Why Tall Women Feel Ashamed Of Their Height: Toxic Heightism in Social Media

Hey there! Welcome! It’s great to see you. Well, I can’t actually see you through your computer screen or your webcam...that would be creepy...ANYWAYS, as you can tell by the title, we have a very serious topic on our hands and that is social toxicity and heightism. 

Now, it is nothing new that social media, especially the popular ones such as Instagram, Tik Tok, Pinterest, and even YouTube, can be extremely toxic in all realms, ranging from photoshopping to the “That girl trend”. It probably has made you feel bad about yourself in some type of way, unless you’re living under a rock. 

Heightism is one of those aspects of the toxic side of social media. I’m pretty sure you’ve heard or seen racism, sexism, weightism/sizeism, and even colorism, but, at least to my knowledge I haven’t really seen or heard anything about heightism. You may be wondering, what is heightism? According to dictionary.com, heightism is discrimination, or prejudice based on someone’s stature, or height. It’s kind of like unfair treatment against people whose height you don’t consider acceptable to your standards or you don’t consider acceptable to society’s standards. And something like this goes for people of any height, tall or short. 

Something like this is so subtle in the social media world, that it really affects the subconscious of tall women. After hearing so many times, “oh he’ll never go for me because I’m too tall” or “I’m towering over him so I’m not even gonna try”, I really just wonder why is it like this? Don’t get me wrong; I’m guilty of saying and thinking things like this too. But why do we say stuff like this without a second thought? Why is something like this supposedly predetermined without even asking for a confirmation from the other person? The answer is social media heightism. 

I can tell you, in just one sitting, I can scroll through my feed, whether on Instagram or Tik Tok or wherever, and I can see a post or a video of some guy literally saying “I will never go for a girl who’s taller than me”. Or “girls who are shorter than me” with a heart eye emoji at the end of the statement. Or “flirting with a pretty girl and then making a u-turn when she stands up” because the girl is on the taller side. And these posts have hundreds of THOUSANDS of likes and comments. 

I get it, okay. People have preferences and that’s completely fine. But putting other people down because of something that more times than not they can’t control because they are not your preference is not fine. Think about all of the tall girls that are scrolling through social media and seeing this and thinking that they will never find someone who is attracted to them simply because of their height. We wouldn’t support a video that says “I will never go for black girls” or “skinny girls" or thick girls”. So, why do the same for these heightist videos?

Check Out The Full Episode Here! 

I give some advice on my podcast episode above on how to combat this social media heightism. Be sure to check it out! And no matter how tall or how short you are, you are beautiful!! You’re so amazing for reading my entire rant. Let me know your thoughts on this issue by hitting me up on my socials @atallgirlspodcast. Until next time :)

Goodnight and goodbyyyyyeee,

India