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Handicapped By Height (Travails Of The Tall)

I'm 6'2 and don't consider myself to be much taller than the average. I'm also built like a brick shithouse and have always struggle with train seats and cinema seats. I was almost paralysed after sitting through Watchmen.

I think it's a form of discrimination to charge tall people extra. We should have special seating areas like disbaled people, with extra leg room!
 
I'm 6' 4" and my girlfriend is 4' 11". For some reason whenever we first meet friends or relatives of each other they nearly always make some kind of comment like 'oh wow, there is a big height difference'.

Really, until you mentioned it... :roll:

It doesn't even cross my mind anymore, the people who seem to have an issue about it is everyone else.

I dunno what it is but tall women just freak me out. Much prefer small women.

Regarding aeroplanes, nothing infuriates me more than when an airline has extra leg room seats set aside, not just a sit where you like policy, but when you get on some short-arse is sat in them - like they need the extra space!

Remember coming back from Lisbon a few years back and being squeezed in to a space a child would have struggled to fit in only to have the @£$* in front immediately recline their chair so their stupid bald head was almost up my nose.

See also Luton Town's away end, designed clearly to hold fans up to the age of five years old. Was actually physically impossible for me to sit down.
 
McAvennie_ said:
Remember coming back from Lisbon a few years back and being squeezed in to a space a child would have struggled to fit in only to have the @£$* in front immediately recline their chair so their stupid bald head was almost up my nose.
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It's at times like that a well aimed sneeze, followed up by a major coughing fit, can work wonders. See also, trains, buses, waiting rooms and elevators :twisted:
 
'People are always making comments to me. It's the height of bad manners'
If you're a self-conscious giant, the Tall Person's Club is for you. Kevin Rawlinson (5ft 5 1/2in) was made an honorary member
Saturday, 29 August 2009

Lanky. beanpole. Giant. The members of the Tall Person's Club have heard it all before. Over the years, many have been pointed, stared and even laughed at. But this weekend they are gathering in Kent simply to "not talk about being tall".

So asking each one how tall they were as they arrived turns out to be my first mistake. Each year, a group of them meet for one weekend. For many it is a rare opportunity to meet people who face the same problems they do.

"It can be difficult for us, from people asking questions when we're trying to do our shopping to finding a bed big enough," says Louise Ross (6ft3in), a member of the club's board. "But we try to meet it with humour. When people ask if we play basketball, we ask them if they play miniature golf. :D We even had T-shirts printed saying 'I like small people but I couldn't eat a whole one', that type of thing."

Carsten Matthiesen, the tallest member of the Club, stands at 7ft3in. (That's 21-and-a-half inches taller than yours truly, for the record.) He travelled from Aarhus in Denmark to be here. "People are here because they are tall – they don't need to talk about it – so we just get on with talking about normal things. That's not so easy in the outside world," he says.

"Children often ask about my height. I don't mind that. It is the older people who really annoy me. Surely they must know how it is rude to make comments when I am trying to pay for my shopping?" It dawns on me that pulling up a ladder to interview him may have been my second mistake. 8)

"I have to get my clothes specially made," he continues. "There is a tailor in Italy who caters for people my height. He brings his catalogue to Denmark once a year. I am quite lucky because I pay the same price as shorter people would when I buy from him. But it can take up to eight weeks to get the clothes delivered."

But surely it is not all bad being tall? "There are benefits," says Carsten, a chef and stand-up comedian. "A lot of girls like tall men and they don't come too much taller than me. Men will often buy me a beer, too."

The Tall Person's Club was set up by Phil Heinricy in 1991. At 6ft8in and fed up of never being able to find clothes that fitted him, he decided to contact other tall people. "Within a few weeks he had taken hundreds of phone calls. The membership now stands at three or four thousand," says Ms Ross, who works as a detention officer for Leicestershire police.

The Tall Person's Club is one of a number across Europe. Mr Matthiesen has been on trips with Europa Treffen, which meets in different venues across the Continent. He says there is also a club in Denmark. "But they are all quite old. They have tea at around 5pm, then it is off to bed. I come here because they are younger," he explains (the average age is 38 ).

Thirty-seven-year-old civil servant Helen Porter (6ft4in), another member, says: "I came all the way from Newcastle to be here because I enjoy the company. We usually have activities on the first night, then go on a trip before the party to top it all off."

According to one board member, there have been more than 50 weddings between members in the 18 years the club has been running. However, membership has fallen in recent years. Ms Ross said she is keen to recruit the next generation of tall people to keep the club running.

"We need to get teenagers involved. The nation is getting taller but life seems to be getting smaller. Cars, mobile phones and the like are tiny these days. But the fact is that a lot of tall people don't have a great deal of confidence in themselves. Some members won't even come to the social events. Once they do come though, they realise that it is nice to see that they are not the only ones."

