I guess this topic just doesn’t seem to go away.
Recently there was a spate of articles based on some findings done by Lunch Actually that concluded that “Singaporean women are not open to dating shorter men”.
You can read the readers’ comments for yourself on the Yahoo article (here).
And today’s Sunday New Paper carried an article based on the same topic, and it also featured 3 rather unusual cases of Singaporean couples whereby the wife was significantly taller than her husband.
(Well, I suppose if you search hard enough in any population, you’d always be able to find examples which support your cause.)
The 3 wives mentioned that height is not a big issue for them now (after all, they married their husbands), although some did admit that they were not completely oblivious to the height thing in the initial dating phase.
In other words, for some of them, height (or the lack thereof) definitely weighed on their minds in the initial stage.
I’ve spoken to a number of my female friends, and their responses largely corroborate with the Lunch Actually findings.
I suppose for a woman, height is the one big factor which is just too impossible to ignore when it comes to finding a man.
Don’t get me wrong – personally, I don’t think I have height issues or height insecurities, but I just want to speak up for my fellow brothers out there.
I think height is the “silent killer” factor which women don’t often say aloud, but which a lot of women take very seriously when it comes to finding a man.
In other words, a lot of women have very strict requirements when it comes to the minimum height of their partners.
If you don’t meet the minimum, say, 165cm requirement, then it’s “Thanks, but don’t even try…I won’t even consider you.”
That seems to be the way it goes.
From reading the New Paper article, I realised that being, say, 5cm taller than a woman is not enough…you need to be maybe 12cm taller cos she’s gotta factor in heels as well!
Tough.
I know of female friends who are willing to accept shorter men, but these are few and far between.
Most of them simply cannot envision themselves being with a shorter guy.
You see, the tough part about all this is that there’s nothing one can do about one’s height.
At least heavier people can lose weight, and less visually appealing people can try to enhance their appearances through grooming, dressing, makeup, whatever.
There is always hope.
But if you’re stuck with being 154cm tall, then that’s the way it’s going to be for good.
It’s an extremely rigid criteria, one which a person has absolutely no control over.
It’s almost like saying that you will not consider any person who does not have blue eyes.
(Hey, but even then, eye colour appearances can be altered through coloured lenses.)
So you see, height is one of the most cruel requirements that one can place on a man, because there’s absolutely nothing a man can do to change his lot in life when it comes to height.
And they say men are fussy because we only look out for pretty women.
