trait that they can do nothing about, but suffer the rejections and discrimination that they do from society.I happen to be in the rare situation of having to explain all this stuff.If I was claiming discrimination based on my race or religion or skin color or sex or other traits, I wouldn’t have to be under this burden probably.Heightism is laughed at, scoffed at.
I put on my website, and uh, I’m trying to think now, oh yeah, I put about 5 minutes of audio from a news show that reported about heightism in China and the lengths people there will go to (if you’ll pardon the expression) to increase their height.You know heightism is rampant in China.Those of you who think, ‘Oh the wisdom of the Orient.’ And I learned some of that wisdom when I was in martial arts a long time ago.With all that wisdom people under 5’3” can’t get a driver’s license it’s been reported.There are height requirements for some government jobs even though there are no real physical requirements for those jobs.There are height requirements in banks, remember the Chinese student who sued the bank about 6 years ago? We still don’t know what happened with that by the way. Diplomats have to be a certain height.Be like a young tree in the wind grasshopper, bend yet do not break.Well just keep bending.When you do break, they’ll blame you.They don’t have to bend, only you have to bend.If you try to make others bend then unfortunately you have a problem little man.You’ve got to learn to take your medicine.See folks, even in China.It’s no different anyplace.
But be that as it may, you’re chosen as a target as a short person.It doesn’t matter where you are.Your height makes you a target.Of course you can’t claim you were targeted because of your height and then expect it to be considered a hate crime.It just hasn’t happened yet.Ralph Keye’s book ‘The Height of your Life’ talks about the police very briefly and how the police – at least the Royal Canadian Mounties – how they profile short men or did profile short men in the past.And I remember a passage from the book where Keyes goes into a passage in the then Royal Canadian Mounted Police Training Manual.The passage went like this:
Think back to your days on the beat, it was always the little guy who caused the trouble and caused the fight.
That’s an incredible passage.If you insert the name of any other group in place of ‘little guy’ in that manual it becomes a case of blatant, malicious and even illegal profiling in which heads would roll in the Mounties.Then Keyes mentions that the training manual goes into comparing short men with dictators.They compare short men with guys like Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, and of course Napoleon. And I wonder what would happen if that manual compared people of any other group with dictators and mass murderers?Of course we know what would happen, don’t we?It’s incredible what the short-statured man has to endure in this world; and he has to keep his mouth shut too.Imagine if prejudice against any other group was trivialized or laughed at.They don’t even think this exists!Broadcasts like mine have to prove it exists.And that’s what these broadcasts do explain and believe me I’ll do it down to the nth detail if I have to.
A study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry based on the records of almost a million and a half Swedish men indicated that the shortest men in the group had double the likelihood of committing suicide as compared with the tallest men, which is something we might expect, and I’m sure if they did the same study in any country that the results would probably be similar. Short men have a lower quality of life and are victims, and nobody gives a damn.Frankly my dear, they don’t give a damn.No one cares.It’s not their problem and the short-of-stature keep their lips buttoned up because somebody might laugh at them.The short are in a virtual prison in many cases and most people don’t care.Why should they care when the short-statured do nothing about their own plight?Think about it.
I remember a couple of years back when I had rented a hall in a church and was in the process of handing out flyers to short people on the street in New York City for a meeting.I remember going up to a woman, this was in Manhattan now, New York City, and she must have been about 5 feet in height – with her platforms on - and I said Hi, my name is Joe Mangano.I’m a short person and I’m going to be speaking at a meeting in a couple of weeks about height discrimination, etc. and she looked at me like I just dropped in from Mars.She looked at me like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And I asked her something like, “Have you been the victim of discrimination?”And she’s there with this wide-eyed deluded expression on her face like, ‘NOOO.What are you talking about?Are you crazy?Are you insane?I’m perfectly happy in my little world. OHH and anyway I don’t like short men.I like tall men.Would you please leave me alone and go away?”And that’s the impression I got from the look on her face and the way she was shaking her head from side to side.Crazy.Yeah I’m crazy.This is the situation we’re in.These are the attitudes we have to face.Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could be met with, Oh Joe where have you been all my life?!My knight in shining armor here at last!Hey Joe sign me up will ya?I’ll be there.What time is the meeting?Oh boy I been waitin a long time for dis.Heh. Heh.Heh.Heh.Heh.No such luck.You know most of the people that listen to these broadcasts don’t email me.But they quietly listen.They quietly come to the website and maintain radio silence so-to-speak.But then again, there are those people that do send me e-mails and let me know that they are in-touch with reality.
Broadcast of February 9, 2008 - 'Joe for you' (text below)
Hello.My name is Joe Mangano and I’m gonna be talking about discrimination against the short-of-stature which is referred to as Heightism.Heightism is the belief – usually – that the short-of-stature are inferior to the tall-of-stature or the tall-ER people or even average height people.It’s a long-standing belief among humanity; it’s usually not verbalized, it’s usually accepted as gospel truth, and it’s usually set in stone and no one questions it.No one has ever questioned it; no one has ever said anything about it.The short-of-stature are victims very much like people of different races or religions or nationalities who’ve been victims, but no one has ever looked at it that way and very few short-statured people view it that way.I happen to be one of the few short-statured people in this world that looks at it that way.I’ve approached short-statured people and many of them, as I’ve mentioned on other occasions, are in a very bad state of denial, which is unfortunate.The reason that they’re in such a bad state of denial – one of the reasons - is because the short-of-stature usually, unless they’re dwarves or are people that have some sort of congenital condition like acondroplasia, and they fall into the category of dwarfism, don’t have any kind of an identity the way people of a given race, religion, color, creed, nationality, sexual orientation, sex, even disability, have an identity. There’s a camaraderie among deaf people.You know I was watching a show once, I think it was Dateline, and they were talking about deaf people.They were showing how medical science could make, I believe and I’m not gonna, and don’t quote me, cause, uh, my memory is bit vague on this.They were showing how they could show the deaf that there was a new operation to make them hear, some of them anyway, and they could make their young children hear and the deaf did not want their young children to be able to hear, because they had this culture, this deaf culture, this sign language culture, and they did not want to change because they did not want their children to be any different from them.Which I can understand, most people tend to be that way.Short-stature is not looked at, uh I wouldn’t say a disability, but it’s looked at as something as completely undesirable so that even short people want taller children, although short women in particular want taller children, especially taller boys, so that they can protect them.There’s a phenomenon among short-statured women where they actively go out and seek out men who are taller than they are proportionately compared with women in general.I’m gonna give you an example of that, like a 5’6” woman will tend to be with men in the 6 foot range or taller.The average 5’0” woman, especially if she’s good-looking will want the same 6 foot or so man.Of course where does this leave the short-statured man?That’s the question.And that’s a rhetorical question but it’s one you should ask yourself.A short man can’t expect to gather interest from taller woman 99+% of the time. Most men do not want to be with taller women anyway and I might as well say that now, unless of course there are other factors involved.Most women do not want to be with men of the same height or even the tiniest bit shorter or even and inch or two taller than them, because you know if they put their high heels on and most women do wear high heels at least sometimes and they’re 5’6” and they become 5’9” after they put the heels on and they have a guy who’s only two inches taller than them now they’re taller than him.Women don’t want to be taller than the men they’re with.I don’t know if this is genetic.I can’t say with 100% certainty that this is genetic.I can say with certainty that it seems to transcend national boundaries.It seems to transcend cultures, continents, religions and races.It seems to be applicable all across the human race.All across the human race we have to admit – that men are taller than women in general, which is true.That seems to be a universal constant.It doesn’t mean of course that a given man can’t be shorter than a given woman obviously, but men in general, everywhere you go on earth are taller than women as a group and as a rule and they’re taller than women by different percentages in different countries, different societies although it doesn’t vary that much.The ratio is usually on the order of 1 - 1.06 to 1 - 1.09.In other words an average man might be six one hundredths of the height of an average woman in that society more, or taller which usually translates to between 5 and 6 inches taller for the average man.That’s usually what the average difference is between the heights of a married couple or any unmarried couple.
I did an experiment once where I stood in Times Square New York City.I stood there, for hours with a clipboard and a paper and a pen, and a tick sheet, and of course this is not scientific, however, and you know uh, I used to be one of these people where I used to think uh, ‘Oh if it’s none done in a controlled study it doesn’t mean anything’.This was before I realized how biased many studies are, how lacking in money some educational institutions are when they do some of these studies, and how some of these so-called “researchers” and I put the word researchers in quotes, they can be so-called “professors” and I put the word “professors” in quotes, but some of them are not worth a whole lot – that is, some of the professors and some of the studies are not worth a great deal.The researchers can even fudge the results if the study was not done well – you know – just to cover their backsides.So I came to trust my own judgment in what I heard and my own judgment in what I saw – with my own eyes, and I observed.And I continue to observe.I observed women – with men – who it appeared they had a relationship with.And this is not just in Times Square; this is everywhere, all the time.In some cases it was very obvious they had a relationship with the man or guy that they were walking with and I found about 99 – well over 99.5 percent of the time, that woman, was with a man that was taller than her.Ninety-nine point five plus percent of the time.I’ve seen more women with men of another race; more women with probably men of another religion, although I mean, you can’t identify the religion of the man or woman on first glance in many cases, but I’ve seen women – many whose religion I knew with men whose religion was different. I hardly ever see a woman with a man shorter than her that she’s having any kind of a relationship with. So I’ve seen more men, or excuse me women that were with men of another race, or another religion, another color, creed, nationality.I’ve seen more women with men who were bald; more good-looking women with men who weren’t quite so good-looking in my opinion.Shapely women with overweight men.Blue-eyed women with green-eyed men.And there are probably more women ‘hanging out’ or associating with men who are gay or bi-sexual than you’ll see women ‘hanging out’ or associating with men of a different height – that is – men who are shorter than them, and this is the trait that supposedly is so trivial.
You know, I received an e-mail from a kid, or a teenager, I think he was a teenager, who was short, and when he mentioned it to his mother, the mother wound up trivializing it very much like Mrs. Tallman does.You remember Mrs. Tall man right? (in a woman’s voice) ‘It’s all in how much confidence you have; that’s what counts’.He mentioned that his mother sounded just like the voice I do.I wasn’t surprised.There’s a lot of ‘em out there.Of course men will do the same.(in tough guy’s voice)‘Better ac like a man ova dere, like me, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha Ha’.
You know, I was watching a segment on, I think it was CNN with Paula Zahn, I think it was her, and she was on with 3 other people and she mentioned that the average height of the 4 people, the 4 of them was about 6 feet.Two of them were women, and I couldn’t help but wonder about this.The average height of four people on this news show – and two of them were women – and the average height among them was 6 feet.That’s pretty darn tall!And wouldn’t you know it, the tallest person there, a guy, tried to, uh, trivialize heightism, trying to say that it doesn’t exist, and he gave as an example and I’m just paraphrasing, ‘Well there are many people who are successful who are short.’And I think he gave the classic Danny Devito, Joe Pesce line.Well, you know, this is about par for the course where we’re at.It’s an argument that’s just ridiculous on its face.Let’s go back 50 years.Let’s go back to 1958 and somebody says well, there was no discrimination against Black people at that time and they use as an example the fact that well there were successful Black people.Look at Jackie Robinson.Look at Willie Mays.Look at Jim Brown.Look at Sidney Potier.Look at Sammy Davis, Jr.Obviously most people would scoff at him, wouldn’t they?Because short-statured people are viewed as such a vulnerable group or non-group, actually that’s probably more accurate, they’re not even expected to give you a counter-argument.So you’ll get the same ridiculous logic from an educated person like a lawyer as you would a high school student.I know a woman lawyer in my age group who knew and knows of my involvement with this height issue and uh, being involved with a height group, that was that bogus organization a couple of years back and she trivialized the situation as well using as an example the height of her husband who she claims is 5’5”.This is the kind of reasoning you get.Because her husband is 5’5” it naturally follows that there’s no such thing as heightism.These are the kind of arguments they’ll give you.Ridiculous nonsense that is supposed to shut you up immediately.Never argue about heightism.Write papers.Accuse the guilty.Never bring an argument to a taller.You’ll wind up being infuriated because and I’ve mentioned this before, it does no good to argue.Don’t bother.Of course if your in a TV interview, or a radio interview, that’s another story, then you have to put these bastards in their place, like I’m gonna be doing in the future.By the way, it doesn’t do any good either to join any organizations, three or four person organizations with unscrupulous or incompetent people misrepresenting a website.
But as far as interviews go, if you’re being interviewed like me, for example, they can’t ignore you, or laugh at you, you know Ghandi supposedly said – and I’m sure many of you have heard this quote, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”.I don’t notice that you win, at least not yet.I do notice that they will first ignore you, and then laugh at you, by the way laughing at you is basically the same as trivializing the topic and they’ll certainly do that and then if they can’t do the first two, or if they’ve already gone through the first two stages they will fight you.The most common way that they will fight you is by bringing up the “problems” of tall people, especially tall women, that’s a biggie. They’ll most commonly say something like, ‘What about tall people, don’t they have difficulties or problems?’It’s virtually always something of that sort.They’ll bring up a series of ridiculous so-called “problems” the tall have to face and then throw it in your face.Things like walking through doorways or sitting in cars or standing out in a crowd or buying clothes.They don’t tell you about the 1 or 2 thousand Tall Men Shop’s or Tall Men’s Dept’s in stores and the dozen or so short men’s clothing stores.(In a woman’s voice, ‘You see there are short men’s stores’) They’re usually not tall themselves either-the people who do this.What they’re doing is telling you who they value.People value Tall people and especially Tall men, even though they’re not tall themselves. They’re our athletes, policemen, firemen, politicians.Or maybe I shouldn’t use politicians as an example.Many people don’t think too much of politicians.Virtually all of the expressions in the English language glorify large or tall and denigrate small or short.(High hopes, big ideas, larger than life, standing tall against discrimination) Where’d I hear that one?Hmm. You know this defending of Tallers when people will argue back at you, this playing the Devil’s advocate is done for a reason.They’re playing the Devil’s advocate because they are the Devil’s advocate.They don’t like short people and their doing their best to dissuade you from defending yourself.They don’t like you because you are short – pure and simple.If you don’t want to believe that you don’t have to.Just try to bring this topic up in a classroom situation in some sort of a discussion about prejudice.Not some of the time, not most of the time, but ALL OF THE TIME, people are going to coalesce and jump all over you.You know I changed my mind.You should believe it. Believe it.
