January 5, 2015

Reddit "OldSchoolCool" photograph titled "5 foot 5, 1973 Army. Girlfriend's step-father"...



... unleashes a discussion about about love and the short man.
That is a good-looking man right there....

As a decent looking guy who's 5'4" and fully secure in his sexuality and been doing online dating for over a year now, I can say that this is a good looking man. I can also say that according to approximately 95% of women on OKCupid and Tinder, this dude is undateable strictly based on numbers....

Using height as a shorthand for masculinity is a big mistake. The large majority of guys are more flight than fight. I'd say it's more of a social status thing than anything....

I am a 5 ft 3 1/2 inch female and would have fucked the everloving SHIT out of him....

Well he's pretty young in the picture so there's a chance you could still fuck him....

Problem is, I'm a cougar. EDIT: God, he was really beautifully proportioned, too. Nice legs, great shoulder line, that fucking jacket made of Epic Win, it's just godfuckingdamn.

40 comments:

Guildofcannonballs said...

Faith works. If you believe all women hate guys under 6' (and you are under 5'8") then your faith is that women despise you and you very well might have an attitude which escalates the height deficincies.

If you have faith there is one true soulmate for you who likes short dudes you will probably find hundreds of examples proving your one true soul mate exists and, indeed, you were blessed and extremely fortunate to come together.

Attitude, not altitude, even when acknowledging the bias inherent in others that results in harm to your ego, is sexier to any thinking women than some Lurch-looking gangly freak who won't live past 55 years old.



Guildofcannonballs said...

Perhaps some men had thought women weren't "superficial" like men are with regards to looks, and are shocked to find out women and men are basically the same. Everyone likes symmetry. Most people like low body fat percentage and lack of hair save the head. My guess is folk's ego defense mechanisms* might tell them they like short dudes or fat women, but that is because they rationally have concluded that attitude will most likely correlate with mating success.

This means the mind, foremost, matters to the one anxious and aft-most to the lizard brain fornicators.

virgil xenophon said...

Evolution is at work here, too. As recently as the early 70s it was not uncommon for top 10 Basketball teams to have 6'0 guards. Now they average from 6-4 to 6'7' As a tennis player in the late 50s, early 60s at 5'81/2" I was considered of "average" height. Stan Smith@ 6'4" was a rare "giant." Today there are many, many 6'7" and above collegiate and world-ranked players and I would definitely be considered "short" in today's tennis world. The same may be said for almost any sport. It used to be rare to see even a Pro football line avg > 300lbs. Now almost every one does, and most top-ranked college teams as well. In the 50s/60s the avg height of a lineman was 62-6'4." Today almost half range from 6'4' to 6'7"

Bob Ellison said...

Consider Dennis Kucinich.

Ann Althouse said...

As more and more women switch to artificial insemination and select the genetics they want for their offspring, we will be seeing a country full of ridiculously tall men — stick men stalking about. Of course, the women will be tall too. We'll all be giants, with aching joints and cramped limbs, wondering how evolution could have made us so dysfunctional and realizing we've hit end-stage evolution, where the wired-in preferences became too easy to satisfy, and something bizarre and impractical emerged.

tim in vermont said...

Distopia of the ectomorphs.

virgil xenophon said...

I wonder what environmental/genetic influences have caused the avg height of almost ALL Europeans to shoot up in a seemingly abnormally short period, with the Dutch, of all people, now averaging the tallest in all of Europe.

tim maguire said...

I hope (and expect) that "designer babies" will be no more than a fad.

As has been pointed out, in the last 100 years human athletes, whose parents married for love (or at least for non-genetic reasons), have made extraordinary leaps in performance such that what was once thought impossible (the 4 minute mile) is now commonplace and high school girls can out swim Mark Spitz.

Meanwhile, despite big money and science, carefully bred racehorses aren't much different today than they were a century ago.

Parents who want to pick their children's traits are in for a lot of disappointment.

Bob Ellison said...

virgil xenophon, it's probably mostly just good nutrition (and sufficient food) during childhood. That's the big change from 100 years ago.

An old-timey expression was "big enough to make a Dutchman's britches". The Dutch have always been tall.

Ann Althouse said...

"I hope (and expect) that "designer babies" will be no more than a fad."

I'm picturing the revolt of the designer babies.

