ramonmercado
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Hes a vertically challenged auto-eroticist.
The Travails Of Being Short
- Thread starter JamesWhitehead
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Mythopoeika
I am a meat popsicle
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5 ft 6 tall isn't a dwarf, and isn't that small - it's just a bit below average!
What are they talking about...
I'm 5 ft 8 myself, and I don't feel small. When I was born, that was the national average height. Now the national average is more like 5 ft 9 inches.
I always say to people who've never met me that I'm the same height as Tom Cruise.
What are they talking about...
I'm 5 ft 8 myself, and I don't feel small. When I was born, that was the national average height. Now the national average is more like 5 ft 9 inches.
I always say to people who've never met me that I'm the same height as Tom Cruise.
FelixAntonius
Justified & Ancient
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You can't legislate against everything you dislike.
Personaly, I get pissed off when people make jokes about my hight, I've heared them all & they ain't funny, so I'm then accused of not having a sense of humour!
Just want a pickaxe handle & ten minutes with them in a dark alley. But I won't get that law............
Personaly, I get pissed off when people make jokes about my hight, I've heared them all & they ain't funny, so I'm then accused of not having a sense of humour!
Just want a pickaxe handle & ten minutes with them in a dark alley. But I won't get that law............
ramonmercado
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FelixAntonius said:
You're on a short fuse...
FelixAntonius
Justified & Ancient
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ramonmercado said:
Not unless you consider fifty years plus of bollocks, jokes to be short.........
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A Point of View: Why short men make better husbands
Short men make better husbands, and make up in wisdom what they lack in stature, says self-confessed small man, Adam Gopnik.
Just a few weeks ago, an interesting and lengthy paper by a pair of sociologists from New York University made a lot of noise in what I suppose would these days be called the community of short men - a community to which, as it happens, I rather inarguably, one might say entirely, belong.
Its subject was what is called assortative mating - the way people divide themselves up, two by two in that ark-like fashion, for life. It was one of those wonderfully solemn sociological papers in which the utterly self-evident is systematically recast as the cautiously empirical.
The authors point out early on in their report that "social psychological research suggests that attractive people are favoured in numerous situations" (a thing you would not have guessed without social science
) and soon after we learn that attractive and physically fit men report going on more dates and having sex more frequently than others.
But the conclusion of the paper, once one has weeded through, is striking and well documented. It is simply that short men make stable marriages. They do this in circumstances of difficulty and against the odds and consistently over ages and income groups, and they do it with the shorter women they often marry, but also with the taller women they sometimes land. Short men marry late but, once they do get married, tend to stay married longer and, by social science measures, at least - I assume this means they ask the short men's wives (I hope so anyway) - they stay happily married, too.
Many assertions about the assortative can be put forward to explain why this is so, but trust me, it is not hard to figure it out. There is a simple reason short men make stable marriages. It is because short men are desperate. Short men live in a world of taller men and know that any advantage seized is better kept. Desperation makes short men good husbands. We know the odds instinctively, and knowing that we have lucked out, intend to continue playing a good thing.
It is not, I should rush to add, that short men are desperate to please. One of the most interesting findings of the study is that short men actually do less housework in a typical marriage than tall men do - though the study points out delicately, this may be because with tall men, "the nature of their housework is different".
In other words, we are too short to reach the tops of closets where the heavy house cleaning equipment is kept. No, short men do not make stable marriages because they are desperate to please. It is because they are desperate to prevail.
An instinctive sense of the odds, born in schoolyards and playgrounds, tells the short man to redouble his efforts in every area of life - the office, the motorway, (God forbid) the golf course.
This is of course called the Napoleonic complex, but in truth it is not so much that short men become Napoleonic as that Napoleon was typically short - in his ambition, his drive, his uxorious devotion to his wife Josephine, whom he left only because he wanted to leave the French with a male heir. Hers was the last name on his lips, in the last sentences that he uttered, dreaming of that old stability.
