‘Being short is a curse’: the men paying thousands to get their legs broken – and lengthened
‘Being short is a curse’: the men paying thousands to get their legs broken – and lengthened
So all these short kings are getting gender affirming care?
Cuz that's what I'm hearing here.
I feel conflicted.
On the one hand, people should feel comfortable in their own body and who am I to have any say in this.
On the other, "short" only means something in comparison to other people. The people seeking hair transplants and Botox can just have a specific vision of themselves, they don't need "more hair/smoother skin than the average person". But you cannot feel "too small" in isolation, I think. Not that I think too highly of cosmetic surgery either way.
Maybe I'm just grasping for reasons to justify my feelings on it to myself, but I don't like this one bit.
I've never felt insecure about my height, and I do fall at the lowest end of the spectrum. Also one of the few times being gay has been a blessing since men tend to be a lot less fussy about height.
To me, everyone else's expectations are the problem. Not me! I literally don't understand the appeal because it feels like such an arbitrary thing to like, like hair color.
jSYK this is literally gender affirming surgery.
Jack Hanma wannabees.
Honestly, I don't understand the uproar in the comments. The guy clearly knows what he wants and why. It carries a risk and it's painful, but it's a risk he's taking for himself knowingly
Yeah but now you look like you have really short arms.
Dumb. If a woman won't date guys based on their height, they're not worth being with anyway.
It’s the equivalent of Peter Griffin wearing a shirt that says “no fat chicks”
Exactly, dodged a bullet really.
Seems like your body would be all out of proportion.
proportions vary pretty wildly on their own, I'm not sure you can get the kind of length added that would actually make you look strange or unusual.
I feel so bad for guys who feel they need to do this. I've got several shorter than average friends, and they have all just leaned into it, and It's never been an issue for them. They are all happily married.
I am relatively tall at 6'4" and it certainly has its perks. But man does it have its downsides, which are only worse and worse the taller you are.
Don't forget increased back pain.
East Asia is just not meant for us. I have had to literally squat and turn sideways to get through some doors. And riding public transport there, my head is above the hand holds
The door thing isn't too shocking. I live in Texas, and the doors to both bathrooms are not full width. I physically cannot walk through them straight on without my shoulders blocking me. I have to turn sideways at least a little bit to go through. We have lived there 6 years, and my wife didn't believe me the other day until I showed her.
On the one hand, if surgery and/or various enhancements are an effective tool to give someone more confidence, and it's not really directly hurting anybody else, then my opinion is go for it.
To me, shorter men are hot, the size of your penis is pretty much irrelevant (bigger is not always better), and bald/balding/shaved heads are the bees knees. I mention the dick and the head o' hair because those are, in my experience, two other areas where men are commonly insecure.
Obviously I admit that as a gay man, my view on things may be different than that of a typical heterosexual woman. But overall, I really wish guys didn't feel the need to obsess over things like their height.
I don't have a link right now, and probably won't bother to go looking, but I was scrolling through posts a few days ago and saw one with a guy, who I would consider good looking, mentioned his height and weight. I clicked into the comments, and literally like the second most upvoted one in there referred to him as short. He was 5 feet 9 inches (a bit over 175 cm). Granted, it wasn't a derogatory comment if I recall correctly, but just the fact that it referred to a very average height as short really caught my attention. Now imagine if the guy was sensitive about his height and what that might do to his confidence.
In other words, tons of young men are getting surgeries that will make their legs less functional for a few inches of height.
Meanwhile I'm 6'5 and would gladly give up a few inches if it meant my back didn't hurt all the time.
Idk, trade a fucked up back for fucked up legs — pick your poison.
I had a leg length discrepancy of a little under 3 inches when I was in middle school. They offered to either stop the growth in the long leg to let the short one catch up, or just directly lengthen the shorter one after I was done growing. After hearing what the process was for the latter, I happily chose the former. I'm alright being a little shorter if it means avoiding that torture.
When I grew up it seemed like everything was only about women's bra size. Don't expect a man to want to date you if it is less than a C! Men want real women, not children without boobs! I've had classmates with <C who were planning their surgery by age 16. There was also a list circulating that some boys wrote where they judged the girls look based solely on boobsize.
Then we finally got rid of that bullshit and all agreed, that all boobsizes are ok. Just to turn around and replace it with this shitshow. It's like we can't just agree that everybody has different preferences, we just have to push the narrative that X property of a gender has to be a certain size, otherwise they are completely undatable.
It's really so sad to watch this shit happening over and over again...
We really need to start promoting therapy more...
