Rise Up Against Heightism!

Sexism has been widely discussed all around the U.K. this year, and it has been shown to be very present nationwide, discrimination on permission to wear high heels and the ability to bear children still being very real in our modern society. One issue, however, has been standing on tiptoes right under our noses, its shrill cries remaining unheard. And that issue is heightism.

Awareness about heightism has been very low, not being able to reach the ears of our political class. The problem is nonetheless very real. For example, studies in the U.K. and the U.S. have shown that short people – that is, people of under-average height (the average in the U.K. being 1m75 or 5ft 9in) – are paid consistently less than tall people. Furthermore, 90% of chief executives in top American companies are above average height.*

Conspicuously short Edinburgh University student Nalin has spoken about the issue. “Heightism is a very serious affliction in our society, and one that should get more attention.” He says. “Every day, I have to deal with unreachable jam jars in Tesco and sweaty armpits in my face on the bus.”

Thankfully, he is no longer alone in his plight: across the U.K. people are slowly beginning to be more aware of discrimination against the more vertically challenged portion of our society. The BBC recently reported on a man who sued his employer for thinking that he did not measure up to the task of stacking shelves. The argument could be made that being 4’4” working behind a 4’ counter might pose a problem, but that is immaterial: what is important is that this man is being DISCRIMINATED! If a short person wants to be a basketball player, who are we to say that he (or she, Laura Bates and the Glasgow Feminist Collective, or she…) should not be allowed to? In the same way that not allowing Morgan Freeman to play Vladimir Putin in a film would obviously be racist, then if a short person wants to be Yao Ming, then he or she should be allowed!

Eliminating heightism from our society might seem like a tall order but maybe we can help make this society better by making an effort in our everyday lives to reach for that jam jar or provide an extra cushion on a seat at a restaurant. Short people also have big platform shoes to fill, as international superstars have for years been trying to make the issue more public. If you intervene for short person rights, you would be joining the ranks of Josh Groban and Bob Marley, for example, whose respective singles “You Raise Me Up” and “Get Up Stand Up” (the subtitle “Oh You’re Already Stood Up…” was taken out for censorship reasons) were already desperate cries in favour of this oppressed group.

*I do all my research on Wikipedia to be sure to have scholarly, unquestionably orthodox information on every subject. For further reading on heightism, therefore, see this Wikipedia article.