Episode One of The Height Chronicles: The Women and Social Critics

At an event that is almost solely populated by women, you can be sure to see me. Just get up on some stairs somewhere or take an aerial shot with your camera and, amid the sea of heads will be a beacon. Usually, that beacon will have a very silly expression on it. But, it will be visible. Easily.

The height to be considered "tall" as a woman is 5'11". Oh hai. I guess, technically, I'm 5'10 3/4". So, technically, "not tall." But, I'm still taller than your average woman.

There was a time when it wasn't fun. At all. I always worried about being "on the same level" as the other girls, so I'd slouch to get a more direct look into their eyes. It might have been an equalizing kind of thing... a subconscious drive to be politically correct or something, but I did it even though it made me look pudgier. 


A lot of women would tell me that I should embrace my long legs and arms. They'd say that I should look at all those super tall super models and enjoy that my height is comparable to theirs. Hey, guess what? I'm not a stick. I look pretty normal sized in relation to myself. It's only when you put me around those thin things that I look out of place or when you stuff me in a room full of average sized women that I stick out quite literally.


So, what's the key?


I look good when I look in a mirror. I don't look too tall or too big. I look correctly proportioned. Because I am. Why should I, once placed in a room with other women, become concerned about my image?


Right about then in the thought process I scoff at myself and shoo away all the silly ideas I let myself believe.

I am me and it doesn't matter what other women are or what they say I should be. It doesn't matter that my legs are longer than average, or that my feet are bigger than average because "average" for me is exactly what I am.


Such is the case with anything about our bodies; average is exactly what we are, within our personal context. Letting social norms impose their ideas about what is and isn't acceptable is just plain silly. If you're healthy, you're healthy. If you're proportioned in a unique way, you're unique. If you have a dimple/freckle/birthmark, you're special. Every aspect of our bodies is something to love because they're part of who we are, though they're not our defining characteristics. (It's a fine balance, really.)


Ultimately, I have nice long limbs. Doesn't matter what they look like around other people because they look nice around me.