What is crazy is a lot of us women are ok with short men.
yes, there are a vocal FEW women who speak for the plethora of us. But they can fuck right off along with the men who have weight and breast and hair color and hair straightness preferences and willing to overlook pure value to meet those explicit bullshit standards.
But in my experience It’s the men who are not ok with taller women and martyr that we (the collective we as a women) are (all) forcing them into this kind of situation. I’ve had more than a few men announce I’m not allowed to wear heels. Or go out of their way to tell me I’m too tall for them. It’s honestly not women alone going around setting these rules as ‘The’ women standards for men.
Women don’t ever say to who a man “well your breasts make mine look too small/your straight hair makes mine look too curly/your blond hair makes mine too brunette/your thin waist makes mine look thick” to knock themselves out of the run by self perception alone.
Men are not men’s best friend in so many ways and you guys really have to start being your own best friends too here rather than your worst enemies. And look into mental health please.
I'm sorry, but women do on average mostly prefer taller men. This has been proven through multiple studies.
Likewise, men prefer women with medium or large breasts vs small ones too on average.
There's some things in human nature that just are.
What's different about us is we can accept that we don't have to accept the whims of biology as is and can have the self awareness to go against it or just accept what is and make best with what we have.
Physical features aren't everything, and successful relationships take more than that.
a lot of us women are ok with short men
No, you aren't. But as Sinatra would say: that's life.
You’re proving my point on answering on behalf of women.
This is how you are your worst enemy.
I think online dating makes this significantly worse for guys. If you're meeting women IRL height is a lot less of an issue but online just that number becomes a huge barrier that you simply cannot overcome. Women who you would either have not interacted with much or would have been okay with your height if you had met in person will go out of their way to insult your height or wordlessly unmatch as soon as they find out how tall you are. It takes a lot of mental fortitude to keep your head up and realize that it's just a false impression based on the messed up dynamics of online dating and I can see how it could just destroy a guy's self esteem completely if he didn't realize that or couldn't keep the fact that it's an illusion in mind.
I'm 5'7". Slightly below the published average height for a man, I'm taller than something like 70% of women.
In this thread, you've got a bunch of tall guys talking about hitting heads on doors, not fitting in airplane seats...I have no such issues, the world seems more or less perfectly scaled for me. If someone says "Okay, the average man is 5'10", the average woman is 5'4", so we'll build this to be reasonably used by both" it works out to be pretty much my size. Things like shopping carts I find perfectly ergonomic to use.
Back when I was teaching flight school, I had a student who was a fairly tall man. I went with him to check out a Piper Cub he was thinking of buying. Plane was in great shape, duffel bag full of logbooks dating to the 1940s were in order, he could not climb into the aircraft, he physically did not fit inside. I fit perfectly, like it was made for me.
My experience with women: In high school and college I got pretty much all the chicks I wanted. Prior to 2010, not a single woman mentioned my height to me. In movies and TV, you'd hear the phrase "tall, dark and handsome" but In 2010, I broke up with a long term girlfriend and I disappeared into work for a couple years. I was either home sleeping or at the airport.
By 2012, asking women out in person had been repealed. You were REQUIRED to use a dating app, and those DO NOT work for men under 6 feet tall. 0.000 matches guaranteed.
Places I've gotten more pussy than all dating platforms combined:
My therapist's office. The receptionist gave me her number.
ERAU, a university with an 8-1 male-female ratio.
An aircraft mechanic school I won't identify, with a male-female ratio of 47-1.
My uncle's house. I've got 3 female cousins who tend to have friends over.
How is it I can walk into a sausage fest like A&P school, one of 94 guys on campus, many of them taller than me, driving nicer newer cars than me, wearing trendier clothes than me, and still be the one that gets one of the girls in her end? Well, in her own words, "You're the one that actually talked to me."
Actually talking to women does not work online, and has been made illegal in person. So. We're done here apparently.
Men called me too tall so it’s not all women setting this standard. Men are not being their own best friend more often than you think and are mean to both men and women over it.
online dating is a nightmare in general. If you are attractive and rich its probably very nice experience, but for the rest its just awful and makes you feel even more lonely and unwanted. Imo it should be regulated heavily.
…men asking women if they were female at birth.
Online dating is a garbage fire.
isn't this just body dysmorphia?
also, men are also vulnerable to body image issues, and we're also given unrealistic body standards in the media.
Apparently yeah, I was only aware of the delusional variant (where the obsessed on flaw is not present).
I'm seeing dysmorphia run fucking rampant in men over the past several years. It was initially mostly noticeable with incels, but it's gotten much more noticably widespread.
The is a good example of gender affirming surgery too.
isn't this just body dysmorphia?