We’re at the point in time right now where some short folks – not many – just a few arebeginning to wake up just a little.We’re learning that people, some of them even so-called “egalitarians” just draw the line at heightism.They just draw the line right there.A few years ago I happened to be in the office of the boss man of the company that I worked for and I was in a meeting with a group of people.And there were about 7 or 8 people in his office and someone brought up the infamous Randy Newman song “Short People”.I don’t remember the context that it was brought up in, but this was in the old days and I made a comment about how prejudicial it was against short people – you know, me being a short person.Now the boss man who was a liberal by the way, snapped back, just snapped right back and uh, said words to the effect that “That song was about prejudice”! And then turned his attention to other matters. As if to say prejudice is wrong.What he really meant was ‘Go to hell you little runt.We still want one group we can kick around.
(This was originally broadcast on NPR on December 5, 2004. Rob Gifford reported for NPR from China about an increasing number of Chinese men and women who are having their legs surgically lengthened to gain an increase in height. He reported right from the operating room itself and the listener can actually hear the drill the surgeon was using, in the background. He also reported on a 26 year old beautician who had the leg lengthening procedure done in addition to many other cosmetic surgery operations. There reportedly is a great deal of height discrimination in China. It has been reported that in order to get a driver's license one has to be at least 5'3"; Taller applicants are given preference in applying for government jobs; A few years ago a university graduate who had applied for a job at a bank was turned down because of his height and subsequently sued the bank. These are just a few examples of apparent widespread heightism in China. The listener should note the music at the end which of course is the theme of the infamous song of the late 1970's - 'Short People'. It seems no matter how serious the situation is - as for example - getting one's legs sawed in half, it always seems to wind up being portrayed humorously, like it's all a big joke.)
(This preview of the upcoming documentary is available on youtube. The webmaster was interviewed for this first time documentary about the difficulties faced by short-statured men.)
This is Joe Mangano.There isn’t a great deal of literature out there about the topic that is the focus of these broadcasts, and that topic of course is heightism.I’ve only found a few hundred articles in the last 6 years or so.So scanty is the information on heightism, that if you did a Google search for the word ‘heightism’ and then did one each for racism, sexism, homophobia, or any other kind of ‘ism’, you could think of, you’d see the tremendous disparity in the number of hits, an almost astronomical disparity.Many of the articles are dismissive of the whole topic.Some even joke about the ridiculousness of even discussing the topic at all, and that really folks, we should get back to more important things, like who won the latest Yankees-Red Sox game or what happened in the last episode of ‘Sex and The City’.
You know, what information is out there, I take and integrate it with my own experience-which is considerable.It’s unfortunate that much of the discourse on some groups on the Internet is of such low quality, but I guess that’s to be expected given the nature of this topic.
There are only a tiny handful of books that have been written about any issues connected with height.One of the most informative books-probably the most informative book out there-if you know how to interpret the information in it-is ‘The Height of your Life’ written by Ralph Keyes.Even though ‘The Height of Your Life’ was written over 25 years ago, it is probably much more relevant today than it was then.Now I’m not running a promotion of the book for Ralph Keyes.I’m not doing anything of the sort.I think the reason for the book being relevant is that many more short people today would view some of the passages in the book in a far different light now than they would have then.The book describes many events and people’s actions which – if describing race, religion or any one of several other groups would appear downright discriminatory and prejudiced.Unfortunately the author did not describe those actions as discriminatory.This is one very important reason why the book is so valuable.There are some incredible passages in ‘The Height of your Life’, which most definitely deserve discussion.
Keyes states that the overwhelming wish of those who wanted a new height wished to be taller.When I read that I couldn’t help but think of a radio interview I gave a few years ago when one 6 feet in height woman called in to trivialize the subject of prejudice toward the short after she had just described wearing high heels on a date with a man 5’7”.If it’s so trivial why do you see a need to be taller lady??You’re 6 feet tall and you see a need to wear high heels?You even see a need to wear them on a date with a man 5’7”? Now what could possibly be the reason for that??You’re gonna tell me style?You like the way they look?Or do you like the way you look towering over a little man?I think you like that much better.
The book states that, a woman in Minnesota stated that she didn’t want Vietnamese refugees settling in her town and the rationale she gave was that she didn’t want her grandchildren to be short.This deserves some analysis.Does this woman really think that people are stupid enough to believe – and this was the early 1980’s now – that she was worried about one of these refugees marrying her daughter and the daughter having one of these refugees’ babies??Did she think people were idiots?Do I look like I was born yesterday?No.She didn’t want Vietnamese in her town, period.That was the truth.But she was afraid of appearing prejudiced towards those poor Vietnamese, so she chose shortness to denigrate.That’s okay!I’m not a bigot!I’m not!I just don’t like having my grandchildren 5’3’’ that’s all!The idea that I could dislike Vietnamese, hmmph!
Keyes writes that:
A newspaper once assigned two reporters – one 5’6” and the other 6’2” – to approach various workers who wait on the public and simultaneously ask for service.In every instance, the larger of the two men was helped first.“Your Height seemed to demand that I speak to you first,” explained a car-rental clerk to the taller newspaperman.
You must consider the gravity of this.Let’s just imagine for a moment that that newspaper assigned two reporters, and one had one skin color, and the other had another skin color.You see what I’m getting at here don’t you before I even say it.Suppose that in each and every case the reporter of one race was chosen to be served first and that the car-rental clerk stated that, “your race seemed to demand that I serve you first” What would you say then???You tell me.
Now here’s an interesting little item.In referring to short people the book states:
. . . But sometimes such smoldering resentment flares up into open attack.
Fall 1971 – 5’4” sociologist Dr. Saul Feldman gives a paper on “The Presentation of Shortness in Everyday Life” –Height and Heightism in American Society” to American Sociological Association; charges “American Society is a society with a heightist premise: To be tall is to be good and to be short is to be stigmatized.”
Winter 1971 – At New College in SarasotaFlorida 4’10 ½” sophomore Wendell Wagner posts a list of short demands; included are:Lower library shelves, admission quotas favoring small applicants, required courses on the history of tall oppression, a Mickey Rooney film festival.
Spring 1972 – 5’5” Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary Edwin S. Cohen claims talls have unfair economic advantages; he proposes a tax break for those under 5’6”.
5’2” Edmund A. Szymcyk sues General Motors, his employer for $600,000; he alleges jokes by co-workers about his shortness and Polishness have hurt his job performance, lost him promotions, and cost him peace of mind.
In the words of Keyes:
Such attacks by smalls upon talls dates back to at least David & Goliath.
I didn’t know David attacked Goliath first.Hmm.
I wonder if Keyes would have described the lawsuit of Edmund Szymcyk as an ‘attack’ if he was a woman suing for sexual harassment? Hmm.I wonder if Keyes would have described Wendell Wagner’s demands as an “attack” if Wagner had been some drug crazed 1960’s radical raging about the ‘Establishment’? Hmmph!An assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary proposes a tax break for short people and Keyes calls it an ‘attack’?It seems that even making reasonable requests for your rights as a shorter is tantamount to an ‘attack’ in this author’s opinion.Well that tells us something doesn’t it?But it only gets better – much better – for the Tallers that is.
Quoting from ‘The Height of Your Life’ again:
In London on 6/25 1713 a club was formed for short men.Three weeks later a ‘Tall Club’ was formed in more or less opposition.Their public seal was to be a crane grasping a pygmy.One of the goals of the tall club was to keep in their place members of the ‘short club’ whom they threatened to carry off in baskets and imprison in a cupboard.
You know it’s funny, but our man Keyes didn’t describe the actions of the tallers here as “smoldering resentment flaring up into open attack”.I mean, just think about this.A sociologist give a paper before the American Sociological Association on heightism and Keyes refers to that as “smoldering resentment flares up into open attack”, but a Tall club is formed for the sole purpose it would appear to oppose a ‘short club’ and short men and then threaten to “carry them off in baskets and imprison in a cupboard”, but that’s not described as “smoldering resentment”.Repeat:NOT described as “smoldering resentment”.Do you understand my point here?Okay.
Dislike of short people doesn’t just include the common man.What’s that?You thought it was just in the home, on the street, in the workplace and in dating?Well guess again, because ‘The Height of Your Life’ is gonna prove you wrong ma man. Oh yeah.Hear me.According to the book:
John Kenneth Galbraith 6’8”, had a conversation with Charles de Gaulle following John F Kennedy’s funeral.Galbraith had just finished talking with Soviet envoy Anastas Mikoyan when de Gaulle began by pointing to Mikoyan and asking why he had been conversing with such a short man.I said he [de Gaulle] obviously agreed with me that the world belongs to the tall man.They are more visible, therefore their behavior is better and accordingly they are to be trusted.He said he agreed and added, ‘It is important that we be merciless with those who are too small’.
No.That was not a typo.I’m going to read that quote from de Gaulle one more time.
It is important that we be merciless with those who are too small.
And de Gaulle was not referring here to the size of the country that Mikoyan represented which of course was the Soviet Union-the largest country in the world by far at that time.No.De Gaulle was referring to the man’s height and nothing else.That was the book’s quote from Charles de Gaulle, career military man, World War II hero, and President of the FreeFrenchRepublic.You know, de Gaulle was such a devout military man that he even wore his World War II uniform to both the JFK services and also Dwight D. Eisenhower’s services in 1969.What’s that expression? – ‘a man with a uniform’. Hmmph.
Here’s another example from ‘The Height of Your Life’.This one takes the cake.
John Money – A world renowned expert on the psychological aspects of growth problems –when asked if he ever worked with short people said:“No, I haven’t worked with them.I’ve worked under them, but not with them.“What was that like?”I wondered.“Let me put it this way – I never really had a great admiration for Napoleon.”
Actually John Money was professor Emeritus of Medical Psychology, in the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences and Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and School of Medicine which is well known as one of the leading medical centers in the country and also one of the leading centers for sex re-assignment, which was another of Dr. John Money’s areas of expertise.By the way, a good book to read is the book titled, “As Nature Made Him”.You’ll learn a good deal more about John Money if you do.
Let me just mention one more member of the masterful elites and that is Mr. Michael Crichton.For those not familiar with Michael Crichton, he’s a graduate of HarvardMedicalSchool but eventually gave up Medicine.He became a writer and also a director of movies.He wrote such books as the ‘Andromeda Strain’ and ‘JurassicPark’.He won and Emmy, a Peabody, and a Writer’s Guild of America Award for ‘ER’, which, by the way is another story in heightism, but we won’t go into that right now.He was also 6’10” in height – even taller than Galbraith.An Elite if ever there was one.To quote the book:
Movie director Michael Crichton, 6’10”, is quite familiar with the anxiety tall men experience when meeting a man who’s taller.Since 99.99 percent of America’s men are shorter than he is, Crichton is mostly familiar with the nervousness of those meeting him – the stammering, the sulking, the uneasy pawing of the floor.Crichton’s reaction to such behavior had always been:How childish.How immature.What better evidence could one have of the refusal of some men to grow up?
Crichton’s perspective changed, however.He was enjoying himself at a party one evening.Then 7’1” Wilt Chamberlain showed up.Crichton soon realized he had started feeling very nervous – especially when Chamberlain drew near.“Do you know,” said Crichton, shaking his head at the memory, “I did everything that everybody has done to me.I stood on my tiptoes.I made inane remarks to him.And finally I just thought, ‘Oh hell, I can’t stand it anymore.This party isn’t fun anymore.’And I left.” . . .
Crichton wanted to think this incident was just a fluke, but not long afterward 7’2” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar showed up on the studio lot where both of them were making movies.Crichton had the identical reaction.Until the Lakers’ center left a few days later, all the filmmaker could think of, he recalled, was “Get him out of here!”
Now let’s think about this for a moment – shall we?
We have a U.S. Ambassador to India (Galbraith) saying, “The world belongs to the Tall man”.
We have a World War II hero and President of a country responding that, “It’s important that we be merciless with those who are too small.”
We have a leading doctor, researcher and professor emeritus at one of the leading hospitals in the world comparing short people to Napoleon.
A HarvardMedicalSchool graduate, writer, movie director and Emmy winner
A) leaving a party because ONE TALLER MAN THAN HE SHOWED UP
B) Could think of nothing but, ‘Get him out of here!’ when another taller man showed up on a movie set.
I ask you:What the hell do you think you’re going to get in the everyday world from everyday people if this is what has been demonstrated from the cra, uh, I mean, from the crème de la crème of the masterful elites?
Keyes also writes:
In several years of my own searching I’ve not only found little actual research on what it means psychologically to be short, but little serious consideration of any kind. Mostly what I’ve found are references to Napoleon.
I know Ralph, you certainly proved that to me along with my own experiences, but I think we can answer the question of what it means psychologically to be short by going to one more passage in your book.You state basically that tall men can’t stand meeting anyone taller.You write of a retired college professor of 6’1” who – long after the incident – was still surprised at his reaction to a 6’6” visitor.According to the book:
“My first reaction,” the professor recalled, “was instant antagonism to this monster.I wanted to punch him.Later on I came to see why short men tend to have a chip on their shoulder when faced with men of ordinary height.
Oh! Ain’t that nice of the good professor!? He came to see why short men tend to have a chip on their shoulder when faced with men of ordinary height. Isn’t that wonderful?! A retired college professor, not a Neanderthal WWE wrestler going through ‘Roid Rage’ now, or even Barry Bonds but a dear lovable old-fashioned retired professor who wanted to do violence on someone for no other reason other than the fact that the other man was a few inches taller than him. Imagine that. “Instant antagonism”. Imagine. And they talk about a “Napoleon Complex” among short men. Oh by the way, Keyes didn’t describe the good professors desire to do violence, repeat DID NOT describe the good professors’ desire to do violence the way he described Dr. Saul Feldman’s paper on heightism as “ . . . smoldering resentment . . .” flaring up into open attack. I guess the Tall mans desire to do violence is good, and just and wonderful and right. Of course, it has to be. He’s a tall man. (In woman’s voice, ‘Tall men are the cat’s meow. Short men are icky.’) Where have we heard that before? This is Joe Mangano. Thank you very much.
