Carolina, Dion, and the double standard of women not wanting to date short men.

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If you’ve been watching Married At First Sight - and of course you have; it’s okay, there’s nothing to be ashamed of, we’re all friends here - then you know we must talk about Carolina.

The Brazilian-born mother-of-one is currently embroiled in the BIGGEST SCANDAL EVER, as the MAFS voiceover guy keeps telling us. I don’t know about you, but each year has the BIGGEST SCANDAL EVER, and it’s really losing its potency, you know? I think we’d all be more shocked if the voiceover guy tells us there isn’t a scandal.

Anyway, things were going relatively fine for business owner Carolina and her husband, actor Rob Schneider, sorry I mean property developer Dion.

Is it just me?  

And when I say “relatively fine”, I mean they are civil for all of a day before Carolina catches the dreaded... ick. While still on their honeymoon, she accuses Dion of only having women interested in him because he’s rich.

She then finds some real faults with him: Dion never eats breakfast even though he knows Carolina loves it. He doesn’t even eat brunch! L'horreur. Also, he likes 80's music, and she likes rap. Also, she’s a gym junkie and Dion has never set a foot inside one.

Carolina: ‘Dion and I have NOTHING in common. He doesn’t listen to rap, he doesn’t listen to EDM. HE DOESN’T EVEN GO TO THE GYM!’ 😓 #MAFS pic.twitter.com/2GTrK12rM0

— seapunk aesthete 💮 (@BiancaNeveXO) February 28, 2022

Whoever signed off on the Carolina and Dion coupling seriously needs to reassess their “matchmaking” skills #MAFS #mafsau pic.twitter.com/wXrA2h1qxt

— ✨Alexandra✨ (@VIPVirtualSols) March 1, 2022

This is all too much for Carolina. The relationship experts clearly made a huge mistake. Which is surprising, because they hardly ever do that and there are many successful relationships that come out of this show and HAHAHAHA. HA.

Then in the photo ranking test Carolina places Dion third last. But fear not, she tells him, because if it was a personality ranking test he still wouldn’t be anywhere near the top. In the immortal words of Cher from Clueless: That was way harsh, Tai.

Cue the BIGGEST SCANDAL EVER.

And no, I’m not talking about Carolina embarking on an affair with “divorced” Daniel, who loves the gym and probably both breakfasts and brunches. I’m talking about Carolina’s clear disdain for her husband Dion’s lack of an attribute she desires: Tallness.

As she looks over the photos in the ranking test, she lingers on Daniel’s photo and sighs longingly. Cartoon birds flutter overhead, singing the ancient song of love. “I like Daniel’s vibe,” she tells us in a piece to camera. “It’s a bad boy vibe. He’s very tall... and my husband wears heels.”

HOW DARE HE. (Image: Nine Network) 

Short men everywhere would be outraged if they actually watched MAFS. But most of them are likely doing other things with their lives: folding laundry, loading dishes into the dishwasher, shopping for heels, trying to survive a world that seems to be falling down around us, that kind of thing.

In all seriousness, Carolina is perpetuating a myth that has existed for a very long time - that men who are taller are better. And she’s not the only one. Watch any other dating reality TV show, be it Too Hot To Handle, Love Island, The Bachelor, Are You The One?, Ex On The Beach, and the same refrain pops up again and again when the women are asked who their type is: “Tall.” Sometimes it’s “Tall, dark and handsome.” Sometimes it’s “Tall, blonde and blue-eyed.” Sometimes it’s “Tall, ripped and tanned.” The answer is never: “I want someone short, or shorter than me.”

Listen to Mamamia podcast Cancelled to hear more about MAFS. Post continues below.

According to Psychology Today, the stigma against short men is linked with bad boy behaviour. 

In a study, women were shown pictures of smiling, happy men and moody, proud men. They were far more attracted to the moody men because they reeked of “bad boy” vibes. Women don’t believe short men can be bad boys because short men can’t win in a physical fight against another man.

Logically, this argument is less than sound because height is but a single factor in a fistfight. There’s also weight, physique, strength, and experience.

Let’s not forget the fact that being judged on physical appearance - something we, as women, know all too well - has nothing to do with a person’s true inner self. 

Recently Selling Sunset’s Chrishell Stause spoke to TMZ about dating Jason Oppenheim, who is a good few inches shorter than her, and how those who didn’t date shorter men were missing out. She couldn’t believe people were still talking about height in this day and age. “What year are we in now? How old are we? Who cares? It’s more about what’s inside. It’s about how they treat you and if you guys have chemistry, I think the height thing is overdone.”

And Spiderman himself, Tom Holland, who is dating fellow actor Zendaya, has criticised people who comment negatively about the height difference between himself and his partner, saying that it is a “stupid assumption” to make.

“This is normal too. My mum is taller than my dad,” Zendaya has said. “I honestly never thought of it as a thing because my parents were always that way, so I didn’t know that people cared. I had no construct of it.”

Zendaya and Tom Holland couldn't give less of a [enter expletive of your choosing here] about their height difference. pic.twitter.com/ugpWdI4yJs

— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) December 11, 2021

The moral of this story is: Don’t be like Carolina. You could be missing out on something amazing if you focus on something so superficial.

In short: Don't sell short men short.