National Organization of Short Statured Adults
Encyclopedia
Heightism
Heightism is prejudice or discrimination based on height. In principle it can refer to treatment of either unusually tall or short people.-Origin of the term:...
. The group defines heightism as, "a prejudiced attitude about human height that often results in discrimination. It is based on the belief that short stature is an inferior trait and therefore undesirable." The organization runs a series of public education programs, sponsors height-related research, acts as a media "watch-dog" group, provides legal assistance for those affected by heightism, hosts online discussion groups, and invites members to gather once a year for an annual convention.
History
NOSSA was formed in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 2005 by Matthew Campisi, Christopher Hamre, and Steven Goldsmith, who are active members of the Short Support Website http://www.shortsupport.org. The organization is run by a four person Board of Directors (Trustees) who are elected to serve four year terms in office. The group got off to rocky start when in May 2006, Secretary Joe Mangano made an inappropriate comment to an Associated Press reporter, commenting on a court trial in Nebraska in which Richard W. Thompson, a short man, was sentenced on two counts of sexually assaulting a minor. In reporting on the trial, the Associated Press quoted Mangano as saying, "It’s good to see someone looking out for a short person" in reference to trial Judge Kristine Cecava's concern for Thompson's safety in a prison environment. Thompson was sentenced to serve 10 years probation by Judge Cecava. The organization released an immediate statement to respond to these comments. As a result, Joe Mangano is no longer a Trustee of the organization, the organization has apologized for any harm that may have resulted, and a donation to the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation was made. Joe Mangano was immediately replaced by Short Support Editor, Steven Goldsmith. In July 2006, NOSSA began producing a podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
called, Standing Tall Against Discrimination. In May 2008, NOSSA was featured in the Canadian Documentary S&M Short and Male
S&M Short and Male
S&M: Short and Male is a 2008 Canadian documentary directed by Howard Goldberg which examines the obstacles that short statured men face every day in life, love and work. The film was featured at the 2008 Hot Docs film festival and premiered on CTV in May 2008.-External links:* - National...
.
HGH controversy
In 2003, The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of human growth hormone (hGH) for children well below the average height with no medically determined cause, also known as idiopathic short statureIdiopathic short stature
Idiopathic short stature refers to extreme short stature that does not have a diagnostic explanation after an ordinary growth evaluation...
. GH therapy
Growth hormone treatment
Growth hormone treatment refers to the use of growth hormone in medical treatment. Growth hormone is a peptide hormone secreted by the pituitary gland that stimulates growth and cell reproduction. In the past, growth hormone was extracted from human pituitary glands. GH is now produced by...
had been prescribed previously for only medically determined causes of reduced height. Most patients to which this therapy was now made available produce normal levels of growth hormone on their own. Some other biological cause(s) still place these children more than 2 standard deviation
Standard deviation
Standard deviation is a widely used measure of variability or diversity used in statistics and probability theory. It shows how much variation or "dispersion" there is from the average...
s below average height.
NOSSA announced its opposition to the use of human growth hormone for short, but otherwise healthy, children. The organization believes being short isn’t a problem; the real difficulties lies in the social bias against short people. In part to define the organization's position on the matter, NOSSA representative and author Ellen Frankel LCSW stated, "What we need is education for those who discriminate against short people, not the genetic engineering of the victims of that prejudice." Frankel states, "The growth hormone deficient child suffers from an underlying medical problem that affects the body's health in different ways. The non-growth-hormone-deficient child has no underlying medical problem. They simply present as a variation on the norm with regard to height. The decision to medically intervene on the healthy child's stature is socially based due to height discrimination and prejudice."
Cosmetic leg lengthening
Leg lengthening is a complex process that has traditionally been performed primarily on children to correct disproportional leg lengths. It has also been an option for people with dwarfismDwarfism
Dwarfism is short stature resulting from a medical condition. It is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than 4 feet 10 inches , although this definition is problematic because short stature in itself is not a disorder....
to gain height. More recently, the procedure has been used to give people with constitutional short stature
Short stature
Short stature refers to a height of a human being which is below expected. Shortness is a vague term without a precise definition and with significant relativity to context...
two or three extra inches of height. (Constitutional short stature refers to people who are in the bottom fifth percentile of height in their region and do not display any deformities common with dwarfism.)