Broadcast of September 18, 2007 - 'Economy Class' (text below)
This is Joe Mangano.About 2 or 3 years ago I was traveling on a passenger jet -economy class-unfortunately-and I had a seat next to the window.After about 45 minutes or so on the flight, I pressed the button-I think it was a button- that allows you to recline your seat slightly because I thought it would allow me a more comfortable position for the remainder of the flight.As I pressed it and forcibly leaned back I didn’t feel anything move.So I tried again.I finally tried a third time and still I found I could not recline the seat, so I gave up trying and resigned myself to sitting with the seat in the position it was in for the remainder of the flight.I got very annoyed at this but I didn’t make a complaint about it because I’m usually not the type to make complaints about this sort of thing, so I never mentioned it to any of the stewardesses or airline people.But I thought it peculiar nonetheless.Did you ever say to yourself words to the effect of, ‘If I only knew then, what I know now.’That’s a little something we say to ourselves sometimes when we wish we had done things differently in the past, because if we had been in a more advanced state of knowledge we most assuredly would have done differently.It was a couple of years later, not too long ago as a matter of fact, as I was browsing the Internet searching for articles about height and heightism that I discovered the likely reason why my airplane seat would not recline.Before I discuss the reason why, I’d just like to mention that I don’t like traveling economy class.Few people do.I don’t like it because of the cramped nature of the plane.That’s one of the reasons.This is one of those situations where it is more convenient to be a short person rather than a tall person. And I want to emphasize that this is one of the few situations, one of the very few.Of course there’s another side to this coin, and the other side is that I can’t reach the overhead luggage compartment very easily, so if I want to store something there for the duration of the flight, I’d have to endure the embarrassment of asking someone to place it there for me.If you’re short you just can’t win.Now if I were a tall person I would now be much better off financially in all probability and wouldn’t have to travel economy class in the first place-but that’s another story.Economy class travel also does not increase one’s probability of meeting Danny Devito-you know one of those rare short people that DO have lots of money.Of course if I did meet Danny boy on the plane and I made the unconscionable mistake of telling Mrs. Tallman about it, she would probably say something like, “You see, Danny Devito is successful”.Oh wait a minute; I think she already did say that to me a few years ago.Oh well.
I happened along a site-website that is-for Tall people, of which there seems to be quite a few by the way.After all, those poor unfortunate Tallers do need to ban together for their common good.Now I don’t remember exactly which website it was, but there was a link on one of the WebPages there to a little site about something called ‘Knee Defender’™.I was astonished and dumbfounded as I could be.It seems ‘Knee Defender’™ is a little device the poor unfortunate Tall person takes on the plane with him or her.Its purpose is to lock the seat in front thereby preventing the person sitting in the seat directly in front from reclining his or her seat.There is a whole website dedicated to it- www.kneedefender.com – which not only advertises for it, but advertises for another product or two as well.The website claims that:
With Knee Defender™, you can now use a simple, convenient, pocket-sized device to help defend against most flying seatbacks.
It also states:
“Standing up for the right of the tall guy to sit down.”
Interesting isn’t it?According to the website, the device has been featured by The New York Times, NBC, CNN, USA TODAY, and a host of other top media networks and news outlets.The Washington Post commented that, “If the guy won’t compromise, whip out your Knee Defender.”The Conde´ Nast Traveler states, “As devious as it is ingenious.”
When I found the Knee Defender™ website and read about the concern for the poor disadvantaged Tallers I nearly broke down and cried.I can get very emotional sometimes, especially when I see an injustice perpetrated on our tall brothers and sisters.I thought, ‘Isn’t it wonderful that someone is concerned for the Tallers.Isn’t it grand that now they can sit comfortably on economy class flights and don’t have to concern themselves with some little peewee like me moving his seat back.It’s wonderful and it’s beautiful.I’m so happy for them.
By the way, I’ve vowed that if this situation ever occurs again, I intend to do something about it the next time.You know it’s bad enough that the short of stature face discrimination everywhere they go.It seems even when we travel on a plane, we have to yield to the convenience of the Tallers.It’s absolutely incredible.
You know, another phenomenon I’ve noticed on economy class flights is the tendency for tall men, and occasionally tall women to stand up in the middle of the aisle and block the aisle, especially if they’re in some sort of a group traveling together.Has anyone ever noticed this?This is economy class now.I can’t speak for First Class, maybe one day I’ll be able to, but not today.I’ve noticed that they like to stand up in the aisle sometimes for long periods of time even, you know, talking mostly about things like sports and cavorting about.They talk very loudly and disturb other people the way large people sometimes do, you know the story; ‘they think they own the place’-so to speak.They also sometimes gesticulate with their hands and violate the seated short person’s zone of space usually without a thought or concern.If you’re a soft spoken individual trying to get by to go to the lavatory for example, they’re likely to not even hear you and if they do and decide to move, it’s only a little-thus forcing you to sort of slink by them like a little child.Of course the stewards and stewardesses don’t dare do anything even if you make a complaint, because they’re intimidated by loud large or tall people too.And the stewardesses, oh boy, you know I don’t think some of the stewardesses are too fond of short people.As a matter of fact I know they’re not.And I’m referring here specifically to stewardesses. You know most stewardesses tend to be Tall or at least a good deal above average height for their sex, which classifies basically as tall.I would say that the average height of a stewardess-at least most of the ones that I’ve seen- must be at least 5’8” or more.That’s equivalent roughly to a 6’2” man, and that’s not short, and this is about the average.They also tend to be attractive. They’re almost always attractive-at least to me.This is what airlines hire as a rule, tall good-looking people for the job of either steward or stewardess.Some of these tall, good-looking women are condescending to short people-especially, most especially-short men. And they do in general, they do, “look down on short men”.There’s not a doubt in my mind about this fact.Some of them view short men as “dirt”.And you know, that’s the colloquially phrased way to put it, but the fact of the matter is many of you short men, or mostly all of you short men listening to this broadcast will attest to this.Colloquial phrasing however is not specific enough, and it has no legal meaning, so maybe I should re-phrase it.These people are prejudiced toward the short pure and simple.They don’t like the short simply because they are short-period.And I think I’ve mentioned this previously on some of these broadcasts.I don’t think that I’ll ever get to the point where I’ll be over-emphasizing it either.
Now on these economy flights they do give you some free food-like crackers or nuts for example.The drinks you can order are usually over-priced though.On one occasion I was traveling economy class and the stewardess-a good-looking blonde woman of about 5’10” in height was making her way down the aisle taking orders for drinks.She greeted everyone in each row with a friendly smile and mentioned all the different drinks the airline was offering to each and every one of the passengers-until she got to me.When she got to me for some reason or another she forgot to mention the wine, the airline was offering wine in addition to tea, ginger-ale, one or two kinds of cola and I think, bottled water or whatever else they were offering-she mentioned wine to every other adult except me, and I know, I was listening to her.It could have been an innocent omission on her part. However, when I asked her, “Is that all you have?”, she replied, “Yes”, and I said “What about wine?” and she replied, “Yes”, and I asked very directly, “Why didn’t you mention it to me” and the response that I received was an evasive, “Well, uh, it’s $5 for a glass”-as if a short person like me couldn’t afford it. Or maybe she didn’t even think I was old enough to drink.One thing I never seemed to learn to do well was use evasion tactics like she was doing.I never seemed to be able to master these myself.People who are evasive-like she was, don’t like directness.After I told her what I wanted, she resumed her routine of telling everyone exactly what drinks were available, and she did not neglect to mention wine.I was the only one she neglected to mention it to.These are those little situations where heightism is not readily apparent where it could have been something else.By the way she also forgot to smile at me too; she apparently remembered with everyone else.I guess that was a coincidence also.Now if you protest after a situation like this, there’s gotta be something wrong with you.‘What ah ya got a problem?Better ak like a man ova dere.’ This is more or less what you might be told after you get your zone of space violated too.
You know, when I’m on these planes, I usually like the seat that’s closest to the middle aisle.Now you might think that strange after what I just said about tall people blocking the aisle.I used to like the window seat because I like to look out the window-especially at take-off, but I get a little claustrophobic sometimes-especially when there are two loud people sitting next to me, particularly if they’re large or tall. Then I might feel somewhat trapped.The aisle seat does have its advantages.For one thing I can get up as often as I like without having to disturb the people sitting next to me.If the plane crashes, God forbid, and by some miracle the plane is still in one piece and I’m still in one piece, I might be able to get to the exit more quickly-that is if I’m not shoved out of the way by one of those brave and courageous Tallers first. The bigger they are usually the faster they run for the exits-and the louder they scream by the way at the tiniest bit of pain.Oh the unmitigated courage of the big man.I feel so safe with a big man.Anyway, I was talking about my preference these days for an aisle seat, so I’ll get back to that.I’m better positioned with an aisle seat to listen to and view any heightist activity going on.I’m careful though not to stick my head out into the aisle.The way these stewardesses sometimes run up and down the aisle can be a bit dangerous.Also because I’m short the tall lovely ones, might not be so concerned about taking my head off.I’d hate to have my head ‘rolling in the aisle’ as it were, and then have my death dismissed by some tall airport people as an “unfortunate accident”.They’re not going to get rid of me that easily, although I think know of a certain airport policeman, excuse me, former airport policeman that might be overjoyed.
Oops, oh boy, I almost forgot it’s time to go clothes shopping again.I’m gonna have to cut the broadcast just a little bit short. No pun intended by the way. But you know, maybe if I’m lucky today I’ll be able to find one of the smaller sizes-like a 3X large shirt for example. Then instead of it hanging down to my ankles, it’ll only hang down to my knees.I’m in with the ‘In Crowd’.This is Joe Mangano.♪ ♫ ♪
This is Joe Mangano.You know, I’ve been receiving e-mails for about 5 years or so about issues connected to height and heightism.The e-mails started after I wrote my original essay-‘Heightism The Last Bastion of Discrimination’-that’s displayed on this website and elsewhere. If you do a Google search or search any of the major search engines and type in the word –heightism-my essay usually comes up as one of the top 3 or 4 hits.The e-mails continue now. I’ve received e-mails from children, adolescents, and adult men and women.I’ve received e-mails from all over the world-from Europe, the UK, the Middle East, India, the Orient, Australia, as well as here in the United States.Some of the e-mails were written very matter-of-factly, as if the person doing the writing wasn’t particularly concerned about heightism, but had experienced a negative incident here or there and didn’t seem to be particularly bothered.Some e-mails were written by people who rambled on about a few other issues as well as heightism.Some people wrote of incidents in the workplace.Some wrote about the social situations they had been involved in where someone or some group violated them physically or otherwise.Some spoke of incidents where family members were involved, which are probably the most unfortunate situations of all.I mean, if a child, adolescent, or even an adult is being victimized in the home, then how could they possibly develop any confidence or success on the outside?It would be very difficult.I get the feeling that that’s one goal of the abuser.I mean, some of these people can have children, and the unfortunate child who happens to be short-statured may not be exactly what they wanted.Did you ever see some parents of a severely disabled child, or even just a sickly child?Actually it doesn’t even have to be a sickly child.All that poor unfortunate child has to be in some cases is short.That child can become an object of scorn, an object of ridicule, an object of abuse; a whipping boy for all the anger, hostilities, and frustrations of the others – and it’s very acceptable, after all, ‘It’s only heightism’.‘It’s so unimportant.It’s so trivial’.
You know, physical abuse of children is illegal.It is also taken very seriously-especially sexual abuse, at least that’s the way it appears sometimes.Just recall back to May of 2006 when I gave my comments to an Associated Press reporter about a judge’s decision in sentencing a minor sex offender in Nebraska*.I gave a few words very briefly on Nancy Grace’s show on CNN.I would have liked to contribute a whole lot more than I did, but there were other factors affecting the situation at the time.I also appeared elsewhere and the feeling I got on one other show was that the people were making more of that particular situation than they should.But you know, thinking back to that brief interview, I recall while listening to Nancy Grace’s show in the intervening 20 minutes or so before I was on, where a man she was speaking to had mentioned her height, which, if I remember correctly he mentioned as 5’2”.That’s not tall.That’s not average.That’s short for a woman.And I recall her reaction to the man’s statement.I recall her attempting to change the subject quickly, as if that man just revealed some very sensitive information about her, that Miss Grace didn’t want people to know about. And that’s very, very interesting.I don’t know if she does this but I can envision her walking around in public or in the studio when she’s not on the air, with 3 or 4-inch high heels, and her hair an inch or two up in the back to make her appear 5’7” or 5’8”.‘It’s so trivial little man.You should just get over it.’
You know on a scale of 1-10 that Nebraska case should have rated about a 1.There are so many abuse cases that are so much more serious where there is bodily injury perpetrated or even severe bodily injury done by some of these criminals, where these so-called concerned media people and these so-called rights groups just turn a blind eye to the situation as if it didn’t happen.You know, there are some really heinous crimes that include things like gang rape, incest, sexual degradation, torture and murder.These crimes for some reason or another don’t make it out of the local headlines in many cases.
