Many women are belittled, taken for granted, and looked down upon by men. But not Sarah Kesselman. This petite trailblazer doesn’t need men to make her feel small. She, with the help of everything else in life, can do that all by herself!
“I’ve never allowed men to overlook me—at least no more than I’ve allowed women of average or tall height to do so,” Sarah says. “By the time I was in grade school, I knew that I would never let any boys make me feel smaller than I factually was based on average height and weight statistics for my age group.”
Since looking in a mirror while standing on a step stool at a young age, Sarah acknowledged that if she were going to feel small, it was only because she was small.
“I realized my parents’ genetics weren’t going to do me any favors height-wise,” Sarah said. “So, I just kept on buying children’s shoes right on up into my 20s, and I didn’t need men’s arrogance or sexism to make me feel embarrassed about browsing for sneakers next to footwear adorned with rainbow-colored, unicorn-emblazoned Velcro straps.”
Wow. No man is going to infantilize this tiny woman and her small-ass feet.
“It makes no difference who helps me reach the expensive peanut butter on the top or middle shelf,” says Sarah. “I’m going to feel small before any man or tall tween boy even tries to come to my assistance.”
Though the feeling of being small is the same regardless of where it comes from, Sarah is adamant that it has nothing to do with men.
“Frankly, when you sit comfortably in the middle seats on airplanes, you just know that nothing a man can say or do could possibly make you feel smaller than the entire history of science and industry,” Sarah says. “Like who do they think they are? Do they think I’ve never been turned away from a roller coaster before?”
Sarah doesn’t even need the help of the most powerful man of all, God, to make her feel small.
“God Almighty can’t make me feel any more insignificant than I already feel,” she adds. “I don’t need the night sky or the vastness of the ocean to make me feel tiny. Large toddlers already do that.”
Amen!