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 78959.html
 
This reminds me of the Cleese, Barker and Corbett sketch:
"I look up to him.... but I look down on him..." 8)

Tall people 'lead happier lives'
Tall people lead happier lives than their more vertically challenged peers, according to a new study which found that most miserable men are almost an inch shorter than average.
By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent
Published: 8:00AM BST 09 Sep 2009

Researchers found that shorter people tended to be more dissatisfied with their lot in life.

The study interviewed more than 450,000 adults about how they viewed their life.

The volunteers were asked to place themselves somewhere on a “life ladder” and asked about their emotions.

According to the findings, people who were taller were also more likely to be positive about their life and were more likely to judge themselves a happy.

They were also less likely to feel a range of negative emotions, including sadness and physical pain, although they were more likely to experience stress and anger, and if they were women, to worry.

Men who reported that their lives were the "worst possible" were in general more than eight tenths of an inch, or two centimetres, shorter than the average height.

Women who viewed themselves as "on the bottom step" on the life ladder were shorter than the average woman by half an inch, or 1.3 centimetres.

There was also a link between height and education, the findings, published in the journal Economics and Human Biology, found.

Men who did not finish secondary school were found to be half an inch, or 1.27 centimetres, shorter than average and more than an inch, or 2.54 centimetres, shorter than the average height of those who had gone on to graduate from university.

However, there was no such clear link when it came to women, with just small differences in height.

The authors of the report, from Princeton University in New Jersey, conclude that the link between education, income and height mostly explained the link with happiness and life satisfaction.

The data was taken from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index daily poll of the American population.

The survey interviewed adults aged 18 or between January 2008 and April 2009.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healt ... lives.html
 
I'm not really a boxing fan, but this match intrigues me:

David Haye mustn’t aim too high in fight with giant Nikolai Valuev
Ron Lewis in Nuremburg

The scrawny Israelite shepherd boy called David was armed with a sling when he confronted the 9ft Philistine Goliath.

Another David will fight a giant this evening, armed only with his fists and a colossal helping of brash self-confidence. David Haye, the South London boxer, is 6ft 3in and weighs 15st 8lb. His opponent tonight is 7ft tall and weighs 22st 8lb. Nikolai Valuev, the Russian WBA heavyweight champion — the “Beast of the East” — is a hulk of a man, whose very appearance has dissuaded prospective opponents.

History is on the Russian’s side too. No boxer has ever overcome such a weight disadvantage to win a title bout. Any boxer over 14st 4lb (91kg) is a heavyweight, but men who were once considered big are hidden in the shadow of Valuev, the biggest in a modern era of Eastern European supersized heavyweights, that includes the Klitschko brothers, Vitali and Wladimir, who hold the WBC, WBO, IBF and IBO titles between them.

If Haye were boxing someone 7st lighter than him, he would be sharing the ring with a bantamweight.

He remains the favourite among British bookmakers nonetheless, tipped to do what has never been done. Haye himself has claimed that he will deliver a “jaw-dropping knockout”, but most believe he will have to be somewhat cuter.

Jim Watt, the former WBC lightweight champion and now a Sky Sports commentator, said: “We will have to see a different David Haye from any we have seen before if he is going to win.

“David is an exciting fighter and we love that about him, but he can’t be that boxer in this fight.”

So how will he reach, let alone beat, such a big man? Rob McCracken, the trainer of Carl Froch, the WBC super-middleweight champion, believes Haye should not bother trying to hit Valuev in the head early on, as punching upwards could exhaust him.

“He should aim for the shoulder or the chest, anywhere he can hit,” McCracken said. “He needs to show plenty of movement, so he makes Valuev move. That could tire Valuev out and David’s speed could be the difference in the later rounds.”

.....

The fight in Nuremburg, at an arena built on the site of the famed Nazi Rally Grounds, is sold out and Sky are hoping for record viewing figures when the first bell sounds at 10pm.

In the build-up, Haye has set out to infuriate the bigger man, calling him ugly and “a chump” and asking the Russian to shave his body hair.

Attempting to offer some sort of prelude to journalists at a press conference, Haye staged a mock fight with a giant man in a goblin mask. If the aim was to infuriate Valuev, 36, who speaks no English, he has failed. The Russian is not a philistine in the modern sense of the word: he hunts, fishes and enjoys reading Tolstoy, Conan Doyle and Jack London.

