Disadvantages of Being Short Essay

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While height may not in any way determine one’s success in life, being short, like other factors such as race and gender has attracted its own measure of stigma in society especially in the western world. In modern society, one may be very well- cultured, strong, courageous, capable, fit, very generous, or even quite intelligent among other positive characteristics. But sometimes, having your head closer to the ground than other people appears to be a great disadvantage. It is a factor that can get very tiring, emasculating, frustrating, and even depressing. But one of the worst things about being short is that it can be quite baffling due to the failure of others to see you as you are or even recognize your true value in society. Trying to voice a complaint that people are treating you in a different way because you are short will attract scorn rather than sympathy. But one who tries to voice a complaint because they are being treated differently because of their gender or color will be listened to.

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Short has often being associated with small and this causes short people not to be taken seriously even in situations where they would be having very productive or helpful ideas. Most people have the tendency to undermine short people comparing their height with their brain and very few people are therefore less willing to adopt an idea brought forward by a short person. Short people especially males are often mocked as small and in a man’s world, short men really do not make an impression. Women for example are known to find taller men more attractive and sexual selection gets slimmer as men get shorter. Because of the tendency by women to prefer men who are generally taller than themselves, short men are made to feel inferior when approaching taller women and this could develop an inferiority complex in such men. Short men are also generally confused as the younger and short height can therefore greatly destroy confidence in a man.

Women do not only appear to have an attraction for tall men these days but it has also become a popular trend amongst women to adorn the tall and slim stature of a model. Young women have become so captivated by the model figure that most short women have taken to wearing high-heeled shoes and sandals in order to elevate their height. The media has not helped short people feel comfortable either because of its continuous portrayal of tall as the ideal appearance for a supermodel. Height has also been a determining factor for admission to teams in such popular games as basketball, in the military as well as the police force. Such a factor gives tall people a natural advantage over their shorter counterparts making short people feel naturally disadvantaged because of their height.

If this world has short designers, then they are yet to recognize their own. Most clothes especially long trousers are designed with a minimum average length and it gets difficult for short people to find pants that are their actual size. Besides long trousers, jackets or coats with big shoulders and skirts and dresses with abnormal lengths are a hindrance to short people when shopping for clothing. This can be expensive because a short person will often have to pay extra cash for adjustments so as to make the garment into an actual size. And are all the builders tall? Though height may not be a qualification in the building industry, one is left wondering whether all fittings are done by tall people. Clotheslines, mirrors, kitchen cabinets, and bulb holders among other fittings are fixed in such a way that short people have to rely on stools, step up ladders, and other facilities to elevate their height so as to accomplish certain tasks or even ask others to do simple tasks for them. It is so interesting that even furniture makers appear to be tall men because chairs are sometimes designed in such a way that short people have to embarrassingly raise themselves so as to sit on them. Consider the high stools that are quite common in some fast food joints and bars. Unable to raise themselves on such stools, some short people have to take their food or drinks while standing or even leave the facility altogether and this can quite embarrassing.

While being short is not, in reality, a very serious problem, it gets overboard due to the fact that the short man or woman has to learn how to comfortably live with a life-long disadvantage or wallow in distress all their life due to the stigma that in any case does not result from any fault of their own. Height discrimination is however a phenomenon that is quite modern and one is only left hoping that it does not get as serious as the gender and racial factors have been.

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IvyPanda. (2021) 'Disadvantages of Being Short'. 24 November.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Disadvantages of Being Short." November 24, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/disadvantages-of-being-short/.

1. IvyPanda. "Disadvantages of Being Short." November 24, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/disadvantages-of-being-short/.


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IvyPanda. "Disadvantages of Being Short." November 24, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/disadvantages-of-being-short/.

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