Recently, I suffered a massive injustice at the hands of @ToeBeans, and I wish to talk about it because it concerns a lot of important societal topics. Recently,
@ToeBeans made a lighthearted thread asking people why they were still up. The humor is obvious - as a global website, there are obviously many users for whom it is not night, but
@ToeBeans is acting like it is bedtime for everybody. It is also a relatable thread, as we have all had the experience of suffering from insomnia and finding ourselves browsing this godforsaken site.
https://rdrama.net/post/334265/why-are-you-up-so-late
I was one of the first people to respond to the thread, and I think I gave a worthwhile answer.
I left the thread and tended to other matters. When I returned, to my surprise, the thread had blown up and there were over a hundred replies. I jumped back into the thread to consume the new content but I soon found myself crestfallen. @ToeBeans had responded to everybody except for me. It felt like a knife to the gut, like having acid thrown on your face. Sadly, it wasn't an unfamiliar feeling, however, and the sadness that fell over me was something like an old friend. This is a situation I've dealt with plenty of times in my life - being ignored, overlooked, ostracized - and it comes down to heightism.
What Is Heightism?
Heightism is the discrimination of others based on their height. This is a harsh form of discrimination because one cannot change their height. It is a form of discrimination that mainly affects men, and it permeates all spheres of life. Height is used to judge one's fitness, attractiveness, and worth.
This is apparent when we look at the world of economics. What the studies show is absolutely darning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_discrimination
Summing up the Wikipedia article:
1. Your height at 16 determines your whole life's earning power
They also found that men's wages as adults could be linked to their height at age 16
The researchers found that on an average an increase in height by one inch at age 16 increased male adult wages by 2.6 percent. This is equal to increase of approximately $850 in 1996 annual earnings. In other words, the height and corresponding social experiences of taller male adolescent at age 16 would likely translate to higher wage in later adulthood as compared to shorter male adolescent.
2. Your height determines what jobs you can have, even if height has nothing to do with your duties
- Studies have shown that short people are paid less than taller people, with disparities similar in magnitude to the race and gender gaps
3. Your height determines whether you will hold any leadership positions. If you're below 5 foot 7, you have almost NO chance of ever holding a leadership position
- Surveys have uncovered that less than 3% of CEOs were below 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) in height. 90% of CEOs are of above average height
Heightism isn't limited to the world of money. It also extends into the romantic realm. Here, things get brutal for short men.
1. Women prefer taller men
- in a 2019 survey performed by Ipsos in Hungary with over 500 respondents, the perfect height for men for 53% of participants was between 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) to 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
What Are the Effects of Heightism?
By now it should be obvious that heightism is not benign, nor is it a laughing matter. As a 156cm man, I have felt the harsh effects of heightism and it has permanently scarred my psyche and moulded me into who I am today, for better and for worse. There are no organisations or groups to come to my aid, and if I complain about the obvious discrimination I face, I am ridiculed. Heightism is suffered in private, and you are led to believe it is non-existent. Nobody has sympathy for you when you're short. You're always overlooked, never seen as a leader, you're always just "less than".
As you would imagine, research has shown that going through life as a short man has deleterious effects on the psyche.
A study produced by the Universities of Groningen and Valencia, found that the taller a man was, the less anxious he felt about attractive, physically dominant, and socially powerful rivals
it was found that a 5-cm (2-inch) increase in height was associated with a 9% decrease in suicide risk
Conclusion
When @ToeBeans ignored me, I felt that pain of being a manlet. That familiar feeling of being unseen and rejected for factors outside of my control. I put my best foot forward and I got overlooked. What's sad is that I've always tried to be nice to
@ToeBeans so I don't know what I did to deserve this treatment.
But all that doesn't matter. I don't matter. I'm just a worthless manlet so nothing I do matters. I feel like cutting myself but I'm not going to do it. I'm dedicated to having a benzo and cutting free 2025. Nobody will take me off my path to self-improvement. I can't control what others think of me but I can control myself.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Legends say women developed the evolutionary trait to smell height through a screen!
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context