Sample movie dialogue:

Incredibly tall and handsome young man to his somewhat stumpy and plain mother (melodramatically):

I am the man you wanted in your boring, conventional dreams — the man you could never have. And now you can't have me either. I'm sick of you and your shallow mind — your mind, so much uglier than your face! I needed a father, a man who would love me, but that man would never love you. Where is the man who would have loved you, if you had not been so pathetic as to think you could make a baby on your own, a baby who would be perfectly tall and handsome and yet would love a mother who deprived him of the love of a father? The better me is the uglier me, with a father who loved his mother, and who showed his son how to love. Instead you got me — handsome heartless me. Goodbye mother!

tim maguire said...

Sounds like a Twilight Zone episode. Throw in a line about how he can't love her because she's not beautiful (just as she seemingly could not love him if he were not beautiful), and you got yourself a elevator pitch.

tim in vermont said...

After reading the comments on reddit, I am going to leave reading them to Althouse, from now on.

And what is it with "The Dutch of all people"? I am half Dutch, and admittedly need to wear extra thick socks to get to 6' even, but the only actual Dutch men I have known have all been markedly taller than I am. What did you expect? Little men with stocking caps, pipes, and wooden shoes hiding pots of guilders in Hobbit holes dug in their polders?

virgil xenophon said...

@Bob Ellison/

Yes, one can see the results of better nutrition especially in China, where there are now LOTS of "tall" Chinese by anybody's standard.--not to mention types like 7'6" former NBA star Yao Ming, he of the Houston Rockets.

Vet66 said...

In Viet Nam we gave guys like this a .45 semi-automatic and sent them into the tunnels. They were exceptional fighters and able-bodied. They presented smaller targets also. Never forget!

virgil xenophon said...

"What did you expect? Little men with stocking caps, pipes, and wooden shoes hiding pots of guilders in Hobbit holes dug in their polders?"

Yes. :)

Tarrou said...

Short guys have a higher hill to climb with the ladies, no doubt. Some compensate by becoming really good at it, some by becoming bitter, some by just shuffling along until they find someone to settle for. You know, like most guys who aren't perfect do.

Also, 5'5" wasn't that short in the 70s, and was perfectly average in the 40s. A hundred years of nutrition, inoculations and women banging the tall guys has increased average height substantially.

jr565 said...

There are so many short male actors, who I'm sure are getting plenty of pussy. So if you are short you can still get laid if you are also famous.

CWJ said...

Regarding the Dutch:

Easily explained. In older days, dyke failures were far more common. Over time, the short Dutch all drowned.

chillblaine said...

I'm always fascinated when women critique the attractiveness of men. I never play this game because that kind of objectification is wrong when a man does it, and creepy.

CWJ said...

Tim Maguire,

A century ago, even much earlier, people were already selectively breeding racehorses. Indeed, it was one reason that Darwin chose to call his mechanism "natural" selection in order to distinguish it. Not surprising then that they are far closer to some genetic "perfection" than humans.

Give us time. "Blade Runner" and Rutger Hauer declaring "I have seen starships on fire off the shoulder of Orion" is in our future.

chillblaine said...

"As more and more women switch to artificial insemination and select the genetics they want..."

Fascinating! No doubt feminists gestating their offspring will demand they be able to fine tune hormonal surges in utero to avoid those pesky sex differences.

jr565 said...

Also, I think part of the reason thwt women find him attractive is that he's dressed in a military uniform. Women like men dressed in uniforms.

So if you're short, but dress in a strong uniform you have a greater chance of dates.

Also, based on the comments at least, baldness is even more of a hindrance to love than being short in stature.

Laslo Spatula said...

CWJ said:
"Give us time. "Blade Runner" and Rutger Hauer declaring "I have seen starships on fire off the shoulder of Orion" is in our future.'

You might be interested in checking this out. #4. Blade Runner's "Tears in Rain" Speech Was Originally Pure Gibberish

All respect to Hauer.

I am Laslo.

Laslo Spatula said...

I wish it was like the movies and they gave shorter people boxes to stand on.

Everyone below six foot would carry around their own riser, so when taller people talk with them we are not forced to constantly stoop over to have a conversation. Makes it hard on posture.

I am Laslo.

CWJ said...

Laslo,

Thanks for the link. I knew about the line change (damn, I always say starships instead of attack ships), but had never seen the original version.

Regarding leading men standing on boxes. Monty Python demonstrated that the same effect can be achieved by a leading lady standing in a trench.

mikee said...

My 5'2" roomie in college got a lot more interesting to the females immediately after he was accepted to medical school. Yet he was no taller after that letter arrived.