Psychological, verbal, and other types of subtle abuse very often are not recognized.You know, I’ve heard of cases highlighted in the news, where grown men who had claimed that they had been abused by members of the clergy many years or even decades before when they were children or adolescents had taken legal action and won either a judgment or reached a settlement after being sexually abused on multiple occasions-and this was many years later.I wonder what’s worse, a dozen instances of sexual abuse or 20-25 years of a short person’s life being ridiculed, belittled, shunned, being socially ostracized and being deprived of some basic rights by people, by family members, and also having the remainder of your life affected. I wonder what’s worse, a policeman ingathering money under false pretenses and then trying to implicate an innocent individual in his actions or fondling a 12-year old girl for a few seconds.Hmm.You know, if you’re a child or an adolescent, what’s worse, being sexually abused a dozen times or being beaten up a dozen times by bullies and then being told it was your fault by authority figures? These are questions that are most worth pondering, most worth considering.When I was interviewed on Fox Channel with Megan Kendall I mentioned the situation of a 15 year old boy in New York City* who stood about 5 feet in height and weighed around 100 lbs.I pointed out to her that The New York Daily News reported earlier in the year that he appeared to have been severely bullied in school.* Megan pointed out that (and I’m just paraphrasing now) that, ‘Oh well, we were all bullied in school’ as if to say-and I hate to be redundant now-get over it little man.Megan mentioned that women were a protected group.Her attitude seemed to be one of, ‘We can get away with things, because we’re protected. What gives you the right to think that short people can do the same?’She almost said it in so many words. It was incredible.After I got off the air Megan was in discussion with two other women and even threw in a comment about being short-tempered.Something similar to that occurred someplace else.Would somebody pinch me to see if I’m dreaming?Sometimes you just can’t believe what you hear.By the way, hopefully more interviews are going to be either displayed on this website or there will be at least a link to the interviews, in the future.But to return to the case in New York City.One reason that this 15 year old boy seemed to be bullied was because of his size, there’s no doubt in my mind, and it was probably the main reason.Another reason seemed to be due to his grades.He was receiving high grades in school and the less intellectually gifted students didn’t appear to like that too much. He was receiving these high grades in spite of the abuse he was a victim of.I believe the article also reported that he wore Khaki pants instead of the typical baggie trousers that some like to wear with the crotch down by ones’ knees. This poor kid also made the mistake of fighting back against his abusers.Bad mistake.Very bad mistake.You just can’t do that.The article wrote that the school guidance counselor was blaming him for the fighting too.If everyone is abusing you then they can’t all be wrong, can they?This is the mentality. Also consider the city-New York City.The teachers in New York City-public school teachers-some of them- are just happy to get home in one piece-very much like some of the policemen.The teachers themselves fear some of the students.They even fear the parents of some of these students; because after all, most kids are an extension of their parents in many ways.The teachers realize this at some level-even if they’ve never met some of these parents-and in most cases they haven’t.Who are these teachers going to side with?That’s right-the bullies.The article stated that the 15 year old boy was so desperate and despondent that he ran towards the East River and when he got there jumped in and drowned himself.Now don’t you wonder about these situations?Doesn’t it make you think a little bit?I guess we shouldn’t be surprised at the fact that there are few if any 5’4” CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies. If most intelligent short children and adolescents are going to be harassed then it’s a foregone conclusion that most of them are not going to be successful in their adult years, or at least not as successful as they might be.I guess that’s one reason why we shouldn’t be surprised that there haven’t been many 5’4” United States President’s lately-lately-like the last 190 years or so.Although we do have at least one or two 5’4” con men that I might be able to name.Oh get over it and grow up.I’ll tell you this; if I had grown up I wouldn’t be doing this broadcast right now. Although I might be an airport policeman operating a backscatter machine. In any case, let me get back to talking about e-mails I’ve received.
You know, a few years ago I received several e-mails from an adolescent boy.This adolescent wrote that he was 15 years old-the same age as the boy that drowned himself in New York City.He stated that he stood 4’7” in height and weighed 74 lbs.Now I’m not going to reveal his name.I won’t do that, even though it was about 4 or 5 years ago.I’ll just refer to him as ‘Jimmy’.I think I do need to relay to the listener though, some of what he wrote to me.He wrote to me that he was an adopted child.His biological mother was a drug addict and he was given up for adoption.His step-mother, a woman who didn’t seem to have too much together herself judging from what he wrote to me, did not want to hear of his ‘problems’.He also had two step-sisters.One was 12 years old and the other was only 10 years old.Both were significantly larger and taller than him.He wrote that they were bullying him and even physically abusing him-now remember these were girls and he was a boy-and one was 3 years younger and the other was 5 years younger than him.As I just said both were significantly larger and taller than him.He told his step-mother about what they were doing but she did not want to hear about it.His step-mother he wrote, did not want him ‘tattling’ on ‘anyone’.I guess this was the step-mothers’ way of protecting her two ‘real’ children and relieving herself of responsibility for their actions, and also alleviating some of her own stress, because from what he wrote, she seemed to be under quite a bit of it herself.
I believed every word of what he wrote.I wrote back to him that he should see someone like a school guidance counselor, and if the school guidance counselor did not understand his problems he should go on his own to a psychologist or even a lawyer (because it sounded to me like he had a good case of neglect and abuse from the step-mother).He stated that he didn’t want to sue his step-mother, however.
Before he sent me his last e-mail, I received an e-mail from the older step-sister.How did I get an e-mail from this 12 year old girl you might be asking yourself or why?Well, this step-sister of his was going through ‘Jimmy’s’ room apparently and somehow found my e-mail address.This step-sister of his sent me an e-mail thinking that I was a girl in their neighborhood that ‘Jimmy’ was trying to date.By the way, the English grammar and punctuation in this step-sisters’ email was horrendous.‘Jimmy’s’ step-sister stated in effect that she wanted to get together with me and the younger sister of hers to bully and harass ‘Jimmy’.I believe I forwarded their e-mail to ‘Jimmy’.I received one or two e-mails from ‘Jimmy’ after that and then never heard from him again.I can only pray that he’s still with us.
The 15 year old boy in New York City and 15 year old ‘Jimmy’ are two good examples of just how heightism operates.What I mean is, short-stature places us in a situation where we’re not recognized as having a disability, so therefore we do not qualify for medical or financial assistance.We don’t qualify in most cases for sympathy either.We’re not recognized as a legitimate group of any kind as for example a racial, an ethnic, or a religious group might be.We just have a ‘weakness’, a weakness that allows society to discriminate against us, abuse us, bully us, harass us, lower the quality of our lives significantly and then-blame us for it.Nice, isn’t it? And we seemingly can’t do a damn thing about it.We’re damned if we do, and we’re damned if we don’t- just like that despondent 15 year old in New York City last year who jumped into the East River and drowned.Just like ‘Jimmy’.
You know, I believe I may be getting through the stage of anger, I think-barely.I can certainly identify with both of these kids.I was there.
You know when I was a kid I used to believe that things would change when I became an adult.They didn’t.When you’re a kid you can still depend on family members somewhat.When you’re an adult – especially if you are a guy – you have to depend on yourself-unless of course you have a mommy that can take of you when you’re 30 years old and put you up, if you have an inheritance or if you have rich relatives that just give you money when you want it or set you up with an apartment while you’re working in a mailroom someplace, but that’s another story.If you’re a member of an unrecognized victim group like the short-of-stature are, you’re going to have one heck of a difficult time being successful.
I’ve received correspondence from adult men and women as well as children and adolescents as I mentioned earlier in this broadcast.Some of these men and women have written to me that they were being abused as adults.
I received an e-mail from a man who wrote to me that he was 5 feet in height.* I will not reveal his name. He was a fireman he wrote.He had moved and was in a new fire department.He mentioned that he was being harassed on the job on account of his short-stature and asked for advice as in where he could go for legal assistance.I believe he mentioned that at a meeting, I think he mentioned that it was his first meeting at this firehouse, where the Captain or whoever was in charge of the meeting blurted out when he saw this man,‘Where’d you get the midget?’, or words to that effect, referring to this man.I believe this man mentioned that he was experiencing physical symptoms as well; as a result of the harassment he stated he was a victim of.Physical symptoms seem to be one of the prices the short person pays for his short-stature.‘But what about tall people, don’t they hit their heads sometimes?’I wish they would hit their heads, not sometimes, but all the time-and hard.As a matter of fact, I think I know a group of people that would be more than happy to help them.This is Joe Mangano.Thank you very much.
* If I’m not mistaken I received the e-mail at my e-mail address at the time with a website that purported to represent a legitimate incorporated organization, but my e-mails were apparently later confiscated by what now appears to have been an airport policeman from Pensacola, Florida.
This is Joe Mangano.I was reading an article recently, because I have a fairly large archive of articles on height issues, and when I say fairly large, I mean several hundred articles and writings, that I’ve found in the last 5 or 6 years or so about short stature and related issues.If I went through the Internet right now and searched for articles on say, racism, or sexism, or gays-gay bashing, or religious discrimination I’m sure I could find a hundred times more information-in one day on each one of those topics-than all the articles and books I’ve found on height in the last 5 years.Now that’s pretty amazing, and also a bit depressing.Now here I am, a short-statured person, a victim of all kinds of problems and prejudice and it’s taken me 5 years to find a few hundred articles on the greatest communication medium the world has ever known, the Internet.Am I surprised? Hardly.I never expected to find anywhere near the information that I would if I were researching other topics or ‘ism’s’.One would think that a trait like height would ingather much more consideration than this, but no.Our neighbor with the very tall husband might make a comment on this observation like:‘You see, not even doctors or psychologists are concerned about height.Why don’t you just get over it?It’s so unimportant! There are more important things to worry about in this world.’ When her tall husband comes sauntering down the street though walking in the opposite direction as you and you don’t move aside for him, you’ll get a small inkling of just how ‘unimportant’ your height is.When you continue walking and he slams into you and then turns around and says, ‘You got problems little man’, just say to yourself, ‘Oh, it’s all in my head, sure, that’s what it is. It’s all in my head’. When you meet her on the street the next day and she says, ‘Why did you bump into my husband yesterday?You better get that chip off your shoulder little man!’Just keep repeating, “I’m the one that has the problem.I’m the one that has the problem.I’m the one that has the problem.”
You know about this issue of space, and personal zones of space.It’s a very curious little phenomenon.Years ago Blacks would automatically move aside for Whites.They didn’t think about it.They just did it.It was a sign of respect.It was a sign of subservience; a sign of a very apparent class distinction.Most short people are so conditioned to moving aside for taller or bigger others that they’re not even aware that they’re doing so, it’s done automatically.From the time that the short adult is a little child he or she begins to unconsciously move aside for bigger or taller others.When you’re in school you automatically move for the bigger and older kids, and also for adults.As one grows older and gets taller themselves they begin to expect those who are smaller or younger to move for them.And I want to emphasize that most of the time there is not a conscious process here.Of course adults can and do move aside for the short statured person.To say that all or even most people are out to knock you off your feet would not be exactly accurate.But then again the truth of the matter is all things being equal, the taller or bigger person more often than not will expect you to move aside for them.I can truthfully say that as height-aware as I am at this moment, I never noticed this phenomenon until I was well over 21 years of age.Now if it took me that long to notice this, imagine how long it can take the average short person to notice this plus all the other goodies that go along with being short.The tallers don’t notice it either, that is, until you refuse to move aside for them.Then of course, it’s you that has a problem.
When I’m traveling by subway in New York City and I’m waiting for the train to stop so I can get on,if I’m standing on one side of the door-you know there’s actually two doors, and they open from the middle out-and there’s a bigger or taller or older appearing person on the other side of the door and we’re both blocking equal amounts of space in front of the open doors and there’s not quite enough room for a person coming out to fit, or even if there is enough room, I will invariably get bumped into or jostled, as opposed to the person, the bigger person, standing on the other side of the door. They invariably move towards me, even if they have enough space to move through without brushing either one of us. This happens to you too, even if you don’t know it yet.You’re so conditioned to moving aside for others you don’t even know you’re doing it, that is, until now.
These others will also violate your zone of space.If you’re not aware of this, we all have a zone of space around our bodies that people normally will not intrude on in most situations. It varies from one culture to another. That zone though can change in a given culture, depending on the circumstances.For example, if you’re in a crowded room or crowded train car, the normal rules don’t apply the way they do in a less crowded situation, but your zone of space will still be intruded upon more than the bigger or taller next person’s.They never mind when your face is literally in their chest or bosom.That reinforces their sense of superiority.They need to do that, it’s important.A crowded elevator is another situation where your face can get in the way of their back.But don’t worry all you have to do is apologize by saying, “I’m sorry my face hit your back”.They’ll probably just stand there self-righteously.‘That little runt better be sorry’.
Social situations are another good place for zone-of-space violations.Have you ever been in a small group of people where people on either side of you were getting too close and violating you?They’re standing there talking, ‘Oh did you see this, Oh did you see that, I was doing this and he was doing that, blah, blah, blah’ and at the same time you’re ‘monkey in the middle’ so to speak and being intruded upon from either side as if you weren’t there.Sure you have.Admit it.You’re short and if you deny that these types of situations occur or have occurred, you’re also denying reality to yourself.That can help you to survive at one level, but in the long run is not very good-not at this point in time.Anyway, I was at a little party in the conference room of a company I worked for several years ago and this guy, about 6’1” in height, a co-worker, was standing next to me and talking to another person while I was conversing with someone, and he was gesticulating continuously with his hands, and those hands were getting awfully close to my face.They were getting so close that I was afraid he was going to hit me so I decided to move to one side to avoid them.A little later the same thing happened with the same guy.(By the way, a few months later the same man was fired).I was nearly moved to tears.
Incredibly, sometimes they can actually do the opposite and pull the person you’re speaking to away from you.I was at a social gathering recently where the same 6’4” guy that I mentioned in my broadcast on ‘Clothes’ happened to be.I was speaking to a woman and Mr. 6’4’’ comes along and joins in.Now big men don’t like it when little men hang around-especially when they want to speak to a lovely lady and you-the little man-already have her attention.You had to see this, he comes along, plays Mr. histrionic, acts all animated-you know what I mean-and while he’s speaking he’s doing a sidestep away from my direction.Now when big men do side steps a pretty woman is obliged to follow, and that’s exactly what she did.She in turn did a sidestep away from my direction.Then he did another one, and she followed along with that too.So sometimes instead of violating your zone of space, they try to leave you with more space.Now our neighbor with the very tall husband might say to this something like, “Oh you see even Joe Mangano of ‘Support for the Short’ admits, that taller men give you even more space!’Oh yeah.Don’t you know it.Especially if you’re speaking to a lovely lady.They’ll leave you with all the space you want-and more. Of course if I told that to Mr. Tallman the response I would get might be something like, ‘Shaddap ya liddle runt, before I smack ya one’.Or if he’s a more erudite taller, he might turn to his pretty female partner and say, ‘That little man has a problem’. But that’s okay.He’s just asserting himself.
Of course you know, big men have that right –the right to assert themselves- you don’t, and society views it exactly the same way.Attempt to assert yourself and you will meet with what I refer to as ‘collective unconscious or subliminal resistance’. Now you’re probably saying to yourself, ‘What the heck is that?’ Well, I’ll tell you.This collective subliminal resistance is very difficult to see, it is practically for all intents and purposes-invisible to the naked eye-which makes it almost impossible for the short person to combat directly.It’s like a Clingon ship on Star Trek with its cloaking device activated.When these people are doing what they’re doing they’re not usually thinking about it in conscious terms.Of course there are those sinister and devious people who do have a conscious awareness of what your ‘weakness’ is and they use it against you with conscious, willful, malice aforethought.The street bully is one example of this.The work bully is another example.Of course there are social bullies as well.If and when an altercation develops others join in also-as allies-that is-psychological allies-against you the short person. This phenomenon is all-but invisible to you, the short person.It’s taken me many, many years of experience to be able to identify this phenomenon and describe it.