When he heard of Haye’s antics, he merely sighed and said: “There’s another idiot in the world.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 907192.ece
 
rynner2 said:
He remains the favourite among British bookmakers nonetheless, tipped to do what has never been done. Haye himself has claimed that he will deliver a “jaw-dropping knockout”, but most believe he will have to be somewhat cuter.
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And he was - he won on points (but also did get some cracking shots in, and indeed nearly knocked Valuev down more than once.)

Nice to have a Brit Heavyweight back on the podium :).
 
stuneville said:
Nice to have a Brit Heavyweight back on the podium :).
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...
Even more remarkable, Haye managed to do it with a suspected broken right hand, which trainer Adam Booth said gave way in the third round.

"His head is solid, the hardest thing I've ever hit," said Haye. "It's like hitting a solid brick wall.

"I'm pretty sure my hand is broken, but it's a small price to pay for being the heavyweight champion of the world."
...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/8347139.stm
 
In last night's international against Egypt, England's goals were scored by Peter Crouch (6' 7") and Shaun Wright-Phillips (5' 5 1/2")...

So I guess they weren't handicapped by height (or lack of it)!
 
Our highs and lows by world's tallest couple whose combined height is 13ft 5in
By Andrew Levy
Last updated at 12:27 AM on 5th July 2010

With a combined height of more than 13ft, this is the world's tallest married couple.

But if Wilco Van Kleef-Bolton and his wife Keisha's two children keep growing they may end up with the world's tallest family title too.

Son Lucas, four, is already 3ft 11in - the height of a seven-year-old - and daughter Eva, two, is 3ft, the typical height of a three-year-old.

Being tall has had its up and downs for the Kleef-Boltons. When the couple first married - he's 7ft and she's 6ft 5in - they had some lofty ambitions, not least raising the doorframes in their home to stop them clipping their heads.

That issue is yet to be resolved and the couple still have a bedroom that is only big enough for a standard double bed, forcing them to sleep with their feet hanging out.

On the bright side, Mr Kleef-Bolton-29, says his height makes his work as a security guard at Barking and Dagenham College in Essex, significantly easier. 'Being this size and 18-and-a-half stone means it's no problem to pull two kids apart if they're fighting,' he said.
He also said students often compared him to England footballer Peter Crouch.
He said: 'If only I could play football like him. And with 40-ins legs like this I can get anywhere faster than anyone else.
'But of course I have to get my uniform custom-made. And finding a good pair of shoes that fit is really difficult.'

Dutch-born Mr Kleef-Bolton has to go to specialist websites that normally supply American basketball players to order the size 15 shoes he wears

His wife, 31, said her biggest problem was finding clothes large enough for her and her 38 in legs, even though she is a healthy size 12.

'I use normal women's dresses as shirts because they come up so short,' she said.
'But we both accepted our height years ago. There's not a lot you can do about it. Flying on budget airlines with no legroom is a problem too.
'And of course we get a lot of attention when we're out. But there are perks - I never have to use a stepladder to reach the top shelf.'

Mr Kleef-Bolton was referred to a specialist when he was ten and stood at 5ft 10in - the height of the average man in the UK. He was told he was naturally tall, rather than suffering from a medical condition.

He was started on hormone injections two years later because of concerns his knee joints might eventually give way under the weight of his body and he finally stopped growing aged 16.

His wife said she suffered from jokes at school about her height and had to stop wearing high heels when she was 18 and her shoe size went past an eight.

The Guinness World Record holders met when Mr Kleef-Bolton responded to her advert for a dance partner on a website for tall people, saying: 'I'm 7ft. Is that tall enough?'

Describing their wedding, he said: 'The staff at the register office agreed we were the perfect match.'
Mrs Kleef-Bolton, who had to wear men's clothing when she was pregnant because there weren't any maternity outfits big enough, said she and her husband would like to have more children.

'We think four is the ideal number but we think we can wait until these two are a bit bigger. Looking at them, it won't take that long,' she added.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0sng0qjO7
 
They dont seem very ambitious do they?

I would think in their situation they would have learned to make their own clothes at least
 
6ft 9 teenager who cannot fit on the school bus
A 14-year-old girl who stands at 6ft 9in has been forced to quit school because she cannot fit on the school bus.
Published: 11:15PM BST 30 Aug 2010

Elisany Silva is believed to be suffering from a rare disease which has caused her extreme height.

She hopes to use her height to her advantage however, and is interested in modelling – she will reportedly make her debut on the runway at a bridal show in Belem, Brazil, according to the Huffington Post website.

Elisay, who is from the Brazilian Amazon state of Para, told local television: “It’s hard when I’m inside home. I get distracted and hit the wood in the ceiling with my head,” adding that she no longer travelled to school because she cannot fit on the bus.

Her mother said: “I want her to stop growing up, to be like the other girls because I know she feels weird and sometimes wants to be like them.”

