What is this generation’s obsession with height about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, as the mother of a 5'6" 17yo boy, I think girls are really mean about this and way more than boys.

It is verboten for boys to say a thing about a girls weight but social media is full of girls making fun of short guys, demeaning them, and basically being hypocrites.

Moms of girls, teach them better.

+1 This has been DD's and DS's experience. The boys tease boys but it's mostly part of the larger context of boy bashing humor, like the way they may make fun of another boy's hair or clothes or athletic ability. The girls comments I've heard are more cruel. Overheard DD's friends talking about a crush one of them had but others put down the boy for being small. WTF right?

If you really think boys aren't making comments about girls' body types, you have your head in the sand. I have a DD who is tall and very thin (athlete) and she's had boys make comments about her being too skinny, having no butt, etc. right to her face. And, FWIW, she has a major crush on a boy who is the same height as she is (maybe an inch shorter). So, please stop the generalizations. There are mean girls and mean boys out there.

There are entire TikTok and social media trends of girls making fun of and being very mean about short guys. It is the last socially acceptable form of body shaming. That was my point.

If you definite "whatever some desperate, useless, idiot losers do online" as "social acceptable", then there are many, many forms of socially acceptable body shaming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:as a 5 foot 5 adult man this thread is making me want to kill myself.

Stop. Who cares about this. I am sure you have many wonderful qualities and you make the world a better place.

I do have good qualities. It's just painful knowing that to most women I will never be anything more than the size of my body.

[Anonymous]

Short men get the treatment fat women do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Short men get the treatment fat women do.

+1

I’d agree with this (as an average height woman).

It can be overcome but is a negative obstacle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately it’s mostly sports. Our varsity baseball coach told a few juniors last year that, were they an inch or two taller, they would’ve made the team. So it had nothing to do with their ability or work ethic- just height

Definitely NOT true in my situation. My son was 5"6 when he played the #1 position at his HS and won the state 6A championship in tennis as a freshman. He was 5"9 when he graduated from high school. The coach couldn't keep him off the team because he easily beat everyone at the tryout as a freshman. Coaches have very little control in individual sports because of head-to-head records.

Height doesn't matter in tennis. Are you really comparing the importance of height in basketball, which is what others were discussing, to tennis?

It matters in tennis too. Taller guys have better reach and bigger guys have faster serves. Top ATP guys are generally all 6 foot or over.

You need to get out more often. There are many Asian players on the tennis rosters in Fairfax County Public School that are NOT tall. The kid that won three state 6A championship from Chantilly HS is barely 5”8’.

Height and strength matter in tennis. They are not the only factors, though. Yeah, a 5'8 kid can beat 6'3 powerhouses if they've had years and years of private lessons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Short men get the treatment fat women do.

+1

I’d agree with this (as an average height woman).

It can be overcome but is a negative obstacle.

You can unfat

[Anonymous]

It's the UMC emphasis on fitting in.

I'm a tall woman and graduated from an UMC private in 1989; any girls who were taller than average or boys who were shorter than average were really given a hard time. I would have loved to have attended an average public school instead.

Not being average or taller for boys, or average or shorter for girls is an issue for the UMC. My DC metro based relatives expressed horror that their dd could potentially be my size and were super happy when she stopped growing, and is, instead, a "normal" sized girl.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and that sentiment was expressed to my actual face.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Unfortunately made varsity in his sport as freshman - so drubbing the big guys in their sport of choice has inflicted some of the abuse - but doesn’t explain it all.

Thanks to PP who said parents act like height is an accomplishment. He works really hard in his sport and is pretty solid citizen. But the daily - sounds like hourly on some days - emphasis makes me doubt humanity sometimes. Are we really this primal?

He doesn’t play basketball does he? Obviously with that sport, height seems to be fixated on, and a common topic.

Why do people say “his sport” instead of just saying the name. He plays soccer or swimming. It’s really weird

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:as a 5 foot 5 adult man this thread is making me want to kill myself.

Stop. Who cares about this. I am sure you have many wonderful qualities and you make the world a better place.

I do have good qualities. It's just painful knowing that to most women I will never be anything more than the size of my body.

I'm sorry. But most people are idiots. Everyone has their burdens. This is no big deal on the grand scheme of things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry to hear this, OP. We have the opposite issue with a 5’5” 11 year old girl who gets teased regularly for being too tall. Her best friend is a 5 foot tall boy and they both get made fun of for how they look standing next to each other. I really wish everyone could be kind and lay off the comments about developing tween bodies.

That’s only a couple of inches taller than most. I feel for the kids who are 5’10” in the fourth grade. There are always 1 or 2 every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:maybe they are watching too much Indian matchmaker on Netflix. I had no idea the obsession with height until I watched that show.

That’s because unlike most countries, Indians are getting shorter. There are some really small short middle school Asian and Indian boys that are playing basketball in the sign up teams. I mean well below five feet at 12. They try hard but I don’t know how many opportunities high school will bring to play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think principals and lower school heads need to have a dedicated meeting about this. Every single teacher comments on my daughter’s height.

Many are kind and dedicated but I lose respect for them before the year even starts. She is 6 and you’re giving her a complex for no reason!

Is she taller or,shorter ? My oldest was always tiny and had a face like a doll, huge blue eyes, thick straight blonde hair. A lot of comments on her looks. Teachers were professional. They never talked about her height or looks except one who said she looked like Cindy Lou Who. I remember because the other teacher gave her a dirty look.

That’s pretty bad that every single teacher had a comment on something physical about a student. Maybe let the principal know that it’s bothering your daughter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Unfortunately made varsity in his sport as freshman - so drubbing the big guys in their sport of choice has inflicted some of the abuse - but doesn’t explain it all.

Thanks to PP who said parents act like height is an accomplishment. He works really hard in his sport and is pretty solid citizen. But the daily - sounds like hourly on some days - emphasis makes me doubt humanity sometimes. Are we really this primal?

Had some acquaintances who went on and on and on about how tall their son was when the boys were playing AAA Hockey as U14?15? (Can't exactly remember). He was...but they failed to notice that he stopped growing for almost a year and by the time they took him to have him checked, too late. He's 5'7" now at 23. Lots of early puberty and absurd focus on height, but it's not always what they think it wiil be.

Also: there's really nothing wrong with whatever your height is as long as nobody has given you a complex about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think principals and lower school heads need to have a dedicated meeting about this. Every single teacher comments on my daughter’s height.

Many are kind and dedicated but I lose respect for them before the year even starts. She is 6 and you’re giving her a complex for no reason!

Is she taller or,shorter ? My oldest was always tiny and had a face like a doll, huge blue eyes, thick straight blonde hair. A lot of comments on her looks. Teachers were professional. They never talked about her height or looks except one who said she looked like Cindy Lou Who. I remember because the other teacher gave her a dirty look.

That’s pretty bad that every single teacher had a comment on something physical about a student. Maybe let the principal know that it’s bothering your daughter.

Speaking of teachers commenting on looks there's this trashing MS teacher who in front of other parents and kids at a back to school thing kept gushing about how tall a girl had become and how amazing that is as if it were an accomplishment and how wonderful it is to be tall. She's on this board so if you're reading this you how know trashy you are.