Why don't men know how tall they are/aren't?

[GreeboIsMySpiritAnimal]

Conversation with a male colleague today:

Him: you're really tall! How tall are you? About 5'10?
Me: I'm 5'7
Him: Nooooo, you're not, you're much taller than that! I'm 5'11 and you're not much shorter than me!

I'm 5'7. I know I'm 5'7, because I've been pregnant twice in recent years, and they measure your height. In fact, once I had to stand up very straight not to be measured at 5'6. Bloke in question is about an inch taller than me.

He's not the only man, I've known several do this. My DH claims to be 5'10, despite being barely taller than me. But why the fuck do they bother?! Does it not occur to them, we can instantly compare them to that handy yardstick of...ourselves??!

Height inflation starts early...

My in-laws are weirdly obsessed with the height of their grandsons. I remember watching them measure our nephew's height when he was a toddler. This was done by standing him against a wall, selecting a thick hardback book, placing it on his head (slanting noticeably upwards towards the wall), and putting a pencil mark where the UPPER edge of the book met the wall. See, look how tall he is!! pencil mark a good inch and a half above the poor kid's head

I have tried to keep DS out of this madness, but the comments continue. On our last visit they wanted the grandsons to stand back to back for comparison, but I headed this off (largely out of consideration for DNephew, who is both older and shorter than DS). They're not vegetable marrows. It's not a competition to grow the biggest one.

Meanwhile, none of them give one tiny little shit one way or the other about how tall DD is. Because she's a girl, don't you know.

DH is 6' 3 but he says he doesn't "feel" tall. He will see a tall guy in the street and is then surprised as he gets closer and finds that they're the same height

I dated a guy who insisted he was 5' 7 but I'm 5' 4.5 and he was shorter than me!

DH is exactly 6ft, he was measured for a medical a few years ago. Except he looks (to me) shorter because he is so wide with really broad shoulders and a 48" chest (ex rugby player). So from a distance he only looks a bit taller than me (5ft 6") but when standing next to him he can easily rest his chin on the top of my head. It's really weird.

My Auntie was a model back in the 60s and early 70s and was definitely 5ft 9" (all her statistics were printed in her book) and it always amused her how men insisted they were 6ft, but were clearly no taller than her (and often shorter).

@Cattenberg

(some) Men lie about height, penis size grin, and income.

(some) Women lie about dress size, weight, and how healthy the kids' diet really is.

Both as bad as each other.

Don’t forget age! Women lie because some men automatically rule out women their own age. And men lie in order to attract much younger women.

I don’t know how successful the women are with this strategy, but I know the men are often rumbled within the first ten seconds of the first date.

Equally as quickly I'd imagine.

Just don't lie is the best way!

I’m a 40 year old woman and I honestly couldn’t tell you my height.

It’s never occurred to me to measure it.

Its not just height with some men - one of our old employees was obsessed by the length of everyone's drive - if someone moved house he would actually go to the new house and measure the driveway and if it was longer than his, he would be in a grump for several weeks!!! He felt that as he had been working here longer he should have the longer driveway.

It's not just men who over-estimate their height, my sister once said of my nephew that he was 'going to be tall, like his dad' - who is 5' 8"

Blobby he sounds nuts!

Ask them to draw a six inch line 😂

I’m slightly over six foot but not quite 6’1”, I get regularly measured at the diabetes clinic and each season for rugby, otherwise I probably wouldn’t know my height. I’m Asian, so in Asian terms I’m massive, in Caucasian terms I’m not. My boyfriend thought he was about 5’8”, I measured him and hes actually just shy of 5’10”.

Yes!

My DH genuinely couldn’t tell you his own eye colour, let alone his height (I’m not even kidding).

Yes my ex was 6 foot according to him. I'm 5'9, but have shrunk a bit, I used to be 5'10 and to be honest I just went along with it and didn't really question it. My previous boyfriends had been taller so I just thought well maybe that's what 6 foot looks like. But more recently, having separated, I realised that he is definitely no taller than me. He kidded himself and I allowed myself to be deluded by him too!

I do like taller men as I'm quite tall, but I'd consider a shorter man too, if he was great in other ways. But it annoys me that women in general seem to want tall men. If you are 5'2" can't you leave the six-footers for us? :o

I met a man on OLD who said he was 6'. Turned out in the flesh he was about 5'6''. I think he thought his lovely farm and livery business would make him taller. It didn't. I used to be 5'7'' until I broke my back. I'm 5'5'' now

If you are 5'2" can't you leave the six-footers for us?

For some reason, it's the shorter women among my friends who seem to make such a fuss about only liking men above a certain height.

