I’ve been sent quite a few books lately – not that it’s a bad thing. While I loved Rhianna Jones’s Parisienne French, I wasn’t as sure about I’d Rather Be Short: 100 Reasons Why It’s Great to be Small by Becky Murphy. As a fellow blogger and petite gal, I disagreed with many of Ms. Murphy’s anecdotes on being small – Ms. Murphy seems to love the idea of being petite, taking advantage of, for example, kids’ sized clothes while at the same time, being able to purchase alcohol. Sure, buying kids’ clothes can be great due to price points (and for us Ontario residents, less tax), but as grown women, children’s wear just doesn’t fit as as well. No matter how straight one’s figure is, you’re still curvier than the typical little girl who can fit into that size. Case point: At the Isabel Marant pour H&M event, I tried on both a women’s sized top (size 2) and the kids’ version (size 11-12). While the kids’ size was shorter, it definitely fit much boxier than the women’s size 2 (which I ended up purchasing). And what about petite but curvy women?
The cover of I’d Rather Be Short
I get that Ms. Murphy is trying to make a positive out of a negative, and that the book is meant to be humourous, but it doesn’t mean that being short CAN really be positive all the time. Her negative-to-positive anecdotes include “Short women are adorable when they’re pregnant. Good luck finding someone who disagrees.” While I’ve never been pregnant, I’ve heard other short women, young-looking women complain that people think they’re teen mothers, so no, it isn’t always a good thing. Another point she brought up was “You’ll be super cute when you’re old.” In my personal opinion, being called “cute” is just about the worst term you could use to refer to a petite female over the age of, say, 12 (there are exceptions. For example, if you’re a 16 year old and you like that same aged girl in your class, then yes, it’s fine to call her cute. But that’s it). Cute should really be for things like babies and animals. And no, Becky, sample shoes at department stores DON’T fit me, nor do they fit a lot of petite women. “Sample” sizes are often 6 or 6 1/2, and many of us have even smaller feet (I’m a 4 1/2 or 5, for example), sizes that many brands don’t even produce anymore!
Despite not agreeing with everything Ms. Murphy has to say, I do think she makes some positive points. As short, small-framed women, we are more “space-efficient” (see point #60 in the book) and leg room is less of an issue for us (#70). And yes, as a petite gal, I’m in the company of many other wonderful petite women, including Amy Poehler (5’2″, according to IMDB) and Natalie Portman (5’3″), both referenced on point #38. I did wish that Ms. Murphy made the book more petite-in-general focused rather than petite-and-small-framed. We may be thin right now, but will we be as we age?
I’d Rather Be Short: 100 Reasons Why It’s Great To Be Small is available for purchase online at Amazon ($10.83 in Canada, but check your country’s website for prices where you are) around the world and at Chapters Indigo in Canada.