The world's tallest teenage girl is believed to be 16-year-old Marvadene Anderson, from New Jersey, who stands at 6ft 11.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... l-bus.html
 
I think its nice she doesnt want to become a basketball player...

And who wants to go to school anyway?
 
6ft 7in passenger 'forced to stand for two-hour flight'
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:52 PM on 31st December 2010

When Brooks Anderson boarded a flight to spend Christmas with his family, he didn't expect to be standing for the next two-and-a-half hours.

But the 25-year-old stands 6ft 7ins, while the legroom on the plane was at the legal minimum, and he simply didn't fit comfortably. The space between economy class seats on the Spirit Airlines Airbus A321 was just 28 inches.

So Mr Anderson asked if he could solve the problem himself: 'I said, "Is it OK if I stand after the seatbelt sign is turned off?" She said it was.'

Airlines measure legroom as seat pitch - the distance from a point on the back of one seat to the same point on the back of the seat in front.
The minimum distance required between seats by the UK Civil Aviation Authority is 26 inches. This is equivalent to a seat pitch of about 28 inches.

For medium and long haul flights typically it is 29 to 35 inches in economy class, 33 to 42 in premium economy, up to 78ins in Business Class, and as much as 88ins in First Class
Even though he was in the last row of the plane, Mr Anderson said the flight attendants wouldn't let him stick his legs out into the aisle, so he had been forced to sit with his knees under his chin, jammed into the back of the seat in front.
Mr Anderson, who was travelling from Chicago to Fort Myers in Florida, said: 'I was in an aisle seat and I clearly didn't fit at all. It was incredibly painful.'
He had asked to be moved to an exit row seat, which has more legroom.
'The stewardess asked if anyone in the emergency row would switch spots with me but came back and said, "You're stuck".'
That was when he decided to spend the rest of the flight on his feet.

Mr Anderson said the remainder of the journey, before he went back to his seat for landing, consisted of dodging people going to and from the bathroom
He described it to TV reporters as 'like being in a subway car for two-and-a-half hours, which is awful.'

When asked if he had researched seat sizes before booking the flight, he said: 'That's not something I thought about. I always ask for exit rows when I get there, and they didn't have one.
'They want me to pay money to reserve an exit row in advance. It's something other people don't have to do at all.'

On the return journey Spirit listened to Mr Anderson's story and offered him an exit row seat, waiving the extra fee.
Spirit spokesman Misty Pinson said: 'We do offer the option of exit row seating and our Big Front Seats for customers who prefer more legroom. We do not require customers to stand during flight.'

The Big Front Seats do offer at least 36in but Spirit make an additional charge, starting at $25, and there are only four of them on each Airbus, according to their website.

The Federal Aviation Administration's website says it's not illegal to stand during a flight, but passengers must be seated for takeoff and landing. Spokesman Les Dorr said they are 'aware of the incident and are investigating.'
Anderson said he plans to take the issue up with the FAA, adding: 'There's got to be a way to curb the shrinking of seats... and make it reasonable for me to fly.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z19mj34fHq
 
It seems that airplanes are currently designed with midget passengers in mind. Even skinny people can't walk down the plane aisle without banging into seated passengers. Ironic, given that the average height and weight (at least in the US) has increased over the past few decades.
 
amester said:
It seems that airplanes are currently designed with midget passengers in mind. Even skinny people can't walk down the plane aisle without banging into seated passengers. Ironic, given that the average height and weight (at least in the US) has increased over the past few decades.
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There seems to be the same problem with motor cars...........

Safety features are often tested & based on the lowest possible weight & size of user. There have been a couple of accidents in the last few years that have made the local press. A bloke of my size, i.e. 6" 4' who died in a Smart car, the coroner suggested that if he had been an inch or so shorter he would not have smashed his head into the roof as the car turned over!!!

There was also a lady killed in, I think, a Fiat. The coroner questioned the amount of damage to her body & again suggested that the safety features were based on a minimum weight. She while not over weight, was over the minimum.
 
Trains too. Have any of us urban commuting types ever sat comfortably in a modern train seat?
 
staticgirl said:
Trains too. Have any of us urban commuting types ever sat comfortably in a modern train seat?
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13 years of commuting to London and I rarely sat.....

I can now sleep/read and use a laptop standing up though (not at the same time needless to say).....
 
Angelo's agony: Dutch prisoner 'too big for cell'

A Dutch prisoner described by his lawyer as a giant has gone to court over the size of his single cell, arguing that it is inhumanely small.

The prisoner, 2.07m tall (6ft 9in) and 230kg (36st), says he cannot properly sleep or use the toilet.

Prison officials have tried to relieve his discomfort by adding a a 2.15m plank and an extra mattress to his bed.