The situation above with the woman and her very tall husband bumping into you would be one good example.A great example of this happened to me, this subliminal coalescing of others; it happened to me a little over a year ago.I was taking my car to a car wash, as I do on a regular basis.This car wash was very good.I had been there many times, no brushes, only people hand washing cars.I saw the last car on line and got behind it by making a u-turn.Less than half a minute later two more cars got on line behind me.A few seconds after that, the man who was outside who usually handed out tickets to customers, you know, tickets indicating the type of wash to be given your car, if you’re a frequenter yourself of car washes, this guy came rushing out to my car and started yelling to the effect, “Get off that line, get to the end of the line”!It would appear that he thought that I had “cut” in front of some other people. That was not the case.Now as I said, I had been to this car wash many times and occasionally someone would ‘cut’ the line.This same man came out on those occasions and was very matter of fact and courteous.On one occasion he just walked up nonchalantly to a “Big Man” in an SUV and just pointed out in very matter of fact tone where the end of the line was so that the next time he came to get his car washed he would know.One would think that he would just come up to me and say something like this to me also - but no.This bastard just came trotting out and started yelling at me like I had just committed a crime or something.Like I was some vandal whom he had just witnessed destroying his property or something of that sort, and I had been coming to this car wash for close to 4 years and this bastard had seen me many times, so he knew me.I want to emphasize at this point that I did indeed, get on line behind the last car.So why would this guy do this?He saw a vulnerable target.You know being small almost makes one a target of this sort of thing.You might as well walk around with a bulls-eye on you.Now to get back to my story, when the car in front of me moved, he motioned for the cars behind me to get in front of me.Now this kind of thing should make someone boiling mad, and that’s basically the effect it had on me, so I moved my car and I moved it so close to the car in front of me that the car the man motioned to replace me could not do it.So this man started yelling at me again.This time I responded-loudly. What did this jerk think I was gonna do?-Just get at the end of the line like a ‘good little boy’ being scolded by the impressive car wash man?The man in the car who he had motioned to replace me got out of his car when he saw that I was not going to let him in front of me and said to me something like, “Hey, what’s your problem?This guy’s got a problem.”The woman in the car ahead of me now got out of her car and joined in the arguing, even though she had nothing to do with this, and did not have to wait for me, since she was in front of me.She came up to me and said with a sinister little smile on her face- “You’re not going anywhere, because I’m not going to move”-thinking obviously that she was going to spite me in some manner by not moving her car.She had no reason to spite me, but she was going to do it anyway.‘I think I’ll take my hostilities out on this little shrimp.After all, everyone is doing it’.Now let’s think about this.The guy in back of me knew all the time that I got there first.He had to see me in front of him to get on line in back of me.This woman in front didn’t even know who got there first, and she had nothing to do with this incident at all but her first instinct was to “join with” these other people and attack me.The manager then came out and accused me of cutting the line, even though he was no where in site when I originally got on that line.He said that I had no right to get in front of all these people.(By then about 10 cars were on line in back of me)I made it clear that I wasn’t getting at the end of the line, and if he didn’t desist I indicated that I would park my car right there and lock it and make sure no one would get their car washed that day.Needless to say, I’ve not returned there since.But this was a perfect example of one of those situations where everyone-even strangers who know nothing about what’s going on gang up on you-the short person-for apparently no reason.This situation would be easier for you to understand if you pictured a Black person about 40 or 50 years ago getting ganged up on by a group of Whites.However, I’m not necessarily talking about people getting lynched here either. It could be any kind of an altercation that you’re involved in.It could be an argument; it could be a fist fight even.I’m not necessarily talking about getting lynched.That could be a possibility as well.Although what short people receive in some situations literally amounts in essence to a psychological lynching.In the case of Blacks, people didn’t need a reason to join in, they just did, sort of automatically.They all understood at some level that Blacks were vulnerable and that they didn’t like them.This is what happens to the short-statured, with one very important exception.You the short-statured person are not identified as a member of a recognized group.This makes their behavior even more difficult to interpret and difficult for the short person to understand.This status or should I say non-status of short people keeps them isolated and alone.These street predators know when they have a vulnerable person in their midst.Your non-group status as a short person leaves you with no group behind you, no one to support you, and no defenses, and these street predators know when they’ve got you.They all coalesce against you and for want of a better word-naturally, almost instinctively.
You know I don’t really like to use myself as an example. That’s sort of like a doctor operating on himself.I really don’t.But I have no choice.The short statured people listening to this broadcast will, I’m sure, have a small awakening about some things.Some events in their lives may become more apparent when they hear stories like the one I just told.I hope so.I also hope you’ll e-mail me with some of your stories.This is Joe Mangano.Thank you very much.
This is Joe Mangano at www.supportfortheshort.org.About 4 years ago I was asked to be interviewed on a radio station in PhiladelphiaPennsylvania – WHYY – and I was asked to appear with Dr. Deborah Burris Kitchens.If I’m not mistaken she was a professor at Tennessee State University, a professor of sociology and criminology, and it was the first interview I think anyone has ever given in the United States on any kind of public medium about the issue of height.And I appeared with Dr. Kitchens and we were talking about height.The host of the show was Ms. Marty Moss-Coanes one of the radio show producers, or one of the radio show talk show hosts I should say.It was a little less lengthy than the 51 plus minutes would indicate, taking into consideration the fact that on many of these talk shows the hosts often like to do most of the talking, and a good part of those 51 minutes had people calling in and making comments.Now keep in mind that this was back in 2002.I was just a young sprout at the time still wet behind the ears so to speak.Listening to that interview 4 years ago again I have to admit that today I would respond quite a bit differently than I did back then in the dark days as it were to some of the questions posed by the host, and I would also respond quite a bit differently to the comments of the callers.I didn’t really listen to that interview again until recently.I think I listened to it once in those 4 years or so.Listening to it now at this point in time with a far more critical eye than then reveals that I was a little reluctant to go ‘mano e mano’ if I can phrase it that way-with the host and some of the callers-in, most of whom had a tendency to trivialize or denigrate the whole topic of height discrimination.
You know, when you’re part of a specific group-the one I’m referring to that is-is people of short height, you tend not to be quite as vocal as members of other groups when talking about rights or violations perpetrated.In spite of that I’m still way ahead of many others who are still denying all of this.As passive as I was in this interview, and as unassertive as I was it was still a first.You people listening to this broadcast should listen very closely to the talk show host.See what you think of her and her comments and if you want you can write me an e-mail with your comments.So here is the interview on WHYY in December of 2002 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
Interview
If you listen to that interview a couple of times, you’re going to begin to realize things you didn’t realize before.You know years ago, way back in 1988 when I got my first VCR, I taped a television special on the assassination of John F. Kennedy.The special was titled, ‘The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald’.It was a mock trial, but with a real judge and a real jury and the trial lawyers were Vincent Bugliosi who was a prosecutor in Los Angeles and who was famous as the prosecutor of Charles Manson.Gerry Spence who won the 10 and a half million dollar verdict in the Karen Silkwood* case was the defense attorney for Oswald.The witnesses were a sampling of some of the real people involved back in 1963, witnesses, FBI agents, medical examiners, etc.Back in the 80’s I knewvery little about the assassination of John Kennedy, but as I learned more in the following months and I watched the makeshift trial over and over again I realized that it was a joke, simply because it was like explaining Einstein’s’ famous e=mc² with a single sentence.The trial ended with a guilty verdict which was based on a trifling of evidence. As you’ll soon see once you get the hang of it so-to-speak you’ll learn that people often use trifling arguments with respect to height and they usually get the ‘verdict’ that they want-which doesn’t portend very well for the short of stature. I listened to the comments of Dr. Kitchens about her experiences working in a bar and being literally lifted off the ground and passed from customer to customer like a football.Everyone thought it was a big joke in the bar she worked in.Can you imagine such a thing happening to a member of any racial, religious, ethnic group, or a gay or a woman – simply because they were a member of their respective groups-and it not being taken seriously?I noticed Dr. Kitchens mentioning that she had a friend there, a woman of about 6 feet in height who acted as her ‘protector’ so to speak.This can be a common phenomenon among very short women, this tendency to have tall women friends who act in the role of predator deterrents.Dr. Kitchens’ mentioned people thinking that she was her husbands ‘kid’.The host-Marty Moss-Coanes-said that Dr. Kitchens, “might be sensitive on all sides”.Well you know this is another common phenomenon-to accuse the short person of being ‘too sensitive’-even the radio show host was doing it.Dr. Kitchens’ also mentioned that she was glad that her daughter was going to be tall.I don’t know about you, but I detected a great deal of anguish on the part of Dr. Kitchens about her short stature, an anguish I can understand by the way.It seemed almost like a bit of self-loathing on the part of Dr. Kitchens about her short stature, although I put much of the blame for the problems of the short, on others.
* Karen Silkwood was a technician at the Kerr-McGee nuclear fuels production plant in Crescent, Oklahoma.She was also a whistleblower on unsafe conditions at the plant.She died in a one-car automobile crash in 1974.Shortly before she died it was discovered that there were unsafe levels of plutonium in her apartment.Her estate filed a civil suit against Kerr-McGee.The trial ended with the jury awarding her estate $10.5 million.The Federal Court of Appeals in DenverColorado later reversed the decision but in 1986 when the suit was set for re-trial it was settled out of court for approximately $1.3 million.
A caller named Jerry suggested a dating service should “hook up” Deborah and I.Again, can you imagine if you had two members of another group on a radio show talking about prejudice against their group, and some clown getting on the line talking about ‘hooking up’ the two people, imagine what kind of a response you’d get.He also gave the classical, ‘What about Danny Devito?What about Joe Pesce? line.He even threw in Sylvester Stallone as if Stallone’s 5’10” constitutes short-stature.Then ‘Jerry the Dum’ said “Look at his physique for a short guy”- as if one was required to be over 6 feet in height in order to have a decent appearing body.These are the subliminal attitudes coming to the surface.Very few short people right now can understand what I mean by this.Too bad I couldn’t make a point of this at the time.The host-Marty Moss-Coanes stated, “I have family members in the short category and to be honest with you, I don’t think they’re particularly bothered by it”.Bothered by what Marty?Their short stature or people like your callers?Well Marty this is what I refer to as the ‘Silence of the Short’.You could also call it – ‘The Silence of the Lambs’-like the movie with the same name, because many short people are sort of like lambs, lambs being led to the slaughter.I’m sure if you went up to a Black person 100 years ago and asked him if he was particularly bothered by being Black he might tell you no.I guess because Marty’s family members don’t run to her saying things like, ‘Oh Marty, I’m so bothered by being short, maybe you could put me on your radio show so I can tell the whole world!” that therefore they have no problems in society.You know as I said in a previous broadcast, don’t just get used to my sarcasm-embrace it; and don’t embrace it just because I’m telling you to.Embrace it because you should.
A caller named ‘Gary’ claimed he had a ‘Napoleon Complex’.Whatever he meant by that.Now ‘Donna’ who claimed to be a 6 foot tall woman called in to say she wore high heels going on a date with a 5’7” man.Now let’s think about this.Why the hell would a 6 foot tall excuse me, I’m very much in the habit of saying tall; although in this case it would be accurate.Why the hell would a 6 foot in height woman need high heels?Why would she need high heels on a date with a 5’7” man?So she can be 9 inches taller than him instead of just 5 inches taller??I don’t get it.Do you?Why does a 6 feet in height woman need high heels at all?I guess because height is so trivial.She also mentioned her social issues saying, ‘Everyone has issues’ as if to say, ‘get over it little man’.Where have we heard that before?
John called in and mentioned Robert Reich and Donna Shalala and working as a journalist for a sub 5 foot news director-again as if to say, ‘Get over it little man, and act like a man.’After that the host said, “For a lot of people it’s not an issue and it doesn’t stand in their way”.Well whup-dee-do Marty!There are lots of people of any group where their race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, etc. (and I’m getting tired already of mentioning other groups) doesn’t stand in their way.I could give this woman a list of successful Blacks in the 1950’s-a long list.Does that mean there wasn’t discrimination against Blacks in the 1950’s?I think the listener is beginning to understand the tremendous collective negative attitudes against the short of stature.
‘Susan’, a woman of 4’10” stated that people think you’re stupid.I have to agree with that.If they don’t think you’re stupid, they’ll at least think you couldn’t possibly know as much as a taller or tall person.You know labeling any other group like this is viewed as prejudice, pure and simple.
‘Jack’ – one of the more intelligent callers agreed.And he made some very astute observations about women’s preferences for taller men.I’m inclined to agree with him.Women for the most part would never be caught dead-at least not here in the U.S.-discriminating against men being a member of any group-except of course-a short man.Jack stated that, “Of all the things you can be in the dating scene, the one thing you can’t be is short.You can be ugly; you can be dumb; you can have bad hygiene; but the one thing you can’t be is short.”That’s an interesting observation on Jack’s part.I could use him for this website.I will take ‘Jack’s’ observations several steps further;You will see more women with men of another race; there are probably more women with men of another religion;you will see more women with men of another creed; you will see more women with men of another ethnic background; you’ll see more shapely women with overweight men; you’ll see more good-looking women with men who are not quite so good-looking; you’ll see more blue-eyed women with green-eyed men; there are probably more educated women with men who aren’t quite so educated (as long as he’s tall); you’ll see more women with bald men.You’ll even probably see more women with bisexual or even gay men than you will see women with boyfriends or husbands that are their height or even the tiniest bit shorter.Martel & Biller called this the ‘Cardinal Rule of Mating and Date Selection’, “that the male will be significantly taller than his female partner”.Obviously if ‘Jack’s’ observations, Martel & Biller’s observations, and my observations are correct, then short men are going to have quite a time finding a life partner, especially with very short women wanting disproportionately taller men than average both for protection purposes and denial of their own short-stature.
A guy named Les called in.He claimed he was 5’2 ¾”.“And don’t missthat ¾ of an inch”, he said.“I don’t want to be organized, and I don’t feel like I’m part of the differently heighted community and I don’t want some advocate getting breaks for me that I don’t earn or deserve and if I were in that tax office when the guy said to me ‘What do you want kid, I would have said nothing son, can you get a grownup, I need some help.”He also stated that, “I’ve gone to bed with women who are 6 feet tall, I’ve gone to bed with women who are 5 feet tall.My wife is slightly taller than me.My last girlfriend before her was 5’10” and a competitive athlete.” I know this Les, if I were a woman you’d be the last person I’d be interested in.Anyway, ‘Les’ proceeded to state that, “What’s the big deal, just be who you are, all this stuff will take care of itself.”Well Les it’s guys like you that need to be as you put it, “taken care of”.A guy like this even though the listener might think that, “Oh he’s our man, Les for President”.(hums ‘Hail to the Chief’) I’m going to have to agree to disagree.A guy like this, a person like this, is your enemy.The enemy of the short person.He discounts-just like the tallers do-everything you’ve been through throughout your life.All the bullying.All the harassment.All the prejudice.All the injustices, a guy like this sweeps your humiliation, your degradation, your pain, he sweeps it aside as if it were nothing.He may choose to ignore and deny all this; but I don’t.A little Napoleon like this can set us back 100 years.Although I fear a hundred years ago it was basically the same as it is today.And I believe in calling a spade a spade.This guy was your classical, typical little Napoleon.There are a few.Typical little tough guy out to show the world who’s boss.He doesn’t care about short people.He cares about himself.You heard him.I’ve gone to bed with women who are 6 feet tall; I’d tell that tax preparer where to go, etc.He just doesn’t get it and he probably never will. He’s a selfish bastard.He has his own interests in mind and no one else’s.I’ve known people like this guy.