There is, I think, a broader moral here. In every area of life, we underrate the merits of desperation, and persistently overrate the advantages of free choice. We insist that we ought to all be equal, free to make the choices we want and find the partners we need.
In fact, people who have this kind of freedom rarely use it well. Fashion models, free to choose, inevitably choose rock stars - and since rock stars, freed by their glamour to choose, invariably choose to take a lot of drugs and go on the road and smash up hotel rooms in preference to being in a stable relationship, the models are always badly disappointed by their choice. You see them crying on the shoulders of the short men - dipping their long swan-like necks way down to do so, perhaps, but there you are, they do. Frequent failure is the true price of free choice.
If we look up - or rather down, even below the knees of the short, to the ground itself, we find this same truth embodied as an economic principle, where it is called the curse of resources. Countries with vast natural resources, such as oil and copper and gold, tend to do less well economically than countries that have none - the short people countries, in other words. This is because resources, easily found, are easily squandered.
Countries and city-states with few or no resources - the short lands, one might call them - must rely on their ingenuity and effort, as Singapore and Switzerland do. They end up being more productive despite - indeed, because - they have so much less to work with. They have made, so to speak, stable marriages with the planet.
etc...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29464446
Short men make better husbands, and make up in wisdom what they lack in stature, says self-confessed small man, Adam Gopnik.
Just a few weeks ago, an interesting and lengthy paper by a pair of sociologists from New York University made a lot of noise in what I suppose would these days be called the community of short men - a community to which, as it happens, I rather inarguably, one might say entirely, belong.
Its subject was what is called assortative mating - the way people divide themselves up, two by two in that ark-like fashion, for life. It was one of those wonderfully solemn sociological papers in which the utterly self-evident is systematically recast as the cautiously empirical.
The authors point out early on in their report that "social psychological research suggests that attractive people are favoured in numerous situations" (a thing you would not have guessed without social science
) and soon after we learn that attractive and physically fit men report going on more dates and having sex more frequently than others. But the conclusion of the paper, once one has weeded through, is striking and well documented. It is simply that short men make stable marriages. They do this in circumstances of difficulty and against the odds and consistently over ages and income groups, and they do it with the shorter women they often marry, but also with the taller women they sometimes land. Short men marry late but, once they do get married, tend to stay married longer and, by social science measures, at least - I assume this means they ask the short men's wives (I hope so anyway) - they stay happily married, too.
Many assertions about the assortative can be put forward to explain why this is so, but trust me, it is not hard to figure it out. There is a simple reason short men make stable marriages. It is because short men are desperate. Short men live in a world of taller men and know that any advantage seized is better kept. Desperation makes short men good husbands. We know the odds instinctively, and knowing that we have lucked out, intend to continue playing a good thing.
It is not, I should rush to add, that short men are desperate to please. One of the most interesting findings of the study is that short men actually do less housework in a typical marriage than tall men do - though the study points out delicately, this may be because with tall men, "the nature of their housework is different".
In other words, we are too short to reach the tops of closets where the heavy house cleaning equipment is kept. No, short men do not make stable marriages because they are desperate to please. It is because they are desperate to prevail.
An instinctive sense of the odds, born in schoolyards and playgrounds, tells the short man to redouble his efforts in every area of life - the office, the motorway, (God forbid) the golf course.
This is of course called the Napoleonic complex, but in truth it is not so much that short men become Napoleonic as that Napoleon was typically short - in his ambition, his drive, his uxorious devotion to his wife Josephine, whom he left only because he wanted to leave the French with a male heir. Hers was the last name on his lips, in the last sentences that he uttered, dreaming of that old stability.
There is, I think, a broader moral here. In every area of life, we underrate the merits of desperation, and persistently overrate the advantages of free choice. We insist that we ought to all be equal, free to make the choices we want and find the partners we need.
In fact, people who have this kind of freedom rarely use it well. Fashion models, free to choose, inevitably choose rock stars - and since rock stars, freed by their glamour to choose, invariably choose to take a lot of drugs and go on the road and smash up hotel rooms in preference to being in a stable relationship, the models are always badly disappointed by their choice. You see them crying on the shoulders of the short men - dipping their long swan-like necks way down to do so, perhaps, but there you are, they do. Frequent failure is the true price of free choice.
