A real and imaginary dating anecdote compared.

Trigger warning for terms offensive to shorter people and overweight people

Yet more heightism courtesy of the dating world.

This time it's from 'Joanna'. I have no idea if Joanna is a real person or if she was made up by a journalist to fill some space in the Chicago Sun Times. Whether real or imaginary Joanna took the time to contribute to a piece about terrible blind dates. Here is what she had to say.

JOANNA: I had a friend who was always trying to fix me up with short guys. I’m 5’2” and she was a lot taller. She wouldn’t date a guy who was too short and passed up some really nice guys. I never turned a guy down because he was too short, but I did tell her I didn’t want to perpetuate a race of Munchkins.

It drove her crazy when I married my 6-foot tall husband. She’s still single.

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/25080826-423/when-bad-dates-happen-to-good-people.html

I've read this several times trying to find a thread of logic in what she's saying but so far I've failed.

Firstly she critises her friend for not wanting to date men shorter then herself whilst piously claiming she wouldn't do this herself. But then says she would because, heaven forbid, if she married a short man she might have short children. I guess she's trying to argue that her taller friend could get away with marrying a shorter man because they might balance each other out? How charming.

Then she married a 6-foot tall man. I hope he had some other redeeming qualities because this is the only one she seems to find worth mentioning.

It's funny how you can read something so breath-takingly shallow and still feel like you are drowning.

On this blog I often argue that things that are written about shorter men that you would never see written in a newspaper about any other group but I never really explored the point further. So I wrote it out again but this time I changed the genders and imagined that it was a man writing about fat women. I'm a fat women myself, so it wasn't pleasant to use these hateful terms but I found it a good exercise in challenging my thinking. 

JOHN: I had a friend who was always trying to fix me up with fat women. I'm fat but he was skinny. He wouldn't date a women who was too fat and passed up some really nice women. I never turned down a women because she was fat, but I did tell him I didn't want to perpetuate a race of Fatties. It drove him crazy when I married my skinny wife. He's still single.

I just don't believe that any newspaper would publish a thing like this. Blogs in the dark recesses of the internet - sure. The newspapers and established publications however wouldn't do it because they'd know that they would be on the receiving end of so many complaints it wouldn't be worth it. Something like this wouldn't make it through the editorial process. Even in our current atmosphere of fat shaming, where pictures of skinny actresses who've gained 2 ounces are tabloid fodder, you wouldn't get this. Nothing this nakedly openly hateful. I think there would be a lot of people saying John and his friends were small minded misogynists.

Yet a person writes something so hateful about shorter men and no one seems to care.