Standing in the back...is it that big of a deal??
Hey everyone, how have you been? Yes, I do want you to answer that question out loud. Welcome to the end of yet another week, and congratulations on making it so far. I know that you probably didn’t have the smoothest week, I’m sure you had to stride over a few obstacles. Maybe you event had to knock down some walls too. In the end you made it to see another Friday, so I want you to celebrate those small wins that got you this far. I know you guys are used to my blog entries coming out every Monday, but I think I’m going to switch it up. Instead of Mondays I’m going to use Fridays to talk to you all. Give you some knowledge, motivation, and enlightenment going into the weekend.
Now that we have that taken care of; today I want to talk with you all about something that may not seem like a big deal, but to my community…to my tall girl community this is something that has to be said. I’ve gone through it personally, and it seems that the more I talk to tall woman from across the world the more I can see that it’s not just me. There are, other tall woman in the world who are going through these issues. As you all can clearly see and read the title of today’s blog entry is “Standing in the back…is it that big of a deal?”. Today I am here to say with all the might from my diaphragm that being consistently put in the back your entire life plays a huge impact on how you view yourself. Physically…and mentally.
As someone who has been tall all her life the first thing I learned when I entered school was that I have to stand in the back of the line and pictures because I am tall. No matter how much I wanted to be the line leader, no matter how much I wanted to be able to sit down in the chairs in the front row of the pictures. I always heard “No, Alexis you’re tall so you have to go to the back.” Do you know the type of pain that is inflicted on a child hearing those words consistently? It’s like a dagger going straight through your heart. You hear those words so much that you start to believe that you belong in the back.
You start hiding your face and body in pictures, you start to fear being in front of large crowds of people staring at you, and most importantly you can start to become socially anxious. I am speaking from personal experience and the stories I have been told by other, tall woman. Being subjected to the back all of your life starts to make you feel like you aren’t as pretty, important, or worthy to be able to stand tall in front of the crowd. On top of the bullying, and name calling, and blatant harassment from others in your class you even have the teacher partaking in making you feel less than. You start to become afraid of being yourself, and you begin to hide your personality.
So, my question to the world is that why is it that we have to always line up in order by height, why do the tall people always have to be in the back? I am sure that educators already know the pain that tall girls specifically go through, not to ignore that pain of the tall boys, this is a pain that is universal in the tall community. Who was the one to come up with this rule, and who were the people who just sat by and let this continue to take effect? Then we have the educators who continuously use this system, aren’t you supposed to be there to help students but not hurt them. It may not be done purposely but the simple fact that bullying against tall woman specifically is so prevalent that you as educators should be able to see this and adjust as necessary.
I am not here to call anyone out, but I am here to call out a system that is complicit in the continuous bullying and dehumanization of tall woman all across the world. I am here to tell that system to go fuck itself (excuse my language)! I am here to help lead the way in tearing down a system that has continuously told tall woman that we are only seen as our height or as a woman but never seen as just being ourselves. I am here to tell the world that we are much more than our height.
I am here to tell all those tall girls and woman out here that we are much more than our height! I want you all to know with or without that height you are beautiful. I am here to tell you that even without those long legs you are still amazing, but with those long legs you are even greater than you or the world can comprehend. I want you to know that no matter how many times they try to send you to the back of the line, I want you to stand your ground, to stand tall with your shoulders back, chin up, chest out, and become the leader of that line. To pose like the supermodel you are in the front of those pictures. To never shrink yourself to fit into the box that society has continuously tried to put us in. I want you to tell the world that they can no longer shrink you. Tell your educators that you can no longer try to force me to the back just because I am tall. Scream to the world to put some respect on your height!
I love each and every single one of you, tall beautiful woman who grace the world with each stride you take! Never forget that we are a magical being, and that the world wants to be like us that’s why they continuously try to shrink us by throwing us in the back; but tell them that we will never shrink but only continue to grow and glow!
Comments