TL;DR - Short guys experience discrimination in their social and professional lives. Not many people are aware of their subtle bias, but being short is not a very likable trait in society. Short people experience financial and legal inequalities as well as dating discrimination. We know that society places a positive value on people of tall stature: We look up to them rather than down. Height seems to affect our sense of social status and being taller tends to be socially desirable. But the same cannot be said about short stature. We look at the long list of cons attributed to short height with little room for pros. Heightism is a very prevalent form of discrimination that few people take seriously. Short males often face discrimination in various areas of social life in dating, employment, leadership, and public perception. Compared to biases against women’s height, it is much worse with short guys. For example, every short man who expresses a forceful opinion becomes indignant about anything or speaks passionately, often mockingly labeled, as having a ‘Napoleon complex’ or the even more offensive “short-man syndrome” [1] [2]. When was the last time you heard a pseudo-scientific label attributed to people of average height with similar personality traits? Multiple psychological studies on height bias affirm most people view short height negatively. There is a common belief is that there is a height bias in dating and, there is a refusal to consider a romantic encounter with someone due to his height which is less common among other male attributes like weight and body type. Studies have reported that women consider taller men more attractive [3], and on average, the shortest man a woman would date is 5 feet 9 inches tall (1.75 cm) [4]. If anything, height should be included as part of the body positivity movement. Another study conducted at Oxford University let participants go through the virtual experience of riding a subway at their normal height and then at that height reduced. For the study, 60 participants, none with a history of mental illness, took about six minutes each. Rides were programmed and animated identically except for one ride where the participant’s height was reduced by 25 centimeters (roughly 10 inches). They reported that during the ride in which they were shorter, they felt more vulnerable, more negative about themselves [5]. Evidence also suggests that height matters in terms of financial inequality: -Height is strongly related to income for men, after controlling for other social psychological variables like age, sex, and weight [6]. -Again, for men, a 1.8 percent increase in wages accompanies every additional inch of height [7]. -These pay disparities are similar in magnitude to the race and gender pay gaps [8]. -Ninety percent of CEOs, according to The Economist, are of above-average height [9]. Although overt discrimination does not happen often, it rarely provokes any outcry. The media reports very little on the issue. For example, in January 2015, the press rightly covered Russia’s decision to prevent transexuals and transgenders from driving motor vehicles – yet few reporters also highlighted that the new law also applied to people below 150 centimeters (around five feet) [2]. There is also almost no legislation prohibiting height discrimination, with a few exceptions in the state of Michigan and the municipalities of Santa Cruz and San Francisco, and in Canada the province of Ontario. It might be worth reflecting if our unconscious views about height are influencing our perceptions of someone's capabilities, likeability, and leadership potential. [1] A Little-Discussed Bias: Height. https://medium.com/@jklehman/a-little-discussed-bias-height-390495da147 [2] Heightism: an unacknowledged bias? https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/news/heightism-unacknowledged-bias [3] Women want taller men more than men want shorter women. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886913000020 [4] 5 Reasons Why Women and Men Care About Height https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/after-service/201909/5-reasons-why-women-and-men-care-about-height#:~:text=On%20average%2C%20women%20have%20a%20strong%20preference%20for%20tall%20men.&text=Men%20are%20most%20satisfied%20when,only%20men%20taller%20than%20them. [5] Short People Got … Lots of Reasons to Legitimately Feel Paranoid https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/2/140216-short-tall-height-perception-psychology-bias-science/#close [6] The Effect of Physical Height on Workplace Success and Income: Preliminary Test of a Theoretical Model https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2004-95165-004 [7] The Effect of Adolescent Experience on Labor Market Outcomes: The Case of Height https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~apostlew/paper/pdf/short.pdf [8] Why Tall People Make More Money. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/05/the-financial-perks-of-being-tall/393518/#:~:text=More%20Stories,-The%20Difference%20Between&text=Since%20the%20publication%20of%20Gowin's,%2C%20as%20academics%20would%20say). [9] Short Guys Finish Last - The world’s most enduring form of discrimination. https://www.jonathanrauch.com/jrauch_articles/height_discrimination_short_guys_finish_last/

I think we are not talking about a short bias for anyone. Skin color and body types are the most dominating conversation topics for outer beauty. I would argue that height bias is not only present for men, but for all genders. Height comes under the category of conventional beauty standards. Most people find leggy girls beautiful and tall, broad-shouldered men handsome. This is because of evolutionary traits and custom practices. Taller, skinnier women are seen as delicate, beautiful, and fragile. Tall men are seen as more masculine. However, these days, everyone is expected to be tall. The modeling industry is the perfect example of this. Women are expected to be a certain height or they cannot even enter the modeling world. Height bias is not talked about universally for all genders and not just for men.

I have known Amazons of women who refused to even consider dating anyone shorter than them. (They also complained about being single, but I digress.)

For some reason, I believe this could be rooted in white supremacists.

**Height bias is something especially prevalent when it comes to dating preferences.** There is a bias for many things when it comes to dating preferences, for example: weight and race. Height is just another one of those things. However, for some reason, we are much more comfortable in saying we don’t find someone attractive due to their height than we would do if we applied this same reasoning regarding someone’s weight. The outrage that would be sparked if someone was to take to social media and say they would not date an individual if there were over a certain weight. Whilst both are completely wrong, we tend not to pay much attention to height bias. This is something an individual cannot control, and this could potentially lead to one feeling insecure.

Complaints about 'discrimination' against short men are usually raised in bad faith to express a false equivalence between women's oppression and minor issues faced by some men. Consider the claim that women who prefer tall men are hypocritical for not wanting to be objectified or subjected to fatphobia. Even in this comment section, concerns about 'discrimination' against short men are being used as a vector for misognyny. However annoying it must be to be a short man, the statement given above is nothing more than a sexist dogwhistle.