For All the Tall Girls Who Love Their Heels

There are lots of fashion "rules" out there that are actually pretty bogus — like fat women can't wear bikinis or bright colors, busty women can't wear long necklaces, and tall women can't wear heels. And here to take on that last one is Imani Cezanne in her spoken word poem "Heels," which she performed at The Ill-List, a poetry slam invitational in Modesto, California. Because actually, women can wear whatever they want.

After getting lots of comments from men who take issue with her height combined with her footwear, Cezanne has a few questions for men, including "Who told you standing next to a tall woman would make your dick shrink?" And you know, I wouldn't mind getting an answer to that one either.

At 5' 7" I've never been considered abnormally tall, but once I put on my favorite pair of heels and suddenly become six feet tall, people tend to notice — and guys have been known to get uncomfortable. Which I don't fully understand. I mean, when I'm taller than the men around me, I don't feel un-feminine. In fact, the main reason I wear high heels is because I feel like they make me look shapely and all woman-like but make me feel powerful at the same time. Which is awesome, because all too often those things are mutually exclusive. So if being taller than a man doesn't make me feel less feminine, why should it make him feel less masculine?

And even more importantly, why do some guys seem to think it's our problem that they can be made to feel uncomfortable by something as commonplace as footwear? As Cezanne says, "It's useless to cater to the insecure."