Is bigger better?

OK, mind out of the gutters, please!  I'm talking about HEIGHT here. 


As you might (or might not be aware), I'm single again through no fault of my own (thankyouverymuch!) To that end, I reactivated my Tinder Account.  Now for those who aren't aware, Tinder's primary purpose was to connect to men or woman (or hell - both) who are near your GPS coordinates.... (yes, I know, I know... privacy violations and all that - but I don't care!).  Tinder has a very basic premise.  A handful of pictures (I think no more than 6 or so) are uploaded to the app from your facebook profile pictures (which ... as a note, PLEASE double check which pictures are loading - do you really want to have a picture of you and an ex all snuggled up, or a goofy picture of yourself laying on the mall and pretending the Washington monument is your dick...(*that's a whole other topic!). 

So to continue on a long story that should be really short, the idea behind Tinder is very basic and honestly superficial as hell.  After looking at a persons picture - and a VERY short message (if you even get to that point), you swipe left for not interested or right saying you are interested.  If both you and the other person swipe yes, then you are matched and can use the Tinder messaging app. 

Now that I have that huge background gotten out of the way, I want to comment on ONE thing on Tinder that seems to come up over and over again in the short profiles provided (and it's NOT asked - the "profile" portion is a free form text field where you can put anything.)  So, that one thing... it's a guy's height.  From what I gather, a man's height is the #1 thing that is of concern to most women.  I personally think that's crazy.  Then again at 5 foot tall, I don't often encounter men who are smaller than me.  Well... I did go on two different dates who two different guys who were shorter than me (again... another story - guess, I need to start blogging again!

So, I decided to do a little bit of research... Does height really make that much of a difference.  According to eharmony (which I'm skeptical about eharmony due to my rejections - but I will say some of their advice columns actually make sense).  So apparently women prefer taller men nearly exclusively.  In a study of 720 couples, in only ONE case was the man taller than the woman.  Apparently, height is considered a masculine characteristic and taller men seem more dominant and assertive (according to some study by some guy somewhere).  In evoluntary terms... a larger man was better able to provide more protection for their woman and kids and gave the taller man a better social status. 

While that was evolutionary type research, in today's day and age, women still value taller men because they are often seen as more powerful and attractive - and being with them ups their social status.  It's likely that women who are paired with taller men feel smaller, more protected and perhaps even more "feminine."   Now there isn't a tried and true height cut off, most women just prefer their man be taller than them (for me... I want to be able to wear my 4" heels). 

So back to the Tinder thing.  I would say nearly 75% of the small profile section has the man's height pointed out.  Are women that superficial that physical looks and tall height is the only thing we are looking for.  Of course, Tinder is an inherently superficial way to meet people.  Hell, following my breakup a couple of months ago I got on Tinder just for an ego boost.  All I wanted was for men to say I was hot - and that they did!  It was great for the self esteem.