Today, society is constantly badgering women about their appearances. Whether it be their height, weight, skin color, body shape or complexion, it never ends. Women are expected to be perfect specimens — anything less than perfect is considered “undesirable.”
Imagine the emotional distress that any given woman endures daily, obsessing over her appearance and feeling as though the way she looks will never be adequate to society’s standards. In reality, every woman is beautiful and unique in her own way. Individuality makes people stand out from the crowd. If every woman looked the same and fitted into society’s cookie-cutter mold, that standard would no longer be considered desirable anymore.
Something I find to be particularly disturbing is the way some women are ridiculed about their height. Every day when I go on Twitter, I see a comment that resembles, “If she’s taller than 5’5”, you aren’t dating a girl, you’re dating an NBA player.” This type of behavior is particularly condemnable because there is, quite literally, absolutely nothing someone can do about their height; it is purely genetics.
Most likely, men initiated the idea that if a woman is tall, she is undesirable because they feel threatened by her “masculinity.” In a world where men control mostly everything, the last thing they should dominate is how society depicts women and how women regard their own bodies.
Of course, not all men support the heinous idea of making women feel inadequate in their own skin, or even that they fully started the trend. However, it is important to acknowledge that many of the insecurities women face are due to impossible standards derived by men.
Recently, I came across a platform called “More Than My Height,” which was started by two sisters, Alli Black and Amy Rosenthal. Their mission statement is as follows: “We are two sisters on a mission to empower our fellow tall girls and educate everyone on the insecurities height can cause.”
The “More Than My Height” platform is dedicated to making society more aware of the difficulties and insecurities women who are “taller-than-average” face on a regular basis. The platform states that their two main goals are:
1. To educate our society on the negative impacts their comments and questions about height has for many tall girls and women, influencing healthier interactions.
2. To encourage and empower women to love their height while also recognizing the many talents they also possess.
The sisters hope that their platform becomes a place where “Women come together, share stories, take inspiration and learn from each other.” They acknowledge that their goals are ambitious, but is that not what makes them goals?
More Than My Height is such an awesome and intriguing platform because although people often discuss body positivity, the main focus is on women who are heavy-set and rarely about women who need to see positivity regarding their height. Body positivity is an all-inclusive term, and people should be made more aware to the fact that there are other insecurities women face regarding their bodies other than their weight.
More Than My Height features several blog posts about the difficulties women who are taller-than-average face daily. A few featured blog posts are titled, “Why are more people sensitive to weight than height,” “Why People Project Insecurities” and “Shutting Down the Stereotypes.”
All the posts found within the site are meant to discuss the insecurities and hardships tall women face regularly and to shut down the stereotypes and negative energy surrounding tall women. Some other posts are meant to bring tall women together, such as the posts titled, “What My Resume Would Look Like if I Could Only Talk About Being Tall” and “A Tall Cup of Joe… How Pilates Can Benefit the Tall Girl.”
Height positivity is a relatively new concept for those who have not had to deal with it their entire lives. Acknowledging that people’s weight does not define them is obviously a great goal for society, but it appears people have forgotten that many women face other body struggles as well, i.e. height.
With the introduction of new platforms, such as More Than My Height, society will be more adept in their inclusivity regarding body positivity. The website is one that should be viewed by people everywhere, regardless of whether or not they identify as a tall individual. It is so important to be able to view people’s struggles and insecurities and combat them with positivity and encouragement.
Women have an obligation to acknowledge and challenge each other’s insecurities because, let’s face it, everyone has them. There’s a saying that I heard recently which I believe all women should live by: “Strong women empower strong women.”
In this society, so much time is spent trying to bring people down when what people should be doing is rising up together and taking a stand within a male-dominated world. More Than My Height is going to start a world-wide movement of all-inclusive body positivity, and I sincerely cannot wait to see it.
