It’s official: size DOES matter. And no, get your minds out the gutter, we’re talking height.
The general consensus among heterosexual women is that a man’s height is an important facet to consider when dating. Size is relative, of course, but the general rule is that a man around 5’6 is considered ‘short’.
Taller men are considered to be more ‘protective’ and make you feel ‘delicate’, and although this view is not exactly progressive, statistics confirm that, in general, women prefer taller men.
One study says that both men and women prefer it when the woman is shorter in a relationship, but it also states that it is less likely for a woman to want to date a shorter man than it is for a man to want to date a taller woman.
Research conducted by Rice University and the University of North Texas found just 13 per cent of men said they’d refuse to date a woman who was taller than them. Their findings came after looking at nearly 1,000 Yahoo! Personal dating ads.
One woman who was surveyed said, ‘Something just feels weird in thinking about looking "down" into my man’s eyes. There is also something to be said about being able to wear shoes with high heels and still being shorter.’
Charlize Theron didn’t take note of this rule when she dated Sean Penn. She was 5'10 and he was 5'8 and their two inch difference didn't seem to matter at the time, but they did call off their engagement in July 2015 after 18 months of dating...
The ultimate example of a pairing in which the woman is taller is married couple Sophie Dahl and Jamie Cullum. She is 6ft and he is 5’5, meaning they have a pretty sizable 7 inch difference. Their differing heights hasn’t hindered their relationship though, as the pair got hitched in 2010 and now have two children together.
Katie Holmes (5'9) was also 2 inches taller than ex-husband Tom Cruise (5'7). There must be something to be said about feeling like a supermodel next to your man.
According to YouGov, the ideal height for a woman is 5'6 and 5'11 for a man. The research also states that when looking for a male partner, women consider 5'3 'too short for comfort', and anything above 6'3 'too tall'. Again, this is all relative.
Some women have taken this rule and run with it, in fact so far in the the opposite direction that their men seemed like half-giants in comparison. Take Khloe Kardashian (5'10) and Lamar Odom (6'10) who, when married, spanned a whopping 12 inches in height.
Married couple Hayden Panettiere and Wladimir Klitschko take the cake though. She is a diddy 5ft and he (a heavyweight boxer) stands at 6'6, meaning they have an applaudable 18 inch difference between them. Talk about 'feeling small'.
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