Mga app ng Google
Pangunahing menu

Post a Comment On: Steve Sailer: iSteve

"Heightism and presidential nominees"

27 Comments -

1 – 27 of 27
Anonymous Dave Pinsen said...

It would be interesting to expand this to countries where women have been elected president or prime minister and see height plays out there.

9/14/13, 3:11 AM

Anonymous dearieme said...

Many of these figures are, I'll bet, mere guesswork. For a start, how many politicians wear "lifts" in their shoes? Tony Blair did, apparently. Come to that, how many politicians are notable for telling the truth?

What you need is a Federal Department of Height Mensuration, Division of In-bare-feet.

9/14/13, 3:56 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I stood next to Mike Dukakis at a funeral and he's no more than 5'5".

9/14/13, 6:41 AM

Anonymous DJF said...

"""John F. Kerry on the campaign trail"""

OK, good work, you made me laugh.

9/14/13, 7:03 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

In France, Sarkozy was much laughed because of his height, especially when journalists discovered he was wearing lifts in his shoes. However, the French elected the equally short Francois Hollande last year and nobody makes fun of his height, meaning that height does not matter here as soon as you're not showing it hurts you to be vertically challenged.

9/14/13, 7:21 AM

Anonymous Glossy said...

OT, but not entirely:

"During an interview with KPCC that aired yesterday, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, was asked if he had ever met Vladimir Putin. It's safe to say his answer was more than a little unexpected.

Turns out, during the early 1990s, Putin, then only a local official, traveled to Washington with a Russian delegation. While there, Putin and two other Russians ended up playing a game of touch football with Rohrabacher and a few of his "right-wing" buddies. Things only got stranger after the game:

"We all ended up going to the Irish Times Pub afterwards, and we were having a little bit too much to drink I guess. But anyway, we started arguing about who won the Cold War, etcetera. And so we decided to settle it like men do when they’ve had too much to drink at the pub. So we got down to these arm-wrestling matches, and I ended up being paired off with Putin. And he’s a little guy, but boy I’ll tell you he put me down in a millisecond. He is tough ... his muscles are just unbelievable. And then his bodyguard gets up and this buddy of mine and says 'oh I’ll take him.' And my friend put his bodyguard down, so it was good."

9/14/13, 8:40 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just relocated to the Los Angeles area. At 6'4", you've gotta be a giant here Sailer. This is the shortest place I've ever been to in the U.S. And it's not just the minorities. Even the Caucasians here seem much, much shorter on average compared to back in the Midwest, or even other places like the South or New York.

I'm 5'8" and I pass for average height around here. Back in Ohio I felt very short.

9/14/13, 9:11 AM

Blogger pat said...

Ron Chernow in his recent biography of Washington argues that the great man was in fact only about 6 feet even. His evidence is from the documents he sent to his tailor in Britain.

The camera adds pounds they say and fame seems to add inches. When I was in band in high school we played for Nixon. He came over and shook some of our hands. I was convinced that he was taller than I was, but that was an illusion. He was I think about 5'11". I was probably at least 6'2" by then.

Albertosaurus

9/14/13, 9:15 AM

Blogger pat said...

Speaking of lifts. My doctor prescribed shoe lifts to help my strained Achilles tendon. I ordered a variety of sizes. I had little ones that didn't do much for me and I had a pair of real "elevator lifts" that made me almost three inches taller.

Wearing those - just once as it happened - I was 6'7". I loved them. I towered. But my back was killing me. I gained respect for the Hollywood runts like Robert Downey Jr. who have to wear such things. They do crazy things to your posture. Those guys must be in constant pain.

Albertosaurus

9/14/13, 9:24 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Israelis don't seem fixated with it: Ben Gurion, Begin, Barak were all short men and all were elected. All were very strong male figures, Barak being the most heavily decorated officer in the Israeli army in its history. Only Levi Eshkol was tall, but he was considered relatively weak by the Israelis. Netanyahu is of average height but again, a very strong male figure, having fought in an elite army unit.

9/14/13, 9:38 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another thing to keep in mind. Before 1960 with the TV debates of Nixon/JFK, most presidential candidates did not directly ever have to "face" their opponents during the campaign. Also, they generally tended to campaign the most in states they assumed they could win (toss-ups were exceptions of course).

Bottom line: the height factor in presidential candidates, while obviously of some importance, neither helped nor harmed them as far as facing their opponents on the debate platform since there were no debates until 1960.

So perhaps anecdotes from the media chiding or ridiculing candidates for their lack of height (among other things) helped play a factor for undecideds forming their opinions.

9/14/13, 9:41 AM

Blogger Whiskey said...

Tall guys are big targets in combat, FWIW.

9/14/13, 9:42 AM

Blogger Alexander Irwin said...

