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The Advantages of Being Short


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Solodancer1
Has anyone ever noticed how fat babies are? I'm just pointing this out, but they are really fat, relatively speaking, 'speccially on the arms and legs.

I think that's something to do with their rapid growth, ensuring they have enough energy stores for their brains and bodies to undergo rapid development. It would help to protect against a lack of food at this crucial time should mum fail to hunt/gather enough calories to produce milk on occasions.

Yup. Growth goes in a cycle. We get taller and taller int he womb, born long and skinny, get fat for three years, then stretch out for about five then fatten up for three, stretch out for four, fill out (bone, muscle, cartilage, connective tissue etc.) for about ten and the cartilage keeps turning to bone and other maturation goes on and then we get fat if we have enough food, to insulate us against hard times so we can afford to give all the food in those times to the kids. Our bodies get more and more efficient (aka our metabolisms slow down) as we get old to protect us if our grownup kids ditch us in the mountains and go feed themselves; we need to keep a store of fat to live when we're old. We sure don't need two hundred-odd pounds of it, though.

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I was just joking about space in English beds.

Americans ARE fat. Partly easily-obtainable junk/fast food and partly growing low-income population which can't afford fruits and vegetables but instead fills their families up on cheap carbs and fats. When you have to feed and satisfy your kids and it's a $$ choice between 4 apples and 4 McD hamburgers, the hamburgers win. Kids look like Pillsbury doughboys -- babies, too. I'm sorry that America's fast food corporations have invaded other countries. I feel we should apologize. :(

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Solodancer1
I was just joking about space in English beds.

Americans ARE fat. Partly easily-obtainable junk/fast food and partly growing low-income population which can't afford fruits and vegetables but instead fills their families up on cheap carbs and fats. When you have to feed and satisfy your kids and it's a $$ choice between 4 apples and 4 McD hamburgers, the hamburgers win. Kids look like Pillsbury doughboys -- babies, too. I'm sorry that America's fast food corporations have invaded other countries. I feel we should apologize. :(

Well, I remember when the apples won because they actually are slightly cheaper, but people have forgotten that feeling full all the time isn't normal or natural or healthy. They forgot it in the '90's apparently, including me sometimes. If you have to ask yourself if you're hungry and if you are overweight you might want to wait until you're sure you're hungry before eating, then try eating a little of something light and seeing if that takes care of it. This doesn't go for growing kids though, I think. It's sad but it's easy to get thin people to diet. Fat people mostly just can't stand being hungry and there are more and more such people all the time. The nutritionally weak food may be a big part of it. All that MSG and diving blood sugar might hormonally destroy our regulation of hunger.

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Jesus Christ, I TRIPLE posted!

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I think the biggest advantage is the comfort in theatre/bus/airline seats. Side to side may not be any more comfortable, depending on how many inches you ARE from side to side but the legs and knees are more comfortable.

Seriously though (the other thread wasn't done in seriousness, obviously), the biggest disadvanges, maybe even the ONLY ones I find are shopping, which includes 5' high deli counters. For some reason, all these food counters have decided they have to be sky-high and often the person doing the food is behind a spit screen. While I'm in favour of the spit screen, could the counters not be, maybe 3' high? I would say that this includes alterations/clothing but I'm sure there are just as many not-short people who have the same problems. I think what pisses me off more and more is the term 'petit'. In the beginning, it just meant a short inseam. So it could be a 62" waist but a shorter inseam. Then the lollipop heads (50lbs soaking wet) decided they needed a term and petite suited them more (which it does) so, again, there is not a term for clothing for us with wide butts and short inseams.

And, the other disadvantage is, when you're sitting down in a restaurant or something, your face is at ass-level of anyone who is standing.

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Solodancer1

An advantage or short people is the height of assembly lines and conveyor belts. It used to have such painful backaches when I did that kind of work. They were made at the North Pole, by all appearances. It's hard to work while bent double.

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vacuum cleaners are made for short people. Most brooms are also.

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A year from now I'll be able to compare notes. In the Netherlands, where I live, I'm very very short. But by moving to Taiwan, I'll suddenly be taller then avarage. Will it make a difference? I'll let you know.

and we're ninjas :ph34r:

Ssh!

O no. the secret's out. We need a new cover.

Also, short people are really good at push-ups (with pratice of course) cause there's a lot less weight to lift and less high due to shorter arms. Just a little 'did you know' in case you ever wanted to impress people of the power of short people --> push-ups.

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Solodancer1

Short people usually have much smaler feet, making it possible for themt o get shoes, and almost all hosiery is made for tiny feet and short, short legs, such as I had when I was in second or third grade at the latest, whereas the waists on tights and pantyhose are made for an adult woman. Who here has tried to walk to church with her pantyhose not just falling off but actually snapping to her feet like twin rubber bands, slower, but pulled just as stubbornly by the contraction of the material, and ended up slipping into the church restroom and removing them quickly, stuffing them in her bag, attempting some alterations at home and finally throwing yet anothr pair away? Feels so respectable, doesn't it? Whose idea were those things? Give me fine lace or mesh thigh-highs anytime, if they will stay up somehow. Something that doesn't give me kicking legs and doesn't dive for the concrete as soon as I stand up.

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I'm happy with my height.

I'm nor too tall, or too short.

I'm above average height for men(I'm 5'11 - 6'), but just short enough where I can find myself clothing easily.

