francene--blog. Year 2013
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Sept 3rd

9/3/2013

 
People are growing taller. We all knew that, but now it's been proven by a study. Data was collected on hundreds of thousands of men from 15 European countries.  Since the mid-19th century, experts have found the height has increased by almost 11 cm or 4 ½ inches.

Published in the journal Oxford Economic Papers, the paper looked at data from sources including military records and modern population surveys from the 1870s to 1980 in 15 European countries.

PictureGreer - www.nndb.com
It looked only at male height because there was too little historical data for women. Now that's a shame. Women were of lower status in this period. I can think of a few tall women who have been leaders of our time.

Germaine Greer, entrepreneur and writer of The female Eunuch amongst other books. In 1939 (age 74) she was born just before me in the same place in Australia.


PicturePorter - www.mirror.co.uk
Janet Street Porter, an English journalist and television celebrity. First book, Baggage, written in 2004. Born in 1946 (age 66) London.

In my school years, my head peered over those of my peers. I grew to the height of 5'10" by early adulthood. Several experiences turned me away from public gatherings. Once, my girlfriend and I went to a rock-n-roll dance without my mother's knowledge. I wore the usual outfit of the time: full skirt with petticoats, clinched at the waist with a wide belt over a fitted blouse. A short man of Italian descent clung to me and shuffled for one whole song with his head pressed against my generous breast. Hence, I didn't socialize much due to a feeling of ostracism. Men liked me alright—just not the way I wished for.


In that same year of 1958, my 15-year-old friend and I went to the movies to see Jailhouse Rock. Elvis Presley represented all that was naughty to me—sexy rebel that he was. We walked along her inner-city street amongst whistles and comments from boys driving by in flashy cars. My mother would have been shocked. I guess luck favored me enough to come away from the experience unharmed. (You can see what I looked like if you click the home page above.)

Nowadays, most of the young people I see are tall and proud.

I understand what the expression 'look down upon' truly means. What are your experiences with your own height? Has being short, medium or tall ever caused you a problem?

Pixie Willow
9/2/2013 07:04:30 pm

I always wanted to be supermodle tall but at a short 5' 6" itwas never gonna happen lol I soon found heels though, people really should be proud of who they are and how they look and more importantly work with what you have lol

Francene Stanley link
9/2/2013 10:47:09 pm

Great advice. Work with what you have--don't change it.

sojourner link
9/2/2013 07:23:50 pm

Ha. This was very entertaining. I remember field trips to colonial homes during grammar school and thinking, why are the doors so small?

Francene Stanley link
9/3/2013 03:09:59 am

Cottage and pub doors here in England are very low for that very reason.

Amy link
9/2/2013 11:44:48 pm

Francene,
My, you are tall! I admire tall women who will walk proudly, not stooping. When I was in school, the girls who were tall were not proud of it. You can't do anything about your height, so wear it proudly, say I! Of course I am nothing but average in height, so I don't have the challenge of trying to fit into a shorter group.

Francene Stanley link
9/3/2013 03:11:52 am

Of course, I'm not so tall now. The length of my legs hasn't changed, but age has shrunk my spine by 2 1/2 inches. I'm almost normal now. Um, I mean average.

K. Lee Banks link
9/3/2013 07:12:44 am

Francene, I love your posts - you always find interesting things to discuss!

I have the opposite problem - I am short, only 5'2" - I often have trouble at stores - if something on a top shelf is not right near the edge, I usually have to ask for help! Of course, there's rarely any store associate nearby, so I have to be brave and ask some taller person if he or she could help me!

At home, I have a 3-step stool, because the kitchen cabinets were not built into this older house with short people in mind! I can only comfortably reach the bottom two out of four shelves, have to really stretch for the front of the third shelf, and have to use the stool for the back of the shelf and the top shelf. Forget about the cabinets over the oven and fridge! Those are top step on the stool height!

Alana link
9/3/2013 11:39:28 am

My best friend is short and she has had some real problems with her height- even being scarred for life from taking a roast chicken out of a wall oven and accidentally tipping it onto her arm. I've been spared. But, when I visit American Civil War related sites (from 150 years ago) you can easily see the height difference in housing and in the uniforms the soldiers wore. They sometimes look like older children's clothing.


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    Author

    Francene Stanley, author of many published novels. If you like my writing, why not consider purchasing one of my books? You'll see them on the sidebar below.
    Born in Australia, I moved to Britain half way through my long life.

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