So I assume that if you’re on this article, that you drew the genetic short straw (pun intended) and were born destined to be vertically challenged like myself. What does ‘short’ mean though? People often debate and discuss issues that vertically challenged men face but it is often left unclear who is actually being referred to when the term ‘short’ is used.
One approach to answering this question is to look at the hard data and statistics available. In Western countries, this typically includes adult men who are shorter than 166 centimeters (5 ft 5in), but being short could theoretically encompass being anywhere between average male height in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1.808m) or the average male height in Indonesia (1.58m) [according to the Our World in Data website1]. Being ethnically South Asian and standing at 1.62m, I’m below the average male height of my ethnic peers (India – 1.649m) and I live in the UK where the average male height is 1.77m.
From a purely medical viewpoint, short stature can be defined as an adult height that is more than two standard deviations below a population’s mean for age and gender which roughly translates to the shortest 2.3% of individuals in a given population2.
Another approach would be to look at societal expectations. With the advent of online dating on apps such as Tinder, Bumble and Hinge, there seems to be a lot of evidence of certain women refusing to date beyond some arbitrary and asinine height threshold, the most popular one being 6 feet.
Seeing screenshots of the dating profile bios and messages above shouldn’t leave you surprised that it’s commonplace for even men who are average height complaining about feeling short. Trawling through the r/short subreddit, there are plenty of posts from guys who are average height but feel short due to social media and being bombarded with the types of bios and messages mentioned above.
Closing Thoughts:
I think the most important takeaway from the above is that being short or not is pretty subjective and really depends on the context in which you are inquiring about this. You could be a short American man in Indonesia and technically be taller than the average local male. Alternatively you could be 5’11 and be living in Bosnia but feel like you’re short.
You could be a guy who is just shy of 6’ who has been rejected by a woman he’s interested in because she only dates guys 6’ and above.
What I define as ‘short’ in my blog posts is to essentially refer to boys and men that ‘feel’ short rather than them actually being short so I’d rather not use a threshold. What I am interested in is equipping you with a toolbox of mindsets, techniques and principles by which to live your life in order for your shorter stature to have as little adverse effects as possible (and maybe even have a positive effect!)
So, what about you? Are you objectively a short guy or have you been made to feel so? And what do you plan on doing to keep it from living an amazing and fulfilled life? Leave a comment below.
1 – https://ourworldindata.org/human-height
2 – Pedicelli, S., Peschiaroli, E., Violi, E. and Cianfarani, S., 2011. Controversies in the Definition and Treatment of Idiopathic Short Stature (ISS). Journal of Clinical Research in Pediatric Endocrinology, 1(3), pp.105-115.