If you’re really looking for an answer to what happens in a relationship when the man is shorter than the woman, then in fact, nothing happens. Since a young age, we were spoon-fed that when a man is taller than a woman in a relationship, it’s normal and cute, but if the woman is taller, it’s unusual and weird. Double standards yet again can lead to male insecurity and turn fragile masculinity into toxic masculinity.
Society, the media and entertainment industry have sold us big on many stereotypes. And one of them is men being taller than women in relationships. In shows, movies, commercials, billboards, almost everything, it was always that way. For instance, the prince is always taller than the princess. Hero is always taller than the woman he saves. It’s like being programmed to only accept certain standards.
What encouraged us to speak up about this were the negative comments on Zendaya and Tom Holland’s latest pictures. The couple were recently spotted in London outside Tom’s family home. They were seen walking beside each other with Zendaya towering over Holland.
The comments section contained brutal remarks about their height difference. Some even said that Tom was like “the girlfriend in the relationship”. The couple clapped back with how ridiculous these height stereotypes are.
Holland also talked about how Zendaya being taller than him is not even an issue. But people kept at it and even assumed that it must have been difficult filming Spider-Man: No Way Home considering the height difference.
It comes to us, however, that it’s always normalized for the boy to be taller than the girl but not the other way round. It’s as if tall girls or short boys were not part of this social norm.
Dating a man who’s shorter than you or being with a woman who’s taller than you is solely a personal preference. People are allowed to have types.
On the other hand, it’s not acceptable to make fun of other people’s choices or preferences, because that’s simply bullying.
The most recent movie we saw address such issue was Tall Girl (2019) and Tall Girl 2 (2022), produced by Netflix.
Peep the trailers of the movie here:
And while the movie is a good step towards variety and diverse representation, we still have a long way to go to demolish these stereotypes.
Meanwhile, enjoy pictures of these iconic celebrities that simply put all height difference stereotypes to bed:
Tell us your opinions about this in the comments!