Named by his lawyer as Angelo MacD., he is asking to complete his two-year sentence for fraud under house arrest.

His lawyer, Bas Martens, told a court in The Hague that his client's conditions of detention violated the European Convention on Human Rights.

He insisted that MacD. was not trying to get out of serving his time.

"My client just wants to serve a comparable sentence without pain," Mr Martens told Radio Netherlands.
'Wedging and crouching'
A diagram of the cell (supplied by Bas Martens) MacD. barely has room to turn around in his cell, sketched here by his lawyer

Speaking to the BBC News website, Mr Martens sought to convey the sheer size of MacD., whose picture was not available.

"He is 2.7m tall and a metre wide and a metre deep," he said.

"He is not obese. He is a giant. He even walks like a giant, like out of the comic books."

MacD. began his sentence on 29 September and is not due for release until 12 April 2012.

His cell in a prison in the south-western town of Krimpen aan de IJssel would probably be adequate for most prisoners but for him, the problems start in the doorway, where he must bow his head to pass through.

His bed, which is fixed to the wall, is 77cm wide and 196cm long, according to a sketch provided by Mr Martens.

This means that his client must sleep on his side.

While the plank and extra mattress supplied by the prison authorities were meant to make him more comfortable, he now has to "sleep with one eye open in case he falls out of bed", Mr Martens said.

To take a shower, he must first wedge himself into the cubicle, then crouch down under the head.

So tiny and low is his toilet, he complains, that "visits" must be kept to the absolute minimum.

Other alleged problems included a lack of adequate space for family visits and suitable seating in the prison canteen.

Mr Martens pointed out that his client was unable to do prison work for similar reasons, despite this being a requirement of his sentence.

A court ruling on the case is expected early next month.
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Meet Malee, the world's tallest teen... and even at 6ft 10in she could still be growing
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:34 PM on 12th April 2011

Towering head and shoulders above her parents, this giant teenager is the tallest in the world at a whopping 6ft 10 in and she could still be growing.
Weighing in at 20.5 stone, Malee Duangdee from eastern Thailand knew she was different from a young age, growing much faster than her school friends.

At the age of nine, her mother, Ji, 40, took her to see a doctor because she noticed a difference between her daughter and her friends and she wanted to make sure there was nothing seriously wrong with her.
Medics found a brain tumour that was pressing on a nerve. This caused a hormone imbalance which meant she never stopped growing - and now she has to have an injection that costs £2,000 every three months to control her growth.

Her height brought the 19-year-old problems while she was at school and she suffered from bullies and has memories of a lifetime of loneliness.
She said: 'I used to feel like a freak, schoolchildren used to bully me and call me names. But since leaving school I've tried to feel more comfortable with who I am. I've got used to life on my own, but it's hard.'

As a result of her tumour, Malee has lost her sight. 'I've been tall for as long as I can remember and taking medication is part of my daily life.
'But as I've got older my eyesight has got worse and it's really difficult for me to get around.'

Her mother said that they try to do their best by their daughter, but they struggle financially: 'The injections have really helped to control her growth but they are expensive.
'She is supposed to have an injection every three to six months, but we can't always afford them so we are not sure if she's still growing.'

Malee's condition appears to be under control for the moment and since leaving school her life has turned round.
'All the kids used to call me names, the one I could never understand was "Dirty Malee". They were always so nasty.
'It would make me so sad. I was desperate to have some friends to play with but they all ignored me.
'Thankfully I had a good teacher who tried to help me and now I have nothing to do with them.'

Most of her time is now spent with her family, particularly her three-year-old sister, Daoruang.
'I help my mother around the house and cook meals. I don't do much.
'I've never had a boyfriend. I don't think marriage is possible for someone like me, I'm just too different.
'My father gets very worried about me, he doesn't let me go anywhere alone because sometimes I need help getting up, I'm pretty heavy.
'But I'd love to be like any other 19-year-old and live alone, build a life for myself and have fun but who knows what will happen.'

Malee was officially recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest girl in January 2009 knocking Brazilian Elisany Silva off the top spot. She was just 6ft 9in tall.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1JOSbvp5P
 
'Average' height yields most children

Women might dream of tall, dark and handsome, but researchers are claiming that it is men of average height who are having the most children.
Scientists studying men in the US said those who were 178cm (5ft 10in) were the most reproductively successful.
Writing in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, they said such men produced, on average, more than two-and-a-half children.
The authors said it might be due to men of average height marrying earlier.

There have been studies which suggest that women prefer a taller man, such as those looking at the choices made during speed or online dating.
Gert Stulp, one of the researchers at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, said that in Western societies it had been thought that taller men also had the most children.

