Studies have demonstrated an unconscious bias against short men and many tall women feel uncomfortable standing out from the crowd. In a world designed for people of average height, those that fall outside the norm can find life hard, writes Amanda Smith.

At just over two metres, Jeremy Eyers is an exceptionally tall man. 'I made a t-shirt up that had on the front “Before you ask, I'm six-foot-seven” and then on the back “And no, I don't play basketball”.'

Howard Goldberg is five-foot-three and a half (161cm). The hardest thing, he says, is to make a strong first impression. 'When you walk in to a room and you're short, you're lucky if you can see above the person standing in front of you. You just have to turn on the personality.’

When you walk in to a room and you're short, you're lucky if you can see above the person standing in front of you. You just have to turn on the personality. Howard Goldberg

Marco Garboletto and his son Aaron most certainly have big personalities and have made a virtue of being shorter than average. Marco describes himself as a 'tall five-foot-five' (156cm) and Aaron says he's five-foot-seven and a half (171cm). They run a cafe in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote named Two Short Men. Marco says everybody loves the name. 'We've had people from overseas come in that are short, and the first thing they want to do is take photos with us,’ he says.

Developing a community of like-heighted people is also the idea behind social group Tall People United, established by Petra Tyers. Ashleigh Keller is Ms Tyers’ daughter. At six-foot-one, or just over 185 cm, she's often felt uncomfortable standing out from the crowd.

'It can be awkward as a tall woman because that masculinity is kind of shrouded on to me,' she says. 'I really struggle to feel feminine because I'm sometimes taller than the men and two heads taller than the majority of people.’

The response to Tall People United delighted Ms Keller’s mother. For example, Tyers says she was contacted by a man who was over seven-foot: 'He wrote me a letter and said, "I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart because it was the first time in my life I felt normal".'

On the other end of the spectrum, Jennen Ngiau-Keng's height triggered a business opportunity. Mr Ngiau-Keng is a professional musician turned shoe entrepreneur. 'I'm only five-foot-seven but with the shoes I'm about five-nine-and-a-half,’ he says.

When he was on tour in the USA with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Mr Ngiau-Keng came up with the idea of designing men's shoes to make them taller. 'The US has these kind of shoes but Australia didn't,’ he says.

He started by designing eight styles and a website. 'This was when I was living with my mum at home, and before I knew it we had about 1,000 shoes in the rumpus room of our house and it expanded from there.’ These days, as well as on-line sales, Taller has stores in Melbourne and Sydney and another one opening in Brisbane.

Before establishing the business, Mr Ngiau-Keng had always been intrigued by the number of celebrities who were short. 'I like watching Hollywood movies and I guess if I knew how tall a person was then I would know how tall I would be next to them,’ he says.

Mark Wahlberg and Tom Cruise are around Mr Ngiau-Keng's height, while some, like Seth Green, Jack Black and Jason Alexander, are shorter still. 'It's quite interesting to know now just how many celebrities there are that actually wear these type of shoes,’ he says.

Mr Ngiau-Keng says a lot of his customers buy elevator shoes on-line because they're uncomfortable coming in to the store. For in-store buyers, however, Mr Ngiau-Keng always tells them that he's wearing the shoes. 'Then there's a rapport that's established and they don't feel so self-conscious anymore. My shoes are there to be a cost-efficient way of just gaining a little bit of height.’

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In his documentary S & M: Short and Male Canadian film-maker Howard Goldberg cites a Harvard study that uses a test called the Implicit Association Test. The IAT measures people's reaction times and how quickly they associate good concepts or bad concepts with someone being fat or thin, old or young, tall or short. The IAT was first administered in the late 1990s but researchers didn't use it to look at height bias until the mid-2000s.

They found that for men, both sexes have an automatic preference for height. 'So there's a subconscious bias against short males,’ Goldberg says.

Conversely, tall guy Jeremy Eyers says his height has certainly never held him back professionally. 'I've always found it easy to find work but I've always hoped that that's more because of my hard work and getting a good education and all of that, but it certainly can't hurt,’ he says. 'If anything it's the other way round, sometimes I feel like they're giving me too much respect and maybe I don't deserve everything that they give me.’

The down-side to being a tall male is eternal vigilance, according to Eyers. Aeroplanes are problematic if he forgets to stoop at the right moment. 'I was on a business trip to Brisbane and I ducked every exit sign except for the last one, I just didn't see it coming and went straight into it,’ he says. 'These things are not built for giants, even business or first class when they say, "We have a seat that can stretch out to 186 cm," in my head I'm going, "That's still not big enough for me”.’

In a world where everything from planes to furniture is mass-produced for the person of average height, the tall or short person has to custom-design their world. At the Two Short Men cafe, Marco and Aaron have raised the level of the floor behind the counter. This means that they stand taller than their customers and staff on the other side of the counter, including their former barista, Tall Cameron, who Aaron says was well over six foot.

The long and the short of it Sunday 30 March 2014 The Body Sphere examines the pros and cons of being shorter or taller than most? More This [series episode segment] has image, and transcript

Jennen Ngiau-Keng says that the emphasis on height is an unfortunate reality. 'As somebody who's well under average height I know of this first-hand,’ he says. 'I would love to be six foot or six-foot-one but if I was I wouldn't have started this business and everything has stemmed from this idea for me.’

That included Mr Mgiau-Keng’s parallel career as a musician. Many engaged couples who come into Mr Ngiau-Keng’s shop. 'It's just nice to see the grooms so happy wearing the shoes and the brides very happy because in the photos there's not going to be that height difference anymore.’

When they find out he's a violinist (he often practises in the shop) many engage him to organise a string quartet and play at the wedding.

‘Now we perform for hundreds and hundreds of weddings,’ he says.

Find out more at The Body Sphere.



