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Monday, July 12, 2004

MSN's daily harranguing

I have mixed feelings about today's advice for women that came up with my MSN home page. Today, single women are scolded for refusing to date guys that are shorter than them. Or, actually, shorter than you stand in heels. (Which causes me to wonder--what height heels? Regular heels nowadays go up to 4" sometimes.)
My first impulse is to say that the entire premise of this article is ridiculous, like most of the advice that they give in the women/relationships pages at MSN. But I have actually heard quite a few women claim that they wouldn't date someone who stood shorter than them in heels. Not only that, but I've also had more than a few women ask me how I have managed to start dating a man who is the same height as me in sock feet. I have no idea what to say to that inquiry, except that those sort of things don't matter to me. So, for once, I actually believe that the women they quote in this article might be real and not made up.
And really, it's good advice not to be so shallow as to hold somebody's stature against him. I would actually give this advice if asked, so hence the mixed feelings.
But, on the whole, I still have to hate on this article. Because this is still in the category of articles that exist only to feed the cultural myth that a) being single is a problem and b) single women need to learn to lower their standards. I would say a good 50-75% of dating advice columns aimed at women are just a variation on the basic advice to lower your standards.
Of course, telling women to lower their standards is part and parcel of propagating the overall myth that all dating/relationship/sexual issues are solely the fault of women. And that if you want a boyfriend but can't find anyone suitable, it's not that there aren't enough good men out there, it's because you are a high-maintenance B-I-T-C-H.

10 Comments:

Blogger Earnest said...

Why is it wrong to ask women not to discriminate against short men? Is it any different from asking men to consider a woman who is larger than a size 6 (or whatever size is considered large-- it mystifies me)?

7/12/2004

 
Blogger Amanda Marcotte said...

I don't think it's wrong, really. I just think it's sexist and for that precise reason. You will pretty much never read a magazine article telling men to reconsider dating women who they would otherwise overlook for physical reasons. For every woman who snubs shorter men, there's men who snub tall women, but I doubt there's a corresponding advice article to men telling them that it's okay to date a woman who's taller.

7/12/2004

 
Blogger Earnest said...

It might be a step forward if there were such articles!

7/12/2004

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You will pretty much never read a magazine article telling men to reconsider dating women who they would otherwise overlook for physical reasons.There never would be. The idea makes me laugh.

My boyfriend is a smidge shorter than I am....

-Anne

7/13/2004

 
Blogger Avedon said...

I'm much more interested in how tall he is lying down, and I don't want him to be *too much* taller than me.

7/14/2004

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi there Amanda, I had been out looking for some new information on american single when I found your site and MSN's daily harranguing. Though not just what I was searching for, it drew my attention. An interesting post and I thank you for it.

11/24/2005

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Amanda it never ceases to amaze me how creative people are, especailly the young ones, gives me hope for the future. Anyway I was looking for information on dating for men and landed on your page. I was looking more for dating for men so MSN's daily harranguing wasn't an exact match but I enjoyed reading your posts. Take Care. I'll bookmark your blog for future.

1/20/2006

 
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2/21/2007

 
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1/29/2010

 
Anonymous viagra online without prescription said...

Interesting opinion! my boyfriend is smaller than me, I don't care this situation and my boyfriend,neither. He's happy, when I wearing high heels

6/30/2010

 

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