He reviewed previous studies on height and children as well as publishing new data from the Wisconsin Study, which followed school leavers in 1957 for the next 50 years. There was data on 3,578 men.
The peak number of children, 2.57, was found in men who were 177.79cm. Men who were 6cm taller or shorter (coming in at approximately 5ft 7in or 6ft) had 2.52 children. Going another 6cm away from the peak gave 2.36 children on average.

Mr Stulp told the BBC: "Contrary to popular belief, tall men do not have most reproductive success. It is average-height men who have the most reproductive success."
In the study of US men, it seems one possible explanation is in the marriage data.
"It really seems average height men get a partner earlier than both shorter and taller men, so this is a possible mechanism.
"Even though preference studies seem to indicate that taller men are preferred, maybe in real life with actual partner choice, average height men have the most success. Basically they are able to marry at a younger age."

However, the authors pointed out that: "The effect of height was modest, being almost three times smaller than the effect of income and 4.5 times smaller than the effect of education." 8)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15779275
 
'Giant' put on display wanted burial at sea
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 39780.html
MUIRIS HOUSTON

Wed, Dec 21, 2011

A PROMINENT medical ethicist has called for the skeleton of Charles Byrne, the “Irish giant”, which has been displayed at the Royal College of Surgeons in London for almost 200 years, to be buried at sea.

Writing in the Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal , Prof Len Doyal, emeritus professor of medical ethics at the University of London, and Thomas Muinzer, of the school of law at Queen’s University Belfast, say it is not too late to grant Byrne’s wish to be sealed in a lead coffin and buried at sea.

Byrne, born in Co Derry in 1761, suffered from the growth disorder acromegaly. Historical accounts of his size vary, but his skeleton suggests he was about 7ft 7in tall.

While still an adolescent, Byrne acquired a manager and was exhibited for money as a curiosity. With the prospect of earning more money, he travelled to London in 1780. As his condition worsened, however, his health began to deteriorate and he died there aged 22.

Aware of the interest his body would provoke in those seeking bodies for dissection, Byrne asked friends to seal his body in a lead coffin and to bury him at sea. However, as he was being transported to the English Channel, one of the friends was bribed by anatomist John Hunter and the body was replaced by heavy objects.

Hunter boiled Byrne’s body down to the skeleton and put it on display in his personal museum. Following his own death, his collection was given to the Royal College of Surgeons where it was displayed in the Hunterian Museum.

Calling for a formal burial at sea, the writers say more complete information about the acquisition of his skeleton should be provided “so that visitors can make a more informed judgment about the moral implications and appropriateness of its continued display”.
 
Height is only a problem in extreme cases, it seems.

The benefits of height
For centuries, being tall has had many social - and biological - advantages
By Dr James Le Fanu
7:42PM BST 08 Sep 2013

Height should not matter – but it does. Tallness, particularly in men, has always been a valuable biological characteristic, where those fortunate enough to be at least 6ft benefit from a pervasive positive discrimination. Employers consistently prefer the taller of equally qualified candidates, to whom they pay more generous starting salaries.

Historically, too, tallness distinguished the ruler from the ruled, the rich from the poor – hence we “look up” to our betters, and “down” on our inferiors. Back in 1750, the upper-class recruits to Sandhurst were an astonishing 7½ inches taller than those to the much humbler Marine Society. By 1950, that height differential between the social classes had shrunk to just three inches, and now has all but vanished. Meanwhile men, as reported in this paper last week, are now an impressive four inches taller than a century ago, mainly attributed to improved nutrition and the prevention of infectious disease in childhood.

This has, however, had the unfortunate consequence of emphasising the drawbacks (real or imagined) of being short – whether being bullied at school or at a disadvantage when seeking a mate. It is thus scarcely surprising, observes paediatric endocrinologist Michael Freemark of Duke University, North Carolina, that short children and their parents should “seek to increase height to within an 'acceptable’ range” – with thrice-weekly injections of synthetic growth hormone.

These can boost growth velocity initially, but the final outcome, on average, of just an extra one-and-a-half inches is not likely to make much difference to the lives of those eligible for treatment, with a predicted height of 5ft 3in or less.

Thus the hope of a technical fix for the linearly challenged has proved something of a mirage. They might console themselves with the aphorism that “small is beautiful” and the fact that excessive tallness, increasingly prevalent because of the upward shift in average height, is, if anything, even more socially disadvantageous.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/10294 ... eight.html
 
Height is no disadvantage for basketball players:

Britain's tallest family emigrating to USA
First published 06:30 Tuesday 23 September 2014
by Oscar Tollast

THE tallest family in Britain has moved to America after two of the sons were headhunted by a school to play basketball.
The Van Nes family, whose children attended Thomas Hardye School, are now selling their home, Whitcombe Barn Farm near Dorchester, after making the move across the Atlantic.

