Msn Daily Harranguing

I have mixed feelings about today's advice for women that came up with my MSN home page. Today, single women are scolded for refusing to date guys that are shorter than them. Or, actually, shorter than you stand in heels. (Which causes me to wonder--what height heels? Regular heels nowadays go up to 4" sometimes.)

My first impulse is to say that the entire premise of this article is ridiculous, like most of the advice that they give in the women/relationships pages at MSN. But I have actually heard quite a few women claim that they wouldn't date someone who stood shorter than them in heels. Not only that, but I've also had more than a few women ask me how I have managed to start dating a man who is the same height as me in sock feet. I have no idea what to say to that inquiry, except that those sort of things don't matter to me. So, for once, I actually believe that the women they quote in this article might be real and not made up.

And really, it's good advice not to be so shallow as to hold somebody's stature against him. I would actually give this advice if asked, so hence the mixed feelings.

But, on the whole, I still have to hate on this article. Because this is still in the category of articles that exist only to feed the cultural myth that a) being single is a problem and b) single women need to learn to lower their standards. I would say a good 50-75% of dating advice columns aimed at women are just a variation on the basic advice to lower your standards.

Of course, telling women to lower their standards is part and parcel of propagating the overall myth that all dating/relationship/sexual issues are solely the fault of women. And that if you want a boyfriend but can't find anyone suitable, it's not that there aren't enough good men out there, it's because you are a high-maintenance B-I-T-C-H.