Why do people care so much about height ?

While strolling through MFP forums i noticed people's monomania with height & their proclamation of how lucky they are to be tall and the numero uno thing they see in in prospective date/spouse is height.

I don't understand this fixation over elevation as if being tall is like enthroned with superhuman abilities and being short is akin to being castigated to a life of mediocrity.

Ofcourse height gives an edge in many arenas, especially sports, but one should not deduce that short people are subservient.

Pillorying someone for being plump is intelligible but lambasting someone for being short is pure bigotry because unlike weight your height is not under your control as it has more to do with genetics.

Not to mention Gandhi,Martin luther king,Tom Cruise,Woody Allen,Napoleon Bonaparte,Bono,Robert Downey Jr.,Anthony Hopkins,Dustin hoffman achieved eminence despite being diminutive.

As for short people being physically inferior you should read about Gurkhas of British & Indian army and how these 5'0 lilliputians decimated monstrously tall Germans and Italians in WW2. On many occasion they single handedly turned the tide towards allied forces.So fearsome were they that it is said that axis soldiers wet their fronts and yellowed their backs on merely hearing the word "gurkha" .

I have also read of people as short as 5'1-5'2 completing BUD/SEAL training with flying colors.

So one should get off his condescending view of "tall =superior" .

I don't know any people at all who feel that their height makes them superior... and the men in my large family are usually over 6 feet tall so my network of tall people is vast. Nobody that I know has ever expressed the opinion that short people are inferior and can't do things as well as tall people. In fact, I'm convinced that if I brought it up in conversation, they would look confused. You're clearly upset over a very minute population who feel tall=superior and that really just makes it look like YOU feel inferior because of your height.... or at the very least self-conscious. And this begs the question: Why do you care what a VERY tiny group of ignorant people think? Just do you and forget everybody else. As for women looking for height as the number one quality in a man, I disagree. Vehemently. I've listened to my female friends prattle on about what they want in a man and very few even mention height. Some do, yes. And most of my lady-friends date men who are taller than themselves (me included) but that doesn't mean they would never date somebody shorter. Personally, I am attracted to taller men but that doesn't mean I won't date somebody shorter. I was interested in somebody 2 inches shorter than me for a while but we never got around to dating because I was TOO TALL. My boyfriend is the shortest guy I've ever dated (5'7") and I see a million and one characteristics that attract me to him... but height isn't one of them. If he was tall, I would see a million and two. Just because somebody prefers tall, doesn't mean they REQUIRE tall. I'd like to think most women value character over height anyway.... If somebody feels height is more important than quality of character: Who needs them?