Persuasive Essay On Height In Sports

J. Pointer Thesis: Adults who are naturally below average height should be given the same protections as any other minority because of how their height affects job options, their status, and how others treat them.

Intro will go here: Unbeknownst to many people, certain jobs have a height requirement. Some of these jobs would be, law enforcement, most sport oriented jobs, flight attendants, pilots, fashion models, and certain military jobs (“Height Discrimination”). A few of these jobs have requirements in place in order to make certain aspects of the job easier, such as flight attendants and pilots. Due to the fact that flight attendants have to be able to reach bags in the overhead cabin and commercial pilots have to be able to reach overhead

However, other jobs like being a fashion model, or a sports star do not have aspects that absolutely require a certain height. Yes, most coaches would not want a person of heights 4’6” or 4’9” to be tackled by a very muscular person of 5’10” or 6’4” due to the possible injuries the smaller one could obtain. On the other hand, height does not always reflect skill and there are many athletes that have proved that (Hale). Regardless of what those athletes have done to prove that their height does not matter, many coaches prefer taller athletes (Liberman). Most people can see why there would be a height requirement or preference, so the bias in these jobs are not usually disputed and many people write it off as just how things are. However, a study in Australia found that those who are taller earn better wages than those who are barely average or below average height (James). Certain studies have gone even further and found that there is a 1.8% increase in wage with every additional inch of height (“Height Discrimination”). The wage difference is not just for the earlier mentioned jobs where height essentially matters, but instead it applies

The side effects of HGH are nerve and muscle pain, swelling, carpal tunnel syndrome, numbness of skin, high cholesterol levels, risk of diabetes, and they can contribute to the growth of cancerous tumors (Dunkin). It is commonly prescribed by doctors in situations where one has turner’s syndrome, prader-willis syndrome, chronic kidney insufficiency, low hormones, or if they are naturally shorter than those their age (Dunkin). HGH is used for serious disorders, yet doctors, the FDA and others think that one being short is serious enough to have HGH prescribed. Worse yet, usually those that are short and are given the HGH option do not believe that being short should be grounds for one to risk something that could cause cancerous tumors. If one is short enough to have the option of HGH then they should have just as many protections as a minority or one with dwarfism would. However, Paul Steven Miller, who is a dwarf and stands at 4’5”, does not believe that. He says that dwarfs go through more discrimination than those who are short and well below average