In 2014, a UK website MailOnline published a report ‘Want to feel more feminine? Get yourself a tall partner’. The report stemmed from a research conducted by Rice University and the University of North Texas.
The study of the research, ‘Does Height Matter? An Examination of Height Preferences in Romantic Coupling’, was done in two parts and it put forward that the height of a potential partner matters more to women while men don’t care as much.
The first part found out that 13.5 percent of the 455 men who participated wanted to date only women shorter than they are, while nearly half of the 470 women – 48.9 percent – wanted to date only men taller than they are.
According to the data, the main reasons females gave for preferring a tall partner were for protection and femininity.
Is this true for the Nigerian Public? LifeXtra sought peoples’ opinion.
An Abuja-based fish farmer, Sapient Chukish, told LifeXtra that height shouldn’t matter in choosing a partner.
He said, “This is because every human being has both recessive and dominant genes and these genes are responsible for height.”
He said using the physical height as a yardstick might not matter as “Most families have both tall and short people in their lineage.”
Expressing a contrary view, Onyinyechi Victoria Chukwuma, a Mass Communication graduate, strongly feels that height should count when choosing a spouse.
“Height surely matters if you are talking about spending the rest of your life with someone; attending events with them by your side, taking their last name, bearing them children and so on, of course height matters but it is not all there is to it.”
She explained that “While I am 6ft tall, I won’t want to marry someone who is 4ft tall. I may not even let myself be attracted to them.”
She however stated that should she get attracted to someone shorter than she is, she will choose love in place of height. “If it happens that the ‘ying to my yang’ is shorter, then who am I not to embrace love?”
She reiterated that “height is a valid factor to be considered though, in some cases, love should not be declined just because of height.”
A husband and father Roland Imoyera says height doesn’t matter. While supporting his view with the cliché ‘love is blind’, Imoyera said the ‘ultimate factor’ in choosing a spouse is love.
Firms Kanayo has a different reason for saying height matters in choosing a partner. He said it is because of ‘personality traits’. Kanayo explained that “Taller people are assumed to be preferable for leadership positions.”
A Lagos resident, Funmise Adefila Lekan Tosin, told LifeXtra that “Height should not be a determinant in choosing a partner.” He however did not say why.
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