Why are we so obsessed with world leaders’ heights?
US president Joe Biden was in the UK this week to meet with prime minister Rishi Sunak at Downing Street and with King Charles III at Windsor Castle, keen to reaffirm that the “special relationship” between America and Britain remains as “rock-solid” as ever before jetting out to the latest Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
The meetings also served to underline the difference in height between the men, with Mr Biden standing 6 feet (ft) tall and unavoidably towering over both His Majesty and Mr Sunak, who measure 5ft 8 inches and 5ft 6 respectively.
The Democrat is of fairly average height for an American president, however, as there have been 13 occupants of the White House taller than him, including his former boss Barack Obama (6ft 1 ½) as well as John F Kennedy (6ft 1), Ronald Reagan (6ft 1), George Washington (6ft 1 ½), FDR (6ft 2), Bill Clinton (6ft 2 ½) and Donald Trump (6ft 3).
The tallest man to hold the post was Abraham Lincoln, who measured 6ft 4 even without his signature stovepipe hat, which must have posed a persistent danger to the light fixtures during his time in the Oval Office .
Mr Sunak’s relatively short stature was last in evidence when he posed for a photograph with Westminster’s tallest MP, Daniel Kawczynski, a 6ft 9 heap of Conservative.
During his time as chancellor in March 2021, Mr Sunak posed for another picture in which he rather artfully positioned himself at the top of the stairs of No 11 brandishing the famous red Budget box, which forced his fellow Treasury ministers to line the steps below him, making them look far smaller.
For the record, this is how the PM compares with his predecessors:
Liz Truss (2022-22) – 5ft 5¼
Boris Johnson (2019-22) – 5ft 9
Theresa May (2016-19) – 5ft 6
David Cameron (2010-16) – 6ft ½
Gordon Brown (2007-10) – 5ft 11
Tony Blair (1997-2007) – 6ft
Sir John Major (1990-97) – 5ft 11
Baroness Margaret Thatcher (1979-90) – 5ft 5
James Callaghan (1976-79) – 6ft 1
Sir Harold Wilson (1964-70, then 1974-76) – 5ft 8
Sir Edward Heath (1970-74) – 6ft
Sir Alec Douglas-Home (1963-64) – 6ft
Harold Macmillan (1957-63) – 6ft
Sir Anthony Eden (1955-57) – 5ft 11
Winston Churchill (1940-45, then 1951-55) – 5ft 6
Clement Atlee – 5ft 7
Mr Sunak’s height makes him 1.96 inches shorter than the average adult man in Britain, according to the Office for National Statistics, which appears to be of greater concern when it comes to politicians than for the rest of us, particularly in America.
But that does not seem to be the case in every country.
France, for one, has remained admirably unflustered by the prospect of short statesmen, from Napoleon Bonaparte (5ft 5½) to Emmanuel Macron (5ft 8) by way of Nicolas Sarkozy (5ft 5) and Francois Hollande (5ft 7).
Elsewhere, Angela Merkel and the late Silvio Berlusconi were both 5ft 5, President Lula of Brazil triumphed over Jair Bolsonaro at the polls last year despite being 5ft 4 to his opponent’s 6ft 1 and both Russia and Ukraine are currently led by men of just 5ft 7 in the shape of Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky.
Bonaparte has, of course, lent his name – however reluctantly – to the “Napoleon complex”, a pop-psychological label commonly handed out to anyone thought to be overcompensating for their lack of height by behaving in an excessively assertive or domineering manner, which would certainly go some way towards explaining certain contemporary political figures like Mr Putin.
In Spain, where the 6ft 6 King Felipe VI constantly requires press photographers to take a step backwards when he is gladhanding guests at official occasions, Jorge Francisco Santiago – a professor of politics at Madrid’s Camilo Jose Cela University – assured El Pais that there is no meaningful correlation between “centimetres and political success… because the vast majority of citizens understand that political competence, honesty, empathy or even charisma do not depend on something as superficial as height”.
However, he acknowledged that there are “ingrained social perceptions or false generalisations” that tend “to associate height with virility, or attribute ambition, aggressiveness or cunning to short men” of which political advisers are aware and have to bear in mind on the campaign trail and during TV debates as they assess every detail in order to give their candidate the best possible chance of success.
Professor Santiago advised readers of the newspaper to look out for low angles in campaign videos and on posters and for candidates wearing tight shirts or shorter ties as dead giveaways of efforts being made to conceal their height.
He also warned taller candidates, citing 2004 US presidential candidate John Kerry as an example, not to stoop out of deference to a shorter opponent but to shamelessly make the most of the advantage they have, even if it is all only a matter of perception.
Mr Kerry’s “unconscious gesture of humility hurt him, because it made him look uncomfortable in his own skin,” Professor Santiago observed.
Ultimately, what damages candidates most appears to be their betraying that they themselves are preoccupied with the issue, as was the case with Mr Sarkozy or, more recently, with Republican presidential contender Ron DeSantis, who has already been ridiculed by Mr Trump for wearing heeled cowboy boots to appear taller.
Writing about the “significance” of Mr Sunak’s stature when he took office last year, one GQ columnist wrote that the PM’s preference for trick photography tactics, presumably to project a greater aura of authority, meant that he had “betrayed short men”.
“The reason Rishi has killed the era of the short king isn’t because he’s short and awful – although he is both. It’s because he has refused to own it,” said Imogen West-Knights.
“Short men should be outraged at Sunak, who has spent his whole time in the political limelight trying desperately to distance himself from their ranks.”
In Vilnius, he will run into world leaders of a range of sizes, from outgoing Dutch PM Mark Rutte (6ft 4), Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, both 6ft 2, to German chancellor Olaf Scholz (5ft 7) and Italian PM Giorgia Meloni (5ft 4).
Mr Sunak should perhaps be thankful that Serbia is not yet a member of the alliance, given that its absence means he will not have to peer blinking upwards at the 6ft 6 frame of that country’s president, Aleksandar Vucic.
