Do Tall Women get Harassed Less?

I am very short. Don't get unwanted sexual attention or harassment but I do get patronised a lot. I don't wish I was taller. I just wish those patronising bastards, of both sexes, weren't such TWATS. It's THEM not me - same applies to nero's example as PP have so kindly pointed out.

Utterly average size and hight with mosey brown hair and glasses, totally invisible to arse holes. Which suits me just fine.

Er. Actually Nero, I'm tallish and wish a was even taller!

So neener.

IME women who tend to get the most harassment are the ones who have the temerity to stand out in any way.

When I was 20, curvy with big boobs I got a stupid amount of harassment. Some was general interest, which was fine, but much was misogynistic groping and abuse.

Now, I'm ten years older and fat, with even bigger boobs. I now get harassment for both these things. Luckily I have a resource bank of responses, my current favourite of which is an arm around the shoulder of the offender, a broad smile and a cheery: "mate, if I had your face, I wouldn't even leave the house!"

I'd rather be left alone in the first place though.

Yeah, not following you there either nero

What does 'using your size as a power tool' mean?

Glad you've never been harassed.

nerofiend are you honestly asserting that women who get random shit on the street, do so because they are having some internal struggle about being tall when they want to be short, or short when they want to be tall, and this discomfort is somehow psychically projected onto men who are then compelled to harrass them?

That is one of the most convoluted victim-blamey posts I've ever seen!

So when my friend at 14 had a bus driver say he'd let her go free if she showed him her tits, this was probably down to her having some internal struggle going on about wanting to be taller. Or something. Not the bus driver just being a creepy bastard.

Riiiiiiiiight...

I'm really petite (I'll leave others to judge whether cute or not), blondish, and quite young looking and I never got harassed or disrespected by men because of it.

I think many broad, tall, big women have an issue with their size (same as small women like me might have an issue too) and try to convince themselves that they're better off for being tall and big, when in reality they secretly would like to be petite. I have a friend who is like that and she even told me herself she would have loved to have been petite. But she uses her size as a power tool, and that is what is really off putting to men.

I don't think size is the issue but the vibe that you send to men - and women. If you've got power issues in your head and use them either to attract or reject men, the response that you get from them is based more on that than anything else.

I don't use my size to attract men or manipulate them in any way. I treat everybody, men and women, with respect, regardless of their size, and expect the same from them. I normally get that respect but, of course, there are lot of people out there, whether male or female, with lots of power issues in their heads, and it's mostly from those that we don't get the respect we all deserve.

Yes, when I was younger, lots of attention, a fair bit of it unpleasant. But I generally felt safe - mainly because of the 'fuck off' attitude that's been mentioned, but also, yes, if someone came up close I could usually look down on them. I wore very masculine clothes, short hair and sensible boots, so walking in the dark I'd pass as a man.

I'm tall and overweight and pretty ugly and from being 11 - 20 I just got crap all the time if it was about height, the size of my arse, my large chest etc.

people that way inclined will find anything , although I find with a buggy means im invisible to that now.

I've no idea if taller women get harassed less though, I would have thought a scumbag is a scumbag and would try it with anyone.

I've only recently (since I was over 40) grown my hair as it makes me look even younger. I've developed a very hard stare to accompany my silence too.

I'm 5ft with a very large chest and very small, young looking facial features.

I have always had men try to talk to me in the street - I never look at anyone and cultivate an 'I'm thinking' about something else look.

I have just walked through a town centre and had at least 4 men try to engage me. I either had mental health difficulties or was pretending to as he was walking close behind me saying 'fuck' and mumbling incoherently.

I always, always ignore it. Only if someone touches me do I round on someone very aggressively (deliberately)

Eeating funny you mention about the buggy = invisibility. Have noticed this (and like it tbh!) but then a loud group of young lads from the college started whistling at me on the way to DD's nursery the other day, followed by loud comments of "Would you though? She's a MILF, you reckon, bit old, would you? " literally debating whether they 'would' or 'wouldn't' due to my age and the fact I was a mother. I thankfully was a bit ahead of them so could race off without looking at them at all, but felt bloody embarrassed. No idea why as it was their own idiocy, but it did make me feel old and objectified as well as worry for the future as they had no shame and were being very loud, clearly thinking they were being clever or had a right to discuss me like a piece of meat.

I'm 5'8" and don't get much of the direct stuff, though still occasionally get shouted at from vans etc. - I agree with pp though that a buggy renders invisibility! My friend who is just under 5' has been hassled and robbed several times, she thinks it's a mixture of size but also looking younger than her age. I wonder also if you have experienced it a lot you present as slightly less confident?

