Rebuilding Rob

As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

Do you think it’s harder to live in this world as someone who is very tall or very short?

It’s interesting that this prompt came up today. I saw a story online a few days ago about a 7’9” basketball player for the University of Florida. He holds the Guinness World Record for the world‘s tallest teenager. Also, he is the tallest person to ever play college basketball.

From Anomaly to Athlete: The Burdens of Extreme Height

Back when X2 and I were together, we lived in a very small town. There was one boy in the local high school who was about 6‘8“ tall. He was, by far, the tallest person in this village that we lived in. I think about that sometimes. I wonder what that must be like walking around town, especially a small town and knowing “wow, I am taller than everybody else here“. It should come as no surprise that he was on the school’s varsity basketball team.  as I understand it, he also attended the University of Michigan where he played basketball after graduating.

Then I think about people like Andre, the giant, who basically made a career and essentially his life out of being somewhat freakish. I think that would be an extremely difficult way to go through life. I’ve heard stories from the various Andre documentaries about how he couldn’t drive a car, how he had to sit in two seats on an airplane. Basically, he was uncomfortable his entire life This was before his various health issues really started to take their toll.

The Weight of Being “Less”: Social Struggles of Shortness

On the other hand, I don’t think it would be very easy to be short either. Short people are just automatically seen as weak and in some cases even childish. I think when you’re very short, it’s difficult to be taken very seriously.

The Unnatural Body: Health Challenges at Both Extremes

I would think that either way, being extremely tall or extremely short would be difficult. Both stature, or lack their own, would have their health challenges. I think back to Gary Coleman, the actor who played Arnold on Diff’rent Strokes. We heard about how he had kidney issues for most of his life.

I’m no scientist or anything, but I do think that humans just aren’t made to be either that tall or that small. Yes it’s true, humans are taller today than they were 100 years ago. That has more to do with our diets and the amount of GMO‘s we consume than anything else. Clearly someone measuring 7‘9“ tall is a genetic anomaly. 

But the prompt asked which one do I think would be more difficult: being tall, or being small. I would have to say that being tall would probably be tougher although being very small wouldn’t be easy either.

It’s interesting because we tend to look at height, or maybe more specifically stature, as a sign of masculinity. Most women I know, if given their choice, would prefer to date a man who is taller than they are. But like so many other things, too much height is never seen as a good thing. Excessively tall people are still viewed as freaks. Try as they might, extremely tall people are never really able to fit in in a world that is designed for 6 feet people. On the other hand short people are seen as being “less,” for the lack of a better term. Less strong. Less masculine and less dominant. Shorter people are both figuratively and literally looked down upon. And like extremely tall people, they have their own unique health issues.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related (and perhaps, not-so-related) posts:

• Rob’s Retro Movie Review: This is Spinal Tap (1984) – The Movie That Scaled to Eleven
• A Death in the Family (And My Disposable Income): My Life in Comics
• The Supporting Cast: Navigating the Eras of Male Friendship
• Life is What Happens: A Look Back at My Non-Existent 2025 Vision
• The Moment I Walked Inside a Hallmark Movie

AI art created with Google Gemini

The article “The 7-Foot Problem vs. The Short Man’s Struggle: Which is the Harder Life?” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.