> My husband, who is 5-foot-6, said it would have been easier to be tall than to have had to put effort into developing his wit, but I know we wouldn’t be married if he didn’t make my cheeks hurt from smiling so hard on our first date.
As a shorter guy myself, no amount of good jokes will make up for being shorter than a girl who just "isn't interested in shorter guys".
The author is not stupid, nor did she assume this.
I won't say "It's all in your head", because it's not.
Attractiveness is a real and very objective thing we can measure. But "how much it bothers you", or "how much it gets in your head" is also a very real and objective thing, too.
Of course, no man/woman is going to want you if you yourself even go "Oh woe is me I'm so short and awful". Most of my friends who are alone and blame it on their height are like this.
But having a great face and being short, bald, and obese isn’t going to lead you to winning results either.
The standards are high and some people will always be alone due to looks - please stop using the just world fallacy.
In the analogy I'd be dismissing a woman's math ability as compensation for women's inferior intelligence, rather than just saying she worked hard at math or is naturally talented at math and that is cool.
In your actual post, you imply that short men can't _just_ be funny. Or _just_ have a good personality, without it being somehow tied to compensating for your own perceived negative qualities of being short.
It's a shame. Being entertaining is a skill that has to be developed and sometimes it's going to look like quite a lot of work and won't be entirely successful. The audience isn't sympathetic, though, and will cry "cringe" and muse about whatever deficiency you must be making up for.