The family were featured in the Dorset Echo as the country’s tallest family and then appeared on ITV’s Super-human: World’s Tallest Children in 2009.
The family moved to the farm in 2000. They have since emigrated to live in America and now reside in Connecticut.

Dad Frank is 6ft 10in while mum Miriam is nearly six feet tall. They have four children: Vince, Lucas, Franklin and Naomi.
Franklin is studying at Colgate University in the state of New York, while Naomi is enrolling at a high school in Hamden.

Discussing the family’s move to America, Frank said it came down to Vince and Lucas’s love of basketball.
He said: “In 2009, our two eldest sons were recruited by an American prep school in Massachusetts. They played in school and now they both play in college.
“They said, ‘Mum and dad, why don’t you come over?’ In 2011, we moved to Connecticut.”

Vince is enrolled at Fairfield University while Lucas is at Southern Connecticut State University.
Vince took up basketball in 2006 and began playing for the Bridport Evolution Team.

While living in the US, J V Farming has been farming the land.
Frank said: “They have done a tremendous job. They have really increased the yield on the farm. The farm is in great order.”
This holding has 340 acres of mainly arable land with some permanent pasture. A six-bedroom farmhouse is also tied to the land.

Frank confirmed the house had been modified.
He said: “It has large rooms, high ceilings and big baths. It’s just very roomy.”
The farm has a guide price of £4.25m, with the sale being orchestrated by Savills.

Frank said they had very happy memories of living on the farm.
He said: “Dorset is a great place to live but where the family is, that’s where the home is.”

Frank said they received a positive reaction after appearing on television in 2009.
He said: “They still show that programme on the Discovery Channel here in the US. People still recognise us occasionally. They keep repeating it on TV.
“We are still very down to earth people just living very ordinary lives and soon will be farming in America.”

http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/114890 ... ng_to_USA/
 
Why being 6ft 2in tall makes it hard to be a woman
Jes Fernie has never fitted in to society’s idea of a typical female. Now her daughter’s height is shooting up, will she face the same problems?
Jes Fernie
Saturday 26 December 2015 05.59 GMT

As a teenager, I lived on a prostitutes’ beat. Walking home in my school uniform was an exciting affair. I wasn’t in the slightest bit sexy – I attracted a niche market of desperate men looking for absurdly tall, spotty women dressed as schoolgirls. I never felt remotely threatened. The drivers were profusely apologetic when I explained that I was walking home from school.
As a 6ft 2in woman, I have been able to monitor, on a daily basis, the extent of society’s limited parameters of what it is to be female. Now that my daughter is fast approaching my height, I am looking at the situation anew, scratching around for any signs of progress. Will she be called “sir” with the regularity of a finely tuned clock? Will she be mistaken for a transvestite and nearly beaten up in a dark Manchester side street? Will she be offered sex in Soho (“Looking for a good time, mate?”) or be asked if she is a model (“A model what? A model citizen? Certainly not an aeroplane”). Will she have to cross to the other side of the road late at night when walking behind a woman who thinks she is a man? (The mental gymnastics!)
...

I realised early on that this fantasy was not an option for me. So I pushed it to its logical conclusion – and assumed the guise of a man who looked as if he needed sex in Soho (not just a woman who looks like a man, but a desperate man). I comforted myself with the thought that if I looked like a man, at least I looked like the kind of man that I fancy – fine boned, effeminate, a bit gay. I developed a character that reflected my look: obstreperous and opinionated.

Needless to say, my boyfriends had to buy into this identity in some way. By then, I had started to wear short skirts and lipstick (hence the transvestite incident), but some days I just couldn’t face the cat-calling or the leering. Then, I would wear jeans, and sod it if my boyfriend and I were mistaken for two gay guys holding hands. It is extraordinary, waking up each morning and deciding whether I want to be thought of as gay man or leggy woman that day. It would be liberating if it were not so depressing.

The first boyfriend I lived with, after graduating and moving to London, happened to have the same name as me (we can add narcissism to that list of characteristics). I had lopped the second “s” off my name, Jess, when I was 10, after deciding that an “s” was an “s”, so why did I need two? Later, it seemed that this was only half the story. I wanted to mess with expectations and gender roles, and create confusion on paper as well as in person.

When I had my first child, I gave her a boy’s name (which turned out to be the name of a famous female porn star as well). My partner and I were primarily looking for a name that didn’t end with a diminutive vowel sound; we wanted a name with a bit of oomph that ended in a consonant.

