The popular 80s tween series, Sweet Valley High is being revamped for a 2000s readership. This means that the Wakefield twins, are no longer a "perfect size 6", but a size 4. Of course, over at body image and feminist blogs like Feministing, people are freaking out. They are going on and on about how the famous twins, Jessica and Elizabeth have become "skinnier" than they were twenty years ago. So far, out of the many replies the entry has, only one or two have considered that the girls are only wearing a smaller size because of vanity sizing. And as usual, height isn't dealt with at all. If you're going to talk about so-called "ideal" you not only need to debate dress sizes/weight, but also height.
The Wakefield twins are 5'6" in the SVH books. Not too tall and definitely not petite. Wouldn't their ideal height cause problems with taller and petite girls? Especially petite girls who are, by media, generally assigned to the "cute" category? There are few movies made after the 1970s where a young, petite actress is given a romantic, leading lady type role, other than in period pieces. It's a little bit better if the actress started working as a kid, but if they launched their career after age 16? Difficult. But that's why Shorty Stories is here. We need to talk about the height issue and the so-called "standards." Feminist and body image blogs seem to think that if you ARE smaller than a 4 or 6, regardless of height, you're "fine." Not so, people. Not so.
