By 
LAST WEEK’S PRESIDENTIAL debate between nominees Kamala Harris and Donald Trump shaped as a battle of opposites – man versus woman, Black versus white, former prosecutor versus convicted felon . . . oh and one more: tall versus short.
Trump, who stands 6’ 3”, is said to have lobbied hard in pre-debate proceedings for Harris (5’ 4”) not to be allowed to artificially elevate her stature on television, telling his Truth Social followers that, “No boxes or artificial lifts will be allowed to stand on during my upcoming debate with Comrade Kamala Harris.”
Trump, who despite his height, appears to have Napoleonic tendencies and the disposition of someone suffering ‘short-man syndrome’, perhaps wanted to highlight the disparity in the candidates’ height, possibly believing it would shape public perceptions of their comparative power, authority and competence.
It’s worth noting that the average height of US Presidents is 5’ 11’ (Abraham Lincoln was the tallest at 6’ 4”, while the shortest was James Madison at 5’ 4”) – though that stat is influenced by the fact that no US president has ever been a woman and indeed, other than Barack Obama, those occupying the Oval Office have invariably been middle-aged or older white males.
But Trump hadn’t factored in Harris’ intangible ‘super-power’: ‘Tall Energy’. What’s that, you might ask, as you hastily grab your phone to scroll for the term on TikTok, where such phenomena generally originate. Well, The New York Times described Tall Energy as “a vertical state of being more commonly linked with the statuesque, but sometimes co-opted by more petite women”. It’s the ability, through the projection of confidence, competence and authority, to have an outsized presence or aura, relative to your height. You may be diminutive in standing but you are mighty in stature.
As you might expect, many actors and singers are associated with having Tall Energy, which is not surprising; a 30-foot screen or stadium stage could elevate you in the mind’s eye. At the same time, it takes sizeable charisma and force of personality to captivate a lens or command the stage in a colosseum. Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Al Pacino, Tom Holland, Prince and Lenny Kravitz are all under 5’ 8”, which hasn’t hurt their careers. This is perhaps because boxes, camera angles and, for women mostly, high heels, can be used to mitigate a lack of height. You could argue that when it comes to performing, an attractive face, acting chops, a good set of pipes, dance moves, and all-round star power all work in concert to produce Tall Energy.
For politicians, who in many cases can’t rely on looks to carry them, lack of height could potentially be regarded as a handicap, though perhaps not for despots: Vladamir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Hitler, Mussolini and, of course, Napoleon, didn’t let their lack of height stop them from ascending to power and then abusing it once they got it. The Napoleon complex, also known as and short-man syndrome, is a purported condition normally attributed to people of short stature, with overly aggressive or domineering social behaviour.
For the average guy (i.e., not a President, performer or tyrant) lack of height is something that can impact confidence and self-esteem. Society lionises height, often conflating it with masculinity. For one, being tall is usually regarded as a desirable attribute for men in the mating game. In one study women rated a man more attractive in a photograph when he was depicted as tall than when he was depicted as short relative to an adjacent woman.
As someone who is below average in terms of height – 5’ 8” or 173 cm compared to the Australian male average of 5’ 9” (176cm), (but just above the global male average of 5’ 7.5”!) I can’t say it bothered me too much growing up. I was an early developer as a teenager and of average height through most of high school, before being overtaken by my peers in my later teens.
I remember becoming conscious that I was on the shorter side sometime around my mid-twenties and wondering what my life would have been like as a taller man – it could certainly have helped on the basketball court. Perhaps it might have made me more desirable as a romantic partner; maybe I would have got promoted more often. Who knows? On the other hand, perhaps a few extra inches would have had a commensurate impact on my ego, though, you could argue I could have reached the same end by going down the Napoleonic route.
So, the prospect of Tall Energy is tantalising for shorter men (and women), offering hope that despite your vertical limitations, you can climb the social strata to become a ‘Short King’ (using capitals for obvious reasons). If that’s the case, there are a number of paths available to you (for society’s sake, we won’t include the Napoleonic route as an option here), some more promising than others.
The first, and seemingly most obvious, is just be a decent guy. That will get you far in life, but it may not necessarily grant you Tall Energy or Short King status. Indeed, you may just be lumped with the near fatal ‘nice guy’ designation. Being a nice short guy is probably not as cool as being a nice tall guy. How about a nice rich guy? Now, we’re just being silly.
Moving along, possessing blinding charisma and a killer sense of humour will reliably override any number of physical limitations (see Kevin Hart) and possibly some character flaws.
Thirdly, you can either cultivate or, if you’re lucky, be blessed with God-given talent in a particular skill. Music, dancing, acting, gymnastics, even football, are all pursuits in which lack of height is not an overt disadvantage. Indeed, it’s possibly a gift in gymnastics, see Simone Biles, while some of the greatest footballers in history – Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona – have been diminutive in stature. I wouldn’t recommend basketball, though even then there are exceptions – Chris Paul is a certified Short King (contextually speaking) and 5’ 9” Isaiah Thomas came third in the NBA in scoring 2017. But you are facing an, err, uphill battle – Michael Jordan once said his 5’ 8” brother Larry would have been the GOAT if he’d been 6’ 2”.
Wealth is another variable with the power to override perceived physical limitations, though, this too, could be a more difficult undertaking for a shorter person. A study in Plos One found each additional centimetre of height is associated with a 1.3 per cent increase in annual income. That said, there are plenty of short billionaires – Zuck and Jeff Bezos are 5’7” and 5’ 8” respectively.
Something else that might work in building Tall Energy, is incorporating another form of energy into your offering: BDE or Big Dick Energy – defined by Urban Dictionary as having “loud and boisterous energy emitted by someone who has a colossal phallus and doesn’t have to tell anyone about it”. This is perhaps tough without a certain prerequisite, although if Tall Energy can be cultivated, logically BDE should be acquirable too, even without possession of a BD. The danger is that overwhelming BDE, could see you come across as just a D.
Finally, failing everything else, there is one last option for shorter guys seeking to become greater than the sum of their parts, though admittedly, it is a rather dull and laborious undertaking: the path of self-acceptance. Achieve that near nirvana-like state and you may just find you walk a little taller.
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