A news article from over the weekend caught my attention - University of Tennessee researchers just released a study that shows marriages are more likely to be happy when the wife is skinnier than the husband.
Perhaps there's some evolutionary reason for this. Regardless, I find the shallowness of the finding to be disappointing. And yet, at some emotional level it makes sense to me.
I'm a short and average-built woman married to a tall and exceptionally skinny man. Despite the fact that Cliff is a foot taller than I am, he often only weighs 20 pounds more than I. I watch the scales for both of us, making certain that 20 pound gap doesn't shrink.
Toward the end of my first pregnancy my weight was only a few pounds shy of Cliff's. An unthinking friend asked me how much weight I had gained, and I replied honestly: about 30 pounds. She then turned to Cliff and said jokingly, "And how much do you weigh?"
Without hesitation, Cliff answered: 185. Only he and I knew this was 25 pounds over his actual weight. I love him dearly for lying on my behalf.
I'm not proud of the importance I put on watching the scales and staying smaller than my husband. It's a shallow part of myself I'd like to pretend did not exist.
Who knew it was contributing to my marital happiness?
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