The perfect man comes down from the heights: something is changing with height

It's part of popular culture: he looks down at her and she stands on tiptoe to hang from his neck so she can kiss him.

The beauty standards that Hollywood has imposed for more than a century dictate that they have to be higher.

Always, no matter what happens and under any circumstance.

It is worth remembering the mockery that Tom Cruise, 1.69 meters tall, suffered when, in the middle of his courtship with Nicole Kidman and her 1.80 meters, he was forced to wear platforms so that she would not be above him in the photos.

Kidman was 11 centimeters taller, and any reference to her height was an almost taboo topic in the couple's interviews.

Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in 1999.Leonardo Cendamo (Leonardo Cendamo)

However, for some time now there have been more and more examples of the opposite, that is, of men who have no problem assuming that they are at the height of their girlfriends' or wives' shoulders in red carpet images.

There are also more and more women who don't mind that they are the ones who have to stand on tiptoe to give them a kiss.

There is Zendaya, 1.79, and Tom Holland, who is six centimeters shorter than her.

For Holland, by the way, his height suited him perfectly to star in the latest Spider-Man saga.

What's more, he took advantage of the promotional tour to make jokes about his height: "Recent studies suggest that the sexual life of short men is more intense and satisfying," he proudly stated with his usual reticence.

Nor has height prevented Rosalía, 1.66, from appearing in photos kissing Jeremy Allen White, who practically ties her 1.70.

In an interview with

El País Semanal,

Miguel Herrán said not long ago that, although he was aware that beauty was something subjective, there was a basic canon of society that he did not comply with: height.

Herrán confessed that he had suffered it as a child when girls told him: “Let's see, Miguel, I like you, but you're very short.”

Even today you find people who say it to him on the street when they meet him and are surprised by his height: “There are certain things in our society about which people give their opinion without embarrassment.

And there are others that you can't mess with.

I experienced this the other day at the Tuschinski theater in Amsterdam.

A group of Spanish girls approached me and said: 'Can we tell you something?

We didn't expect you to be short.'

And I answer them: 'Well, I understand, because it's not the first time, it doesn't offend me.

But it's not pleasant to hear.'”

Just take a walk through Tinder or any dating app to see that the majority of heterosexual men include their height in their descriptions if they are tall.

In some

apps

like Bumble you can even filter by height.

However, a study carried out by Bumble Spain assures that

Short king spring

or

El rey bajito de Primavera

, in Spanish, is now a trend.

“Height is no longer a requirement for more than 30% of single people on Bumble, especially for Generation Z, where one in three single people have admitted that they are now more open to dating someone who is shorter. that they".

Emotional aspects are gaining a lot of weight in the search for new connections.

“The single men and women of Spain are living their dates in 2024 in a more open and exploratory way.

For many people this includes meeting people beyond their physical appearance,” says the Bumble spokesperson.

The psychologist and director of Bangardia, Aida López, agrees with her, explaining: “The sexual references and those related to physical and mental attraction are changing in the new generations, who give more value to the mental connection than to the physical one. ”.

The obsession with height has a psychological explanation: “Tall men give women the feeling of protection and security, which makes them feel more feminine,” explains López.

Another factor to take into account is that the average height changes a lot depending on the country.

In Spain, the average height of men, according to a study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, is 1.74.

The tallest in Europe are the Danes, whose average is 1.82.

So in Denmark a man of 1.80 is short, while in Spain he would be very tall.

The psychologist Andrea Mezquida Ortega perceives in consultation a change of mentality in the women who come to her consultation: “They give more and more importance to having good emotional intelligence, emotional responsibility, knowing how to communicate, or being empathetic, above something so little as important as height,” he explains.

At least when it comes to this, ideal men are no longer so far away.