How to deal with comments about my height? Im short

Former Member

Hi guys,

Throughout my life people occasionally make jokes or little remarks about my height, often in jess or joky fashion but sometimes in a more harsh way.

For example I was out for a meal with my friends and one of my friends girlfriend said , do you need a high chair?As I sat at the table.
This bugged me as she is quite frankly, obese , I cant do any thing about my height but she felt the need to say that to me.

I wanted to say something back but being the gentleman that I am I didnt want to offend my friends girlfriend so I took it on the chin and laughed it off.


Another time on holiday a girl walked up to me and said why are you so small? She was laughing and I didnt know really what to say to that.

Now im 5ft 5" , short for a male I guess but im a good looking guy with a hot girlfriend and im fairly confident. I just dont know what to say in these situations.

Its as almost that people think its ok to make fun of height, but for example if I said to someone in response, well at least im not fat im sure they would be fairly offended I imagine and would react badly.


Any advice?

Former Member

The best way with that is laugh it off, maybe give a bit of a retort. When she asked you if you need a height chair ask her if she needs a steel reinforced chair. Immature? Maybe, but could have the effect that you are not a punching bag and are able to defend yourself. The more you show it bothers you, the more they know how to pull your leg. So try to come from an angle of humor instead of anger. Chuckle and tell her "good one, hehe, maybe if you are at it you could ask the waiter if they have steel beam reinforced chairs?" If she gets huffy tell her not to dish out if she can't take a quip back.

Also, if that does not stop, looking for new friends is certainly no mistake. I know a couple short people but nobody of them is harassed in my circle of friends. Sometimes there are little digs (e.g. on saturday we were sat at a friends place and one friend's gf (who is a bit short) told us how she saw a GIGANTIC man and she only reached up to his stomach and that she never saw anything like that before and her flatmate said, "never? Here are four more", meaning us, who are of average/slightly above height), she just make a mocking laugh and we moved on.)

You don't need to be the martyr to take shit from others. Stand up for yourself and people don't mess with you. There is nothing "gentleman" about taking a hit and shutting up about it. Especially if you have a "hot gf" and you are confident about this, you should be able to say anything to that if it comes to confidence. Like, "All my meat was needed for my crotch." or idk. Just stop being upset by this, ignore it, retort, make a witty comeback, it does not matter, because if you don't give a shit what others have to say about your height it won't matter to you how you react in these situations.

Former Member

Hey there,

As Strubbles says I guess it's about finding that inner confidence to be able to laugh it off, make a joke back or just ignore it.

You said:

im a good looking guy with a hot girlfriend and im fairly confident. I just dont know what to say in these situations.

That to me sounds like someone that feels good about themselves but takes these kind of situations to heart, for example, that time on holiday has really stayed in your mind.

Maybe have a think, how would you like to be able to act in these situations?

One option might be to think about ways to help boost your self-esteem a little more - for example, doing the things that you enjoy and spending time with the people in your life that help you to feel good about yourself and spending less time with the ones that tend to bring you down.

It's also worth mentioning that we have a chat just for guys every other Tuesday night in our live chat room here so you could always drop by and get some advice from some of the other guys here, next one is a week tomorrow (20th).

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