No.
you're just explaining the causes of body dysmorphia in men.
Fucking hell. I mean... fuck.
I wish the world would lose all of its stupid societal stigmas that make people feel less human than their equally human peers.
I’m a 5’5” dude and I love it tbh. My wife is an inch taller than me. Idk man, it’s never bothered me for a moment.
Going this far to be a bit taller seems insane, I’m almost certain the pain later in life from a surgery like this will really suck.
I firmly believe in the right to bodily autonomy and the freedom to modify one's body in accordance with their wishes. But also this definitely fits in the same mental category as breast augmentation where I hope people discuss their body image with a therapist first.
I'll admit, as a tall woman I'm probably the least likely sort to really understand, but I am sympathetic, even if I was attracted to men it would be unlikely for any given partner to be significantly taller than me, and as I'm not it's downright rare. There's lots of gendered awkwardness in being taller than most men, and I'm certain that short men aren't lying when they say the inverse is also true. But also, the short men in my life still feel pretty damn manly to me and the ones who own it have a certain extra charm that comes from that.
Also, the article mentioning guys over 6' doing this, and I really hope those guys talk to someone about it, because that sounds like it might be dysmorphia.
Also, the difference here is that while still an invasive operation, breast augmentation is way less destructive and still somewhat reversible compared to leg lengthening surgery. Not to mention the long and painful recovery process. And it’s not even guaranteed you’ll recover normally.
As a fellow fairly tall person, even beyond how it looks to be tall, you don't need to be much over 6' before it starts getting downright inconvenient. I'm just shy of 1.9m / 6'3", so by no means exceptionally tall (for my country and gender, at least) and like... there are a lot of times when it's just troublesome. I don't fit in places or things. A lot of clothes don't fit me well. I hit my head on things. A lack of legroom is often uncomfortable. I feel like I'm ruining the view for other people at concerts. The idea of people close to my height actively going out of their way to make themselves even taller - even if it was a trivial process, which it clearly is not - is madness to me
Of course I do understand that it's a self-image thing and such things do not care about practicalities. Everyone's got to find a way to be happy with themselves. I get that. It's just... god I hate hitting my head on stuff, that shit hurts
My husband is 6'3" and works in a university kitchen.
The tables are too short causing him to be hunched over all day. The doorways are too short, there are overheads on the cookware and he hits his head on both these things if he's not paying attention.
He's size 14 shoe and can't just buy them off the rack and cost more. His knees and back are already failing him and he's not yet 40.
On a less serious note, I never wear heels. Taking photos together is a nightmare.
I'm short, 5'1". I've dated men from my height to his and dont really have a preference other than confidence in one's self.
People don't get to choose their height, and being tall is not all it's cracked up to be. I bet my husband would trade some height to be pain free if you asked him.
As someone who is 6'4", yeah, I feel similarly. Airplanes are terrible and I always hit my head on things. I kinda understand guys who are, like, 5'5" doing this. Most women like their partners to be taller than them, so it could significantly increase your dating pool to be 5'7". But once you're at 6', not only do most women not care at all if you are taller - they can't even tell.
useful for people with severe leg length discrepency, but no body dysmorphia, it also ruins your walking, running ability too.
Being 5'3", I've thought about this kind of thing in the past. But the risks are too great, and I'm not looking to live with more pain through my life than I already have, just for the cause of being taller.
There are plenty of women who would date a 5'3 man, and plenty of the women are shorter than 5'3
I'm going to say this simply, given my dating history. Any man who's a halfway decent person can find someone who will love them and ignore relatively minor physical issues (and sometimes major physical issues too). Any man who's complaining about not getting dates just because he's short has one of three situations:
Of those, I have sympathy only for the first. Finding love is not easy for anyone, and it is possible to simply not know where to look. Otherwise, it's not about his height, it's either about his demeanor, or his own issues around his height.
My reason for wanting to be taller is extremely pragmatic: I need to be able to reach stuff in my kitchen cabinets without standing on the counter or getting a ladder. I need to be able to shop in stores without having to stand on the shelves to get stuff up top. Simple stuff. I'd also just once like to be able to see over someone's head in a packed movie theater, so that I don't have to choose between going only to shows that I think will have low attendance (matinees) or sitting so close to the screen that it's overwhelming.
Being tall sucks. I'm a dude and 6'6, if I could trade in for a normal sized body I'd do it in a heartbeat.
People are still dicks. Women don't fall from heaven onto my dick. I don't fit in cars, forget about flying. Finding clothes sucks ass. All furniture the world is child sized.
I can find people in a crowd though, for what's that worth...
