In today’s world, online dating has become the norm. There are several “tricks” everyone has to use to secure a date with someone that they like. However, it’s generally known that online dating sites like Tinder and Bumble are heavily proportional to women, meaning they tend to have an advantage when it comes to choosing who they would like to date, and when it comes to physical appearance there is one attribute that is particularly attractive, and that’s height.
This has been brought to light on several other platforms of social media like Facebook, Reddit, and even Twitter. On these platforms, men have complained about how women wouldn’t want to be seen with a guy who was ‘short’. Granted this is surely not true about all women. Now, the definition and the measurement of ‘short’ would differ from person to person. But usually, women want men who are above 6 feet, and it even has some science to back it.
The study was conducted in 2014 by researchers from the University of North Texas and Rice University. They analyze data from the personal dating ads of 470 different women in the United States. The results showed that 49% of them had specified that they wanted to date men who were taller than them. Well, no judgment from us- because it is a preference after all. But, what if the situation were reversed?
Why Do Short Women Want To Date Tall Men?
The problem arises only when double standards are brought into the equation. Recently, the internet found a woman guilty of just that after she reacted with fury to rejection on Tinder. The man found her too short for him. Reddit user u/life_navigator posted the screenshot of the conversation on the subreddit r/Facepalm.
There is no conclusive evidence that shows that the original poster was the male in question. Regardless, one can’t deny that the woman did fly off the handle about something which is seemingly a double standard. That is, questioning the height of someone one has recently met on Tinder.
Now, we could start by noticing that a study that took place 7 years ago, still finds resonance even in 2021. The study also had 131 female volunteers answering a whole bunch of open-ended questions on dating as a part of an online survey. And as the results showed, around 55% of them stated that they would only be dating men who were taller than them. On the contrary, most men didn’t have such a criterion for dating.
But even if they did, we would still not be judging someone for the opinions and choices that they make. Rather, we would judge someone who would be hypocritical enough to enjoy it, but get angry when they are on the receiving end.
Read: Text Me When You Get Home: Powerful Post Is Inspiring Women To Share Their Experiences
Short Woman Rants- Double Standards on Reddit
In a Reddit post, the woman was initially quite elated at finding out that her prospective match was ‘6ft 3’. She, on the other hand, was “5’1, and quite petite”, by her own admission. Now, both of the heights are fine, from a completely objective standpoint. However, while the woman was delighted, the man was not. It was his choice that he wanted a woman who would be a little taller than 5ft 1 as he found it too short. Interestingly, he did not reject with a harsh tone. He said: “Oops. That’s too much height difference, I guess. Don’t think it would work out. Sorry.”
We ask our readers, what would be the rational reply to this? We could wager a guess that most of us would be fine with the reasoning, and chalk it up to their personal preference. But, this woman, au contraire, decided that the man had no right to comment or judge her for her height. Take a look:
Read: Grandmother dating man 28 years younger is mistaken for his mother
What followed was that she eventually started throwing insults at him- first by questioning the audacity behind such a statement, and then by calling him an ‘incel’. An incel, according to Urban Dictionary, is “a member of an online community of young men who consider themselves unable to attract women sexually- usually due to their hostile opinions towards women”. While that certainly crossed the line on first interactions, she decided that she also had to assume he had a tiny phallus, which she commented on too.
At this point, the man could have raved, ranted, and gone through the whole shebang, but rather decided to still be polite towards the ‘short’ woman, by asking “How’s it different from you having a height requirement?”, which opened up a whole can of worms.
Here the woman claimed that since she was a woman, this wasn’t the same. As a woman, she could ask for the man’s height, but the opposite wouldn’t be fair- in fact, it would be sexist and misogynist. Thankfully, the exchange ended there itself, but Redditors would know that Reddit never let go of anything that they can hold on to.
Several Redditors were quite sarcastic about their opinion of the woman:
My man missed the chance of replying “Grow the f**k up”
–Li_alvart
For others, the very bio of the woman having a height requirement was an instant turn-off. He said:
I’m 6’2, but when I used Tinder, anyone with a ‘height requirement’ was an instant no.
–OdinGray
While the double standards in this situation are pretty visible for anyone who wishes to see, the question still stands- why do many women have a height requirement when it comes to dating men? Some users tried to give an explanation:
I also dated a couple women about 11inches shorter than me, it wasn’t bad but a couple positions were harder to pull off because of the difference in height.
– ACardAttack
‘We Just Want To Feel Protected’
However, the majority of the comments were not in favor of this particular woman. Moreover, the reasons may be a tad bit more complicated than that. According to the aforementioned survey, one of the most dominant reasons most females cited for a tall partner was all based on the ideas of femininity and protection. A woman, with a height of 5’3- which may be seen as ‘short’, told the researchers that as a woman, she would “like to feel delicate and secure at the same time.”[2]
Again, it would be prudent to mention that there is nothing wrong with having a height preference. Some people want their partners to be taller than them, some want their partners to be short. But what matters is respect- and if one can’t respect the choices of others, they shouldn’t expect others to respect their choices. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
Keep Reading: Mom’s dating struggle: ‘I can’t find love because I’m too good looking’
Sources
- “Is height important in matters of the heart? New study says yes.” Eurekalert. February 10, 2014.
- “Internet Backs Man Who Rejected Woman for Being Too Short.” Newsweek. Jack Beresford. December 31, 2021.
Attention: While many of these stories are interesting, and we would love to take their word for it, the content in this article was taken from an unverifiable source (i.e., a Reddit forum). As such, we cannot guarantee that these events truly happened in the way that they are described in the original source.