Unable to buy pants, kitchens and bathrooms are too short so cooking and washing dishes are back-aching activities. Economy seating in airplanes is almost impossible. Vacuum cleaner handle not long enough. Few car brands have seats that go back far enough.
It’s very hard to buy a bicycle.
Nothing terrible, just annoyances. No big deal compared to dumb social prejudice against shorter men.
I'm 6'3" and have many of the same issues. I recognise that things in life are not always going to be fair and that many of these things ultimately even out (we probably save money walking where other take cabs or performing household maintenance shorter people find difficulty).
My bigger concern is the issue for traveling for work, which I do quite frequently. It does seem unfair that in order to not be in miserable pain for hours, taller people must shell out of pocket for doing something that is just part of their job. In fact, I wish airlines actually forced taller people to upgrade. That would make it so that my employer and people inviting me to give talks would be forced to pay for the upgrade to economy plus or business class.
I would imagine it's not mentioned because those costs are somewhat negligible compared to the positives of being a tall man. The things you've listed seem pretty trivial to be honest, and I imagine any man shorter than 5'9" would trade positions with you in an instant. It's like listing the bad parts of having more money, sure nothing is ever 100% positive but when it's 99% positive, it's not always worth mentioning the negative 1%.
I am 6’2" and wish I was just a little bit shorter. The standard heights and sizes of everything from toilets to countertops to airplane seats simply are not designed for people over 6'.
Height can also be a pain. I'm 6'5" and have lower back and sciatica pain, probably since most of my height is in my torso. Fitting into some cars is horrible. Airline seats are hell. My son is short for his age; go figure.
> Also not touched upon but felt by men and women is the general problem of being undersized for the world, which seems to be broadly sized for a 5'10" man (in the US at least).
I'm 6' tall and feel oversized for the world. Any time I have to use a counter, table, wash dishes, etc, I have to bend over just enough to jumpstart some back pain, and I imagine that's a contributing factor to chronic back and neck pain.
A friend looked into it once and found resources suggesting the standard kitchen counter is made for people 5'6". It's long been a dream of mine to get a custom made kitchen made for my own height. Well, it's a dream that follows the dream of owning my own place. One problem at a time.
Come on, you have to buy longer jeans, and extra-long-sleeved shirts, and probably bigger shoes. They all cost more. And given society's worshipping of tall people, it can't really suck. Not buying it; no sympathy from me.
Advantages? Such as not being able to purchase clothes or shoes anywhere except online? Seriously try to find a pair of 34x36 pants or 16 shoes. You can't anymore. In the 90s a store might have carried a pair of shoes, today they carry none because you can order online. Size Large shirts are too short and XL are too fat. So I need large tall which no one carries in stock. Literally every purchase I make is sight unseen.
Then there's the not really fitting in half the cars out there. Or amusement park rides. Or bowling shoes. Or safety equipment. Or saddles for horses.
You might complain that you can't reach things on the top shelf, try having to bend over for everything. Even to use countertops or bathrooms.
How about furniture always being short and forcing your knees to be elevated above your hips when you sit all of the time.
And beds... always too short. Want to stretch out? Only if it's a king and you lay diagonally.
Being tall is perpetual discomfort because this world is made for people of average height.
I'm 1.70m tall and living in the Netherlands with exactly the opposite problem. Most pants and other clothes are for taller men. I used to buy my clothes in River Island which had a good fit, but they closed the store last year. Buying men's clothes outside the norm is a pain.
There's definitely a weird and creepy bias against short men (for a fun time, check out twitter.com/heightismxposed and gawk at people who are literally saying that any guy who's under some arbitrary benchmark is subhuman and should kill himself), but as somebody who's a foot shorter than you, I will happily jump in and say that reclining seats on an airline is not part of the War on Short Men; this dude is just crazy and bitter.
I'm not a short person (5' 11.5"), but ISTM public toilets in USA have continually grown in height. I simply can't get comfortable on them. Either I'm barely on the front edge, which entails clearance issues, or my feet aren't flat on the floor. I realize that some of this is from misguided handicap requirements, but if we don't get a handle on this issue toilet heights will soon become completely untenable. People will start carrying around the item described in TFA just so they can get on and off the pot without injuring themselves.
I mean women suffer from this too, my gf is 5.1 and constantly complains about not finding things in her size, not being able to reach stuff, so I mean, i suppose it is a real disadvantage
I can imagine how humilitating it must feel if someone has to get a milkcrate to put in your garage so you can reach a shelf.
As a short person, it is a small disadvantage but not impossible to overcome with significant force of personality and fitness. As disgusting as it is, it is not unreasonable to look at yourself compensating in this way and realising that everyone has something to fix. Very few people are born perfect, and even if they are that doesn't help you get where you want to be.
> I'm 6' tall and feel oversized for the world. Any time I have to use a counter, table, wash dishes, etc, I have to bend over just enough to jumpstart some back pain, and I imagine that's a contributing factor to chronic back and neck pain.
I am 6'2" and I really connect with this. I am constantly shocked by washroom vanities set low enough that they feel like a child's toy, shower heads set at nose level, and kitchen counters just a few inches below the lowest level that I could comfortably work.
The biggest challenge is aerodynamics. If you're over 6'3" and want to be at all comfortable you're going to present a much larger frontal area than someone shorter.
It’s very hard to buy a bicycle.
Nothing terrible, just annoyances. No big deal compared to dumb social prejudice against shorter men.
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