Comments on: Let’s take a moment for the short males

By: akiratheoni

akiratheoni — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:53:37 +0000

Love your blog, I’ve followed it for awhile and it’s always a joy to read :)

I fit into that short guy crowd, I’m 17 and only 5’2″. Yeah, you might say I have a chance to grow, but according to my doctor, I won’t. When I was about 14 my doctor did a bone age scan since I was shorter than usual and my bone age was that of a 17 year old’s… I haven’t grown an inch in probably two or three years, which is a good sign that I won’t grow any more ;)

Well if there’s any point to this comment, I wish I was taller.

By: lonetruth

lonetruth — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:51:55 +0000

You should write one about how average-looking black men almost always get shafted in the dating world too. I was planning to write one, but every-time I start, I get so filled with rage that my writing suffers and I have to shut down my laptop and go do something else for a bit. At this rate it’ll take me 5 years to write the dang article!

By: ubuntucat

ubuntucat — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:25:31 +0000

@AP
Glad you’re enjoying the blog. I do try to make it at least a little interesting (even if I’m pissing some people off). I’m not planning to abandon it any time soon, but my frequent updates will probably be only during the summer when I’m not working as much.

And, yes, I’m almost certain most of what’s considered “attractive” is culturally influenced.

@Internet Lover
Case in point. Why does it look awkward? Because that’s what we’ve been taught to think of as awkward.

@Ryan
Well, I’m glad my wife doesn’t share your discrimination against picky eaters. But, yes, since most people are at least ostensibly monogamous in relationships, they tend to be more discriminating than they would be about friendships or acquaintanceships.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:41:21 +0000

Romantic relationships are — and will always be — the last frontier of discrimination. I, for one, would never date a picky eater.

But then again I’m married. So I discriminate against everyone who’s not my wife.

By: Internet Lover

Internet Lover — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:28:21 +0000

Short people need loving too. Althought sometimes it does look a little ackward when a women is going out with a guy a couple of inches shorter then her.

By: AP

AP — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:51:21 +0000

Just wanted to write on and say DANG I really enjoy your posts! I’ve followed this blog for a couple months now, having stumbled across it via some bizarre series of links leading off of someone’s signature in the Ubuntu forums, and I’ve been really impressed. In my experience, so many blogs are a combination of short attention span (i.e. only ‘active’ for three months or so before the author loses interest) and thoughtless writing (like pointlessly sharing a badly-written journal with the world), that this blog, consistently updated and insightfully written, is a joy to read. I wanted to pass that along.

And yes, I do know a few short guys (though I’m not one myself), and I think the cultural notion that shorter guys are less attractive/buff/manly/dateable than taller ones is unfortunate. I agree that you should find the person you’re with attractive, but along the same line of thought, I wonder how much of ‘attractiveness’ is created out of cultural expectations.

Reminds me of a study I saw once (don’t remember where) in which male participants from various countries were shown a number of pictures of women and asked to rate their attractiveness. The pictures that received the ‘most attractive’ ratings in each country were the pictures that looked most similar to images of women found in pop culture magazines widely read in that country. In places where an extremely thin figure was popularized, pictures of thin women were rated best; in other places where a more healthy weight was considered ideal, those pictures received the better ratings.