NOSSA claims to receive hundreds of e-mails each year from people requesting more information on cosmetic leg lengthening. The group actively discourages short statured people from undergoing leg lengthening solely for cosmetic reasons. The group encourages anyone who is seriously considering the surgery to research the procedure and surgeon thoroughly before undergoing the procedure. NOSSA encourages people to accept and love themselves as they are.
Princeton economist study
In August 2006, a study by Princeton UniversityPrinceton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
economists Anne Case and Christina Paxson, "Stature and Status: Height, Ability, and Labor Market Outcomes" concluded that tall people are smarter than their height-challenged peers. The researchers report, "On average, taller people earn more because they are smarter. As early as age 3 — before schooling has had a chance to play a role — and throughout childhood, taller children perform significantly better on cognitive tests. The correlation between height in childhood and adulthood is approximately 0.7 for both men and women, so that tall children are much more likely to become tall adults. As adults, taller individuals are more likely to select into higher paying occupations that require more advanced verbal and numerical skills and greater intelligence, for which they earn handsome returns."
NOSSA Secretary Steven Goldsmith responded to the study by stating, "If a similar study made similar conclusions about any other minority group, there would be fierce outrage from those groups and sympathy from many who are not in those groups." NOSSA Advisor Ellen Frankel LCSW continued, "We understand racism. It's time we take a serious look at heightism."
In reporting on the study, the media simplified the connection that the economists had drawn between height and intelligence. Paxson and Case theorize a person genetically programmed to be 6'4" who reaches only 6'2" because of poor nutrition is not necessarily smarter than someone who with optimal nutrition has reached his full height potential of 5'4".
eHarmony boycott
On April 2, 2007, NOSSA called for a boycott of the online dating website eHarmonyEHarmony
eHarmony is an online dating website grounded in relationship science that matches single men and women for long-term relationships. To optimize the matching process, eHarmony operates eHarmony Labs, a relationship research facility, and publishes eHarmony Advice, a relationship advice site...
. Their press release cited:
- "Suspicions have been confirmed after numerous tests indicated that the exact same responses to the website’s membership questionnaire, with the exception of physical height, resulted in either approval of membership (when an acceptable tall height was submitted) or denial of membership (when a short height was submitted). These tests were conducted numerous times to ensure accuracy. The National Organization Of Short Statured Adults has requested a full explanation from the company. On June 1, 2007, NOSSA received a response from eHarmony in which the company denied that it had ever discriminated against short statured people."
Legal programs
NOSSA provides legal assistance for members who present valid claims of height discrimination in employment, housing and other real estate, public accommodations, public service, and educational facilities. There is one U.S. state, MichiganMichigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, that prohibits height discrimination. There is pending legislation introduced by Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
Representative Byron Rushing
Byron Rushing
Byron Rushing serves the Ninth Suffolk district in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. A Democrat, first elected in 1982, Representative Rushing, serves as the Second Assistant Majority Leader...
that would add Massachusetts to the list.
Two U.S. municipalities prohibit height discrimination: Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
and San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. The District of Columbia
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
prohibits discrimination based on personal appearance.
Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
prohibits height discrimination under the human rights code. Victoria, Australia prohibits discrimination based on physical features under the Equal Opportunity Act of 1995.
Although NOSSA is not directly involved in any lobbying activities, the group supports height discrimination legislation. NOSSA also provides legal assistance to members who present valid claims of fraud perpetuated by various growth-product manufacturers.
Children & Young Adult Programs
Bullying involves the tormenting of others through verbal harassmentHarassment
Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour intended to disturb or upset, and it is characteristically repetitive. In the legal sense, it is intentional behaviour which is found threatening or disturbing...
, physical assault
Assault
In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
, or other more subtle methods of coercion
Coercion
Coercion is the practice of forcing another party to behave in an involuntary manner by use of threats or intimidation or some other form of pressure or force. In law, coercion is codified as the duress crime. Such actions are used as leverage, to force the victim to act in the desired way...
such as manipulation
Psychological manipulation
Psychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or even abusive tactics. By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at the other's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative,...
. Smaller children and young adults are often perceived as being physically weaker and vulnerable. Because of this, short kids are frequently targeted by bullies. NOSSA provides support services for short statured kids and their families who are experiencing a bullying problem. NOSSA also offers a college scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
award each year to a young short statured person.