Anita and Height

[burning-nova.livejournal.com]

Hi, same ol' I'm a lurker (for a month) and first time poster. 

Okay, now I haven't read the AB books since NIC but I have to ask, does Anita still bitch about her height?

I remember she complained that she was "short" at 5' 3". I know the average height is 5' 5" in the US (the last time I read any how) or so but she's only 2 inches short and how she rarely met any one shorter than her. I know Jason is 5' 3' as well since she mentioned it the first time but  how many non 5' 3' people or shorter are there in St. Louis?  I know of plenty of people (mostly women) shorter than 5'3 (like me at 5'2).  Is Missouri full of tall  WASP-y types?

Just how tall is LKH?  Does she have a problem with being vertically challenged? 

Comments

[amamelina.livejournal.com]

how she was the last person to know about rain or whatever

Ok, that is just silly (and I can see her saying that). A lot of us are short and I bet, standing in a crowd of "not-short" people, we'd still know it was raining around the same time everyone else figured it out.

[belledewinter.livejournal.com]

Well, I am 5'3 and it's not that much of a problem. It may be true that most people are taller, but not by that much. O.o I personally think it has to do with the whole 'china doll' appearance and people being less intimidated by a short female?

It may have been good at the start in a 'HA, I BET YOU DIDN'T EXPECT THAT' way. But now it's just annoying. There should be at least one female character who can beat Anita's ass into the dirt where that 'cuteness' is concerned. Anita is also very shapely and everyone else is just flat, and I can still remember that line about 'something under size x is not a woman, is a boy with breasts'. Personally, I think at this stage LKH is just trying to feel better about herself?

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

It's just yet one more example of Anita's (and, by extension, Laurell's) "specialness." Even though there are millions of people just as short as herself, if not shorter, she still has to make a huge damn deal of it, because she's Anita fucking Blake (and LKfH) and the world revolves around her.

5' 2"s represent! *high-fives*

[myrrhmade.livejournal.com]

She's just bitter. I imagine she was taunted by a 5'10" willowy blonde with long straight hair at some point in her young life and has never gotten past it.

[a-proclivity.livejournal.com]

Yeah. She'll totally show all those high school bitches!

[entropyastaroth.livejournal.com]

I think she is just whiny. I am 5'1. It's not really a problem, but I prefer my current state of weight despite how far it is from ideal. Short and thin = people think you are small and cute, and probably younger than you are. But I can summon some authority with my current looks despite how short I am.

[wyvernfriend.livejournal.com]

I'm 5'1" too and was lucky that there was a girl of 4' 8" in my class in secondary school cause that spared me an amount of teasing.

People don't believe me that I'm so short, they keep thinking that I'm much taller because I apparently "don't behave like a short person"

[amamelina.livejournal.com]

5'0! And there's a girl in my class even smaller then me. However, by the time you hit college, people tend to grow up and stop making fun of you.

I agree with the whole, "LKH was probably made fun of in Middle to High school and never got over it." So was I, but not for my height. But, as I said, when I got to college, the teasing stopped.

[laughswithroar.livejournal.com]

Hah! I'm 5'0 too and my mother is even shorter than me. I went through life just fine though so it's odd for me to have Anita complaining about her height.

[kethlenda.livejournal.com]

She's not that short. I mean, she's shorter than I am (I'm 5'6"), but not hugely so. I think she might be about 5'4" or so. And Jon, despite all the "Micah and Anita are exactly the same height) is about 5'10"ish.

[saucyirishlass.livejournal.com]

I'm 5'3, too, and I've never gotten my actual height commented on (though one day when I went to school wearing a fairly form-fitting dress, I got a fair share of "You're so small!"(apparently in a good way) - to this day, I'm still wondering seriously, what the hell?).

I didn't even realize I was "short" until I started working at the library. When I have to deal with a book on the top shelf of a 6'4 bookshelf, then I feel my height (and I've gotten the occasional snicker from my coworkers because of my valiant efforts ^_^). Past that, it's never an issue.

So, seriously, I'm having a hard time believing that her height is such an obstacle.

[shriekitty.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm 5'3. And everyone else around is me taller. Family does make fun of me and I often can't reach things in cabinets, but I don't see why she always made such a big deal out of it. Unless what we don't know is that Jean-Claude was making "Too short" comments, and even then, people hundreds of years ago were shorter than today so... whatever, I'm ranty.

