Category: Prejudice

Peter Gabriel on Humanoid Height

April 21, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

Human prejudice against being small is a complicated mix of biological and cultural reasons. In the 1972 dystopian song ‘Get them out by Friday’ by progressive rockband Genesis, small size is appropriated for the economic benefit of a greedy project developer. The 9 minute mini-opera envisions a…

22 billion reasons to keep growing

May 17, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

In 2003, the US Federal Drug Administration approved the use of human growth hormone for healthy short children in an attempt to make them taller. There is nothing medically wrong with these children; they produce normal levels of growth hormone on their own. They are…

310 for every Cm

May 10, 2010 By arne hendriks 1

A 2003 University of Florida and University of North Carolina study found that short people are paid less than their taller peers: Each centimetre in height amounted to about $310 more a year in pay. In a similar study conducted in Australia in 2009 by professor…

Napoleon Complex Myth

April 27, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

Napoleon complex (also, Napoleon syndrome or Small Man syndrome) is a colloquial pejorative term used to describe a type of inferiority complex which is said to affect people who are short. The term is also used more generally to describe people who are driven by…

Randy’s Short People

April 24, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

If we are to shrink ourselves, overcoming prejudice against smallness will be a first priority. Randy Newman wrote Small People in 1977 as a parody of the absurdity of human prejudice and discrimination. But did it work? Lyrics: Short people got no reason Short people…