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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Do you consider 5ft1/155cm height fur a woman very short or not in the realms of average height ?

348 replies

TownsendThoresen · 23/03/2023 09:38

I was always told as a child I'd be tall as an adult - by everyone around me - but my actual adult height is 5ft1/155cm. I'm female.

OP posts:
MrsSamR · 23/03/2023 14:53

My sister was 5 foot 1 and I remember her being gutted as she was too short to be an air hostess (you have to be able to put luggage in the overhead bins and she couldn't reach!) so I think on that basis it's short!

bubbles2023 · 23/03/2023 14:55

I'm a half inch taller and think I'm short. I'm pretty much the shortest person with my female friends and family. I live in comfy boots so it doesn't always seem that I'm small.

sanityisamyth · 23/03/2023 14:55

My DS(9) is already nearly 5'0". He's very close to the height of two of my friends, which is awkward!

OnMyWayToSenility · 23/03/2023 14:57

I'm 5"2" and consider myself short
I have friends smaller and taller than me.

The tall ones think they smell as I tend to stand back from them so I'm not gazing at their chest! And don't have to strain my neck to look up 🤣

Hate being hugged and fitting under armpits too

TheMarzipanDildo · 23/03/2023 14:58

jainirrjones · 23/03/2023 10:22

Yes. I'd hate to be that short. The taller girls at my school were envied for their height.

Show quote history

If you actually were that height you would not hate it. I don’t think my life has been in any way negatively affected by being 5’2.

StaringAtTheWater · 23/03/2023 14:58

I wonder also if height varys by area, which would affect your perception. Currently I live in London, and it feels like a lot of the woman are on the small and slim side (perhaps because of the ethnic diversity?) whereas in some parts of UK a lot of women seem quite tall and I have felt particularly short in comparison

glossypeach · 23/03/2023 14:59

I’m 4’10 so I’m super short that it’s like a defining feature that people first notice about me. I think you’re short but not ‘so’ short that people double look.

TheMarzipanDildo · 23/03/2023 15:01

JaninaDuszejko · 23/03/2023 12:40

I think it's worth pointing out yet again that there is no virtue or achievement in being big.

This

Fizbosshoes · 23/03/2023 15:07

glossypeach · 23/03/2023 14:59

I’m 4’10 so I’m super short that it’s like a defining feature that people first notice about me. I think you’re short but not ‘so’ short that people double look.

I think the same. I almost always make a self deprecating remark or joke about my height when I meet new people, partly as a sort of defence mechanism before someone else can make a joke at my expense and partly because if I make people laugh they might remember me as funny rather than just unbelievably short! 🤣

LuciferRising · 23/03/2023 15:09

Yes. I'd hate to be that short. The taller girls at my school were envied for their height.

Surprised that what the other girls envied at your school still has a bearing on your life. Have you only recently left?

LuciferRising · 23/03/2023 15:10

Fizbosshoes · 23/03/2023 15:07

I think the same. I almost always make a self deprecating remark or joke about my height when I meet new people, partly as a sort of defence mechanism before someone else can make a joke at my expense and partly because if I make people laugh they might remember me as funny rather than just unbelievably short! 🤣

Show quote history

Reminds me of my favorite quote from Tyrion 'Let me give you some advice, bastard. Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.'

Beezknees · 23/03/2023 15:15

I don't think it's VERY short, but shorter than average. I'd say anything under 5' is "very" short.

I'm just under 5'5 and consider myself average height for a woman. Anything over 5'8 I'd consider tall.

IMustDoMoreExercise · 23/03/2023 15:24

I'm that height and I always felt small because my sisters were 5'5 and 5'6.

They could wear anything they wanted to do but I couldn't.

Now that I am in my 50s, I rarely dress up so it doesn't bother me.

TenoringBehind · 23/03/2023 15:26

Very short

I’m 5’3 and feel somewhere between short and very short

weebarra · 23/03/2023 15:26

I don't mind bring under 5ft really but it does make it hard to get clothes and yes, people always feel the need to point it out!

jainirrjones · 23/03/2023 15:42

LuciferRising · 23/03/2023 15:09

Yes. I'd hate to be that short. The taller girls at my school were envied for their height.

Surprised that what the other girls envied at your school still has a bearing on your life. Have you only recently left?

Comprehension issues? I was responding to a OP's school experience. I've pasted it in below for you.

"I had friends that were crazy tall at school and they hated it far more than I disliked being short. They always had awkward posture and kind of slumped so they weren't towering"

jainirrjones · 23/03/2023 15:43

Pp, not OP. Autocorrect

KohlaParasaurus · 23/03/2023 15:50

That's my height and I'm definitely short, but "being short" isn't part of my internal identity so it always comes as a shock when I go to a clothes shop and everything is too long for me, or see a photo of myself next to other people and discover all over again that they tower over me.

I do not like people lifting me off the ground when they hug me.

whatausername · 23/03/2023 15:52

Oh aye, that is short.

155cm height fur, however, I would consider really rather tall.

nc13467 · 23/03/2023 15:54

I'm 5'2 and consider myself to be short and often get comments about my height (not in a negative way as such). But I don't think it's abnormally small in a way that makes you "abnormal" or that strangers would be noticing and pointing it out.

As we're roughly the same height id describe you as the same

Splodgerbodgerbadger · 23/03/2023 16:01

Fizbosshoes · 23/03/2023 15:07

I think the same. I almost always make a self deprecating remark or joke about my height when I meet new people, partly as a sort of defence mechanism before someone else can make a joke at my expense and partly because if I make people laugh they might remember me as funny rather than just unbelievably short! 🤣

Show quote history

I do the same, I did an adventure race with my friend the other week who is 5ft 9. It involved climbing over obstacles my friend could just step over them but I had to climb. She was killing herself laughing at me trying to get over some. There was some water to walk through too and that was up to the top of my legs but hardly over her knees!

HappiestSleeping · 23/03/2023 16:17

@EauNeu I just checked. Average height of a woman in the UK is 5'3" according to the ONS.

QueefQueen80s · 23/03/2023 16:30

Yes definitely short.

georgarina · 23/03/2023 16:31

I'm 5'1 and small, shop in the petite section - was a 'thing' all through school. Barely think about it now but yeah never felt average height

BridieConvert · 23/03/2023 16:44

I am 1cm taller than you - can confirm we are shorter than average!