Reblog: A Question Of Height (And Boobs)

Image from undertheporkpiehat.wordpress.com

It’s amazing the things I stumble across on the Intertubes. Right here on WordPress, no less. A brilliant blog called Under the Porkpie Hat by an eloquent fellow who calls himself VelvetKnight held forth on a theory I have held for many, many a year. That is: women are attracted to tall men the same way men are attracted to women with big boobs. For many of the same reasons, including primal evolutionary mating urges, societal standards of attractiveness, and the ever-popular “arm candy” effect. And as a result they attract interest and attention without having to lift a finger. Why work for an A, when you can get a B without studying?!

Rather than re-invent the wheel, I’ll offer excerpts from VelvetKnight’s well-reasoned analysis and encourage you to read the whole post:

– To a large percentage of the population, a whole lot of emphasis has been placed on the height of the different sexes. It seems to be widely accepted that the “correct” order of things is for the man to always be taller than the woman. Sure sure, there are lots of exceptions out there, but nonetheless you can’t argue that the exceptions are almost always noted.

– It’s even more clear in the online dating world. When it comes to online dating, one of the few places you can actually count on people being honest in their profiles is when they describe what they want. And though it’s far from the majority, one of the things that you’re bound to see every now and then is “must be taller than me,” or the even more extreme “must be taller than me in heels” (I’m assuming she means she’d be wearing heels, not him). Now, just to be clear, I’m not questioning why this might be preferred. My question is why is it that, for so many people, it’s a total deal breaker?

– “Taller than me” isn’t something like “wants children” or “non-smoker.” At best it’s a secondary sexual characteristic. Not nothing. But not vital to a relationship.

– Imagine for just a moment that you’re flipping through a bunch of profiles on a dating site. And along the way you stumble across a guy who is pretty good looking, shares a lot of common interests with you, has a good job, and while describing his perfect woman tosses in one sentence saying, “Must have at least size C breasts.” I think it’s a pretty safe bet that the overwhelming majority of women would be offended by this. Even those who actually meet the “Size C” requirement would think he’s a pig. The cries for his head would echo all over the Internet. And yet, is it really so different from the height question?

– I put it to you, gentle readers. Setting aside the more understandable deal breakers like, “She thinks The DaVinci Code is the most amazingest book EVER!!!” why are some more arbitrary deal breakers considered perfectly acceptable by society, and others are considered absurd or offensive?