Tom Holland and Zendaya Are Standing Up for Short Kings and Tall Queens Everywhere
Who needs heteronormative dating standards when you could fall into Zendaya's arms, instead??
Celebrities
Spider-Man: No Way Home co-stars Tom Holland and Zendaya are very much in love, and we’re all very much in love with their love — especially now that the two are invoking their coupledom to fight for a very important cause: the rights of short kings and tall queens to just live their damn lives!
Holland, a spry 5’8, and Zendaya, 5’10, are continuing their press tour for No Way Home, and when the couple’s height difference came up in a Friday interview with SiriusXM’s Jessica Shaw, Holland called the scrutiny tall women face “ridiculous.”
“I remember when we were doing the Spider-Man screen tests, I mean, you’d have to ask Jon Watts [Spider-Man director] this question, but every girl that we tested was taller than me,” Holland said, praising the casting move. He continued:
“I wonder whether Jon, that was a decision that Jon had made. … To be fair, I am quite short. But, maybe that was a decision Jon Watts made and something he was aware of and wanted to break the stereotype. I think it’s great.”
The conversation started when Shaw said point-blank, “Zendaya, you’re taller than Tom and it became this, this thing…” to which Holland clarifies, “Not that much taller. Let’s just, let’s put this out there — maybe like an inch or two at best. It’s not like, people say, like, ‘How did you guys kiss? It must have been so difficult.’”
Shaw then says she’s always been fascinated by the “misogynistic” reactions women face for being tall, and particularly for being with shorter men. Holland agrees “it’s a stupid assumption” that women are supposed to be taller than their male partners, and Zendaya chimes in to say her “mom is taller than [her] dad” and “is taller than everyone.” Fellow No Way Home co-star Jacob Batolan, bless him, then declares, “It’s, like, not a weird thing for women to be tall,” and everyone aggressively agrees!
Holland then even thanks Shaw for “bringing that up,” totally un-phased that the segue into the conversation was his own noted shortness. To state the obvious, height can be an extreme source of insecurity for men, even pushing some to adopt a Ben Shapiro-esque Napoleon complex, rather than a healthier, happier approach like Holland’s. We can only hope they watch this interview, and along with tall women who face social ostracism for their heights, find self-love and acceptance.
Overall, Holland and Zendaya are currently the internet’s favorite couple (who is their competition, really??), not just because Zendaya is Zendaya and Holland so far appears to be unproblematic, but arguably because of their sense of humor about things — including their ability to make fun of themselves and each other.
Just last week, in a joint appearance on The Graham Norton Show, the couple joked about a No Way Home stunt that kept getting semi-botched because of their height difference, leading to the two attempting to recreate a scene in which Zendaya would accidentally catch Holland, rather than the other way around:
“It’s so nice to be caught for a change,” Holland responded, with a laugh.
Exactly, Tom! Honestly, who needs toxic masculinity and heteronormative expectations in dating when you could be carried by Zendaya??
Ever since Holland and Zendaya competed against each other on Lip Sync Battle in 2017 to promote Spider-Man: Homecoming — sparking the viral social media rule that you *must* retweet Holland’s lip sync performance of “Umbrella” if you encounter it on your feed — we’ve all been rooting for this ship to set sail. But despite fueling dating rumors for years, TomDaya’s relationship status wasn’t confirmed until this summer, when paparazzi leaked ridiculously adorable photos of the couple that subsequently broke the internet.
Months later, the two are publicly obsessed with each other. In recent weeks, Zendaya has expressed genuine, girlfriend-ly concern about Holland’s safety doing his stunts, and caught understandably being Horny On Main at her boyfriend’s web-shooting moves. Holland, meanwhile, has been posting a new photo of Zendaya with accompanying heart-eye emojis seemingly every other day.
They are, in their own words, each other’s MJ and Spider-Man, and for the rest of us, they are a beacon of hope for short kings and tall queens everywhere. They are a reminder that love is love, and no Real Man should be afraid to fall into the sturdy arms of his towering girlfriend. Honestly, we can’t help but hope this couple goes the distance and would love nothing more than to fawn over any probably average-sized, adorable babies they might someday bring forth into the world. #TomDaya forever.