I've never come across a guy whose 5'3 and that always made me giggle. I'm sure they are out there. Whatever, Laurell. You be craaaazy.

[syrinx.livejournal.com]

I've only met about two, and both were very self-conscious of their height, not acting all macho like Micah.

[nightangel486.livejournal.com]

I'm 5'0", and I DID get teased for it. People still mistake me for a 12 year old and give me weird looks when I say I'm a senior in college.

But you know what? I got used to it. It doesn't bother me anymore, and much like early Anita, I learned to respond with some form of sarcasm when people say "Wow, you're so short!" or something along those lines. But this is just another example of how LKH is uable to cope with or get over ANY of the many issues in her life, and so we hear her rant and whine about them over and over.

And despite being short, for some reason it weirds me out when guys are around my height. Not sure why.

Interesting.

[door.livejournal.com]

Her first few books were classified as Young Adult, as I recall.

[justacrazygirl.livejournal.com]

I've always found the fact that LKH inserts all these short men into the story kind of odd. The only man I know who's around 5' 3" is my BIL, and yes (size-ist that I am ;) it still surprises me when I haven't seen him in a while.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I'm not so fussed about the female height issue (though, okay, Merry amuses me because the Sidhe are meant to be tall and snooty, so I can understand why they'd be bitchy about her shortness), but am freaked out by how many short men are in these books. I only know two guys that are shorter than me -- and I'm 5'9".

I can't really see how being short adds to the hotness of the dudes, specially since most of them are meant to be strippers. I'm sure there are hot short strippers out there, but omg SO MANY IN ONE PLACE? Do they moonlight as jockeys and only strip by night?

[slayra.livejournal.com]

I think all the men are so short because Anita is short too. That way she can feel good about her height. :p

Of course if LKH had said Jean Claude was short because of his age, I'd buy it. After all, it's common knowledge that humans are now generally taller than they were 400 years ago. So 5'4'' might be a totally normal height for a man in the 1600s.

[karmyn75.livejournal.com]

I'm 5'1 and it never really bothered me until my neice became taller than me.
LKH just likes to bitch about everything.

[sadlikeknives.livejournal.com]

I'm of average height, but two of my three suitemates in college were both 5'0". And one of them's brother is 5'3" so yes, men that height do exist.

But the thing is, my suitemates aren't considered unusually short, while the brother, who's Anita's height, kind of is. Whereas in the Anitaverse, there are no women Anita's height or shorter, but half the guys are exactly her height (including strippers, because women just love a stumpy stripper). Does. Not. Compute.

[swiftgold.livejournal.com]

Yet another 5'3"er. Woo! And my sister is 5'1". There are some downsides to it like the pants being too long and I always wear boots to seem a little taller, but other than having to use a stool to reach high shelves it's not that much of a deal. I certainly don't constantly (or ever) narrate to myself about my height...

Yeah, it really doesn't seem to be that rare, at least for real life. We might be force-fed models 5'7" and over, but as always that's not what most people are like.

[panicqueen.livejournal.com]

5' even here. The only time I have any trouble with it is working at the bookstore, trying to get something on the top shelf when everyone seems to be using the stools as chairs.

Generally, though, somebody taller and nice will pluck whatever I need from the shelf. Because, see, I know when I accept help from people.

Besides. I don't look very cute STRAINING FOR DEAR LIFE on my tip toes.

[stickfigurepeep.livejournal.com]

In the immortal words of Daffy Duck;
You may be big, but I'm small!

I'm 5'1, and have never had a problem with excessive height related wangst. I've only met two men the same height as me. They were both fairly stocky. Not the mini muscle bound beefcakes LKH dreams up.

Not being able to reach things aside, I've always been kind of greatful for it. With everyone bigger than me, I don't really notice when someone is particularly large, so I am completely oblivious to any kind of physical intimidation.

I got a bit of a complex when I first started reading AB, because I look exactly like she's described. Short, pale, dark curly hair, big boobs and doll-like face. (I think I look more like Anita than LKH does.) I've never had any problems with any of those features, while Anita often complains about every single one of them. I hold tall, skinny blondes no ill will at all.

