On 7 Sep 97 , MARINA YERESHENKO wrote:
> Concerning the argument about male/female toughness in relation to
> size, does anyone remember the discussion on related matter in
> _Triton_ by Samuel Delany? The main character recalls how he was
> always puzzled by illustrations in old books, where the woman would
> always be shorter that the man. He was wondering why all women in
> those books were midgets. And the person he was talking to offered
> two explanations. One, that a man would prefer to go out with a
> woman smaller than himself. ("That would mean a lot of really
> unhappy tall women and short men", said Bron. "For what I heard,
> there were", said the other guy.) The second explanation was, that
> according to some research, parents were 70% less likeky to pick up
> a baby, or play or talk to it during the first year of its life if
> the baby was female. And since physical contact and attention are so
> important for healthy development, this had to affect everything,
> including the child's future height and bodyweight. This is on the
> point of strength based on physical differences.
I have not read 'Triton', but do I understand it correctly, that in
that novel man and women are about the same height?
A friend of mine has read somewhere that (in Germany ?) the
average height of women has come closer to that of the men in the
last decades (without mentioning that both are increasing). One
reason given was the obvious, nowadays girls do NOT get less or worse
food than boys. The other was, that with emancipation girls are no
longer psychologically held back. That would mean that the relative
average heights of women and men could be a measure of equal rights
and opportunities.
I was quite intrigued by that concept. It reminds of the variance in
the average lifespans of women and men between the countries.
I think it is generally accepted nowadays, that on average women
live longer than men of the same gen pool, if they have the same
opportunities, although nobody can say how much longer. There are
only few countries in the world, in which the lifespans of women
are shorter than that of men (e.g. India). As far as I know, the UN
has integrated that fact in some sort of measure of equality of men
and women.
Please note, that that story about the average heights is only
hearsay, I have not heard it from anybody else. Furthermore, I wonder
how the pressure on girls and women to be thin, i.e. take less
food in, does fit into this. So if somebody has some information on
that (also contradictory), I'd be glad to receive it.
Petra
** Petra Mayerhofer ** pm@ier.uni-stuttgart.de **
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