A woman called in I think her name was ‘Jenny’.She said she was 5’2”.She stated, “I always thought I was taller”.This is a classic case of denial, both denial on her part and on the part of others.They view her as taller.I wonder why?If you listen to the interview again she states again, “I always think I’m taller than I actually am”.Marty-in her infinite wisdom-as host stated a little later, “I know that having a sense of humor is one of the great ways of disarming people’s prejudices”.Well Marty I don’t see why I should have to spend my life continuously disarming people’s prejudices.Again, if I were a member of any other group you probably wouldn’t be arguing for a sense of humor to eradicate people’s prejudices.I mean, I’ll do it on your show, maybe, but I’m getting awfully tired of it.I’m not Robert Reich.I’m not going to get up on a platform and tell everyone that I used to be 6’2”.I’m not going to do that.A woman named ‘Pat’ called in.She was 4’10”.She stated that most of the men that asked her out in college were over 6 feet in height, which I as Mr. Spock might say, ‘find extremely interesting’.A woman named ‘Evelyn’ called in too and she stated she had a brother under 5 feet in height.She said that her mother and family “built him up”.Obviously her family saw a need to quote, “build him up”.They were cognizant of the fact that short stature for a person will create great difficulty.I wonder why it presents such a difficulty?Don’t you? Maybe we should all just ‘be ourselves’ as Les suggested.Deborah Burris Kitchens while she was being tossed around that bar by the patrons and being humiliated like no one in any group would tolerate, maybe she should have just, “been herself” and ‘all this stuff will take care of itself’. This is Joe Mangano.Thank you very much.
This is Joe Mangano.You know-heightism-if you’ve never heard that word is what the Tallers do to you because you’re short-statured.Most people feel negative about you even if they don’t tell you.You know, most people don’t tell you what they think of you, but you’re a kid and you get chosen for sides in baseball or football or basketball and it’s always last, or maybe you don’t get chosen at all.Teachers in school look down on you in more ways than one.You may be harassed or belittled.You’re learning at this stage to know your place, because if you don’t you’ll be put in your place-by them.
It never really gets better.You just make adaptations.You can keep denying that heightism doesn’t exist, or if it does exist it doesn’t affect you.You may say to yourself that that’s just the way life is.That’s the way God made you; and you know, you’re right.But you also see that others are treated differently.You see that they live better lives than you do.They don’t have any problems, or so it appears.‘It’s all in your head little one’, you may be told.You can’t even buy clothes easily.As a matter of fact speaking of clothes, so what if you go to the clothing store and can’t find any clothes that fit and look good-that’s all in your head.Just go to a tailor if the pants don’t fit right.Never mind that you can’t find a waist size even if you’re slim.Oh wait a minute; you won’t be able to find the correct length either.
I mean did you ever to into a store and couldn’t find any clothes that fit?It happens to me all the time, especially the pants.Did you ever see a tall well-proportioned guy?You notice how the pants fit so well?Did you notice how the shirt he’s wearing doesn’t hang down his arm so that if he unbuttoned it, it wouldn’t extend three inches past his fingertips?I know this guy who’s about 6’4” and he says things like, ‘Oh I have a hard time finding clothes’.Yet every time I see this guy, the pants fit perfectly; the shirts are just the right size, his jackets and coat look great.You know I’ve found sizes in stores as large as 6X large.Incredible, isn’t it?I was in a store not too long ago and that’s where I saw a 6X Large men’s coat-so I bought it.Why would a 5’4” man buy a 6X large coat?Well, I wanted to determine the exact dimensions of the coat.I determined that it would fit a man 6’8” in height based on my own computations for the length of a 6’8” man’s torso and arms.In that same store I did not find one coat in a size small-not one.There were more clothes there that could fit a man almost 7 feet in height than there were for me, a guy about 5 inches below average height.‘It’s all in your mind little man.It’s how much confidence you have, that’s what counts’.The very same people who tell you things like this will also say, things like, ‘Oh why don’t you dress better,you dress like a kid, that’s why people don’t respect you’.Oh by the way, I eventually gave the 6X coat to the poor by placing it in a clothing box for the needy, although in all my life I’ve never seen a 6’8” homeless person.Never.Although I’ve seen plenty of 5’4” ones.Oh, those poor unfortunate tallers!
I go into most of the major department stores in the city I live in and many of the smaller stores too.I shop in the Men’s Department and the smallest khaki pants I can find are a 29” length.Now that’s not so bad, but I’ve found that the smallest waist size I can find in that length anywhere is 34 inches, which is about 3 inches too big for me, and even the 34 waist sizes are hard to find.It seems most short men tend to be overweight and the clothing manufacturers know it.Of course you can’t buy a bigger size and have one of these pants altered significantly.I mean you can but it would take a lot of money and great difficulty.You know the distance from the top of the pants to the bottom of the crotch is bigger-it’s made for a bigger man, a taller man.The legs are too wide; even if you’re slim they’ll make you appear overweight.These are problems the taller man almost never encounters.But you will hear, ‘Oh my boyfriend is 6’7”.You should see what he goes through’.When she says that to you, you just tell her that, ‘supportfortheshort knows full well what your big and tall man goes through and that’s next to nothing!’
Here’s a hypothetical experiment for one to perform:
Take 3 men; one of the men should about 5 feet in height, the second one about 5’6” in height, the third 6 feet in height.Take them to the men’s department of any major department store.Now blindfold them.Then direct them to where the pants are, or where the shirts are, or where the underwear is, or the coats, or anyplace in the Men’s department. Ask them to pick up, say, a dozen items.You’ll find that the 6 footer invariably is the person who ends up with the most clothes that fit.Of course if one of the fellows were 6’6’’ or taller you may have to take him to a Tall Man’s Shop-maybe.What’s that?I didn’t hear what you said. Your friend with the 6’6’’ husband is saying, ‘Aha! You see!Even Joe Mangano at supportfortheshort admits that very tall men need a special place to shop for clothes!’After she makes that statement you might want to ask her something like, ‘So where are the stores for short men?’If you do the response might be something like, ‘Oh, I don’t have time for this nonsense!I have to go to the store to buy a new coat for a birthday present for my husband.
If you suspect something’s wrong here, you’re just beginning to wake up.
There is just nowhere for me to shop for socks that fit well; that is, socks I can wear without having the heel stick out of the back of my shoe.Athletic socks tend not to be a problem.Casual socks and dress socks are the real problem.It’s almost as if the clothing manufacturers are saying, ‘Okay little men, we’ll let you have socks that go with your sneakers and shorts and kiddie clothes, but you better not even think about dressing like men; designer styles and real clothes are reserved for the real men-the tall men-not for you.
You know I spoke with Alan Au whose father Jimmy owns Jimmy Au’s of Beverly HillsCalifornia and whose clients include some of the shorter men in Hollywood, and he mentioned to me that there are over 1,000 Tall Men’s shops in the United States alone, not including Tall Men’s sections in department stores.I’ve generously counted about a dozen or so Short Men’s shops.Now that’s a ratio of close to 100 to 1.That is, close to 100 Tall Men’s shops for every Short Man’s store. Incredible, isn’t it?This will tell you something.It tells you and us how society feels about and values its Tall men.It tells you and us that society views Tall men as important entities, valuable entities.It tells you and us that ‘Hey, we think it’s important to have stores for Tall men,and just for Tall men; after all how are our heroes going to look good unless they have special clothing stores just for them?Who the hell cares about the way short men look?They can shorten big men’s clothes.They ought to be glad they have clothes at all.This is basically what society is saying.Because, Look; Heights in a country-any country-are usually distributed along a normal distribution (a Bell Curve), which means that there are as many men on one side of the median as there are on the other side.So shouldn’t there be just as many Short Men’s shops as there are Tall Men’s shops?
Your neighbor with the 6’6” husband might respond, ‘Oh don’t be ridiculous, there have to be Tall Men’s shops-You can’t make small clothes bigger.But you can make large clothes smaller.Everyone knows that!Oh yeah, you sure can.You can sure take that 6X Large coat and make it my size.Why any fool can see that.And that size Small shirt that extends 3 inches part your fingertips, why all you have to do is get your Mommy’s scissor (with her permission of course) and just snip off a piece of that sleeve.Then just ask your mommy to sew the sleeves back on to your length.
I’m sorry what did you say?I didn’t hear you.Oh what about the socks?No problem.Just don’t wear any.No one will notice with those pants that are too long anyway.You see how easy it is to solve short men’s clothing problems.I know, I know what you’re thinking.I am one sarcastic bastard.But as I might say to a taller, get used to it,no do more than get used to it, embrace it.
Did you know that baggy clothes in addition to looking disgusting (in my opinion), make you appear shorter too?It’s such a vicious cycle if you’re short of stature. For example, you will find it much, much harder to find clothes that fit well and look good.In order to find clothes that fit well and look good, you’ll need to spend a great deal more money than your tall counterparts.You’ll also be spending a great deal more effort to do so.You’re also going to need an expert tailor.Now while you’re spending all that extra money, you’re going to have to find some way to make it back, and that’s going to be difficult because short men tend to make less money than tall men.Since short men are also less likely to have spouses they’re more likely to have to shoulder the financial burden themselves.They then wind up being over-worked and are more likely to suffer from stress-related problems, like headaches, IBS, insomnia, depression, asthma, palpitations, anxiety disorders and the like.Great isn’t it.
What I just spoke about is only related to buying clothes.Clothes however, don’t harass you.Clothes don’t discriminate against you.Clothes don’t close you out of many professions.Clothes don’t bump into you on the street expecting you to get out of their way.Clothes don’t ridicule you for your lack of height.People do all that-and that’s a another story.This is Joe Mangano.Thank you very much.
This is Joe Mangano.I’ve received dozens of e-mails commenting on the first essay that I wrote, the essay entitled – Heightism-The Last Bastion of Discrimination, the one that was written back in 2002, which I’m going to read Part III of tonight, the last part.I mentioned in the first part that it is a good idea to listen to the broadcast more than once, because the second and third times you absorb information you didn’t absorb the first time.Repetition does have its benefits.You know I’ve learned a great deal about height in the last 5 years or so, much more than I learned in all the years of my life previous to that time.The reason for that is that I started waking up.And you know, the waking up process doesn’t happen all at once.It occurs gradually, but I do feel differently now than I did 15 or 10 or even 5 years ago.If anyone wanted to debate me about height and heightism, I’m sure I could hold my own, as a matter of fact, I’m sure I could show the other party up very well. If you get into a debate with somebody about heightism, they’ll usually win.The reasons they’ll win are because you won’t have the confidence in yourself to express any personal power because you feel ashamed of the arguments you’re giving in the first place, the other party feels totally confident, and also because others usually will take his side against you.You needn’t feel ashamed.That’s almost like 3 or 4 or 5 people attacking you physically all at once and then getting an inferiority complex because you couldn’t fight off multiple attackers.Unfortunately you can’t do what police do and call for back-up.Many police will make the odds 10-1 in their favor before they enter into a fight at all-but that’s another story.You must either fight alone or not fight at all unfortunately.
As I read the third and last part of my essay tonight I don’t want anyone to get the impression that this is all there is to heightism.My essay is just a small part, a small beginning description of the phenomenon known as heightism.It’s only been a short time now since supportfortheshort.org has begun and already we have 3 broadcasts.There will be many more down the road.I don’t doubt that for a moment.Down the road we’ll be exposing all aspects of heightism.We’ll be exposing it from the bottom up.Believe me, we’ll be exposing the dregs.The dregs are at the bottom and we know who they are.
This is the third part of Heightism-The Last Bastion of Discrimination.
8: Denial
Denial is defined by Freudian psychoanalysts as a defense mechanism. It protects the ego against painful realizations that might undermine that ego and the personality that it is contained in. The individual denies to himself that he is short. He identifies with the aggressor - that is the taller man or society in which he lives. This is another Freudian defense mechanism. This has been necessary because up to now there has been no avenue of redress for the short person. When a person is shunned by family, discriminated against by society in general, and there are no legal means for justice, is there any other alternative? Sooner or later in time however, a pioneer, or a few pioneers come along. This has happened elsewhere. The same thing can occur here as well.
9: One Writer's Opinion
As a short adult man, I know first hand discrimination, hostility, prejudice, and just basic human cruelty; that is, the desire to hurt someone else because he or she is at a physical or psychological disadvantage. I don't think any short person should continue to take a soft line on this. It is a time for anger. Nothing will be accomplished without the willingness to FIGHT. You short people who will read these essays who want society to treat you as an equal must be willing to FIGHT. Look back at all those marches and riots involving black people and you'll know what I mean. I don't mean to say now that we should go wild in the streets. (Although it might not be a bad idea, if we had enough numbers). But short men should consider these points:
There are very few tall or taller men in this world that like taking orders from a short man.
There are very few tall or taller men in this world that think that they're not better than any short man.
Women, especially tall women, view short men in a negative light.
There is collective unconscious discrimination in society against short people - especially short men.
Short people, in general, can be ridiculed, harassed, and bullied more easily than perhaps any other group.
Short people and particularly short men, are prevented from living up to their career potential.
Short people and particularly short men are literally closed out of many professions and sports.
The sexual pickings are much slimmer - AND
YOU CAN'T DO A DAMN THING ABOUT IT LEGALLY.