Maybe it's Nature's way of trying to even up the balance?!

@PumpkinCheater

If you are 5'2" can't you leave the six-footers for us?

For some reason, it's the shorter women among my friends who seem to make such a fuss about only liking men above a certain height.

Maybe it's Nature's way of trying to even up the balance?!

It was short women who were the worst about my ex being slightly shorter than me. I think some of them have a real thing about feeling 'little' and 'delicate' and 'protected', all of which I find a bit gross!

@Blobby10

Its not just height with some men - one of our old employees was obsessed by the length of everyone's drive - if someone moved house he would actually go to the new house and measure the driveway and if it was longer than his, he would be in a grump for several weeks!!! He felt that as he had been working here longer he should have the longer driveway.

I laughed out loud at that - what a niche measure of success

I hadn’t realised quite what a shortarse I was at 5 ft, until my dd caught up and passed me recently and she still looks so tiny!!

I'm 5ft 6, my ex is 5 ft 7. But he adds an inch to both our heights.

DH is 5 ft 6 — as confirmed at a recent medical where he was measured— but knows it.

I, on the other hand, weigh nearly a stone less than I thought — we’ve been in the middle of an international move for months, and I just unpacked our scales, to discover the stress of lots of temporary moves and Covid eating my job has whittled off 13 pounds since July.

I am 5ft and DH is now 5ft 11" - he was 6ft when we met thirty years ago 😁 Two of my children are taller than me, the others will be soon. DH said it was very weird when the eldest got taller and was in his line of vision, he'd had an uninterrupted view of the house up till then 😂

I work in a primary school and by Y6 most of the kids are taller than me, especially the girls. I never feel short unless, like a PP, I see myself in photos, then it's obvious. Or I am in the kitchen - where all the worktops are too high and the top half of the wall units is impossible

I've always measured DC on their birthday and marked it in the red book. I'm very careful to be accurate.

DSs would often come home saying that a friend or another would claim to be 6 foot or whatever and then tell DS that he must be 6'2 or whatever since he was taller and DSs would then tell the friend that they were not 6 foot as they weren't (at that point) 6 foot and were clearly taller than the friend.

Some folk feel the need to exaggerate. One was even insisting that he must be 6 foot as his mum told him he was....

Now obviously I am also a mum telling DS was height he was, but that was after careful accurate measuring. DS2 at a later point was measured for a medical thing by hospital and their measurement at that point matched with my own so I'm comfortable that I would be correct or as near as.

I've been referred to as being "really small only 5ft 6" when its not and I am small at 5ft 2". But then the bloke in question is 6ft 2 and fills a space. So sometimes its relative but often its not

I guess it's all relative. I used to be 5'10 which is tall for a woman, probably more like 5'9 nowadays. When I used to go into the office, most folk were pretty small so I'd feel like a giant, then come home to everyone being 6'2 or over and feeling tiny, I look really small in photos of us all standing up in a family photo, which friends then laugh at as I am a lumbering giant when we are out together - and I wear flats mostly now.

I can't actually remember ever discussing height with a man unless he was unusually tall (as in 6 ft 4 plus).

Its something which only seems to be a topic while still growing... my 13 year old son is interested in how tall he is compared to friends, my 15 year old daughter discusses height of claasmates of both sexes.

I'm not sure I've ever had a man tell me he is a certain difficult to believe height - but my dating days were long ago - I never went on a blind date, I only went out with boys/ men I'd actually met so I never had to ask their height as I already knew whether they were roughly an attractive to me size I guess!

Is this an online dating phenomenon?

Blobby10 I agree with the poster saying the drive length one is definitely the best length obsession! Thats hilarious! I assume people with on street parking only or living in flats were beneath his notice?

I had dated a fella like this. I have never been attracted to short men (sorry if that offends anyone, but that’s just me) however, he seemed really nice and I was determined to not judge on appearances, as I had previously, so agreed to a few dates. He was nice enough but saw an increasingly moody side over the couple of months. He came to pick me up one evening, and I was slightly taller than him, in my heels. Rightly or wrongly, I don’t like to be taller than my date, so I said “I’m just going to quickly change my shoes..” and he practically shouted “Why??” So I said “well I just feel a bit uncomfortable... I’m a bit taller than you” and he really shouted “how can you be taller than me, I’m 5’ 9”!!!” Well, I’m 5’ 2” and I wasn’t wearing 7” heels! So I pointed this out..big mistake!! He wasn’t happy at all and kept on and on that he was 5’ 9”, when he was clearly about 5’ 5”. Just weird (and was another nail in the coffin, as we split I shortly afterwards) 🤷🏼‍♀️