Photo courtesy of @Nirrimi.‘Dang you’re tall…but you are pretty though.’
What kind of sentence is this? I wish I could obliterate this statement from the face of the earth. Talk about a backhanded comment. You may be implying that I am pretty but what you are really doing is calling every tall girl ugly. Yes. That is what you said. Get out of my presence.
These kind of generalizations contribute to a tall girls plunge into self-esteem problems. For some reason a large part of society places the combination of tall+woman into UGLY. I will never, ever understand this. Who painted this portrait and why did we purchase it?
First, there is no such thing as ugly. Ugly is just a shallow opinion. Every single one of us is created in God’s image, with beautiful lines and purpose in every single step of our creation. We each have something unique and amazing that only we can release on the world.
Second, who decided that a whole group of women should be placed in the ugly bin because we are tall? I have some words for you. Can we meet after school and settle this? Did you see a tall woman that wasn’t in your definition of beautiful and then spread the rumor that all of us are undesirable? Why can’t we just keep our preferences to ourselves?
Third, and most importantly, why do we believe this lie? I did for years. I heard it, agreed with it and then tortured myself with it. I adopted it as fact and was so lost in it that I couldn’t see the screaming, neon fallacy that it was. I know some of you reading this were right there with me. I know some of you reading this are still caught in the trap of the lie.
I can’t be the one to break you out. Only you can pick the lock. But please know that there are many statements and stereotypes about our height that are created to detour us from seeing what a gift it is. What we all need to realize is that it’s not the person that makes the statement that brings us down, it’s our own acceptance of the ludicrous idea that does.
It’s hard to admit that you are the master of your ship. That you let in the good and the bad. That ideas like this one are just suggestions rather than reasons for the way that we feel. But at the end of the day that is exactly what they are and it’s up to us to repel them.
Take control. Reject the lies. Love every single piece to your puzzle. And above all, never make someone’s lie your reality.