Monday, November 16, 2009

Really Tall Women

There's an interesting article in CNN Online's Living section: Are You Man Enough to Date Tall Women?

The article was written by a lady who says she is six feet, one inch tall ... "ridiculously tall," as she describes it. She then goes on to offer five bits of advice to men on dating very tall women, four of which follow:

1. Stay away from the cheesy lines. Duh. Cheesy lines are dumb, anyway. Ladies usually recognize them, and such lines result in the flipping of the mental switch to the "he's a dumbass" position.

2. Get over it. Meaning, don't worry about how tall she is. We're all the same size on the inside, after all. Unless she's using her height to intimidate you, who cares?

3. Treat her like a lady. Duh. She's a lady, after all, height notwithstanding.

4. We're all the same height in bed. Um ... I'll take your word for it, although I do often look at couples greatly mismatched in height and wonder how ... well ... never mind.

Of course, I've been off the dating shelf for going on 30 years now, so this is a topic of only academic interest to me. To me, the biggest challenge in relating to a very tall lady comes not at cocktail parties or office meetings or happy hour liaisons, but on the dance floor. Consider the following...

When you're in closed dance position (holding each other closely), it can be awkward to find your head just above the bust line. Interesting, but awkward.

And how about executing the simple Underarm Turn: to lead this turn, the man raises the lady's arm well above her head and gently guides her to turn in a circle underneath her upraised arm...

This is a pretty simple movement with lady who is close to one's own size, or shorter, but with an especially tall lady, getting that arm high enough for her to turn under it can be a challenge.

Of course, dancing with any lady is great fun, and size really doesn't matter. One learns to adapt to the size of the partner and - ideally - lead her in a dance that has her leaving the floor hoping you'll ask her again.

And unless she does something unforgivable - like driving a four-inch stiletto heel through my instep while dancing - I will.

Have a good day. Dance like nobody's watching. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

5 comments:

Amanda said...

I wonder what it would be like to be a really tall woman. I'm not at all tall (in fact, short) and I can remember not wanting to date any of the guys that were shorter than me. But that could be because they'd have to be exceptionally short to be shorter than me. Yes..mean...I know now.

Jay said...

If she's tall it means she has really long legs. So I don't see a problem here. ;-)

Mike said...

What Jay said. Long legs in 4" heels and a short skirt. That's where that phrase came from. She's got legs all the way up to her ..... you know.

Wv: tribless - Alone in the woods.

Leslie David said...

You've danced with 6' Sharon, so you know what it's like. I'd rather dance with a tall person than a short person who hits me in the head with their arm when they lead an underarm turn, oh, wait, I did that to you, didn't I? I'm with you--I've danced with 9 year olds so I'll dance with anyone who asks me, unless he repeatedly steps all over my feet.

allenwoodhaven said...

I wonder what the piece of advice she gave that you didn't share!

Abraham Lincoln said, or so I was told, that a man is tall enough if his feet reach the ground. That must apply to women as well....