I am aware that throughout her and her brother’s early childhood, the only time they got to see tall women in films or read about them in books was when there was a requirement for an overbearing, physically aberrant, barren and untenable character. That, or a seriously sexy dominatrix. Think Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, and Jessica Rabbit. Now that the kids are older, it has become more subtle with comedians such as Miranda Hart assuming the mantle of gawky, socially inept, single (hilarious) buffoons.

Female politicians such as Angela Merkel and Theresa May are regularly depicted in political cartoons as monstrous creatures, looming over their male counterparts with their barren wombs threatening the status quo. It seems a bleak, intensely unimaginative place in which to grow up and test out ideas about who you are and what type of space you would like to claim in the world.

The aggression that is levelled at girls and women who dare to raise their voice on public platforms tells us that not much has changed and, if anything, it may be getting worse. Market forces and the wide availability of a particular type of vicious, misogynistic porn have clubbed together to create an even bigger pool of girls and boys who aspire to conform in order to gain social acceptance. Sometimes, it feels as if our understanding of each other’s sex has narrowed to the point of oblivion.

etc...

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...eing-6ft-2in-tall-makes-it-hard-to-be-a-woman
 
I know Miranda plays to the stereotype of gawky, socially inept, single (hilarious) buffoon, but my het husband finds her adorable and I have a bit of a girl crush on her as a fulfillment of a feminist fairy tale creature I'd have wanted to hang out with. There were no lovely jokey giantesses in anything I read as a child. Still, I can see why such tall girls would want to relax and not be goddesses or have wishes projected on them.
 
Charles Byrne - the fabled "Irish Giant" - expressed a wish that his remains be buried at sea to avoid their becoming an exhibit. His wish was not realized, and his skeleton has long been on display at the Royal College of Surgeons. There's a growing campaign to finally fulfill Byrne's wish for a burial at sea.
8ft4 Irish giant whose skeleton was put on display against his will may get final wish of sea burial

AN 18th century Irish giant whose skeleton was put on display against his will could soon be given the sea burial he always wanted.

Charles Byrne suffered from acromegalic gigantism which caused him to grow to 8ft 4 inches tall.

Against his wishes, his skeleton was put on display for more than 200 years at London’s Royal College of Surgeons.

But a campaign to give him the final resting place he requested is now gathering momentum.

The Derry man, who was born in Littlebridge in 1761, underwent a rapid growth spurt in his teens, with local legend claiming that his immense height was due to the fact that he was conceived on the top of a tall hay stack.

Determined to make his fortune, he moved to the UK and worked his way from Scotland to London as a travelling curiosity. ...

The public immediately warmed to him and he became a household name, with newspapers describing him as “the finest display of human nature”.

He even inspired a London pantomime show called Giant’s Causeway.

However, he was struck a cruel blow when thieves targeted him in a pub and stole his entire fortune.

Already a heavy drinker, he fell into a deep depression and began boozing constantly, causing his health to deteriorate. ...

He then contracted TB and died in 1783 at the age of 22. ...

Because of his immense height, Byrne knew that his remains would be much sought after in the medical community, so he worried that gravediggers would ransack his coffin and sell it on to the highest bidder.

He even refused a cash offer from the famous Scottish surgeon and anatomist John Hunter who was known for his collection of unusual specimens.

Desperate to avoid being used for display after death, Byrne asked his friends to ensure that he was buried at sea in a lead coffin.

His friends honoured his wishes and his body was transported to the coast at Margate.

However, enroute, a corrupt undertaker hired by Hunter swapped his remains for dead weight.

The funeral went ahead as scheduled with attendees unaware that Byrne’s remains were no longer in the coffin.

Hunter didn’t unveil the skeleton until four years later, and it was then passed into the hands of the College of Surgeons in 1799. ...

... there have been growing calls for Byrne’s remains to be treated in accordance with his final wishes, with a Free Charles Byrne campaign exerting further pressure on the museum.

The facility closed for renovations in 2018 and the skeleton has been in storage since then.

It is not due to re-open until 2022 and the Royal College of Surgeons has said it will review the matter in the meantime.
Click to expand...

SOURCE: https://www.thesun.ie/news/6032925/irish-giant-skeleton-sea-burial/
 
EnolaGaia said:
Charles Byrne - the fabled "Irish Giant" - expressed a wish that his remains be buried at sea to avoid their becoming an exhibit. His wish was not realized, and his skeleton has long been on display at the Royal College of Surgeons. There's a growing campaign to finally fulfill Byrne's wish for a burial at sea.


SOURCE: https://www.thesun.ie/news/6032925/irish-giant-skeleton-sea-burial/
Click to expand...
The College, for the past few years, have had the decency to be embarrassed about the whole thing and they have stopped giving permission for it to be photographed or filmed.
 
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