"Normal at Any Cost: Tall Girls, Short Boys, and the Medical Manipulation of Height"

by Susan Cohen and Christine Cosgrove (March 31, 2010)

Human height is an inherited biological trait with strong social meanings in most cultures. In the United States, recent research shows a continuing positive correlation between above-average height and happiness, greater educational achievement, higher economic status, and less of a tendency to worry (!), while below-average height is associated with significant personal discontent. While studies have found this especially true for men, the picture has been less clear for women, for whom above-average height has often been socially problematic.

The history of treating height has been called a perfect allegory for modern medicine. This story of scientific and medical achievement raises questions about the lines between experiment and treatment and enhancement; questions about informed consent, medicalization of social problems, how we define what is "normal," and the influence in our lives of the pharmaceutical industry. This Medical Center Hour with medical journalists Susan Cohen and Christine Cosgrove explores the complicated intersection of medicine, society, and business that is the medical manipulation of height—the checkered, sometimes miraculous, sometimes tragic history of past efforts as well as forecasts for future management of this part of our genetic makeup.

Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series

Category:

Education

Tags:

• MCH
• Cohen

[AKBeazBoi]

@best496 i hope i can reach a really good height but i disagree with 5'10 average. the young generation the average is well over 6 feet.

[best496]

@AKBeazBoi average is like 5ft9 or 5ft10 but i notice im seeing a lot more really tall people than i used to see. last week i saw 5 different guys that were nearly 7ft tall and they would be so much taller than me like 6 or 7 inches taller. usually im the tallest person for a long way. i dont know where all these tall guys are coming from. theres still a possibility of a growth spurt until you are like 25 years old. we could be 7ft tall by then

[AKBeazBoi]

@best496 same here dude i am 6'1 and hope i can get to 6'6 or at least 6'4 before i am done growing. i am so sick of being average height.

[best496]

i dont know what this is about but the perfect height for a man in my opinion is 6ft6 inches tall. im 18 and 6ft3. i wish i was at least 6ft6 but i havent given up hope that i can still grow that tall

[lawnprinter300]

im 18 and 5'8.5" smh, i was i was at least 5'10

[Darusdei]

@Sanguiphiliac why?

[Sanguiphiliac]

I'm 17, full grown, and 5'5". I feel like I have no mouth and I must scream.