I'm tall and I've got a large chest. I get lots of comments about Both. the height thing doesn't bother me too much. I don't see tall as a negative. the comments about my tits wears me down though.
I probably gets as many comments now as when I was in my 20s. I'm not exactly Heidi Klum either.

I'm 5'7", and I'm always amazed by the amount of harassment some other women get, because it just doesn't happen to me - and I'm generally considered conventionally "pretty" and tend to dress in quite a feminine manner.

However, it did happen a lot when I was a teenager - catcalls, men making a grab for me, following me down the street and so on, and it used to terrify me. I was physically an early developer but mentally didn't get interested in sex till 17-18, so I wasn't equipped to cope with it.

I suspect that due to that I've developed some pretty powerful "fuck off and keep the hell from me" vibes. Men look, but that's all.

I'm the size of your average 11 year old. 5ft tall and size 6. Naturally very blonde hair, conventional looks. No chest to speak of. Have been called cute on a few occasions and had a lot of attention (mostly wanted, some not so much!) during my teens and twenties. I wouldn't have called it harassment though. Certainly seems to have tailed off now I'm older! I've always wanted to be a bit taller. As a teacher it's awkward trying to discipline a child 4 inches taller then you.

I have noticed when I wear heels, guys react differently to me. I am 5'9" without heels, so can easily be 6' in heels.
Generally they find it more difficult to talk to me, and spend more time looking at the floor. This was particularly noticeable with one man I know who is normally quite self assured, but presumably never talks to women as tall as he is.
I have never thought before that there might be an opposite yet similar effect if a woman is shorter.

Interesting question. I am 5 7 so just above average height I guess and the question of height has not arisen for me. I do notice that I get less unwanted attention now, at the age of 44, than I used to in my 20's and 30's when I got stacks, being probably quite conventionally attractive at that time. I see that as a positive about getting older, actually.

I was just discussing the dating taller men thing on another thread in chat. I think a lot of short men feel threatened and can be shitty to women who are taller than them... so I do prefer taller men than myself. But I don't think it's that I particularly like tall men over shirt so much as I get treated better iyswim? ALso I am quite shy and won't come on to guys too much unless I am wasted so it's usually tall men who will talk to me.

Oh I get abuse for being tall. [shrugs] you can't win. Being an unattractive woman who doesn't conform to some guys idea of what is "sexy" brings it's own level of shit. The fact that men feel they can comment in a sexual or maligning way is the same really. They still feel they have a right over some woman's body, even some woman they don't know.

I think if you are "attractive enough" and tall you might get slightly less abuse.

freya I've dated a couple of men shorter than me. One of them asked me not to hold his hand while crossing the road as "you feel like my mother" which has kind of put me off. I also do still want to feel protected at times and some Neanderthal part of that seems to be equated with size; hug from big burly man feels much more secure than me having to cock my head down onto shorter man's shoulder. May just be me though!

Lion, I have never been interested in dating men taller than me and my husband is shorter than me. Of the tall women I know, most of them are not married to tall men. I don't know how important that is to tall women. I would have thought it was more important to shorter women, but I could be wrong. I suppose if am with someone who is two inches shorter than me, they are 5 foot 8, which is a fairly ordinary height for a man. If a woman of 5 foot 3 dates a man two inches shorter than her, that is 5 foot 1, which is exceptionally short for a man. Sorry, rambling...

Ah this is interesting.

I feel a bit uncomfortable with this stuff - it only came up recently.

I assume that growing up everyone got the same amount of crap as me, and some of my friends.

On a thread recently, it came out that (possibly) hair colour has an impact. From my friends experience beast size is one as well.

So for me, I am small (5'3'') and also fairly petite. I am also a natural blonde who is conventionally "pretty". From about 14 to late 20s I just got shit all the time.

My friends who have had large chests when young have also got a lot of it.

So while I used to think that there is just a certain type of bloke who's an arsehole and does / says whatever when he feels like it if there is a female there. I now think that some females by dint of whatever appear to get more shit than others.

On height, I think that taller people are more respected generally in society, and being perceived as stronger, so that might have some kind of impact.

Of course there aren't many women who have got away with it all their lives. And clearly street abuse / assault / whatever are always the fault of the perpetrator. A small blonde 14yo girl with large breasts should not be seen as an acceptable target of abuse for anyone. For example.

I don't know about 'harassed' but I think men are more wary of taller women. I don't think they quite know what to do if you are taller than them. Not always, obviously, but for some men I can see an element of panic at times.

I also think it is much harder for tall women to find another tall(er) man past a certain age, but that is another thread about acting like a meerkat in bars perhaps and I have given up now, so past caring