thanks for responding, vanessa.

yes, i am shy. it seems that goes back as far as i can remember. see, until recently, i never thought of myself as a short man!

as a youth, i always felt rejected and, eventually, decided to not even pursue the idea of relationships.

as stated in my initial post, i then dedicated my entire adult life to my career(s), and "living for myself". i became successful in a "tall man's" career, never once assuming that all the "short guy" jokes were being directed at me. this was fine for a while until i realized, recently, that i am 30-something, alone, close to a young retirement in my primary (corrections) job, and wanting for a partner.

you mentioned superficiality in your post. i must clarify something here, and this has gotten me into trouble before, but please hear me out.

i have had offers in the past to "set me up" with women, but invariably these were women who did not share my interest in physical fitness. that is to say, they were morbidly obese.

no, i'm not saying that i have an idealized "barbie" view of women in that they must be perfect, but yes, some degree of physical attraction is a factor, even for the short man.

it is very frustrating to be confronted with the idea that there is a stereotype of the "short man and large woman", when one is not attracted to that. even more distressing is the fact that the ONLY material i've found in my research that speaks admiringly of the short man is homosexual in nature. given my background, can you imagine how hard something like that is for a man like me to face?

o.k., that's out, and i hope i didn't offend. let's understand that if in fact the short man is particularly unattractive to most women, i'm not pointing a finger or criticizing. i've seen that this appears to be a societal thing that dates back perhaps to prehsitoric times. thus, if so, women today can hardly be blamed. i just want to forward discussion on the topic.