AtEyeLevel: When did you first become aware of heightism?

http://voices.yahoo.com/abc-news-wrong-saying-stigma-against-obesity-11983590.html

It doesn’t take long for a layman to discover that short men are often used as crude comedy, being portrayed as inept, lecherous, or both. My wife and I love the CBS sitcom ” Rules of Engagement,”which stars Spade as the lecherous Russell Dunbar. The show routinely makes fun of Dunbar’s short stature, with other characters referring to him as a “troll” or “gnome” for his inappropriate humor and crude pursuit of women. While the iconic character George Costanza on the hit ’90s sitcom ” Seinfeld” fared better, with his short stature being less frequently referenced, it was widely implied that his lack of height influenced his ineptness, both professionally and in romance. Short characters are more openly and more directly mocked than fat characters, with such invectives hurled at obese characters likely to lead to public outcry.

I’ve certainly faced discrimination both overt and covert as a result of being short. I’ve been denied jobs, kept out of the loop in a job, and received my fair share of ridicule. I have to work harder to prove myself. And it’s annoying when the media never discusses heightism with any seriousness and only mentions it as an aside or curiosity, couched in terms like “alleged,” implying that heightism might not really be a big deal. That is never done in regard to obesity, where the media enthusiastically leads the charge against such discrimination.

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