When you don't see height.

As a shorter women, I am literally shorter then 99.9% of the adults that I meet. I can only recall one occasion in my life when I was in the presence of two adults who were shorter then me. The event was so rare that it was somewhat disconcerting!

I was vaguely aware of heightism from a young age, but it wasn't until I was much older that I considered that being short would have an impact on the way I viewed the world. It only occurred to me one day when I was being asked to describe one person to another person. The later individual asked for a rough estimate of how tall the former was.

I didn't have a clue. I couldn't even guess. I could remember many details about this person such as what colour their hair was, their manner of speaking and gesticulations and even what they had said, but not their height. All I could say was that their height was vaguely average.

I realised that height wasn't something that I really ever noticed because it just isn't a useful frame of reference for me. I have a theory that people who are of average height subconsciously divide others into categories, those who are taller then them and those who are shorter. When trying to recall details about a person this can prove useful.

Not for me. All the people I meet go into the taller then me category. As a result my memory doesn't place a lot of emphasis on noticing height because it doesn't help me as a memory jogger.

I wonder if this is a big factor in why I find heightism so difficult to understand and so repellent. I don't judge people on their height because I just don't really see it.