Luckily I haven't grown to be the height my family doctor told me i'd end up being(He predicted i'd grow as tall as 6'6, due to this major growth spurt I had when I was 17).

Everyone I know that are near that height, struggle in finding clothing, and shoes. Often have to go to specialty shops, to find those items, making their purchases that much more expensive. Also, it's just not a world for someone near 7' tall.

Door entrances won't be friendly to you, and just everything, from urinals, sinks, cars and the amount of leg room that they give, will just annoy you horribly.

Also, being in the middle(Not to tall, not too short), I haven't been cursed with the clumsiness that many taller people end up having to deal with. I have a very low centre of gravity, and have a great balance.

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Least I'll never have to worry about banging my head on a door frame, I suppose.

I never really thought of this before but when you're tall do you really feel unbalanced like a swaying tree in the wind?

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Dame du Lac
I think the biggest advantage is the comfort in theatre/bus/airline seats. Side to side may not be any more comfortable, depending on how many inches you ARE from side to side but the legs and knees are more comfortable.

I definitely find short legs an advantage on transport and have in the past swapped from an aisle to window seat on the old Routemaster buses (they're the famous open-backed red buses you see on London postcards that we had until about two years ago) so that tall blokes can put their long legs in the aisles rather than up around their necks.

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vacuum cleaners are made for short people. Most brooms are also.

Brooms, to be sure, vacuums I don't know about.

Short people usually have much smaler feet, making it possible for themt o get shoes, and almost all hosiery is made for tiny feet and short, short legs, such as I had when I was in second or third grade at the latest, whereas the waists on tights and pantyhose are made for an adult woman. Who here has tried to walk to church with her pantyhose not just falling off but actually snapping to her feet like twin rubber bands, slower, but pulled just as stubbornly by the contraction of the material, and ended up slipping into the church restroom and removing them quickly, stuffing them in her bag, attempting some alterations at home and finally throwing yet anothr pair away? Feels so respectable, doesn't it? Whose idea were those things? Give me fine lace or mesh thigh-highs anytime, if they will stay up somehow. Something that doesn't give me kicking legs and doesn't dive for the concrete as soon as I stand up.

The old pantyhoe discussion LOL. Mum and I are always wondering just who pantyhoes ARE made for. Hers end up stopping at her knees, I can pull them up, up, up, up and tie them in a knot over my head!

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Vampireseal
Americans ARE fat. Partly easily-obtainable junk/fast food and partly growing low-income population which can't afford fruits and vegetables but instead fills their families up on cheap carbs and fats. When you have to feed and satisfy your kids and it's a $$ choice between 4 apples and 4 McD hamburgers, the hamburgers win.

This is so true. I've been on welfare and have had to do the food stamps. You try to make your food stamps last, and sadly healthy food cost more than junk. A little Debbie cake in the 90s was 25 cents, but a protein bar was 2 dollars. If you have little money, you just buy whats cheapest to stretch out those stamps (its a card now, but same principle). I remember eating potted meat and mayonnaise for lunch when I was a kid. One time I just had a can of beans for lunch. And yet, I've never been skinny. It's weird, in the US, poverty makes you fatter, not thinner.

Also, because these parents are so poor (my mom was single to due a runaway husband) they have to work, work, work at 2 jobs and so never have time to exercise properly.

It's a bad combo.

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Solodancer1
Americans ARE fat. Partly easily-obtainable junk/fast food and partly growing low-income population which can't afford fruits and vegetables but instead fills their families up on cheap carbs and fats. When you have to feed and satisfy your kids and it's a $$ choice between 4 apples and 4 McD hamburgers, the hamburgers win.

This is so true. I've been on welfare and have had to do the food stamps. You try to make your food stamps last, and sadly healthy food cost more than junk. A little Debbie cake in the 90s was 25 cents, but a protein bar was 2 dollars. If you have little money, you just buy whats cheapest to stretch out those stamps (its a card now, but same principle). I remember eating potted meat and mayonnaise for lunch when I was a kid. One time I just had a can of beans for lunch. And yet, I've never been skinny. It's weird, in the US, poverty makes you fatter, not thinner.

Also, because these parents are so poor (my mom was single to due a runaway husband) they have to work, work, work at 2 jobs and so never have time to exercise properly.

It's a bad combo.

That's interesting; I could find protein bars for about the price of 2 to 5 Little Debbies, but the bars kept me full and able to work for hours while the cakes didn't last as long, so I had ot buy more. I saved only a few cents a meal if I ate Little Debs, but I actually usually ate plain macaroni with margarine or crackers and sliced apples or cabbage or potatoes at home or packed a PBJ so I saved money and stayed really thin. In fact for me often I actually haven't been able to afford enough to keep weight on. People say that's impossible now. All I can say is it's a matter of the metabolism God gave you.

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cannondale_chica
...and supermarket shelves aren't designed for us...

I work at a grocery store...I find the above statement to be even more true than most because I spend 40 hours a week trying to put things on shelves higher than the top of my head. I'm the fourth shortest person out of 119 employees and my coworkers make fun of me for it...

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  • 2 weeks later...

I like being short, usually. I'm 5ft. Was 4'11" from 10yo to early-20s, then I grew an inch. I was never picked on for being short or anything.

Just hate that pants are always too long. Some of my friends (slightly taller) shop in the kids section for pants and they fit right. Just too bad I'm not a size 2 or smaller like them.

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