Behavior: Heightism

No matter what his race, creed or financial status, the American male under 5 ft. 8 in.—the height of the average American man—is a victim of discrimination. That is the conclusion of a Cleveland sociologist who has begun a personal crusade against a seldom mentioned form of prejudice that, like racism and sexism, is well established in U.S. society: heightism.

So pervasive is the American bias against the short man, Saul Feldman told a recent meeting of the American Sociological Association, that no one notices it—no one, that is, except the short man himself. To Sociologist Feldman of Case Western Reserve University,...