Are you above or below "Average" Height? And how do you think that has affected you in your life?
Curious, because I am a 6'1" woman, who's been though all the agony of instant masculine rejection, subjected to all the same stupid comments ("do you play Basketball?" "How did you get so tall?"
most of my life, and where I used to curse my height, I also understand how beneficial it's been for me. I'm sure I'm liberal because of it: Not the custom mold, so I was forced into critical thinking and questioning the social tenets.
It's a superficial, visual world we live in. People size you up, and immediately want to pigeonhole you--so if you're not "normal" (anything from being too tall or too short, to being a different race.) you're judged and stereotyped. Now, I know the issues I had as a kid (I've been this height since 1969, and THAT was fun, lemme tell you!) are still the same issues young tall women have today. Meh. Slow learning curve, I guess. And as I speak to my friends of all different heights and sizes, I see a whole subtext of prejudice: Sizism, possibly? And just wondering what everyone has come up against because of it.
Feel free to rant away!
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And, I was recently hired by a very large corporation despite my height (and age).
Never said it was an absolute, but certainly a barrier, especially in male-dominated fields.
I like to think that I, as you have been able to conquer that and other obstacles. 
how we think of ourselves. Also, I am in a male-dominated field (programming and development).
insulting, but it would be easy for me to conclude you are. The barriers I faced in my life were shared by others of my circles. Surely not ALL of us faced it merely because of "poor self image"....
Not anything really except there are a lot of very uncomfortable waiting rooms where if I actually sit back in the chair my feet don't touch the floor or my legs stick out from the edge 
Most things are made for people taller than I am but it is relatively easy to work around.
I can imagine it is much harder for a very tall woman and for what it is worth I am really hardly considered abnormal just a shorty and that is not bad at all.
when I was born.
I used to be 5'7", now a bit shorter. The thing I'm thankful for, is that women's feet are, on average, also larger! I wear size 9 (sometimes 9.5 after having a kid) and until ~twenty years ago that size was often the high end of the size scale unless one went to a specialty shoe store.
In the early '80s, my friend, also a size 9 and W to boot , and I went to a "women's large sizes shoe store" in San Francisco.
It was fun trying on shoes among the men, whose taste was far flashier than ours!
I never received any guff about it, ever.
But, I was only 3 in 1969 - maybe it was less of a big deal in my generation? As an aside, though most women I encounter are much shorter than I am, I regularly see younger women my size or taller (in a college town).
My 12 y.o son is 6' tall (much larger than his peers), but my daughter is barely 5' (at age 10). I can't figure out where she gets her diminutive size. I kinda hope she has a growth spurt and ends up at least 6'.
But most of the girls in her class are pretty much the same size, so I figured she was average.
She does have really small feet, compared to her classmates, though. She wears a 3, while most of her peers wear women's 7 or 8 shoes (I wear an 8, for pete's sake!). I don't know where all the big feet are coming from! LOL
But by 8th grade, several of them passed me.
My ancestors are from Sweden and Norway (some Welsh in there somewhere), and my immediate family is pretty tall. My gramma was 5'6 in the 1920s, and my mom was 5'8 (she's now about 5'5 at age 83). 
The women in my husband's family are tall, too (mom 5'9 and sister 5'11), so it's more mysterious to me why our daughter seems to be closer to average height. I am glad that she has a medium build, rather than being big & bulky (because I think kids can be unkind to heavy kids). Our son does have a big build, along with his height (6' 200#), but he's built like a linebacker, so kids don't bug him about his size.
I wonder...living in a college town, I know there are a good number of tall athletes around campus, so it's not unusual to see tall women. Maybe that makes a difference. (My daughter's softball trainer is an all-conference pitcher in her mid-20s, and I feel puny next to her). 
people look down on short folks - literally, and socially.
they also pat them on the head and pick them up off the ground. 
home builders never take into consideration that a shower head placed 7' up the shower wall & cupboards hanging from 10' high ceilings are a pain in the neck for short and even averaged height folks. i never fold up the step stool in my kitchen because it gets used every day.
so, lets just say every day begins with many, many, many reminders that others have NO consideration for short people.
And guys think it is most awesome.
I didn't like being so tall when I was younger, but now guys dig it. I get constant compliments on my legs. Plus, when you're a tall woman, you are usually thin.
And I will wear heels occasionally. I'm pretty laid back, so flip flops and Cons work for me.
I'm dating a guy that is 6'4" right now.
I don't even care to remember any mean comments from when I was younger. It's in the past.
I hope that you are now comfortable in your own skin.
My mama used to say you finally get comfortable in your own skin just when it's beginning to sag.
me I was short. I was usually the shortest in the class. Driving the big, gas-guzzling cars
of the era, I had the seat moved up as far as it would go and I could barely see over the steering wheel.
Plus a lot of things were just too big/too high for me.
Having said that, I don't think short women have it near as bad as short men do, but it's still a pain.
It doesn't matter now that I'm an "active adult."
