Apparently, being short can earn you a royal title, but being tall as a woman might get you recruited for the basketball team. Comedian Zainab Johnson has sparked a funny conversation about dating double standards after sharing her take on height preferences during an appearance on Kareem Rahma's viral talk show Subway Takes on 29 October.
Johnson argued that tall women have a harder time finding quality romantic matches than shorter men, who seem to have turned their height into a confidence-boosting advantage. When Rahma suggested that short men needed help, Johnson was quick to disagree.
'They're already calling them short kings, so just by being short, you get a monarchy,' she joked. Meanwhile, tall women do not seem to receive quite the same royal treatment. 'Tall women, she can only be like a model, a basketball player. They immediately put a tall woman to work,' Johnson added.
The Dating Height Debate Is Still Very Much Alive
The comedian also pointed out that while nobody seems to celebrate tall women as 'tall queens', they are more likely to be called 'Amazonian' or even questioned about whether they are men or women. 'They immediately make her masculine,' Johnson explained, highlighting how height can influence the way women are perceived.
Height has always been one of those surprisingly controversial dating preferences. Some women prefer taller men, while some men specifically look for shorter women. Others genuinely do not care, provided their date has a decent personality and knows how to hold a conversation.
But Johnson's comments opened the door to a bigger discussion about how society treats height differently depending on someone's gender. She argued that a shorter man can often compensate for his height through other qualities, including money, humour and a good job.
As an example, she pointed out how frequently women describe a shorter man by saying he is 'short, but he has a great personality', is nice, or has a successful career. Johnson then turned the comparison around, questioning whether men would similarly describe a tall woman by acknowledging her height before listing her positive qualities.
'I've never heard a guy be like, she tall as f***,' she said.
One social media user offered another explanation for the perceived double standard, writing: 'i think it's because tall women are masculinized for being tall, whilst short men aren't feminized for being short'.
In other words, a shorter man can still be celebrated as masculine, while a taller woman may be made to feel that she is somehow stepping outside traditional expectations of femininity. It is not necessarily about the actual height difference but what people have been taught to associate with it. Johnson also suggested that giving a tall woman the same qualities often considered attractive in a shorter man could make her seem even less attainable to potential partners.
'She's beautiful, she's smart, and you give her money. There's nobody out there,' she joked, describing how some men might question what they could possibly offer a tall, successful and attractive woman. Meanwhile, she quipped that a short king could overcome his height by standing on his 'wad of cash'.
Zainab Johnson Says Tall Women Get Different Attention
@subwaytakes Episode 823: Tall women have a harder time finding quality matches than short men!! @Zainab Johnson #subwaytakes #interview #tallwomen #shortmen #nyc ♬ original sound - SubwayTakes
The conversation became even more interesting when Rahma asked Johnson whether she had a boyfriend. The comedian revealed that she did not and was 5'11". Rahma predicted that she would receive plenty of direct messages, particularly from shorter men. Johnson, however, had a different expectation.
She suggested that the men approaching her would likely include tall athletes, comedians, bankers, doctors, and lawyers. But she also drew a distinction between the attention she expected to receive and the attention a shorter man might get.
According to Johnson, a short man appearing on the show and doing a comedy bit with Rahma would attract women messaging him that he could be their king. For her, however, messages from tall men calling her their queen could come with a different intention.
'But those women are being creepy freaks, and they just want the fetish,' Rahma said, contrasting that kind of attention with the quality romantic interest he believed shorter men could receive.
For many, that observation is another conversation entirely. Being admired is not always the same as being appreciated, especially when someone's interest seems more focused on their physical attributes than who they actually are.
Maybe We Can Just Let People Be Tall
Ultimately, Johnson's comments are a reminder that dating already comes with enough unnecessary rules. People are expected to look a certain way, behave a certain way, and somehow meet an invisible checklist before they can even get to the first date. Adding height requirements to the mix only makes things more complicated.
