diff --git a/docs/content/en/content-management/formats.md b/docs/content/en/content-management/formats.md
index 76c8102b5..d6d8e2073 100644
--- a/docs/content/en/content-management/formats.md
+++ b/docs/content/en/content-management/formats.md
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ tool on your machine to be able to use these formats.
 Hugo passes reasonable default arguments to these external helpers by default:
 
 - `asciidoctor`: `--no-header-footer -`
-- `rst2html`: `--leave-comments --initial-header-level=2`
+- `rst2html`: `--leave-comments --initial-header-level=2 --syntax-highlight=short`
 - `pandoc`: `--mathjax`
 
 {{% note %}}
diff --git a/markup/rst/convert.go b/markup/rst/convert.go
index 398f5eb0c..33a7a79f0 100644
--- a/markup/rst/convert.go
+++ b/markup/rst/convert.go
@@ -81,10 +81,10 @@ func (c *rstConverter) getRstContent(src []byte, ctx converter.DocumentContext)
 	// handle Windows manually because it doesn't do shebangs
 	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
 		pythonBinary, _ := internal.GetPythonBinaryAndExecPath()
-		args := []string{binaryPath, "--leave-comments", "--initial-header-level=2"}
+		args := []string{binaryPath, "--leave-comments", "--initial-header-level=2", "--syntax-highlight=short"}
 		result, err = internal.ExternallyRenderContent(c.cfg, ctx, src, pythonBinary, args)
 	} else {
-		args := []string{"--leave-comments", "--initial-header-level=2"}
+		args := []string{"--leave-comments", "--initial-header-level=2", "--syntax-highlight=short"}
 		result, err = internal.ExternallyRenderContent(c.cfg, ctx, src, binaryName, args)
 	}