People sometimes think that justice comes along all by itself. It's natural to believe that. If you claim that people discriminate against you because you are short, you will probably be completely correct but few will listen. If you try to sue another party or entity in a civil matter for height discrimination and no attorney wants to represent you because your `problem´ is not yet `recognized´ by society you won't even get to court. Just because you are right does not necessarily mean that you will triumph. If you attempt to take the matter into a courtroom you probably won't get very far at this point in time. But there will be a starting point. Other oppressed groups have gone the legal route many times and they've won. But now that the 21st Century has begun, this essay and others like it may form a starting point to influence short people to begin to view themselves as a group, much like Blacks or the disabled. As long as short people stay isolated and alone, society's discrimination will continue unabated. The media will continue to negatively stereotype short people, and society in general will do what they've been doing all along.
10: Do's and Don'ts for Short People
Do believe in yourself
Do fight for your rights
Do use a combination of overt and covert tactics to fight the wrongs that others perpetrate against short people
Do use legal means
Do hold your head high
Do buy clothes that make you look good (as difficult as that may be sometimes)
Do respond to slights (as long as it's not a foolish risk)
Do take the issue of short stature discrimination seriously
Do eat properly
Do workout
Do learn to physically defend yourself
Do relax
Do help other short people
Do make the issue of short stature discrimination known
Do be strong (physically and mentally)
Do remember that there ARE others like you (this writer is one!)
Do live in a place that minimizes stress
Do write about discrimination against short people
Do be prepared for the unexpected
Do guard your dignity
Do discuss your height only with a trusted friend, family member, or a trained, qualified professional that knows that there is real discrimination and dislike of short people
Do attempt to initiate organizations for short people (colleges, schools, communities, etc)
Do make legitimate complaints when needed
Do expose others who attempt to hurt you
Do watch and see how taller others are treated in comparison with you (words, tone of voice, actions, facial expressions, etc.)
Don't be intimidated by larger or taller people
Don't believe a professional psychologist or non-short person (or anyone else for that matter) who tells you the problem is in YOU
Don't convey weakness
Don't kiss A-S-S
Don't hurt yourself with anger
Don't be passive
Don't be caught off guard
Don't be silly or childish (Society loves a valid reason to discriminate against you)
Don't be intimidated by police or people with uniforms
Don't do drugs or alcohol
Don't associate with those who don't respect you or those who treat you improperly - AND THAT INCLUDES EVEN FAMILY (many times the worst perpetrators of injustice to short people are family members)
Like other groups that have been the victims of unreasonable dislike, prejudice, discrimination, abandonment, ostracism, etc. short individuals must have an organization that works on their behalf. Of course, before that occurs short people must identify themselves AS a group. This may be the most difficult step. Getting short individuals to band together as a group, and getting enough of them, to have any kind of a legal voice will admittedly be a difficult task. The laughs. The jokes. Are you willing and courageous enough to endure that? Do you take others actions seriously enough? Are YOU willing to be serious? Do you enjoy a handicap that is imposed upon you by a taller society? When you protest or attempt to protest (which few if anyone has yet done), society laughs at you or ignores you? Of course you don't. The fact that you're reading this proves that you are no longer in denial. That's an important first step. A step towards reason. A step towards eliminating this silent prejudice. This `short´ essay is but a beginning step toward that goal.
And that was Part III of Heightism-The Last Bastion of Discrimination.As I mentioned earlier don’t get the impression that this essay is all there is to it, because it isn’t.There are many aspects of heightism yet to be discussed.And that’s fine, because we can’t do it in one broadcast.It will take many, many broadcasts plus a whole lot more than that.As the Chinese philosopher Confucius said, ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.This is Joe Mangano.Thank you very much.
This is Joe Mangano on www.supportfortheshort.org.You know you can reach this website by typing in .net or .com too, in addition to the .org.Already I’ve received e-mails about supportfortheshort.org.They’ve all been positive.I’ve already received some feedback on the first broadcast of last week.
Heightism as most of you already know is what the website is about.To those who just ‘happened on’ to my website and I know that happens occasionally where you type in the wrong url or you do a google search and some irrelevant hits come up but you didn’t realize it and you discover you’re in the wrong place but you take an interest in the site anyway and are listening just out of curiosity; yes there are short-statured people who believe that they are victims.That was the purpose of setting up SUPPORTFORTHESHORT.This website will eventually be the focal point for relevant discussions of heightism and any peripheral topics related to height.We don’t always have to talk about height.Once the messageboards have arrived I expect many topics to be discussed, but I’m sure most of the topics will be about height and its place in your life.People will be discussing sports, work, social situations, the opposite sex, etc.I expect there to be much activity.You know I have a full plate at the moment.SUPPORTFORTHESHORT may not be the premier website next week or next month, but it will rise slowly and continuously. If you have any comments on how it can be improved write me.Its appearance I’m sure will be different down the road.
I’m actually looking forward to the time when I start getting some negative letters or e-mails sent to me.That’s when I’ll know people are finding out about this website.And you know I try not to mind getting different opinions or criticism like some websites.I realize there’s going to b a lot of it down the road.Now that I’m not aligned anymore with any ne’er-do-wells or con men, I can probably accomplish much more.It’s always good to practice what you preach I think.As I tell short kids who e-mail me with their stories of so-called ‘friends’ who don’t respect them, “don’t associate yourself with these types”.My opinion is it’s better not to have friends, than to have the wrong kind.They only drag you down.Some of these so-called friends ridicule you or tease you or ignore you or use you, or all of the above and they always don’t respect you.I try to distance myself from these types.Now if you’re a youngster or a teenager being abused at home that’s a situation that’s a little bit more difficult to get yourself out of.I’ve gotten e-mails from kids who were being abused at home.In the future I may devote an entire broadcast just to this subject alone.
As I stated in the first part of my essay, if you haven’t’ read it or you haven’t’ heard my last broadcast, people act like heightism is nothing, a non-topic, nothing to be taken seriously.People like Ms. Joyce Marcel can characterize adult men as ‘shrimps’, yet this same kind of characterization if applied to anyone of a multitude of other groups would be tantamount to hate crimes.In the case of short-stature it is not even viewed seriously in the slightest.In many cases it’s treated as a big joke.I mentioned in my last broadcast how a Chinese student actually sued a bank for height discrimination.Now can imagine a bank with a height requirement?This is in China now-not the U.S.You know I’ve read on forums where people have expressed opinions that heightism doesn’t exist in places like the Orient.Well these people had better wake up and smell the roses.I’m actually seeing more evidence of heightism in the Far East.In North Korea for example, there are allegedly concentration camps for people who are disabled, like dwarves, for example.You know the average height of men and women in the United States is probably shrinking right now due to the influx of Mexicans and other Hispanics from countries in Central and South America.Did I just say ‘shrinking’?That’s probably a bad choice of words.Let me re-phrase it, the average heights of men and women in the United States is getting lower.There’s also a great influx of Orientals and people from places like India, where the average heights tend to be a little lower.
You Know, my last broadcast featured Part I of my original essay-Heightism-The Last Bastion of Discrinination’.Tonight, I’m going to continue with Part II of my essay.The first time I covered the first 3 sections of my essay.Tonight I’m going to cover the next 4 sections.This is Part II of Heightism – The Last Bastion of Discrimination:
4: The Media
I think it can be said that the media has been very helpful in the cause of helping other minorities. Blacks, Women, Disabled, Congenitally deformed. Even Homosexuals. But the short person or short man? It would appear that now that all these other groups are not fair game anymore, who can we beat up on? Oh sure! We still have short people. Little shrimps. Who cares about them?
Hey, why don't we put a serious drama on TV about the interrelationships of doctors in an emergency room and all the many trials and tribulations both they and the poor people that need emergency care have to endure and call it ER? Why, that's a great idea. To make the series even more interesting, let's make the Chief of ER a no good bastard. A doctor that has an over-blown ego. A man that is uncaring. A man that is selfish and cunning and vents his hostility on everyone. Let's also make him SHORT. Let's not characterize him in any particular race, color, religion, or nationality. We might negatively stereotype all these other groups and that wouldn't be right. Let's make him a little shrimp and distort the camera angles to make him appear even shorter. HA, HA, HA, HA, HA! That's it! No one will come forward to do anything. What the Hell can they do?
Hey! Let's turn on the TV and watch professional wrestling. Do you notice weight divisions in the WWF? The answer is no. Professional Boxing has weight divisions from flyweight (112lbs) to heavyweight (over approximately 180lbs). Amateur (college and high school) wrestling has similar weight divisions as well. Of course, most people believe that the professional wrestling we see on TV is just staged entertainment. What a sport like professional wrestling does is put very large men on display. ALL the wrestlers are MUCH, MUCH bigger than the average man. The same is true of the women wrestlers. (I'm not including midget wrestling here, even though it exists, it's more humorous than anything else if you judge it by the reactions of the spectators viewing it). The selection of super-big men is no accident. Having no weight divisions and only large men competing is by design. The people who run professional wrestling know people are fascinated, and awed by large size, whether it's men or machines. Although some consider professional wrestling a form of entertainment, this fascination with tall and large contributes to the problems short people face from society. These `big men´ exhibit behavior that is childish, unprofessional, and violent. The exhibition of this type of physical power, where spectators are sometimes attacked (and they're almost always much smaller than the wrestler) influences children and adults to view smaller or shorter people in a negative light, and it doesn't matter whether or not it is staged. Children try to emulate what they see, especially if it's `big men´ they're emulating. That fascination and emulation results in bullying. Short or small children can and are often the victims.
5: The Street Situation
Now let's get into a crowded subway car in New York City. The short person's personal zone of space can and is violated by the taller person. ( `personal zone of space´ is a distance that we in this culture have around us that people usually don't get closer than. That is the individuals' `personal zone of space´. It varies from culture to culture) When it is violated by someone of the same culture it is usually an act of hostility. The taller person is the more likely to violate that zone with a shorter person. He violates it because the shorter person's face is in his chest, the shorter person's face is in his shoulder, back etc.So natural. So easy. Get into a crowded elevator. You know what? The same phenomenon occurs. Take a walk on a crowded sidewalk. The shorter or smaller person is the one most likely to get pushed, or shoved. He or she must be the one to move out of the way so the taller person can pass. The shorter person is the one most likely to be shown the lesser respect. Why? Pure PHYSICAL ADVANTAGE. People tend to live down to their lowest impulses. (Please forgive me for using `live down´ and `lowest´, but the language doesn't permit me any other choice.) Is it any wonder that a shorter person might have a little bit more hostility than average? Is it any wonder that a shorter person might be a little bit more aggressive than average? Is it any wonder that a shorter person might be a little bit more defensive?
The `Short Man's Syndrome´ is a phrase that might be used by some to describe a short person exhibiting the above characteristics. What?! You're not familiar with that phrase? It is used to describe a short man who is very angry and hostile because he is short and vents his hostility on others. Some others I've heard are, `height complex´, `short man's complex´ and of course the famous, `Napoleon Complex´. These phrases indicate something negative about the short person and Lord knows the taller population will grasp anything it can in the way of putting down a short person. It's funny though. I see lots more hostile bigger men. No one refers to their hostility as the `hostile big man syndrome´ or the `WWF complex´. Why? Because others are afraid to. That's why. Might makes right. Of course, they can get away with a little aggression. When you're big an' tall it's your right to be a little hostile isn't it? You've got the strength. You've got the size. It's your right to be tough. Big men are supposed to be that way. They believe it's their right and so does a taller population. I call it `The Tall Man's Theory of Natural Selection´.
6: The Job Market
If two men or women are competing for a job, and their qualifications are equal in every way, the taller person will get the job. Studies have shown this to be the case. Unless of course, the employer is looking for someone to push around, then the shorter person will be chosen which is quite an advantage for the short man isn't it? I've read about women facing a Glass Ceiling. Short people, especially short men, face a REAL glass ceiling in more ways than one. I've seen it time and time again. Their competency is questioned. Their ability is underestimated. They are overlooked or ignored. It's so natural, people don't even think about it. I believe in most instances short people don't live up to their abilities. There are several reasons for this:
Their confidence (self-esteem) is shaken both by direct and indirect means
They are prevented from succeeding by the prejudice and discrimination they face from a taller society.
Short people are not viewed as a group, either by themselves or society, and therefore have no legal or political power or voice,
There are no legal means for justice at this time.
We are now in the age of the computer. People use computers to do many things these days. They use computers to find a job, to buy a car, to look up information they would previously have had to go to the library for. Nowadays, people can use the Internet, even to find a mate. Go to any dating Web site. Take a look at the ads of women. Notice their listed heights. Read what they look for in a mate. Usually this expressed preference is several inches taller. A man, however, cannot express an interest in a woman taller than he is, or even the same height, and expect to gather much interest. There are but few exceptions to this cardinal rule. Naturally this decreases the short man's number of possible mates significantly. Ergo a prime reason shorter men marry less often and have fewer children. Many short men are in denial. They unrealistically believe a taller woman will have an interest in them. By and large the taller women don't. As a matter of fact, taller women look down (no pun intended) on short men. All the studies seem to support this. That is, what few studies that have been done. There is a phrase that has been used to describe ideal males from the female perspective. The phrase is, "Tall, dark, and handsome." You'll notice that the word tall comes first.
And that’s Part II of ‘Heightism – The Last Bastion of Discrimination’.By the way, what’s written in the essay is not antiquated information and it won’t be antiquated anytime soon, so I don’t expect to get any e-mails telling that that’s the way it used to be, but isn’t anymore.Oh sure I’ll get e-mails telling me to ‘Act like a man’ or telling me ‘how trivial this is.That’s par for the course.That will be the case for a long time I expect.I wonder how many people are listening to this right now and beginning to wake up a little. I would ask you to continue to wake up a little bit more. Did you ever have a dream and was in that twilight state between sleep and being fully awake?Your mind-that is-one part of it was semi-conscious but you were unable to move?I suspect many of the short-statured are in this state right now.Many are not even in this state yet.Many are still walking around thinking, ‘Huh!I’m not short I’m tall –when they’re really 5’5’’- I’ll show them who’s short!I don’t look to reach these types of people, at least not yet anyway.I look to reach the types who are listening and reading.Well just keep on listening and reading.This is Joe Mangano.Thank you very much.