If we look up - or rather down, even below the knees of the short, to the ground itself, we find this same truth embodied as an economic principle, where it is called the curse of resources. Countries with vast natural resources, such as oil and copper and gold, tend to do less well economically than countries that have none - the short people countries, in other words. This is because resources, easily found, are easily squandered.
Countries and city-states with few or no resources - the short lands, one might call them - must rely on their ingenuity and effort, as Singapore and Switzerland do. They end up being more productive despite - indeed, because - they have so much less to work with. They have made, so to speak, stable marriages with the planet.
etc...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29464446
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Short people's 'DNA linked to increased heart risk'
By James Gallagher Health editor, BBC News website
9 April 2015
The shorter you are, the greater your risk of heart problems, a team at the University of Leicester says.
The study, of nearly 200,000 people, found sections of DNA that control both height and heart health.
The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed every extra 2.5in (6.4cm) cut coronary disease incidence by 13.5%
The British Heart Foundation said short people should not be unduly worried and everyone needed a healthy lifestyle.
Coronary heart disease, which includes heart attacks and heart failure, is the leading cause of death in the UK.
More than 73,000 people die from the disease each year.
The idea that height plays a role in heart health was first proposed more than 50 years ago, but researchers did not know why.
Some thought the relationship was a consequence of other factors, such as poor childhood nutrition stunting height and also affecting the heart.
But the study at the University of Leicester suggests the answer lies deeper - inside our DNA.
They analysed 180 genes that have a known link to height.
The results showed that every 2.5in of height affected the risk by 13.5%, so the difference in heart risk between a five-footer and a six-footer would be around 64%.
Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, from the University of Leicester, told the BBC News website: "In the context of major risk factors this is small - smoking increases the risk by 200-300% - but it is not trivial.
"I wouldn't say shorter people need to take greater precautions, because if you're 6ft 1in (1.85m) you still need to stop smoking.
"This is only one of many factors affecting risk, everybody should be cautious."
etc...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-32117018
By James Gallagher Health editor, BBC News website
9 April 2015
The shorter you are, the greater your risk of heart problems, a team at the University of Leicester says.
The study, of nearly 200,000 people, found sections of DNA that control both height and heart health.
The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed every extra 2.5in (6.4cm) cut coronary disease incidence by 13.5%
The British Heart Foundation said short people should not be unduly worried and everyone needed a healthy lifestyle.
Coronary heart disease, which includes heart attacks and heart failure, is the leading cause of death in the UK.
More than 73,000 people die from the disease each year.
The idea that height plays a role in heart health was first proposed more than 50 years ago, but researchers did not know why.
Some thought the relationship was a consequence of other factors, such as poor childhood nutrition stunting height and also affecting the heart.
But the study at the University of Leicester suggests the answer lies deeper - inside our DNA.
They analysed 180 genes that have a known link to height.
The results showed that every 2.5in of height affected the risk by 13.5%, so the difference in heart risk between a five-footer and a six-footer would be around 64%.
Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, from the University of Leicester, told the BBC News website: "In the context of major risk factors this is small - smoking increases the risk by 200-300% - but it is not trivial.
"I wouldn't say shorter people need to take greater precautions, because if you're 6ft 1in (1.85m) you still need to stop smoking.
"This is only one of many factors affecting risk, everybody should be cautious."
etc...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-32117018
Loquaciousness
The misuse of the word "fact" annoys me
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So, in summary, being a 5'9 woman is good for my health or not?
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I'm surprised to learn there's a demonstrable association between relatively short stature and risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/short-people-type-2-diabetes.html
Frasier Buddolph
CAUTION: May not know what he's talking about.
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Depends how you approach the data, I suppose. So many of these folks at risk for diabetes aren't overweight for their height, they're underheight for their weight . . .
