Never occurs to me to think of that if I like someone. I was surprised to learn that what other people might think was a factor to some in choosing whom to date - and I only learned this recently!
Short Male Characters In YA
- Thread starter KaijuGuy
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Never occurs to me to think of that if I like someone. I was surprised to learn that what other people might think was a factor to some in choosing whom to date - and I only learned this recently!
I have a confession. It had nothing to do with what other people would think, and I had a gazillion reasons I left my second to last partner besides his short stature. But it did cross my mind I didn't want a short son if we had children together.
Now don't anyone take it wrong, I mean it when I say it crossed my mind and nothing more. He needed a maid and most of all, his lack of generosity bugged the shit out of me (not his generosity with me, we both worked and had money, but his generosity with our friends). We had a great time traveling, around the world and camping/backpacking all over the Northwest. That was incredible. But living together in a house, the guy was a lazy bastard. On the road or in the woods, he put the tent up, I made the fire and the oatmeal. But in a house, he wouldn't even water the damn lawn. In retrospect, I might have stayed with him if we'd hired a maid and a gardner. But at the time I wasn't that savvy about keeping a relationship together.
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I’m not much good for recommendations, but the YA novel I’m working on right now – a portal fantasy – has a short love interest. The character himself doesn’treally have an issue with his own height, personality-wise it just not the type of thing he bothers about. And, though he’stowards the lower end, his people don’t tend to be all that tall in general.
The main character on the other hand is rather sensitive about anyone commenting on or making jokes about her love interest’s height. It’s more about her feeling judged by association than defending his feelings (again, he doesn’t care). Letting go of her fear and concern regarding the judgement of others is part of her character arc, and at a certain point she’s not going to care either.
His height, along with his peasant background, does shape his fighting style. He tends tofight with knives/daggers/occasionally a short sword and the method is to come in fast, keep low, dodge and then, once the target is range, to attack upwards.
There definitelya cultural bias towards shorter men, my female cousin, who is 5’11 was lamenting a few months ago that she signed up to try eHarmony and it would only let her see matches that were taller than her. I personally have had a lot of women tell me that they wouldn’t date a man shorter than them, and while I married a guy slightly taller than me (easy to do as I’m on the shorter end myself), my response is always that my father is 5’5 and my mother 5’7, if they stuck to the guy-has-to-be-taller bs I would not exist. And my dad's a wonderful person.
It sounds like you had other, better, reasons to break up with the guy, but genes are weird things and there’s always outside factors. Looking at a guy’s height isn’t always going to give you a good idea of what his son’s height will be. My brother, for example, is 10 inches taller than my father, and, on the other hand, my husband is 5 inches shorter than his dad (and 7 shorter than his brother).
The main character on the other hand is rather sensitive about anyone commenting on or making jokes about her love interest’s height. It’s more about her feeling judged by association than defending his feelings (again, he doesn’t care). Letting go of her fear and concern regarding the judgement of others is part of her character arc, and at a certain point she’s not going to care either.
His height, along with his peasant background, does shape his fighting style. He tends tofight with knives/daggers/occasionally a short sword and the method is to come in fast, keep low, dodge and then, once the target is range, to attack upwards.
There definitelya cultural bias towards shorter men, my female cousin, who is 5’11 was lamenting a few months ago that she signed up to try eHarmony and it would only let her see matches that were taller than her. I personally have had a lot of women tell me that they wouldn’t date a man shorter than them, and while I married a guy slightly taller than me (easy to do as I’m on the shorter end myself), my response is always that my father is 5’5 and my mother 5’7, if they stuck to the guy-has-to-be-taller bs I would not exist. And my dad's a wonderful person.
It sounds like you had other, better, reasons to break up with the guy, but genes are weird things and there’s always outside factors. Looking at a guy’s height isn’t always going to give you a good idea of what his son’s height will be. My brother, for example, is 10 inches taller than my father, and, on the other hand, my husband is 5 inches shorter than his dad (and 7 shorter than his brother).
