We don't want no short people...

I guess I can echo Lilek's opening statement - finally, I'm a victim.

Heck, I tend to try to blame everything on something else - but in general, I've tended to blame certain things, like my lack of sucess in dating and my middling sucess in career, to other factors - poor choices in the past in terms of what I've focused on, my less-than-friendly personality, my severe shyness, and, well, my glum outlook on life. Hell, if I was going to blame something physical, I usually go with wieght issues (which aren't as big an issue as they used to be, but certainly fall under the "poor decisions I made in the past" catagory), my British-quality teeth (which I guess I could easily fix, if I wasn't a pussy when it comes to dental pain), and my horrible, hunchback-of-Notre-Dame posture (which I was told by a specialist years ago that could be fixed if I lost weight and did situps. I was good about the weight part, so it must be lack of situps that is to blame).

But I've never focused on height that much. Maybe I should - hell, if I can blame something else for my faults, then it's not my problem. Except it is.

Maybe height is a factor. I've heard of studies showing that tall people get paid more, and loud Howard always votes for the taller guy for President. And I've stumbled on many a match.com personal ad where the woman specifies how tall she wants her ideal match to be, and it's seldom in the neigborhood of 5'5".

But as much as I'd like to blame height, it's probably a little bit of everything. Being short may make it harder, but someone who can compensate in other areas probably does OK - in the dating, job, and mental heatlth markets, above other things. But if - like me- you kind of have a negative outlook on life and feel kind of frustrated about where you are, and aren't really sure how to be somewhere better, it probably doesn't help things. But I doubt it causes them either.