The Masculinization of Tall Women vs. The Feminization of Short Women

We're gonna start this episode with a question, have you ever noticed how hype plays a role in how you're treated as a woman. Just as an example, many tall women feel as though they are more likely to be taken seriously partially due to their height, whereas many short women may feel the opposite. But all in all, physical appearance does play a huge role in how people perceive you, and to many that's usually clothing, in personal style, body art, even skin tone and weight. However, height is one of those more subtle things that people don't even realize that they're treating you a certain way because of it, whether it's in the workplace, friendships, or even romantic relationships. And in today's episode, we're gonna dive a little bit deeper into why that's the case and how that affects both tall women's and short women's everyday lives. So let's get into it. Good morning, everybody. You are currently listening to a Tall Girls podcast hosted by a tall girl named India. I hope everyone who's sitting in today is doing super fantastic. Before I get into this episode, I do want to say make sure you're follow me on my socials at a tall Girls podcast and instag going to Ticktock and pinches so that you can stay up to date on all of the latest podcast episodes and catch a glimpse of my everyday life. Also, feel free to leave me your review and let me know how tall you are. I'm genuinely curious. I also have a monthly newsletter, make sure you subscribe to that. Everything is going to be linked in the description. This episode is actually going to follow a similar format to another episode that I recorded a while ago, where I basically was speaking about the adultification of tall women versus the infantilization of short women, essentially discussing how young tall girls are perceived as older because of their height and treated as such, versus how the short girlies are perceived as younger, and how both of those things for both categories, the young tall girls and the short girlies, basically how those things kind of play a role in how they're fetishized. But today we're more so going to be talking about the masculinization of tall women versus the feminizations over feminization, which is low key infantilization in a way of short women. There's a lot of isations going on right now. Bear with me, but basically talking about what that looks like in both parties everyday lives, how they are treated because of it, and how that impacts their mental health and their confidence. Now I'm a tall girly myself. I'm a little over five to ten, and so I can really only speak for the tall girlies because I've lived through those experiences. So if you're a short woman listening to this episode right now and you want to chime in when it comes to your part of this episode, definitely feel free to let me know what the vibe is in the comments, or you can even send me a DM. So I'm gonna start off with the masculinization of tall women because I speak about this a lot on this podcast, so this is more of a refresher slash, a summary of all of the points that I've made probably up to this point in this podcast. So, by definition, to masculinized is to induce male physiological characteristics in or to cause to appear or see masculine. Now, physiological is a big term here, and I'm recording this on a Saturday morning. My brain cannot, Like, I'm not even gonna try to understand what that first definition was. So we're just gonna We're gonna stick with the second definition, Okay, to cause to appear or see masculine. That makes a lot more sense, honestly in this case. So what does it mean to be masculinized as a tall woman is essentially when your height is framed as a masculine trait. So this can look like being misgendered because of your height, people assuming that you're aggressive, intimidating, or even stronger than you actually are. Let me know if you resonate with any of this. And many tell women have shared their stories and experiences on Reddit, whether being seen as a protector in their family, being called sir in public, or people acting aggressively towards them, or constantly being asked to carry heavy stuff. Let's listen to this really quickly. The first time I was ever called manly or masculine was when I was ten years old. One time I went to the movies with my dad and my mom and an uncle, and then he went to get Chinese food, and I had an uncle tell me, wow, Ayisha, you're just like your dad. You look just like a man. I was ten. I've never in my life been called a man. I had never in my life been told something so unwarranted by someone that I was supposed to be inspired by or look up to. And I still remember how it made me feel when he told me that. I remember bursting out into tears, crying, and my mom talked to him. My mom talked to him and he eventually apologized. And now that I'm older, I make social media content. I've gone viral on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, you tube, and I have been the subject of so much transphobia, so much masculinization of tall women, black women. I have had death threats, I have had disgusting things said about me and my femininity and if I was a girl or a guy, and so many things. Honestly, at this point, I've developed dissociative amnesia to forget the things that have been said to me in order to just feel okay as I am now. And there are so many reasons for this. There are so many reasons why tall women are masculinized. There are many reasons why tall women are perceived as more masculine. One reason being that height is often associated with leadership and assertiveness and power, which are all masculine traits. Another reason honestly that isn't spoken about a lot is basically how we're represented in TV shows, in movies and books. Even I actually did an episode on how tall women are like villainized, where basically I spoke about how a lot of Disney villains and a lot of Disney movies the women characters the villain women characters yes are often taller, are often taller than the protagonist. And it's kind of similar to that how a lot of tall women are portrayed as the villains. A lot of tall women are portrayed as having higher positions of