He married his sweetie from high school, who was a bit under 5' tall.

Anecdotes aren't data, but they make me think.

Anonymous said...

Despite having average-height parents, the current female teen gen in my family are significantly taller (5' 8" so far ) than our gen were, mostly due to more athletics at a younger age. And their girl friends are even taller than that, in the 5' 10" range.

Anecdotally, tall guy and short, cute woman couplings used to be a thing, but I see far more "executive pairings" of over six footers these days.

American guys don't seem to have gotten as much taller as the girls this generation. Euro guys, esp. Northern Euro, have been taller for awhile.

Anonymous said...

Also four 20-something guys in my family (5' ft 10" to 6 ft) all have girlfriends their height or taller.

My point being I don't know that women get as much of a short pass themselves anymore, though the pressure will not be as bad as for the guys.

I've noticed a slight bigotry from the grandmother generation who are SHORT and are still expecting tiny, cute women to be brought home.

Yeah....No. Won't be happening. Lol.

Smilin' Jack said...

Regarding leading men standing on boxes. Monty Python demonstrated that the same effect can be achieved by a leading lady standing in a trench.

This was actually done for Sophia Loren when she played opposite Alan Ladd in 'Boy on a Dolphin.'

Wince said...

I wish life could be... Swedish magazines.

Meade said...

"Instead you got me — handsome heartless me. Goodbye mother!"

Oh you and your feel-good endings.

David said...

Cue Titus. Probably a gay tunnel rat. Short gay guys can be tough and brave too.

Mary Beth said...

Everyone below six foot would carry around their own riser, so when taller people talk with them we are not forced to constantly stoop over to have a conversation. Makes it hard on posture.

Don't stoop, use manner legs.

TCR James said...

@CWJ: Regarding the Dutch:Easily explained. In older days, dyke failures were far more common. Over time, the short Dutch all drowned.

What do the lesbians have to do with it?

K in Texas said...

I need a box to stand on, I'm 5'8" and the guy I'm dating is 6'4". Makes kissing awkward, he has to bend down and I have to stand on my toes.

Freeman Hunt said...

I think talking about someone that way, especially an older person, is disrespectful.

traditionalguy said...

He has the equalizer in his hand.

Remember Shane was only 5'4''. But Alan Ladd could kill Jack Palance. because the short strong man was armed and trained to fight.

The shorter, muscular guys usually have better balance around a lower center of gravity they can control. Which helps football running backs, Soccer halfbacks and real wrestlers.

The Godfather said...

Speaking of Alan Ladd, I've read that when he made Boy On A Dolphin with Sophia Loren, the movie-makers dug trenches on the island where they filmed the movie, so Sophia could walk in the trench and not look taller than Alan. Later archeologists discovered the trenches and were puzzled by what ancient civilization had dug them, and why.

I am not a robot.

The Godfather said...

Then there was Nelson Rockefeller. The internet tells me he was 5' 10", but that's BS. I met him (well, stood near him) at a reception at Harvard in 1962. He was shorter than me, and I was 5'8 1/2" (he was only a little shorter, but he had such a big head that if you'd only seen him on TV you were sure he was a six-footer). But the cool thing was, he was being mobbed by people who wanted to talk to him, and he must have had a lot a fans on the basketball team because he was so surrounded by tall people that it was hard for anyone to see him. So he reached out and grabbed a chair from somewhere, jumped up on it, and talked to us all from up there. He showed no discomfort with his relative shortness, and just dealt in a practical way with the logistical issue of being seen and heard.

I am not a robot.

30yearProf said...

I'm 5'4" and in college and the military I weighed 130 pounds. I had muscles, stamina, and education. I was (and still am) a decent chap and I craved female company.

But I wasn't tall enough. The average male is 6 inches taller than the average female. That ought to give you a hint. And that would make me a prime choice for a woman 4'10" to 5'0". Do you know how few American woman fall in that range? None that I've known.

Women do not seek men shorter that 5-6" TALLER than they are. They readily admit it. One of the woman's sex Blog writers at The Frisky once asked her audience about this. The mass of women who answered were open and honest. They said over and over again, I want a man taller than I, I will not date short men, I'm not discriminating I'm just choosing what I want. And women want men who are 6" taller then they are. Go to a Shopping Center and spend 30 minutes taking an unscientific survey as hundreds of couples walk by. Yep, taller men 99% of the time.

I married, 48 years ago, the second woman who would date me more than once. I got lucky. Most short stature men don't.