Black Women And Short Men Have This In Common

Dating

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Let’s face it data doesn’t lie, and according to data posted from numerous dating sites, the least desired category of men are short men, particularly those under 5’9. While short men have different faces, body types, skin complexions, hold different occupations and speak different languages, etc., what they all have in common is what they lack in stature, and according to many women, this makes their panties dry up instantly.

One study in December of 2013 from popular dating site AYI (Are You Interested?) stated that men under 5’9 receive at most a measly 7.6% response rate from women in New York City Metropolitan Area, the largest metropolis in the United States. Another article from the Huffington Post cited a 2008 study of 382 undergraduates in the Journal Personality and Individual Differences which showed that 96% of women had no interest in short guys.  You won’t have to search long on any dating site for a woman’s profile which includes some variation of the line “Do not waste your time contacting me if you’re under 5’10”, usually coupled with some stereotype explaining why short men aren’t a good fit. Add to that endless op-ed articles, blogs, tweets and forum threads featuring women asserting their anti-short guy positions with incendiary verbiage mentioning everything from them needing to wear heels to short men being bitter and needing to prove themselves, and from time to time even evolutionary psychology precepts are thrown in the mix to shift the blame to women’s “natural inclinations” rather than personal choice, even though there are tons of reputable studies that show otherwise. After all, you can’t argue with “nature” can you?

Source | AYI Short Men In NYC Don't Stand A Chance In Online Dating

Black Women oddly enough are in a similar position in the dating market. While many may argue that the effects of institutionalized racism and centuries of European influence on “beauty standards” worldwide are to blame, many parallels can be drawn between the way society views short men and black women. Two comprehensive studies done by major dating website OK Cupid in 2009 and 2014 indicated that black women had the lowest response rate from men of all races. To see if this bias was limited to OK Cupid, the same researchers compared its data to that of niche site Date Hookup which has a larger Black and Latino user base and found the same bias. AYI hosted a similar study in 2013 reviewing the data of its 2.4 Million users and found the same stating the Black women at most received the lowest response rate, 16%, and that was from their black male counterparts. The rates were even lower from men of other races, as low as 7%.  Most studies on the same topic show White, Asian and Latina women as consistently having the highest response rates.

Source | QZ.com - Uncomfortable Racial Preferences Revealed By Online Dating

The idea of men having racial preferences is still a controversial issue. Blogs, Forums and Publications which cater to Black Women generally ostracize men who are vocal about a non-black preference, and more so if the man in question is black. With the plethora of “scientific” studies available suggesting that black women are naturally unattractive, obese, and have the lowest marriage rate, as well as a myriad of forum threads, op-ed articles and social media postings stereotyping black women as being unfeminine, having attitudes and chips on their shoulders with those each of those traits intensifying if the complexion of the women in question is darker, black women have every reason to be bitter. One need not search long for online dating profiles of men vocalizing their non-black requirements and when questioned about their preferences their responses include everything from gross aforementioned stereotypes to justification through instances both historical and current in which men of non-Europeanized societies place lower value on women with darker complexions, thus shifting the blame away from personal choice to something “natural”. After all you can’t argue with nature can you?

While both Short Men and Black Women do date and get married, and have their media heartthrobs and bombshells respectively challenging widely known stereotypes (Mark Whalberg, Tom Cruise and T.I.  come to mind for Short Men and Beyonce, Kelly Rowland and Gabrielle Union for Black Women) the data exposed by Online Dating is very telling about the truth of societal biases against short men and black women in the modern dating world, even for those who for all other purposes would be considered classically attractive in the face (though many would incorrectly consider these to be “outliers” or the “exception to the rule” –i.e. “Handsome for a short guy”, “Pretty for a black girl”). The turbulent history of race relations in this country makes discussing racial preferences taboo while discussing female height requirements is seen as petty and trivial because gender norms dictate that men are supposed to just deal with the cards they’ve been dealt.

With all of the similarities it is then disturbing to see the collection of thousands hateful tweets toward short men on the Twitter handle “Heightism Report”, the majority of which are coincidentally from black women. There are numerous online discussions in which short men share anecdotes of black women being more vocal about their distaste for shorter men than others. It could just be mere coincidence, or the hyper-masculinization of black men in the media could be to blame. If this is in fact the case, you would think that similar societal perceptions of both groups would make the latter more empathetic toward others. At the end of the day however, you cannot force physical attraction and everyone has the right to like whatever it is they like.