Wow, so sorry it took me so long to respond, but thanks everyone for your responses!
Yeah, I've pretty much given up on dating sites, but mainly after hearing the horror stories from other short men who have had to go as far as lie about their height.
As for my short character, I'm considering making him into a swordsman or a blade-wielding type character if I go with what I call a Star Wars-like setting, and for that I've actually started researching fictional heroines (in terms of fighting) who are the the same (or around) height as my protagonist, aside from drawing some inspiration from Marvel's Wolverine character.
On the other hand, I've also considered going for a contemporary young adult story, or even a "Beauty and the Beast" angle of sorts, where he willingly gets turned into this hulking beast that gives him what he thinks he's always wanted (strength, power) while taking away his looks, but then someone comes along and starts him on the journey of possibly (just possibly) changing his mind.
Yeah, I've pretty much given up on dating sites, but mainly after hearing the horror stories from other short men who have had to go as far as lie about their height.
As for my short character, I'm considering making him into a swordsman or a blade-wielding type character if I go with what I call a Star Wars-like setting, and for that I've actually started researching fictional heroines (in terms of fighting) who are the the same (or around) height as my protagonist, aside from drawing some inspiration from Marvel's Wolverine character.
On the other hand, I've also considered going for a contemporary young adult story, or even a "Beauty and the Beast" angle of sorts, where he willingly gets turned into this hulking beast that gives him what he thinks he's always wanted (strength, power) while taking away his looks, but then someone comes along and starts him on the journey of possibly (just possibly) changing his mind.
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I had a shorter (5'6") male lead in my SPELLCASTER trilogy. So far as I can tell, no one ever noticed Mateo wasn't tall.
I don't have near enough time to read through this conversation, but I still wanted to respond. Currently, my Splinter of Stars Series features 6 main characters. One of them is Clayton Calderon, a short, quirky boy who has a penchant for raising more than a few brows. He's not quite a ladies man, but he is enchantingly charming. He has his own (what his friends call) harem of girls he is in a relationship with. He's super weird about sex with people he doesn't know, and he's (not quite, but practically) obsessed with sex. He is a 16-year-old boy. His situation is basically a polyamorous relationship with girls he has known for his whole life and trusts.
He's a quite unique character. I've never had anyone like him pop up as a muse. He's nice to everyone and seemingly "has it all." His personality is quite unique, and he is, too. He's only 5ft 4in. Not to say that's the only physical thing that characterizes him. He's mixed race - his dad's family is from Mexico and his mother's family is African American. He is quite the spitfire, too. He's a really fun character to write and have around.
I just wanted to comment to say that there are those of us who have short male characters in our stories. I would even say he's the main male protagonist, but I have two others to worry about, too.
I hope everyone has a wonderful day! Thanks for starting this post!
He's a quite unique character. I've never had anyone like him pop up as a muse. He's nice to everyone and seemingly "has it all." His personality is quite unique, and he is, too. He's only 5ft 4in. Not to say that's the only physical thing that characterizes him. He's mixed race - his dad's family is from Mexico and his mother's family is African American. He is quite the spitfire, too. He's a really fun character to write and have around.
I just wanted to comment to say that there are those of us who have short male characters in our stories. I would even say he's the main male protagonist, but I have two others to worry about, too.
I hope everyone has a wonderful day! Thanks for starting this post!
I can't say I've ever really noticed characters heights being specified in novels - like to the point where it's actually written they're 5'4 or whatever.
Saying that, I read The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer recently and there's a character called Ditto who's the height of a six year old (but really he's in his 20s). Looking at the other YA books on my shelf, the characters are mostly children, so I'd imagine they've not finished growing yet anyway.
Saying that, I read The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer recently and there's a character called Ditto who's the height of a six year old (but really he's in his 20s). Looking at the other YA books on my shelf, the characters are mostly children, so I'd imagine they've not finished growing yet anyway.
Anime has a lot of short dudes. From Fullmetal Alchemist to Lovely Complex. I highly doubt having a short dude is gonna make or break a book though.