[i-open-doors.livejournal.com]

I come from a small Midwestern town and I can honestly say that men shorter than me were a rare find, and I'm 5'8".

...now in the entertainment industry? Well, I work in Las Vegas with a bunch of acrobats, and most of them are shorter than I am, especially the ones from Asia. (While the Europeans are all much taller than I am, which is strange for an acrobat, unless you're an aerialist.) But outside of them, I just don't see that many men who are short, even amongst the tourists.

[ladyshiin.livejournal.com]

I'm 4'10 and I fit into children's clothes I should be the one complaining how short I am - and I do good naturedly usually (my friends use me as arm rests and call me chibi - I have friends who are 5'8, 5'9, 6'1 and 6'3 so yes I am short in that context).

Of course there are times when I absolutely HATE being the size I am usually when I was in highschool and face level to backpacks and get smacked in the face argh.

I hated gym too for pretty much the same reason. A ball thrown at chest-height to everybody else was face-height to me and I got the concussions to prove it.

But I don't bitch about my height unless I have a reason.

[cicipsychobunny.livejournal.com]

I just had a thought - I've got the discussion about the "white bread" comments open in another window. Could this whole height thing be another symptom of LKH's sheltered life?
I'm 5'6". I have a whole three inches on LKH. But I don't see myself as either particularly tall - most guys are taller than me, and I know quite a few very tall women - nor short, because since high school I've been in classes with a good proportion of Chinese / Malaysian students, who tend to be quite a bit shorter. My three closest girl friends are shorter than me.

Now, if LKH has really never been in a very multiethnic community, or just doesn't leave the house enough to see many other people, she would naturally form the assumption that she is the tiniest fairy in the forest. It's a simple lack of exposure to other body types.

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

South St. Louis is a melting pot these days - lots of Asians and Eastern Europeans (Bosnians, Croatians...) have taken to settling there because property prices are cheap.

(Massive case of white flight happened and the area has gone to shit, but there are patches being rehabbed.)

But, I think LKH just doesn't see what's beyond her "little" house.

[longtail.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered how Anita managed to find all the short short guys in St. Louis...and why Jean Claude keeps employing them. So far it's Micah, Jason, Nathanial, Stephen and Gregory. Not to mention handfuls of minor characters and two legimate "Little People." Just...okaaaay.

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

And, St. Louis along with the surrounding areas of East St. Louis, Madison and St. Clair counties in IL at the least, then, St. Charles, St. Peters, Jefferson, Franklin and Lincoln counties in MO, aren't that densely populated so, yeah.... :p

As for Little People, well, there is Pacific, MO, but we won't go into how whacked out a town that is, since there has got to be something in the water there that makes that place so screwy.....

I guess JC just does Internet advertising? "Wanted - short, ripped male strippers... please apply here *inserts email address*"

If not the Internet, than the Vampire Gossip Grapevine?

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

I'm 5'8", and was 5'10" before an injury led to a bit of shrinkage in a few areas. Most of my friends? Short. Like...the 4'10" to 5' even range short. 5'3"? Not that short. (I actually tend to feel too damn tall, but that might just be me.)

The whole thing with the short men? Annoying.

-Dira-

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

I'm 5'6 so I'm about average height but it really is all in the attitude. I had a job in high school that required being assertive. I was the shortest and youngest girl hired and, apparently, the "sweetest". That didn't stop me from earning the working title "THE Bitch." (And the other girls were dead jealous.) My brother and most of his friends are over six feet tall and have been for years however they only just realized that they're taller, broader, bigger, and have a shot at being meaner than me. Really, it's an attitude thing. (That short main characters almost never seem to pick up on!)

[easol.livejournal.com]

A whole TWO INCHES under the national average. Ye gods. How does she stand being such a munchkin?

Seriously, being 5'3" is not that horrible, or that short. Okay, you're a little petite -- so wear some big-ass heels and vertical stripes. It's not a freakish trait, and it's not a big deal to anyone else. I'm around that height; there are plenty of girls the same size, and a few men too. (I like my men short, but due to neck pain rather than insecurity). The only thing about it that sucks is that you have to hem your pants, because the clothing industry apparently thinks along the same lines as LKH.

If she's worried about looking intimidating, then she should get some tattoos or buzz her head.