I Would Like to Weigh In

So I've noticed something that is happened enough now that it's starting to annoy me. You may have read this, you may have written this. Hell, I may have written this. Be aware, it's happening way too often.

I'm now on my fifth book in less than two months that names the heroine's weight. And guess what? The weight is never even close to anywhere between 130-160lbs, the average size for a woman. No, it's always for the Olsen Twin sized gals.

It's fine to have an Tinkerbell sized gal as a heroine. I know a handful of women who are in this size bracket. But do we need to announce their weight like a troubadour? Is it a sporting thing? "And now, standing upright at 5'1'', and weighing in at 100lbs soaking wet, is our heroine!"

Woo

Am I the only one this annoys?

The first book didn't phase me. The second book made me pause. By the third book, I was thinking WTF? It's been happening often enough that I now believe it's 'a thing'. Like a 'go to'. I don't want this to become an unwritten rule, but I think it already has.

I want to unwrite this rule.

What is it about this size bracket that makes us authors announce our heroine's weight? It's like we are in disbelief over how tiny this character that popped into our head really is. Let's strive to stop the weigh-in madness.

Our readers don't need to know exact stats. Our heroines and heroes don't need playing cards that include weight. The readers get it. She is 100lbs and effing tiny. Can we just put petite and or tiny as adjective describing these gals? Waifish maybe? Do we really need to go into exact detail?

Reader's imagination is fantastic. Leave them something for it.

And here's another thing; the 110 lb gal gets her weight announced. The chubby petite gal will have her exact height mentioned, but no one is touching on what weight she's falling into. She's just 'curvy', or 'chubby'. I'm completely okay with this, I'm just wondering, why the distinction? The descriptive words and phrases are actually much more clear than shouting out weights.

Weight is subjective to height and build.

I can't remember the last BBW story that pronounces the weight. Sometimes a dress size is thrown in. But never exact weight. And I've never, ever, read a story that read "She was average build, 5'4'' 134lbs. Unless she had a binge weekend. Then she was 5'4'' 137lbs by that Monday."

Come on.

These are the three general builds for petite, and these all came up when I typed in 'Petite Woman', along with other descriptive words, on Google Search;

Descriptive Phrases; petite, scrawny, very thin, size zero, stickish, tiny, breakable, fragile looking, waifish, a good breeze could blow her away

Descriptive Phrases;  petite, average build, athletic build, tiny, shaped like Meg Ryan, a few curves shy of Eva Longoria, spinner, tiny dancer, TinkerBell

Descriptive Phrases; 10 miles of curves in a 5ft frame, curves in all the right places, petite, buxom, chubby, tiny, voluptuous, an hour glass in a tiny frame, curves to die for


Side Note: these were not my descriptive phrases but those that I found whilst clicking under the image.

So, not all petite girls are created equal but as they say, use your words. And if you must put in your heroine's weight, I will strive to let it go.