AnonyJ
Captainess Sensible
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My adorable Mr AJ is a 'wee man', he's 5'4" which is about average for someone of his ethnic background and age. I love it! [I was previously married to a giant bloke of 6'7"] we can cuddle, sleep and sit together so comfortably. I'm a well-upholstered (fat) 5'7". He likes ladies on the plump side so it's win-win on that front! Couldn't give a stuff if we look like an odd couple, we're happy together
Edited to add: he's very much man enough for me, too
Interesting - I wonder if they factored in ethnic heritage? People of south Asian origin have a flat 30% genetic chance of developing type 2 diabetes in their lifetime. As people of this background are generally averagely-shorter than the average northern European could this skew figures?
Edited to add: he's very much man enough for me, too
Interesting - I wonder if they factored in ethnic heritage? People of south Asian origin have a flat 30% genetic chance of developing type 2 diabetes in their lifetime. As people of this background are generally averagely-shorter than the average northern European could this skew figures?
Last edited:
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I repeatedly hear that dating apps and sites (never used one) require users to enter their height, and that, basically, a good proportion of women reject those shorter than 6 feet tall as a matter of principal.
I'm 5'10" and I've really never given my height more than a passing thought. And it never even remotely entered into my thinking that being pretty-much average height for a male might jeopardise my chances when in pursuit of the fairer sex.
Is this really a phenomenon or another oft-repeated myth?
I'm 5'10" and I've really never given my height more than a passing thought. And it never even remotely entered into my thinking that being pretty-much average height for a male might jeopardise my chances when in pursuit of the fairer sex.
Is this really a phenomenon or another oft-repeated myth?
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I don't know about the ethnic heritage angle. The study's authors seem to attribute a lot of significance to the notion (fact?) that shorter persons tend to have more fat in their livers.
Mythopoeika
I am a meat popsicle
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It's actually true. So you've got approx. 80% of women chasing approx. 20% of men.
AnonyJ
Captainess Sensible
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Maybe when the evolutionary-biological imperative for what we (both sexes) find attractive is to the fore then shorter men and 'ugly' women are deemed unattractive?
When I was 20 I might not have considered a short/fat/disabled/whatever man as an attractive partner. But from my 30s & since I now find all sorts of people very 'sexy'.
edited to add: more fool them, that dismiss a potential partner simply due to stature!
Last edited:
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Bonkers.
I do know a chap whose long-term girlfriend / unmarried partner left him in the end.
He was giant in all respects, and she was a shade over 5'0" and petite. They had given up on penetrative sex after a while because it was too painful for her.
At least that's what I ended up hearing after the fact from friends of both parties.
I presume it wasn't the only reason, but... well... ye cannae break the laws of physics.
blessmycottonsocks
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Anecdotal I know, but both my wife and her sister are quite short (5 ft 2ish) and both are diabetic, whilst certainly not being overweight.
As for attraction, I am 6 ft 3 and did have a couple of more statuesque qirlfriends before meeting my little French girl, but the height difference has never been an issue (except that, on the rare occasions we dance a slow, she does have to wear her highest heels).
Unless a bloke is unnaturally short, I would be surprised if any woman would be so shallow as to reject even meeting with a man who is under 6 ft tall.
Dick Turpin
Justified & Ancient
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Interesting topic.
My mate big Kev (who’s only 5ft) has always refused to date any girl who’s not under 4 ft 8.
That’s limited his chances over the years in finding someone that he feels suits him.
Also being slightly prejudiced as to how a girl looks has not helped his cause, and what with him being completely bald and having the back hair of a gorilla, he thought he would spend the rest of his life alone.
I’m joking of course, I’m being mean as he trounced me at golf last weekend.
I’m happy to say however that big Kev met a girl a few years back ( she’s just under 5ft 7) and they’ve been inseparable ever since.
ramonmercado
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Surely it's unlawful to discriminate against the vertically challenged?
A 5ft (1.52m) bus driver said she was facing dismissal after her company redesigned some of its fleet, meaning she was too short to drive them safely.