power. And seeing this or even reading this over and over and over again, it really sticks with people in their brains and they kind of just act it out in their everyday lives, affecting how they speak to us, how they see us, and how they treat us. And so when a tall women isn't confident in her height and or confident in her femininity, she may have a hard time standing up for herself, or may have a low sense of self worth, or may start shrinking herself or even over feminizing herself to try to make her seem less intimidating, and over time this can really internalize as anxiety and security or even shame about something that we can't even control. I did ask you guys in a poll over on Instagram, and I'm going to do a quick little plug here. Make sure you follow me at a Tall Girls podcast on Instagram so you can participate in these polls and have your opinions heard on these episodes. But I did ask you guys in a poll, tell girlies, has being masculinized ever affected your confidence? Eighty six percent of you guys said yes, it deleted my confidence, zero percent said yeah, it made me feel better about myself, and fourteen percent said no it didn't. So yeah, I mean it makes sense the majority of us it did negatively impact our confidence, especially you know, if we want to be viewed as feminine, if we want to feel feminine, and people placing these masculine traits on us, yeah, it's going to make us feel a little bit bad about ourselves. And you know, that does make sense. And then you know the others who are pretty indifferent. I love that for y'all. I'm assuming with that answer is kind of a thing of like, I am confident in myself. I was so confident in myself that when people tried to place these traits on me, associate these traits with me that I didn't want to be associated with, that I didn't want to be placed on me. It didn't affect me because I'm so comfortable within myself and I absolutely love that. But yeah, I think at least we can all agree that it didn't make us feel any better about ourselves. So very interesting results. Now, on the flip side, we have the feminization slash over feminization of short women. Now, to feminize means to make something more characteristic of or associated with women, and then to overfeminize is to excessively or exaggeratedly apply stereotypical feminine traits, roles, and behaviors to something or someone. And so I'm pretty sure. And this is just like as an example of what many people hear, especially when it comes to TikTok. How like the whole discussion of oh, why don't men prefer like tall women? Why do men prefer to go for shorter women? Da? Da da da da. This is just an example how in terms of the dating world, there are men who prefer to go for women who are shorter than them or just short in general, and their reasoning behind this is because short women are more feminine in their eyes. Now, why is this the case. It's because society often associates smallness with softness and delicacy and needing to be protected, which oftentimes is traditionally tied to women. Like those are qualities that are often tied to women, and then this idea of softness and delicacy and needing protection and so forth is seen as attractive to some people. However, I will also say that there is also a bit of an extreme to that, and that's where we kind of get into the fetishization aspect of it. And listen, this goes beyond calling short women like cute and adorable, which we're going to get into a little bit later in terms of that terminology, but it's also like making suggestive comments regarding involving or regarding their height, or maybe seeing them as more submissive or more controllable. And some people are into that. And listen, not Tino shade, Okay, we don't kink shame here, but it is a reality that a lot of short women are fetishized because of their height. I personally feel like it has to do with some type of power dynamic in a way, but you can let me know if you agree or disagree with that, and then kind of moving away from the fetishization of short women. We also have those moments where people associate childlike qualities with shorter women, which can also kind of play into the fetishization of short women. But like, I don't want to get into that because it's just really creepy in my personal opinion. But yes, oftentimes shorter women get associated with childlike qualities, like when they're called cute or adorable, or they're also called little, or people automatically assuming that they're younger than they actually are. And I'm also hearing stories of how some short women are being picked up by their friends, by their family, by random people, how they're being picked up but they don't want to be picked up. Okay, it's gonna make more sense when I play the following stories for you, guys. I would hate to be a short woman, and not for some like stupid, superficial reason like oh being shortest ugly, Like obviously not. It's just men are so weird towards short women, Like I have friends that are like five five foot to like four eleven or five two to four eleven. And men are just so weird to me. They treat them like kids. First off, I remember I had this girl in my class and she was like I think four eleven about and like men in the class would just like pick her up, and like the whole time she would just be saying like stop that, like I don't want you to do that, but not in like a cute he ha haway where she's trying to be pick me like. She was actually uncomfortable and they just wouldn't listen to her, Like I can only imagine how annoying that must be on like a daily basis if you have to deal with men like that. I don't know who needs to hear this, but stop telling short people or short women that they look like little girls. Last week, we were with somebody and she was like, wait, how old did you say you are? You look like you're sixteen? You look like a little girl. Are you're twenty nine? You look like a little girl? Oh my god? Like, oh my god, sorry, I'm short as hell and I have a petite body. Like mind your miss, It's like you don't see me saying, ill, you look like an old witch, You're you're sixty Oh my god, you look like you're seventy five. That would not be okay if I told you that. So why do you think it's okay to