Coming from a girl who’s been called “shorty” and “small stuff” all of her life, Netflix’s new movie, Tall Girl, brings up some discussion factors of the stereotype that height discrimination has taken over with tall and short people. Tall Girl IS about a very tall girl but the insecurities raise even higher throughout the movie. But, the hate about it all started even before it was even released and people did not hold back. The film’s criticisms revolved around the idea that a white, thin, and rich teenager faces discrimination and after that, there was another kind of criticism that indicated bullying does not happen to tall girls like the main character.
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Newsflash: it did in fact happen and all ideas about the movie aside, let’s get one thing straight… Tall Girl gives the wrong impression of height. They inaccurately portrayed the main character, who is shown to be 6’1, but is thought of some freakish type of human being. Every other character has to be 5 feet or shorter, if that is the case then, which proves to be abnormal. It is impossible to be in a school with everyone who is the same height or even all on the shorter side. The movie’s picture on the poster and trailer even shows this height discrimination, with the main character hovering over the other characters and who all also seem to be giving her weird looks in the background.
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The main problem here is that the main character, Jodi, has a few insecurities about her body type and in relation to her height, of course. The way that the movie describes her struggle truly says it all, and points out that she seems to be the only person in school towering over all of the others. Obviously, it was exaggerated but it also does highlight that short AND tall girls all face similar height differences that all should be appreciated.
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No matter if you’re called “smalls” or if everyone asks, “how’s the weather up there?”, just know that height cannot be controlled and you should embrace yourself for who you are! (Much like Jodi eventually does, but you can find that out for yourself.)