IQ correlates with height, even in well-nourished societies.

9/14/13, 9:47 AM

Anonymous Gord said...

How true. Minority and female disadvantages are grave injustices that demand remedial action, but "heightism" is something to be laughed off: "Ha, those short guys just can't get a break, can they? Bullied in school, spurned by women, and now we find out they get paid less! Ho ho, sure sucks to be short! Oh well, such is their lot in life!"

9/14/13, 10:10 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm 6'4", and have never noticed any benefits accruing to me because of my height. But maybe that's just my Height Privilege talking.

9/14/13, 10:39 AM

Blogger agnostic said...

Mondale, Dukakis, Perot, Kerry, and McCain all lost because they were from the Silent Generation, rather than the Greatest or Boomer generations.

http://akinokure.blogspot.com/2013/09/generational-stability-and-turnover-in.html

9/14/13, 2:23 PM

Blogger Steve Sailer said...

"I just relocated to the Los Angeles area. At 6'4", you've gotta be a giant here Sailer. This is the shortest place I've ever been to in the U.S. And it's not just the minorities. Even the Caucasians here seem much, much shorter on average compared to back in the Midwest, or even other places like the South or New York."

My wife's teenage nephew from a small town in the Midwest was visiting us. Being 6'1", blonde, and square-jawed, Mexicans called him "Hollywood" because he looks like the old stereotype of a movie star. When I was in high school in the San Fernando Valley, lots of guys looked like him. Not any more, though.

9/14/13, 2:55 PM

Blogger RonMexico said...

Steve lists TJ at 6'2". Franklin famously said that Washington was a natural leader because he was always the tallest in the room. The John Adams miniseries had a scene depicting this. Many sources list GW at 6'2.5" to 6'3". I wouldn't take Chernow's 6' just due to one piece of evidence.

9/14/13, 3:48 PM

Anonymous Dave Pinsen said...

"Franklin famously said that Washington was a natural leader because he was always the tallest in the room. The John Adams miniseries had a scene depicting this."

Here's the scene from that miniseries, which plays it a little differently than you might remember.

9/15/13, 1:40 AM

Anonymous Sean said...

Michael Bloomberg is 5 ft 6 in.
Ross Perot is 5 ft 6 in.

Men of action such as self made billionaires and/or break the mold politicians (of left or right) tend to be under average height for their demographic group, while lawyers, bankers, career politicians, political theorists, pundits, film directors, humorists, commentators, TV hosts, writers and comedians, tend to be tall.

It seems to be different for women. though Janet Reno was the equivalent of 6'8'' for a man.

Celeb heights are almost invariably stealing an inch over reality barefoot height. Watch the movie Pittsburgh (1942) you will see quite clearly in two extended sequences where stars John Wayne and Randolph Scott are walking along beside each other that Randolph Scott who claimed to be 6'3½'' was taller than John Wayne. Wayne was 6'3''.

9/15/13, 2:53 AM

Blogger Steve Sailer said...

In that 1942 movie, the Duke was probably a victim of the wartime lift shortage.

9/15/13, 3:29 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Juan McCain 5'9"? No way, Jose! Stood next to him on level ground; now I'm a wee 5'10" yet
"towered" above him. No es alto.

9/15/13, 11:35 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Girl psychology vs Guy psychology.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDmiChM0Tps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbgqLcvl7BU

9/15/13, 3:21 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

> I gained respect for the Hollywood runts [...] who have to wear such things.

Spare some of that respect for the streetwalkers who have to wear even more brutal height enhancers just to get a little more attention.

Actors, hookers, pit traders... Sure they all do necessary work for society; but let's not put them on pedestals.

9/16/13, 12:04 AM

Anonymous Edward Waverley said...

"Clinton, Beavis, Perot" awesome

9/16/13, 6:53 AM

Anonymous Sean said...

Steve, Wayne was shorter than the 6'4'' that the whole world thinks he was.

The average height of men in Washington or Jefferson's time was no more than 5'7''. So a 6'2" Washington would have grown to be pushing 6'6'' if born 200 years later. You are in effect saying that political leaders are now much smaller. it's more likely that people just lie about stuff like height, and cherry trees.

9/19/13, 11:33 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Height brings many advantages in social and professional situations, moreso for men than women.

But short people tend to live longer. This is obvious to people who spend time among groups of the elderly.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/07/height_and_longevity_the_research_is_clear_being_tall_is_hazardous_to_your.html

9/22/13, 8:33 AM

Comments are moderated, at whim.
You can use some HTML tags, such as <b>, <i>, <a>

Comment moderation has been enabled. All comments must be approved by the blog author.

You will be asked to sign in after submitting your comment.
OpenID LiveJournal WordPress TypePad AOL