On the Other Hand...

I just finished the last post on how hard it is for us short folks to get a job and get paid fairly and thought I should follow it up with some good news, at least for short women. While researching employment statistics I found a lot of numbers on marriage that were pretty cool. Well, at least if you are a short woman who wants to marry! I'm not, but most women do have that as a goal, right?

Statistically, short women actually have a much higher rate of marriage than above-average height women. Of course, it helps if you are considered attractive (surprise, surprise), but overall, we've got it good. It seems that men are not as media-duped as many of us thought into wanting supermodels (in fact, even the men I've known who DO want supermodels admit they prefer a little more weight and less height in an actual partner). Sure, there are lots of men with lots of different tastes, but overall they consider petite women to be good candidates for mating.

Thank biological imperative once again, at least in theory. Women who are short often reach sexual maturity sooner than taller women, making us desirable breeders. Remember, this is not about our culture and when we want to have children, but nature's way of making us want to keep our species going through selective breeding.

I have my own theory, although it is based on absolutely nothing but noticing the heights of the couples I know, see on the streets, or even in the celebrity gossip rags: We are clearly trying to get taller as a species. Average-height people seem to choose average-height mates quite often, whereas tall people have a tendency to choose shorter mates. Every man I personally know over 6' tall is with a petite woman, every man I know who is under that height is with an average-to-slightly-tall woman. Average height people don't need to raise their children's heights yet, so it's okay to stick with average. As I said, I have no special training or authority on this subject, but it seems to make sense considering we KNOW people have gotten taller all over the world. Just visit any colonial village or medieval castle (or even just a Victorian home), it doesn't take a lot of numbers to show the difference over the past few centuries!

So, while short men clearly get screwed in this equation, this is a blog mainly for short women, so I'm just glad to find positive news for us in a sea of depressing stats. At least there is one real advantage to being our size!