Universal Height Dysphoria

Perhaps humanity’s willingness to accept the damaging consequences of increasing human height is the the result of a universal case of height dysphoria. Height dysphoria is a mental disorder that leads to excessive concern about and preoccupation with a perceived defect of physical size. Most often this means the feeling of being too short. Individuals suffering from this mental illness often go to extremes to modify their bodies and have unnecessary surgery such as the extremely painful Ilizarov procedure. They are willing to accept any consequence as long as they can be taller.

The French philosopher Jean Baudrillard once wrote about the obese: “The obese is in a total delirium. For he is not only large, of a size opposed to normal morphology: he is larger than large. He no longer makes sense in some distinctive opposition, but in his excess, his redundancy.”  The same could be said about the super tall: The acromegalic is in a total delirium. For he is not only tall, of a size opposed to normal morphology: he is taller than tall…and he no longer makes sense.