Reading the article, the guy didn't care to be tall, he just didn't want to be short. He had several bad experiences because of it, but also just wanted that for himself
The world is not child sized. I believe you when you say being tall suck. I am 1,5m, something like 4"11. So, the size of a child. I fit in cars, but I need a cushion. Lot of counters are so high that only my head sticks out. Finding clothes sucks too. My feet often don't touch the ground when I'm seating on an adult chair. I have to climb so much things. I can't reach all my shelves, even with a stool. Sometimes, sinks are a little too high.
I'm absolutely ok with my size, and I really think being small is easier than being really tall, but the world is not made for people my size. Really not.
As a 5'1" person, who, I've watched all the women in my family shrink with age, so I likely will too, I empathize with this statement.
The cabinet above the refrigerator in my home is empty. I cannot reach it even with a stool. I send my son up on the counter go get stuff from the top shelf for me. My feet also hang from many a chair. As a child, all my pants had to go to the seamstress to be hemmed. I remember finding a pair of capris pants in middle school, not realizing they were capris, and just being excited the length was right for pants on me. My mother used a cushion in her car as far back as I can remember, and I'm greatful new cars have more seating settings so I don't have to do that.
The best positive is I can buy child sized shoes and save a buck. But I do enjoy being short overall. I'd rather be short than so tall. But yeah, the world is made for the middle height people. Folks on either ends of the height scale have to make accommodations.
the world is child sized.
This is sort of what short men’s insecurities are rooted in.
Short people get infantilised to a degree which makes them feel less manly, which drives negative behaviours (short man syndrome?) and reinforces their insecurities as they fall into a sort of incel ideology.
Heey 6"6 here too, with slight back pain.
Nothing is made for us, socks, dispensers, ceilings, you name it.
Fun fact: in Sweden where I grew up, I was considered 'too tall', men shouldn't be over 1m86-ish.
What kinda Gattaca bullshit is this?
Gattaca.
Came here to look for this comment
And in the film .... at least he was able to accomplish his dream in the end ... broken legs and all.
Jesus christ
not sure if it's just me but reading this makes me extremely queezy.
Ugh I can handle medical procedures and nsfl situations but
is too much of a step to grow more height methinks.
These kinds of articles are interesting to read but god gods like I can't imagine the insecurity one must have to actually commit into going through these kinds of procedures.
Either way thanks for sharing!
One thing I'd suggest however is to use the NSFW tag as it does show open surgical wounds. Even though blood and gore related content doesn't bother me, it still might be unpleasant for others.
As someone who's experienced two broken legs after a car ran a red light , one of them a snapped femur, all I have to say is UGH.
I'd say they're insane to undergo something so awful, but then I'm already 1.89m tall, so I can't speak to the pressure someone short might face, or I suppose more importantly, think they face. That's some serious body dysmorphia they're dealing with; I hope that this at least helps them with that.
And you would also look weird, because you look disproportionate, because it's only your lower legs are lengthened.
I’m wondering what kind of long term pain and complications these people are going to be dealing with as their body ages.
All because of toxic femininity and misandry.
Have you even read the article? He had bad experiences with all genders, stfu
Toxic masculinity too. If you read the article a lot of men are men’s worst enemy on height.
Actually, I think the whole height thing started as a counter-culture poke at men who had stated physical preferences.
It was the idea of hold men to an unrealistic physical standard to teach empathy, to show how objectification feels.
Like most pokes though, it went the wrong way, and contributed to the manosphere's formation instead.
My memory isn't the best though, so I may well be wrong.
Nah bruh that’s fucked.
but by being taller does it not make their dicks shorter?
W.T.F. This insane. Like movie!
Can I pay to be shorter? 🤔
You can serve your cuntry
According to the article yes. Personally, even though part of me does wish I could be normal height I've done the mental work to appreciate the size I naturally wound up
Though, if there was a low risk way to shrink hands and feet that one might get me
Weird. This was featured as a kind-of plot point in a recent rom-com I saw, Materialists. The character who had it done gave it glowing reviews...
okay yeah but body positivity is cringe amirite? shattering my bones means at least I get to be an asshole to people over superficial reasons again
There goes your chance to become a short-king influencer and change how society sees shorter than average men!
You've doomed your bros, and your baby boys.
Men are only ever short inside their own heads.
6/6/6
What delicious delusion, wish I could be there to watch you when it collapses
the vast majority of presidents since the advent of photographs in newspaper have nearly always been the tallest
Height has a powerful psychological effect, on the possessor and the witnesses
But here you are pretending the stigma doesn't exist
I wonder if they'll now develop the lower back pain that comes from being tall. I'm quite tall and know a few tall people, we all love to complain about back pain!