This is Joe Mangano.Heightism is one very special ‘ism’.Of all the physical traits of man, whether it be skin color, eye color, weight, race, gender, ethnic background, sexual orientation, disability.Height is the one acceptable trait-that is-short height is the one acceptable trait, to abuse you for.Abuse or discrimination done to anyone based on any other of the above characteristics is treated a bit more seriously. In some cases, an act perpetrated, the same act perpetrated on a member of another group, can result in serious consequences for the perpetrator.When it comes to height, or rather short height, the treatment is far different.It is usually tantamount to a joke, a harmless prank not to be taken seriously.The discrimination faced by the short is monumental.So why are the short-statured so silent about it?Well for one thing, they’re a non-group of people.Their physical trait of short-stature is one of the few that leads to a direct physical disadvantage in a confrontation of any kind, physical or even psychological.This is very basic, basic to life.You’ll notice that in the animal kingdom the predator is usually the larger species and many times within a given species the victor for the mating prize is the larger member of the species.You can’t get much more basic than that.But we’re not animals are we?There are other ways and means to accomplish a purpose besides overt physical aggression.If we engage in overt physical aggression we’re not going to get laws passed are we?I mean if we riot in the streets continuously we might, but I just can’t envision a million, or several hundred thousand, or even several hundred short-statured people even protesting at this point in time.You know, most of the short-statured are in a state of denial or some may even laugh at you if you mention the topic of height discrimination.The short-statured themselves may even fight you and do what a psychologist would describe as identifying with their aggressors.You may even get spurned by someone operating a bogus organization and breaking the law.But be those things as they may, we still have many things to do.One is never going to do anything about heightism by bringing an argument to a taller.That’s a bit like a Black man in Mississippi in 1950 walking up to a White man and asking,“Excuse me sir, but don’t you guys think you’re discriminating against us a little bit?”You’re not going to get a positive response.Did you ever notice, you people that are listening to this who are old enough to work how, as you go higher in a company, in terms of position, the taller the people get?Did you ever notice how uncomfortable it is to be in the presence of people who are significantly taller than you?Did you ever notice how a taller person seems to command more respect than you-that is-if you get any at all?These are just a couple of problems for the short to face.
You know my original essay, Heightism – The Last Bastion of Discrimination which was written about 4 or 5 years ago, you know, back in the dark days of 2002 or 2001 whatever it was and is displayed on this website www.supportfortheshort.org is what I’m going to read right now.I’m actually going to break it up into 3 segments.Tonight is the first segment.I’m breaking it up into 3 segments because I don’t want to keep you too long.If you’re a youngster, your taller brother might want to use the computer and as you know well he’ll use that height advantage of his to get you off the computer.And by the way, I’m well aware that the taller brother isn’t always the older brother.If you’re older I don’t know, as in over 21 or, middle-aged or even older than that, you can go back to whatever you’re doing after about a half-hour or so.
This is my original essay-Heightism – The Last Bastion of Discrimination.
Now I’m going to go into the Introduction.There are actually 11 parts to Heightism – The Last Bastion of Discrimination.I’m going to start off with the Introduction to it.
Introduction
"My you're growing fast! Why you'll be as tall as your father before you're 13! Eat all your vegetables; don't you want to grow up to be big and strong like your brother?"
We've all heard expressions like these. Whether they were told to us individually as youngsters, or to someone else, we can all identify with these words of wisdom, can't we? After all, who wants to be short?
There are all types of discrimination, all types of prejudices. Some of the more common of these are: race, ethnic background and nationality. Even overweight individuals have appeared on talk shows and have started organizations to assist those like them to combat discrimination. So where are the organizations to combat height discrimination? Why don't they exist? Why is no one (or at least so it appears) interested in helping short people?
Let's analyze the situation a little more closely. Discrimination is about differences. The `majority´ always has an advantage over any minority. Black people, Jews, women, the disabled, American Indians, etc. are all viewed as legitimate groups. They've all demanded their rights. They've all been discriminated against at one time or another. These groups all share certain physical or genetic traits in common. Now, even overweight people have come forward to demand their right not to be victims of discrimination. But short people? It seems they are the only group that has no identity as a group, even though they share a common physical trait that others in society can, and have used as a reason to keep them in a place that other identifiable groups would not tolerate.
This particular prejudice has no legal restraints to prevent people from engaging in behavior that Blacks, Jews, Women, and disabled people and other groups would never tolerate. NEVER. It's all a laughing matter. HA! HA! HA! You're being harassed because you're short? HA! HA! HA! You're being discriminated against because of your height? HEE! HEE HEE! The poor boy. I'm glad I'm normal height.
People can say virtually anything negative that they want about an individuals' height. They can use derogatory words like elf, shrimp, runt, munchkin, etc. They can get away with making light of a person who possesses a physical trait that is virtually totally out of the control of the individual. If that person (usually a male) protests in any way, a typical response might be, "He's sooo sensitive!" As was stated above, no member of any ethnic, racial, disabled, or women's group would tolerate such things.
I was reading a piece on a Web site recently, My Favorite Star Webmagazine. The article was titled, THE INCREDIBLY SHRINKING MOVIE STARS, by Joyce Marcel. Ms. Marcel pulls no punches in her wonderment about the new breed of short actors. She states, "So in an age when people are growing to almost twice the height they reached 100 years ago*, why are Tom Cruise, Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, Dustin Hoffman, Richard Dreyfuss and so many other male movie stars now so shrimp-like?" She goes on to state, "So if I have to put up with little elves for male movie stars, they'd better be glamorous, light-hearted, sexy little elves. Then I'll let them be." This is a prime example of the general attitude toward the short male. What she's really saying is that she does not like short male actors playing the role of a `real man´. She can tolerate them only as light-hearted `little´ playthings and nothing more. She can use any type of derogatory terms that she wishes without any fear of appearing prejudiced. She knows she can get away with it. I wonder what would happen if she compared black people to monkeys the way she freely compares short men to `shrimps´? I believe she'd be out of a job and her statements would be well publicized.**
* I guess the average height of men in 1900 was 2' 11"
** Not only would her statements get her fired, she would open My Favorite Star Webmagazine to legal actions, and she would probably be forever marked.
1: Causes of Height Discrimination
All species of insects and animals begin small. Helplessness and weakness are associated with being small or short. A baby begins short, and grows. He doesn't start out tall and then shrink. Isn't it only natural to associate lack of size or height with weakness and vulnerability? I would say that virtually everyone makes these associations; but they are not just associations, they are physical realities. Along with greater height comes greater weight, greater muscle mass, denser bones, a reach advantage and a power advantage in striking. The bottom line is this: The greater the height advantage (all other things being equal) a person has over another, the more likely that person will be physically able to hurt the shorter or smaller person in a one on one physical confrontation.
If you don't think that the taller man derives his confidence based on that fact, think again. There is even a saying in boxing; A good big man will beat a good small man. This serves the larger or taller man well. The man is the protector and provider of his family. In times gone by height was a real advantage. Women felt safer with bigger men. Unfortunately many of them still do. But we don't live in the Old West anymore you say. We don't need to fight to stay alive anymore, to hunt food, to fight Indians, etc. But the ancient drives die hard. People can still be attacked on the street. Altercations happen after motor vehicle accidents. Drunks still insult women. Gangs still roam the streets and attack people. Wouldn't a woman prefer a taller man to a shorter one - all other things being equal? Aren't children still bullied in school? The shorter a child is, the more likely he or she will be bullied by other children. Why don't clubs and bars hire 5' 7" 140lb. 5th degree black belts as bouncers? – Because no one would be intimidated by them. People are intimidated by size. People are intimidated by men who are tall, and either very heavy or muscular or both. The first thing troublemakers would say to themselves about the 5' 7" black belt bouncer is "I can take that guy." Better to have some 6' 5" 300lb. monster with a bald head and tattoos. This primitive physical advantage of taller people is the basis for the negative feelings and outright discrimination and abuse of shorter people, not to mention the fact that shorter people are also in the minority.
Greater Height makes us feel greater, better, and superior. That's true whether you're a homeless person with no money, or a $2 million/year corporate executive. Go stand on a chair. Now get on your knees. Which feels better? I heard a three year old girl once say to her mother; "Mommy, why are other daddies bigger than daddy?" I also remember when I was six years old and heard another six year old say, "My dad is bigger than anyone." It is natural. It is also natural for the short child/man/woman to feel lesser and inferior to the taller child/man/woman if for no other reason than the fact that he or she is at a physical disadvantage. And short men, we ARE at a physical disadvantage. It doesn't mean the short person is inherently inferior, but it is inevitable to have some feelings of inferiority. If those natural feelings aren't enough, society will make sure the short person knows he is inferior through subtle and sometimes not so subtle cues. But the short person is in the minority as well. If most children were short, and there were an occasional tall child that would be another matter. There are few like him or her. That makes the problem a little more difficult to deal with and solve. Up to this point in time there have been no solutions.
Growth disorders are treated with growth hormones. Genentech, Inc. is a pioneer in this effort. Back in 1985, the FDA approved the first recombinant Human Growth Hormone (rHGH), manufactured by Genentech, Inc. There must be some disadvantage to being short (as seen by companies who promote HGH) otherwise why would a large pharmaceutical company devote its time and effort to finding a drug to make people grow taller?
HGH is not a panacea however. It cannot make six-footers out of five-footers, and it cannot cure genetic defects that cause extreme short stature. There may also be side effects. With the advent of the 21st Century and the breaking of the genetic code, you can bet there will be a medical answer sooner or later to the `problem´ of short stature. It may even involve genetic engineering while in the womb. This makes me wonder. If being short is such a disadvantage that hormones are being used to make short children grow, shouldn't short people be viewed as a disabled minority group? Shouldn't we receive state aid? Shouldn't short people who are discriminated against have the ability to file a complaint or take some sort of legal action against the discriminator? At this point in time there are no public funds that are allocated to short people who can't find a job because society discriminates against them and literally locks them out of many professions. Why are we teased as children, harassed as adults, ignored and not taken seriously by others, spurned by our families, discriminated against in the job market, rejected by women, closed out of many professions, and we just have to sit there with a smile and say, "Oh well, that's life!"?
2: Location of Height Discrimination
EVERYWHERE.
The Western Hemisphere. The Eastern Hemisphere. Europe. Asia. Australia. North America. South America. Africa. (Yes, even Antarctica - explorers tend to be taller than average)
The taller a society, the more it stigmatizes and discriminates against short people. Even societies that are shorter than we here in the United States have height discrimination. This writer has not personally been around the world. But look at even the shorter societies like those in South America or the Orient for example. Go look at the CEO's in these countries large companies. Look at the politicians. Look at the Presidents. They are among the tallest people in these populations. As a matter of fact, The Straits Times Interactive reported this year that a Chinese graduate in Beijing is suing China's central bank for discrimination after it advertised career opportunities that were open only to applicants who met its minimum height requirements. According to the article, "The action against the People's Bank of China is said to be the first ever against an organization or individual for violating a constitutional guarantee for equal rights." This is in Communist China and someone seems to be actually suing for equal rights for short people! Now that takes guts. What should we short people being doing about discrimination here in the `cradle´ of democracy?
Speaking about our country, The United States is exceptionally hostile to the shorter man. Being the greatest country in the world, I guess we expect our people to be taller. I guess the more advanced a society is, the taller will be its population and the less use that taller population will have for shorter people. I've read the studies that have been done in Nature magazine, Psychology Today, Scientific American, etc. These are prestigious magazines and journals. The conclusions of these studies seem to say: The taller you are the better your chances of succeeding at mostly anything, from advancing in the workplace to finding a wife. Let me emphasize however, that that is not because being taller is better.
There is a term that I would like to introduce here. The term is, `unconscious discrimination´. The term unconscious discrimination has been used by some Black leaders. I think it is only appropriate that it be used here because it applies to short people as well. What is unconscious discrimination or prejudice? It is a feeling, a belief, a notion, that short people are inferior. It is not expressed verbally, either to another or even inside a person's own head. It is understood between two taller people or a group of taller people, (or even among short people in denial) without the need to verbalize it or the realization even that it exists. Although given the right situation it can be verbalized. After all, a short person can still be derided with a derogatory name like `shrimp´. Not many people would call a black man `nigger´ in the presence of a group of people. But they would mock a short individual without compunction. A large man can vent his anger, and people stand there in respect. When a short man does exactly the same thing, the collective psychological forces of the `group´ seem to coalesce in invisible unison against him.
3: Language
Practically everything in our language is geared to putting down anything that is small or short. "He has a very SMALL mind." "How dare that LITTLE man!" "This is the long and the SHORT of it". (The short meaning the dirty end of the stick.) "They were SHORT-changed." Puny. Measly. Miniscule. Tiny. All of these words are used a great deal more in the negative than the positive. There are many more as well: "shortcomings", "short temper", "put down", "looking down on someone", "talking down to", etc. Use the adjective `little´ with respect to another person and it is understood that that person has been demeaned in some way.
It works in reverse too, to the benefit of the tall that is. Here are some more: "Standing high and proud", "Put on a pedestal" (a pedestal tends to make one higher), "making it up in the world", "higher up in the company", "standing head and shoulders above the rest", "a high flyer", "above the rest", etc. There is currently a billboard on a New York City highway in remembrance of September 11th that features a silhouette of the skyline of New York City where two beams of light point straight up with the statement, "Stand Tall".
So that was the first 3 parts of my original essay- ‘Heightism the Last Bastion of Discrimination’.And again there’s a link and it has its own special page on my website and that’s where it’s going to stay for the time being.You know one good thing about a broadcast like this I think, is it’s a heck of a lot better than reading something on a piece of paper, that is, your reading something on a piece of paper or a computer screen.One gets a completely different impression when they hear it as opposed to when they read it.And that’s one of the purposes of reading it out loud.I think it will strike a different chord.As a matter of fact, you may want to listen to this broadcast more than once; listen to all these broadcasts more than once, because each time you listen to it you may pick up things that you didn’t notice before.True, you heard the words the first time, but the next time new light bulbs might go off in your head.It happened to me when I read Ralph Keyes’ book.I actually read his book 3 times.Light bulbs going off in your head are going to be happening a lot as you come to this website and read more articles and hear more broadcasts.By the way, the audio/video section of this website will continue to grow, and it’s going to grow rather rapidly.I know many of you have never heard any interviews of anyone concerning the issue of height or heightism.I’ve given some interviews of late that no one has heard as yet.They’re going to be displayed in the near future.You’ll also find I think, that even if you have a dial-up connection the download time on most of these broadcasts will not be inordinately long.These broadcasts and interviews are meant to be heard-and by the maximum number of people.The elements who are deceiving you have a great deal to deceive you about, and I’m going to be exposing those elements in the near future.They can ‘run south for the winter’, but they can’t hide.But as far as height is concerned I think as time passes the listeners’ eyes will begin to open a bit.I think you’ll begin to view height in a completely different way.The tallers certainly view their height as a great advantage.I think it’s time to lessen that advantage just a little bit.This is Joe Mangano.Thank you very much.
