Recent experience

Had a very eye-opening experience recently. One of my woman friends phoned me in a panic. Said she wanted to call things off with a guy, but didn't know how. Wanted to bail because he was short (5'6") but didn't want to tell him.

Instead, she wanted to concoct an lie that would give her an excuse to ditch him; something vague and respectable sounding. Mentioned things like "emotional compatability" or "going too fast" as potential examples.

Obviously I didn't help her lie. I'm 5'6" myself. If I were in his situation I'd want to know. Besides, I think one should have the decency to be honest about this sort of thing. Big difference between being sensitive and straight-up lying, right?

For clarity: he didn't lie about his height. This isn't some "Guy says he's 6'2" on Tinder, but is actually average height" type story. He never mentioned his height at all. They didn't even meet each other via dating app! They found each other on social media (Insta, I think), starting talking, got along super well, decided to meet up IRL. She thought he would be taller, and upon discovering he was short, she flipped out.

Said it was to protect him/his feels. Maybe true on some level, it was clear that she didn't want to be viewed as shallow, even after she admitted to being; saying other aspects couldn't compensate for his height.

It made me realise that even if you do "get off the apps" (as short guys are often told) women don't suddenly become less superficial. You can have a good personality, it doesn't matter; they're much more likely to be more honest on dating apps aa they don't have to worry about offending, at least not to their face!

"It's connection/personality/confidence/etc., bro" is probably not real. More like some cookie-cutter excuse to disguise other demands/intentions.

What do you guys make of this?

TL;DR - friend wanted to call things off with a guy for being short, didn't want to tell him, wanted me to help her lie (obvs I didn't), made me realise that women are far more shallow than they’ll admit to themselves and other people.