tell me that? Yes, I'm fully aware I look really really young, like I look like I'm still in high school. But I will be thankful for that in the next twenty thirty years when I'm thirty and forty and people are like trying to gets my age. Stop telling short people that they look like little girls. It's not cool. It's messed up. Just like if someone was. Overweight, You're not gonna tell them you look overweight. I mean, I'm sure there's people that are like that, but it's not doesn't make it okay. It doesn't matter if it's somebody I haven't seen in a year, months, five years, so on, no matter if they like me a lot, like me a little bit, maybe even have a secret dislike whatever. I disagree with their paste, but none of my business. Why is it that anytime someone runs into me or is surprised to see me or excited to see whatever, they just like immediately scoop me up and twirl me around and hug me as if I'm a rag doll. I get it. I get it. I am for eleven and a half and I get that. I'm like, so I'm so cute and squeezable. But I am in my thirties and I don't lie. As much as I love affection and I love love, I don't enjoy being a grown woman that someone does that to me. I can't help but giggle and laugh and throw my head back, and it's all fun and games because then when I think about it, and I'm like, again, I am a grown woman in my thirties that is getting hugged and twirled around by people my age, specifically men. But this really shows in a way that there are people out there who don't really take shorter women seriously. And it's not even a thing of like in the workplace and stuff like that, but more so it's like when I don't want to say put their foot down, but like, for example, when saying that they don't want to be picked up, yet you're they'll picking them up. Like that's odd, honestly, but that could partially be because they're associated with childlike qualities and so, which is sad. Adults are less likely to take children seriously, which is very sad. You should be taking everybody seriously. But because they're kind of like put in that realm of seen as younger, associated with childlike qualities and so forth, the other person is not gonna want to take them seriously. It's not gonna think to take them seriously because they wouldn't take a child seriously. You know, they wouldn't really listen to what a child would say. And again, just like how the masculinization of tall women that could play a role in their insecurities and in their everyday lives and their mental health and their confidence and so forth, this also plays a role in short women's confidence too. I can only speak for the tall early. So if you're a short woman listening to this right now, definitely feel free to let me know what your comments are on this, if you've had any experience with being associated with more feminine qualities, more girly qualities not being taken seriously, fetishization like, I want to hear all of your thoughts on this either way. All in all, the short girlies deserve to be taken seriously, just as the tall girlies deserve to be treated with kindness. Height or any physical trait should not dictate how someone is treated their character should. As I said before, I can really only speak for the tall women because I have lived through those experiences, and you know, over the past few weeks, over the past few episodes, and not only have I spoken about how other people have perceived tall women as masculine or treated tall women as masculine, but there are also tall women who don't feel feminine, who don't feel like they can be feminine, who often feel masculine, and they don't want to. It's one thing if you want to, but some of them don't want to feel masculine. They want to be feminine, but it's hard to feel that way because not only how people treat them, but also other external factors like clothing and shopping and so forth. Either way, if you're a tall woman listening to this right now, it is very possible that a lot of masculine traits have been placed on you, and you are not alone. You are not the only one, okay, And I understand and may leave them asking are tall women more masculine? In my personal opinion, not necessarily. Height isn't a deciding factor in masculinity, and if you disagree, you're weird. But I do understand how this can play a role in some tall women hating their height. So we are going to end this episode with a Tall Girl affirmation of the day. I like my height. Say it with me. I like my height. I like my height. I like my height. Really, you're not saying it loud enough. Speak with your chest. I need to hear you through the screen exactly. Anyways, I'm going to end the episode here. Thank you so much for tuning in. I really appreciate it, and I appreciate you of course. As always, feel free to hit me about my socials at a Tall Girls podcast and they're gonna be linked below, and you can let me know what you thought about this episode. If you agree or disagree with any of the points that I made, I'm sorry if it feels like a little bit choppy. I don't know. I feel like I'm pretty good at editing now. I've gotten better, so I think I can edit it in a way that makes sense. But part of me also feels like it's like a little bit all over the place. I did like right up this episode one in the morning. It's just been a long week, y'all. It's been a long week. But we're doing the thing. We're doing the thing, but you can let me know what you think about any of the points that I made if you feel like you know, tall women are masculinized and how that negatively impacts our confidence and our mental health, and if the short women are feminized and even over feminized. Yes, they have these feminine qualities placed on them because of how society views smallness, how it's how they view it and connected to softness and delicacy, which are traditional women qualities, but also how they're given like childlike qualities to leading them to not be taken seriously or even be sexualized. Like as weird as that last part is to say, but what do you think about that? I want to hear comments from the short girlies and the tall girlies. Let's have a discussion about it. I'm genuinely curious, And until then, I will catch y'all in the next one. Good Night and goodbye,