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Musings About Scale
Jan. 17th, 2014 09:05 amLately I’d come across several references to men, characterized as large and heavy, being “14 stone” in weight. (OK, so the first one made me curious and I found the others by googling.) ETA -- For the record, they date from the 1830s (man in question is 5’9”), 1864, 1887, 1926, 1944, 1980s (man in question is a footballer), 2007 (young man in question is 5’11”, his mother worries he’s overweight) and 2009.
Thing is, fourteen stone is 198 lb., which doesn’t seem all that big to me; but then I realize that I also think of 6’ as "tall-ish," for a man, so my perspective is probably skewed by growing up in a late-20th-c middle-class family of mostly northern European descent.
I don’t want to fall into the “people were smaller in the past” trope, though, because an anthropologist friend went on a rant once about what an oversimplification that is (granted, she was a docent on a historical site and had to explain to a lot of tourists that the small doors in the fortress had more to do with defense and structural strength than with the size of the inhabitants.)
ETA2 -- and I can add Falstaff in this fanfic of the Henry plays/Merry Wives of Windsor in spaaaace. If you've ever wanted Falstaff as a space pirate/smuggler, read this. Or watch the "Racing Mars" episode of B5.
Thing is, fourteen stone is 198 lb., which doesn’t seem all that big to me; but then I realize that I also think of 6’ as "tall-ish," for a man, so my perspective is probably skewed by growing up in a late-20th-c middle-class family of mostly northern European descent.
I don’t want to fall into the “people were smaller in the past” trope, though, because an anthropologist friend went on a rant once about what an oversimplification that is (granted, she was a docent on a historical site and had to explain to a lot of tourists that the small doors in the fortress had more to do with defense and structural strength than with the size of the inhabitants.)
ETA2 -- and I can add Falstaff in this fanfic of the Henry plays/Merry Wives of Windsor in spaaaace. If you've ever wanted Falstaff as a space pirate/smuggler, read this. Or watch the "Racing Mars" episode of B5.