Tracey Scholes, 57, has worked for Go North West for 34 years and said changes to some of the buses' wing mirrors had resulted in a blind spot. She said she was told she would have to either cut her hours or be dismissed.
Go North West said it was "extremely sorry" to see her go but suggestions to accommodate her had all been rejected.
Ms Scholes became the first female bus driver at Manchester's Queens Road depot when she started in 1987.
"I feel loyalty doesn't count any more," she told BBC North West Tonight. "I cannot afford to take a pay cut. I am being punished - and it is not my fault."
Ms Scholes, who is a widow, said she had not slept because of "worrying over the future" and added she was supporting her three children financially.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-59672739
A 5ft (1.52m) bus driver said she was facing dismissal after her company redesigned some of its fleet, meaning she was too short to drive them safely.
Tracey Scholes, 57, has worked for Go North West for 34 years and said changes to some of the buses' wing mirrors had resulted in a blind spot. She said she was told she would have to either cut her hours or be dismissed.
Go North West said it was "extremely sorry" to see her go but suggestions to accommodate her had all been rejected.
Ms Scholes became the first female bus driver at Manchester's Queens Road depot when she started in 1987.
"I feel loyalty doesn't count any more," she told BBC North West Tonight. "I cannot afford to take a pay cut. I am being punished - and it is not my fault."
Ms Scholes, who is a widow, said she had not slept because of "worrying over the future" and added she was supporting her three children financially.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-59672739
Mythopoeika
I am a meat popsicle
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She did the job just fine for 34 years. So they're in the wrong here.
maximus otter
Recovering policeman
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Surely if the company can evidence that:
a) The mirror changes were required to enhance safety/legality, and;
b) They made reasonable attempts to mitigate the effects on her, e.g. “booster seats” or whatever -
- then they are within their rights to offer her other employment, or terminate her if she can’t comply?
They can’t be expected to keep buying new fleets of buses with the sole criterion that “Tracey has to be able to drive them”.
maximus otter
Mythopoeika
I am a meat popsicle
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Who judges whether the company made every effort to assist?Surely if the company can evidence that:
a) The mirror changes were required to enhance safety/legality, and;
b) They made reasonable attempts to mitigate the effects on her, e.g. “booster seats” or whatever -
- then they are within their rights to offer her other employment, or terminate her if she can’t comply?
They can’t be expected to keep buying new fleets of buses with the sole criterion that “Tracey has to be able to drive them”.
maximus otter
No, they probably wanted an excuse to get rid of someone coming up to retirement age.
Buses are normally made to be driven by people who are in a certain range of sizes and shapes. Odd that they have changed that.
escargot
Disciple of Marduk
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This is fishy. If the mirrors are wrong for her, reducing her hours won't help.
Also, what ways of dealing with the problem has she been offered that she felt forced to reject?
There might be more to this than meets the eye.
maximus otter
Recovering policeman
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“Go North West said: "When Tracey raised a concern with us, we made numerous proposals to accommodate her, including offering to put her on different routes, and different types of buses.
The suggestions were rejected, a spokesperson said.
"Dedicated, experienced, hardworking bus drivers are difficult to find and so we would never act lightly in a situation like this," they added.
The firm said it was "sorry that it was left with no choice but to bring Ms Scholes' employment to an end".”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-59672739
maximus otter
ramonmercado
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As usual you are hartless. I bet you hunt and shoot the vertically challenged for sport!
maximus otter
Recovering policeman
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Bud Bangle
Tutti but not Frutti.
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As previously mentioned : bus came into the station and we waited for the change of driver and then got on. And waited a bit more as the driver seat had been set up for the previous occupant (tall male) and needed adjusting for the new driver (short bubbly female). Adjusters broke, leaving seat in either down-position (she couldn't see over the steering wheel) or up-position (she could only reach pedals on tippy-toes) and nothing inbetween. "Hang on tight, this could be a bumpy ride" said she reversing out of the bay with unwarranted optimism and off we went into the night
cycleboy2
Justified & Ancient
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And my favourite phrase springs to mind: "What could possibly go wrong?"