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energy
What is energy?
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The internet has begun to reject this oft-unacknowledged bias that’s rife on the likes of Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge – choosing instead to ring in a new era, one that celebrates ‘short kings.’
For as long as I’m able to remember, women have been the primary target of societal body critique.
Permeating almost every aspect of my day-to-day life, I’ve frequently faced immense pressure from my peers, mainstream media, and even my own conditioned mind to adopt destructive behaviours in order to change my appearance and ultimately cure my dissatisfaction towards it.
Why? Due to the ever-evolving yet persistently unrealistic beauty standards we’ve been collectively striving to achieve since, well, ever.
This, I’m aware, is all but common knowledge these days and one thing I’m sure of in my unabating quest to stop worrying about my personal self-image is that I’m not alone.
During the past 20 years, tides of public attitude have turned against ‘perfection,’ paving the way for a movement that actively celebrates us no matter what we look like.
A movement that allows me, a woman almost 25-years-of-age, to express so candidly my experience with chasing an ideal I know in my heart does not exist.
What I’ve come to realise, however, is that despite how successful this community may be in making my fellow body-conscious ladies and I feel validated and heard, it – albeit unintentionally – disregards the fact that men are suffering just as much.
Particularly, I feel the need to specify, on the likes of Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge, where yet another toxic dating trope has become commonplace: that of height.
If you’ve ever trawled through these apps on your quest for a partner, you may have already encountered this, ‘I’m six foot if that matters’ a customary disclosure in the bios of men conditioned to believe that being taller makes them more desirable to potential partners.
Not without reason, either, considering a recent study found that shorter men need to earn more money to be deemed equally attractive to their lofty peers (I wish I were joking), an oft-unacknowledged bias that’s clearly ingrained in misogyny, ableism, and racism, with Asian men frequently bearing the brunt.
Fortunately, reflective of Gen Z’s innately accepting nature and ongoing fight for an end to discrimination of every kind, young social media users have begun to reject the notion that anyone 5’9 and below can’t dominate the dating scene, choosing instead to ring in a new era.
