Amazonians

Lionel Wijesiri

GIANTS OF THE FAIRER SEX: A lady who identified herself as a representative of an NGO (looking into the

 interests of women's rights) called the writer just two days after the article captioned "What's so special being tall?" appeared in the Spice column on May 26. In a lighter vein she said the story was "gender-biased" since it spoke only of tall men and not of tall women.

She seems to have a valid point. Male or female, height has had a certain cachet for thousands of years; old heroes, whatever their sex, are almost always tall (so are a lot of the villains, of course).

Not that height makes such a great index of overall size, in practice, let alone ferocity or whatever - but somehow we all seem to be wired to have a little innate respect for anybody we have to look up at. When that "anybody" is a female, the deference is more and long lasting.

I have a niece who is tall. In Sri Lankan standards, she is quite tall. It is interesting to hear what she has to tell about her height. "I am consistently asked how tall I am. What usually follows is some mention of how cool it is to be tall or how the person wishes they could be tall too.

I must admit that it is pretty great, but there are times when being tall aren't all it's cracked up to be. Let me highlight those times so that you realise that sometimes it's just not as easy as you think".

"I'm tall not basketball tall, not the tallest person you've seen in a month, just tall enough to be a little unusual. But that's enough. That, at least, is useful, and I invoke it fairly often. Never in my life have I been in anything that could have been called a fight. But I make a fairly conscious practice of confronting obnoxious people in public and it pays to be imposing, to be able to loom properly.

A little attitude and a little altitude will back down most angry people most of the time".

"For this, height is useful. Also for reaching high shelves, being located in crowded rooms, and theoretically playing basketball. And that's about it".

"The rest is mostly an ongoing saga of not fitting into things. Houses in general are bad; low doorways and

perilously dipping ceilings over stairways are bad, and washing dishes at a sink lower than my waist is bad. Hanging plants and light fixtures are bad.

Ceiling fans are worse. Cars, you may or may not have noticed, are generally designed to carry children, and only children, in their back seats. Even the front seats, though, are not built to accommodate height, even my moderately unusual height.

No matter how far the seat may slide or tilt - never enough anyway - the wheel remains stubbornly fixed almost directly above the pedals. But my legs are longer than my arms - and that difference is greater for me than it is for a smaller person. All of this I am used to, but on a one-hour trip it eventually becomes an intolerable torture."

That's her agony. So you see, there are two sides of the coin. Now, let us see how the tallest women in the world have fared.

Zeng Jinlian

The tallest woman ever recorded in history was a lady called Zeng Jinlian. She was born on 26th June 1964 in the village of Yujiang in the province of Hunan in China.

At her full height, Zeng measured a whopping eight-foot and one and three quarter inches, or 248 cm. Zeng's mother first noticed that she was growing larger than most children her age at the age of four months old. By the time Zeng was four, she was a towering five-foot tall and when she was 13 she measured over seven foot.

Both of Zeng's parents were average height. Zeng died at the young age of 18. Due to a curvature of her spine, Zeng could not stand up straight and so was bent over for much of her life.

Yao Defen

Yao Defen of China, (born 15 July 1972), claims to be the tallest female in the world. She states that her height is

 7 ft 8 in and that she weighs 200 kg, though this has yet to be confirmed by Guinness World Records.

But three years ago, the disease that caused Yao Defen's extreme height - called gigantism - has taken a potentially fatal turn. When the Discovery Channel learned of her story, it decided to shoot a documentary film on her and help her receive proper treatment.

When she was young her parents, poor peasants from the Chinese province of Anhui, gave her to a circus, where she was enslaved as an attraction during her adolescence. Later, she returned to her mother (who, surprisingly enough, is only 4 ft 8 in tall).

Yao said she is so eager to live a normal life. "My biggest dream is to take care of myself and open a small store to support myself, however such a simple desire is quite difficult for me," said Yao. "I have to stay in the bed all the time, as I am too weak to stand up. My life is fully dependent on my mother, who is already 70 years old."

Doctors said they will work out a treatment plan. "Examination is also difficult, since Yao's body is too big for many machines," said the vice president of the hospital.

Sandra Elaine Allen

Sandra Elaine Allen (born June 18, 1955 in USA) is known as the tallest living woman in the world at seven feet 7 1/4 inches. She holds this title though it has been widely reported that Yao Defen of China is actually two inches taller.

She has written a book named "Cast a Giant Shadow", and has appeared in the Guinness Book of World Records since 1976. Her abnormal height is due to a tumour in her pituitary gland that caused it to release growth hormone uncontrollably.

At the age 22, she underwent surgery for the condition. Without this she would have continued to grow and suffer further medical problems associated with gigantism. She has appeared in the Academy Award winning Italian film Il Casanova di Federico Fellini, a TV movie called Side Show and in a Canadian/American documentary film called Being Different.

The New Zealand band Split Enz immortalised her in a song, "Hello Sandy Allen." Being the tallest woman in the world has its share of advantages, but it has its disadvantages too, Sandy says. But Sandy manages to laugh at those disadvantages.

In her video, It's OK To Be Different, Sandy challenges kids to make the best of obstacles they face and to always treat others with respect.

In her video, Sandy tells stories that interest kids and make them smile. She tells of pulling into a truck weighing station along the highway to be weighed, of meeting Michael Jackson (he's friendly and shy), and of her eating habits ("For breakfast this morning, I only had three short people!").

In addition, Sandy talks about the Golden Rule, her 8-foot-long custom-made bed, and how she sews many of her own clothes and wears size 22 hand-me-down sneakers provided by stars of the NBA!

Postscript: While research on tall women is relatively slim, with far more attention focused on tall men - and on short people - a few studies have been completed in the field. It is said that despite the negative feelings many tall women say they have experienced early in life, as adults they may benefit from their height.

There are a lot of other ladies out there who are taller than the normal. For example, women like basketball pro Malgorzata Dydek is 7'2" and Allyssa DeHaan is 6'9".

Celebrity TV and film actresses stand tall today, wearing spiky heels and holding heads high and proud, frequently on the arm of a shorter man. Uma Thurman, Geena Davis, Kristen Johnston and Brooke Shields are all 6.3 feet tall; Sigourney Weaver and Terry Ferrell, Gwyneth Paltrow, Minnie Driver, Nicole Kidman, Liv Tyler, Daryl Hannah, and Lucy Lawless are over 6.2 feet.

Tall women maybe gorgeous, ooze class and great role-models for girls who may lack that little bit of confidence. A lot of women go to great lengths in order to stand out.

If they are tall enough, (but not too tall), they stand a good chance

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