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As a behemoth, I spend a lot of time trying to accommodate others, to shrink down, allow for folks to go ahead of me. I know I make a better door than a window.

When you’re a big guy in the habit of being unobtrusive and then try to assert yourself, you can easily be viewed as a bully (or at least overbearing.)

I’ve inadvertently terrified people who thought that I was going to be trouble, just because I was irritated or angry.

Big guys have less leeway to lose control. They can cause damage, and may be more difficult to corral.
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Folks assume a big guy can take care of himself. Take more abuse, have more resistance to attacks of all kinds. Some also assume a big guy is a lazy dimwit, prone to solving problems with brute force ( variation on beautiful people getting what they want without having to use the brain, probably.)

Upside, I guess, is that big guys can sometimes pull off the gentle giant subset. I’m often asked by people to get things off of top shelves, which I’m almost always happy to do.

Many folks seem to think I know what I’m doing, somehow, just because I’m taller. A throwback to adults being bigger and more capable when we were kids, maybe? I know that my stature doesn’t help with my technical skill or area knowledge, but that doesn’t stop assorted strangers from coming to me like I was a friendly uncle or something. Maybe it’s that they need help, and I occupy most of their field of vision.

People who know me generally understand that I’m not a slack-jawed thug. I’m thankful for that. It’s disappointing when the terms ‘big man’ is usually an insult. Everyone has something, it seems. I figure someone else would have issue with the term ‘little buddy’.

Originally published at The Scotto Grotto. You can comment here or there.