Okay, not that short. I'm 5'7" but I've got a date with a six footer tonight and I think she might be wearing heels.
I am neither big or tall but men's pants seem to all be 38 inch waist 30 inch length .
I think it has generally been a benefit to me.
But not on airliners in a coach seat.
I'm convinced women's clothing manufacturers are ther to reinforce all our insecurities and make us think there's something wrong with our bodies. I have to go into the men's department, especially for shirts, and I can tell you guys have it so much better! Even off the rack, men's clothes are proportioned, and accommodating to a body type. Women's garments are stuck with an arbitrary size label, and if we don't fit the dress we don't measure up.
Just another way to pummel us with sexism.
Five foot two female, small bones. Ring size 6-1/2. Parents were tall. Mom and grandmom had small bones too but they loomed over me and shook their fingers in my face. Had six foot two thin uncles on both sides of family. Dad was a big strong man of five foot eleven, 180 pounds.
Picked on constantly for being short in school and especially in P.E.
Walked off the softball field in disgust after the captain threw me out and I said "Good!" I refused to catch a softball because I was a musician. Didn't want to break my fingers.
Men and women both have intimidated me my whole life. Especially tall and loud ones. Some tall men enjoy harassing women and other men because they are tall enough to do so. A lot of people who are tall will literally not hear me when I look up and talk to them!!! I've been disrespected in my jobs and called "lazy" and "slow" more times than I can count.
Hate having to get a stool out to reach shelves. And I don't understand why men have to be tall to be attractive. I have been in very unequal relationships with tall men. My hubby is five foot seven and that suits me fine. He's short enough for me to hug comfortably. I think we are in an equal relationship.
I think short people are discriminated against. I once had a boyfriend whose mother had a Fiat convertible in the 1970s. They folded me up and put me in the rectangular luggage compartment behind the seats and in front of the folded up roof.
The good part is that I can stretch my legs on an airplane, but I stopped flying a few years ago because I got "Super Secret Special Scrutiny" in a different line with all brown men in it, for no particular reason and I'm white. Asked for a reason why in an FOIA request, and after a year the Feds said they could find no reason why I got SSSS, in their records.
I refuse to wear heels. Painful and dangerous.
I have to pay lots of money for shoes that are narrow enough for my bony little feet I inherited from Dad. Mostly I wear sneakers now, though.
But it's mostly through jealousy, I think.
I used to be devilishly cute. Now, at 47 with not a grey hair on my head, I'm just handsome.
I put on about 45 pounds during the recession but I've lost 30 of it and and the chicks are noticing.
Can't help if people think I'm too short to do things. They're wrong, of course.
Being short is normal for me and I've never thought of it as a disability. I'm respected and well liked by my peers and am only rarely treated dismissively.
I've dated women 4'11" and 6'1". And the taller guys I hang out with can't figure out why I can snag the hot women. 
I let them live in ignorance.
Now that I'm shrinking, most pants are too long.
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Cuz this man is my biggest crush of all time. 
Gigantic in all the ways that count!
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I hope you are correct about the confidence factor, because I read a lot of tall women's blogs and groups in social media, and it seems that many of them have the same issues as I did. But you are correct about everyone getting larger: the ideal of my generation was Farrah and the resources for women like me were nonexistent. I remember hearing about how tall Audrey Hepburn was (at 5'7", oh, c'mon!) and I outgrew her by age 12.
Anyway, whatever adversity I've encountered by not fitting into a social norm has only made me stronger. It's good to be tall and healthy and emotionally past all the drama that used to stop me from enjoying it!
It doesn't seem any easier to be young and female than ever.
When I was younger, I was 5 feet, @ 2 inches.
Now, with age, I am @ 5 feet tall.
Being short has some disadvantages. I usually need a step stool or a ladder to reach items on upper shelves. Grocery shopping can be very frustrating, for this reason.
Like many people, I have been teased about my height, and have had taller people use me as something to lean on. 
When you said that the makers of women's clothes seem mostly intent on humiliating us, I would HUGELY agree! Pants that fit my waist are usually wayyyyyyyyyyyyy too long for me.
Most of this kind of stuff is based in classism (prejudice based on your income level), as well as sexism (women are valued on how well we do or do not look like models and movie stars), ageism and looksism ( how well do you fit in with the current idea of a fashionable appearance). All of this kind of prejudice is based in the most superficial kind of values, and it sucks like a Hoover, to boot! 
Socially, when I was younger, guys seemed to like it that I was short, but some people did treat me like they thought I must have no brains. (Um, yeah, like my IQ would be connected to my height. 
)
I really got a huge laugh from your Mom's comment, about how we don't start to become comfortable in our own skin until it starts to sag.
Some of this kind of stuff seems to be more indicative of the era we grew up in. I keep on hoping that the 'isms' and 'phobias' will finally be starved out in most people's hearts and minds, and receive the long-overdue burial with dishonor that they deserve. 
