As dating apps using height filters spark debate on “heightism”, the Blackadder star Tony Robinson has vented his anger at women who feel it is acceptable to comment on men’s height.
“Nowadays, you don’t pick on people’s looks, do you? It’s like kind of a new understanding over the last 10 or 15 years, you don’t deride people for what they look like,” the 5ft 4in actor, 78, told Elizabeth Day’s How to Fail podcast, admitting he had seen his shorter than average height as a problem in life.
Studies over decades show heightism leads to bias, yet it appears even today to be more socially acceptable than other forms of physical prejudice.
The term “heightism” was first coined by the sociologist Saul Feldman in 1971. Dr Erin Pritchard, a senior lecturer in sociology and disability studies at Liverpool Hope University, believes much heightism is subconscious, but that it is ingrained. It has also not benefited from widespread acceptance movements.
“You had the fat acceptance movement, and while there’s still issues, you would never go, ‘well, how much do you weigh’? But it’s perfectly acceptable for people to go, ‘how tall are you’?” she said.
It is reinforced through popular culture, “chicken and egg, I suppose. But you’re seeing it in films and in TV shows, jokes about short man syndrome,” she said. “Height is all about power, isn’t it? It’s quite a powerful thing.”
And it is present in everyday language. We tell people to “walk tall”; we “look up to” people; those respected “have stature”; those less so “have shortcomings” or “fall short”.
The US state of Michigan, the US cities Santa Cruz, San Francisco and New York City, as well as Ontario, Canada and Victoria, Australia, are among the few to address height discrimination in civil rights law.
An increase in men’s height corresponds to increased income, according to a 2004 study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. The term “height premium” emerged from another 2004 study, which found an 1.8% increase in men’s wages accompanies every additional inch [2.54cm] of height, and that men’s wages as adults could be linked to their height at age 16.
Women prefer a larger height difference between themselves and male partners, according to a 2013 study at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and were most satisfied when their partner was 21cm taller. Men, however, preferred an 8cm difference over female partners.
There was a lighthearted, body positive movement during the 2022 TikTok “short king spring”, in praise of short men. But then a 2023 study suggested “short man syndrome”, often referred to as the Napoleon complex, may lead short men to compensate with antagonistic behaviours.
The study claims evidence of “such a complex in those characterised by the dark triad traits of psychopathy (ie, callousness, criminality), narcissism (ie, inflated sense of self, grandiosity), and Machiavellianism (ie pragmatic cynicism, duplicity).”
However, being too tall also attracts the unwelcome. The 6ft 7in comedian and actor Stephen Merchant has spoken of his weariness at relentless comments. Trying to be funny was a way of taking ownership of standing out. “If people are going to look at you, they may as well look at you and think what you are doing is good or funny or entertaining rather than just pointing and laughing. I guess I was a nerd and I felt a bit awkward because I was 6ft 7in even from a young age,” he told Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs.
The actor Geena Davis knocked two inches off her 6ft height to get accepted by modelling agencies in her youth. Miranda Hart, the Call the Midwife star, has said she is fed up with being defined by her 6ft 1in height. Nicole Kidman, at 5ft 11in, used to shave half an inch off to get auditions.
A study of taller than average female college students found it resulted in unintended intimidation.
Robert Reich, Bill Clinton’s labor secretary, a Rhodes Scholar, and one of Time magazine’s 10 best cabinet members of the century, is 4ft 11in an issue he publicly addressed in a blogpost.
“When it comes to choosing leaders, our society is exceptionally heightist and seems to be getting more so. My dear friend and mentor, the late economist John Kenneth Galbraith, was 6ft 8. He once said that favouring the tall was ‘one of the most blatant and forgiven prejudices in our society’.”
But he added: “I’m fortunate to have grown up (or at least grown upward) in a society that, more and more, values brains over brawn. There are still bullies in the world, of course. But in a civil society, those bullies can be stopped with words and ideas. At least, that’s been my faith. That’s how I’ve tried to compensate for my short height.”
Prichard said: “We need more voices like Tony Robinson coming out and saying it, to show this is not all woke nonsense, [to] just sort of sit down and listen to what they have to say and go, OK, these are their lived experiences.”