My husband is short, almost exactly my height at 5 foot 6. Never hindered him in any way, not with the ladies or his career. Course, he also has a nice face and charming personality.
My husband is short, almost exactly my height at 5 foot 6. Never hindered him in any way, not with the ladies or his career. Course, he also has a nice face and charming personality.
Great post. I give a lot of thought to this issue myself. IIRC, the romantic pairing in ELEANOR & PARK is between a 'short' guy and a girl whom society would see as 'large'. And given that book's bestseller status, that worked marvelously for many readers (and me).
I'm a 5' 10" woman who married a man one inch shorter than me. Totally surprised me. And he's definitely been a keeper. As a teen, although I crushed on* guys of all height ranges, I told myself I could only ever be with a guy who was taller - I didn't want to feel or look like a 'giant' next to him (so, some of it was how I felt, and some of it was how society would see us). The biggest factor, I believe, was that I craved cuddling up to a man slightly taller and bigger. I longed to reach up and rest my arms against his neck and shoulders. I desired his power and strength - and I think that's what most cisgendered female, hetero romance readers crave, too, hence why the taller-male/smaller-female formula dominates in that genre. I'm trying to say I think it's more than a social construct only - I think it's instinctual for many people.
(*in thinking about this more deeply, it was easy to crush on a guy of any height due to his personality, but when I imagined us pairing off in an intimate way - kissing and more - I felt less attraction due to knowing I would feel awkwardly big)
In YA, it seems like you can get away with challenging that construct better in some kinds of books than in others. Some books are written to push boundaries - in fact, that seems to be what editors want nowadays. You see it most in the contemporary books today. But I will argue that there's another niche of YA books that cater to readers' fantasies, and that includes fantasies of the attractive couple (usually in the SFF line but can be in some YA contemporary, too, esp. in the romance genre) - and it would be harder to sell an unconventionally-paired couple in one of those books. So it's important to discern where your book falls, at least as an unknown author trying to break in. I'm all for challenging the status quo, but it's just much harder to do as an unknown.
Overall, as a writer, I'd like to give fair attention to romances between the taller girl and shorter guy, but it's a gamble.
I don't actually see many YA books with tall girls lamenting their height. Fuchsia, if you or anyone else want to PM or rep me some titles, I'd be interested.
I'm a 5' 10" woman who married a man one inch shorter than me. Totally surprised me.
And he's definitely been a keeper. As a teen, although I crushed on* guys of all height ranges, I told myself I could only ever be with a guy who was taller - I didn't want to feel or look like a 'giant' next to him (so, some of it was how I felt, and some of it was how society would see us). The biggest factor, I believe, was that I craved cuddling up to a man slightly taller and bigger. I longed to reach up and rest my arms against his neck and shoulders. I desired his power and strength - and I think that's what most cisgendered female, hetero romance readers crave, too, hence why the taller-male/smaller-female formula dominates in that genre. I'm trying to say I think it's more than a social construct only - I think it's instinctual for many people. (*in thinking about this more deeply, it was easy to crush on a guy of any height due to his personality, but when I imagined us pairing off in an intimate way - kissing and more - I felt less attraction due to knowing I would feel awkwardly big)
In YA, it seems like you can get away with challenging that construct better in some kinds of books than in others. Some books are written to push boundaries - in fact, that seems to be what editors want nowadays. You see it most in the contemporary books today. But I will argue that there's another niche of YA books that cater to readers' fantasies, and that includes fantasies of the attractive couple (usually in the SFF line but can be in some YA contemporary, too, esp. in the romance genre) - and it would be harder to sell an unconventionally-paired couple in one of those books. So it's important to discern where your book falls, at least as an unknown author trying to break in. I'm all for challenging the status quo, but it's just much harder to do as an unknown.
Overall, as a writer, I'd like to give fair attention to romances between the taller girl and shorter guy, but it's a gamble.
I don't actually see many YA books with tall girls lamenting their height. Fuchsia, if you or anyone else want to PM or rep me some titles, I'd be interested.
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