Things That Suck About Being Tall

Now first, a disclaimer, I'm 5ft 11. I'm not exactly a giantess, but I am pretty tall by societies standards. According to this article on the BBC the average woman is 5ft 5 in the UK, and the average man is 5ft 10. So I'm a full 6 inches taller than the average woman, and am taller than most men. I certainly don't claim to be the tallest out there, but I'm tall enough that it can be a bit of a pain in the arse. So here are some of the things that can suck about being tall!

1) No clothing is ever long enough. 

This dress is about the shortest is could be on me without me getting arrested for public indecency. On the model on the website it looked a reasonable length... once it arrived not so much. I always check the height of models when websites list them in the hopes that it gives me an idea of how long something will be. I swear some websites just list every model as 5ft 9 regardless of how tall they are, which is not actually helpful. Sleeves are never long enough, the waists on dresses sit under my bust rather than anywhere near my waist, and finding jeans that cover my ankles is just hilarious at this point.

2) My hair seems to take forever to grow.

Here me out on this one. If you are 5ft 2, your hair doesn't have as far to grow before it reaches your bra strap, and therefore mermaid length hair, as my hair does. I used to think my hair grew reeeeeeally slowly, till I realised that I was comparing it to my friends who are anything up to a full foot shorter than me. Of course their hair looks longer than mine does, it's not got as far to grow!

3) Being tall has meant having giant feet.

I suppose if I had size 6 feet I'd be even clumsier than I am now. My feet just had to be a UK size 10 so that I don't fall over constantly. However this also makes shoe shopping a total nightmare. Thankfully these days options are growing, but I spent years wearing unisex/men's shoes and not being able to get cute shoes. And I'm lucky to have size 10 feet, I know women with size 12 feet, and how hard it must be to find feminine footwear! I often share my top picks for size 9+ plus shoes on She Might Be, so keep an eye out for more wishlist posts over there.

4) When you wear heels, people think you are being obnoxious.

 I love high heels, platforms in particular, but some people really see it as a personal affront to them when someone who is already tall wears heels. I dated a guy who banned me from wearing heels because he found it insulting to his masculinity! How utterly ridiculous. I've had complete strangers ask me how I can dare to wear heels when I'm already so tall, why would I need to? Um, mostly I wear them because I think they are cute and it's as simple as that. When I split up with the guy that hated me wearing them you best believe I wore heels any time I might have to see him just to be petty. There is no height limit on wearing heels, and a tall person's choice to wear heels isn't something you should take personally.

5) Strangers feel they can pass comment on your height in a negative way.

I know I'm not the only tall person out there who has had strangers make inappropriate comments about their height. A dear friend of mine is taller than me, and when we've been out together people have made transphobic comments towards us, assuming we are both trans women. I'm not offended by someone assuming that I am transgender, but I am insulted by someone who makes vile comments about this as they believe it is a negative thing. People translate my height to being unfeminine, and think it makes me masculine. It's not a bad thing to be feminine or masculine, but it is bad to assign those assumptions to something as daft as height, which is something I have literally no control over. I've heard people discuss how weird or gross it is that I'm tall, I've overheard people laughing at me for being taller than my husband. News flash, he doesn't give a shit and you shouldn't either. If I wear heels to the pub, I know I am going to get at least one comment from someone about my height, that's how often it happens.

6) Sometimes I'm too tall for places.

Let's pretend this is my 'ow I hit my head pose'.

Where I work, there is a section of the office that has a clearance space between the floor and the ceiling that is about 5ft 10. So if I need to go in here, I stoop. Realistically, I am too tall for my car. My head touches the roof of the car at all times. I once looked at buying a classic VW Beetle, and was horrified to discover that my dreams were dashed because I was too tall to get my legs under the steering wheel to even try to test drive it. I would have had to have taken the back seats out of the car, and put the driver's seat on the back seat rails to drive that car. No more dreams of a classic VW for me. When I bought my first car I wanted something small, and therefore easy to park. My height made this surprisingly difficult because my legs were too long to drive a lot of models of small car! There are door frames that need ducking under, no leg room on any kind of public transport ever, and the amount of times I've hit my head on the lights in my Grandparent's house is unreal. And I'm not even 6ft tall. 

Of course, there are also advantages of being tall, but I'll save those for another time!

Are you tall? Or maybe you're really petite? What sucks about your height?

Much love,

Kitty xxxx

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