« The Woman Who Ate Her Own Subtext | Main | Please Don't Comment On What I Eat »
February 20, 2008
Little People
Minicronnie is so cute!
She actually has a reasonable calorie count: 1200, if you are only slightly taller than my cat! :)
I am really enjoying reading her adventures in CR, and it's just so exciting to know that someone out there is shorter than I am!
I've been thinking a lot lately about how sexy, cool, beautiful, come in so many different shapes and sizes. I happen to have a fetish for super skinny guys, but there are quite a few men I find beautiful who are the tall and strong type. Keith Olbermann comes to mind, but there are other, less famous (as yet) examples.
More than anything, beauty comes from who you are inside, what you do, what you stand for, where you've been and where you're willing to go.
Of course, everyone is more beautiful when they eat kale. And B vitamins. I find I look so much better when I'm rocking out my B vitamin intake. Is it just me?
I have a friend who is one of those very short guys who tend to get overlooked for attention, promotions, etc. Short people often have to be more aggressive, more competent, just to compete with the tall folk. As a short girl, I learned early how to dress conservatively and well, wear heels (always -- there are people whom I've known for years who have never seen me without heels!) and stand up very straight. My friend is a very good looking guy, but will definitely have to dress better, work harder, and be somewhat more assertive if he is to overcome the prejudice folks seem to have against the short, especially short men. I took him the other night to buy clothes, and it was so much fun to shop for a boy, like having a doll! Perhaps I retired my Barbies too soon, but I love playing dress up with boys! Danny C, who is quite the fashionista if truth be told, came along and was extremely helpful with the boy-specific stuff, like how to get measurements for shirts and such. I am mostly good at saying, "You look good in that color. Put down that tie. Buy basic black. White shirt, good." Short people have a harder time buying clothes, I think. I've never bought a pair of pants I didn't have to hem. I almost always wear skirts, and they're often too long. For short, slim men, it can be impossible to find clothes that fit. And wearing clothes that fit and look professional can be essential to being taken seriously.
For women, I think it's easier. Though for extremely short women, like my high school best friend who used to rail at being treated like a doll and picked up without her permission, it's still hard.
And of course, there is so much weight bias in our society, something I have written about extensively
It really is hard to get all your nutrients into a small package. I find myself envying the tall, skinny beasties like MR who can eat much more than I can. He eats beans everyday! Now I know that I could eat a legume or two if I were to give up my red wine, but the day that happens is the day you should call the little men in the white suits to carry me away because I will have lost my mind.
Speaking of mind, I am reading with much enjoyment Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. I wonder if I will ever become the woman who mistook her partner for a carrot. He is quite tall and orange, but not nearly as crunchy as one might expect or even hope.
Anyhow, I must now conclude this late night insomnia-induced fit of blogging and try to get some sleep... leaving at 6:30 am for the morning meeting, and going till well after 9 p.
Life of an organizer... and I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Posted by april at February 20, 2008 3:47 AM
Comments
I just found Minicronnie quite recently. What I find cool is not that she's short, but that she's 59! (We older broads have to stick together, you know!)
As for men's clothes, they used to make menswear in Short, Regular and Tall as standard -- long before there were Petites for women! Now all you see for the guys is Regular, Tall and XXXL. I expect the percentage of men under 5'10" hasn't dropped that much since 20+ years ago, but there sure are a lot more "big fellas".
Posted by: Judith at February 20, 2008 6:21 PM