The attractiveness dichotomy: men like tall women, yet the opposite is not true

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I am a Googler addict... I often Google celebrities and their spouses and notice that many male athletes, musicians, and celbs who are of average height or tall go for tall women (5' 8" and up).

 
If height implies protection, attractiveness, and manliness to a woman, why shouldn't short and petite imply femininity to a man? It is bizarre to me that many men don't care about height and even prefer tall girls in many cases, when you would think that sexual dichotomy would be desirable on both ends...

I prefer the petite type btw. Just wondering if anyone has a theory about this or gave it any though.

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Most men don't prefer tall girls, most men want their partner to be shorter than themselves. It's true that women care more about height than men when it comes to choosing a partner. However, it's not true that most men don't care about height or prefer taller women.

This study showed that only 4% of women could accept being with a shorter guy while 24% of men could accept being with a taller women. So 76% of men also care about height when it comes to partners.

Still, women seem to care more. Why is that? Perhaps there are biological reasons, and female sxxuality is less diverse than men's. Perhaps there are cultural reasons, perhaps both factors play a role. Perhaps men care more about a woman's body shape than her height (hips, breasts, ass). We don't know for sure.

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Most of this thread is going to be anecdotal evidence, anecdotal discussion and shoddy studies.

What is true is that men generally prefer partners who are shorter, even if just a little bit, and that men also care less if women are taller than them. A good chunk does prefer taller/tall women, while the opposite is not very true with women and men shorter than themselves. Which is not say there are no women who wouldn't date or marry shorter guys. I personally know 3 examples in my life of stable relationships where the man is shorter.

In any case, life is easier if you think of people as the individuals they are instead of assuming anecdotes about large swathes of people to be invariably true in their statistics.

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^ That's why I posted an actual study that is not just anecdotal evidence.

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Quote from: IwannaBeTaller on March 20, 2018, 04:19:23 PM^ That's why I posted an actual study that is not just anecdotal evidence.

There are many of those types of studies. This one has a low sample size and paints one of grimmest pictures I've seen by any of them. I'm all for facing a harsh reality of life head-on, but this one doesn't reflect what I see. Then again, it could be that American women are that much of size queens. The American friends here would have to tell me.

Even the studies I've seen that relied on bots extracting data from thousands of online dating profiles (where people can be pickier) provided a cheerier picture:

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Lol who likes tall women? Their skulls and upper bodies look manly AF... after 5’5 women start looking a bit weird IMO, and they’re usually way less estrogenic, but maybe I’d feel differently if I was taller.

I think it’s the same for men, to be fair. Below 5’5 and their shoulders are too small and skulls are not long enough to appear that dimorphic.

I think men go for women who are the most dimorphic and feminine, so small pretty faces, thin body, wide hips/small waist, etc...

I’ve never heard any guys talk about liking taller women, more common is guys who like the estrogenic bombshell girls who are like 5’1 5’2 with curvy features.

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that's bs, I see a lot of couples where the girl is slighty taller than her boyfriend. But rarely more than 5 cm
Modelling influenced a lot height perception since most models are about 5'9+

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There is indeed a prominent tall preference for both sexes, but there isn't one for short men. There is a dwarf fetish, but we're too tall for that!

And indeed, women want taller men more than men want shorter women, and the desired height difference is much higher for women. The preference (not saying requirement) is strong.

Logically we know that height means less now, that our bank account and confidence are what protect us from harm in the new reality. But it's hard to shake centuries of conditioning, not to mention we respect and revere tall authoritative figures starting at a young age. That association is hard to shake.

Also, perhaps it's just bias on your part. You have a belief, and therefore you start to see a pattern (we're all victims of this). Lastly, don't forget that many celebrity couple photos are at events, and therefore the women are wearing stiletto heels.


Just saw the chart as I was about to post. Honestly those numbers look discouraging from my point of view, this is definitely how it felt using online dating: less than 10% chance of interaction (because they have to be interested in your other qualities too, and distance is a big factor). It makes sense that people of above-average height will compromise and consider shorter people, since selection pool is smaller. It's like a short man looking to date a shorter woman, it's a very small group to pick from (at least it was at my height, which is coincidentally the average for an American woman). I too had to raise my height preference since I ran out of people to look through.

What's tough is that there's a lot of competition at my height, so you have to make it up with a great profile. Swiping apps like Tinder were useless for me. I've had a handful of dates in the past year, mostly non-white Americans ranging 5'1" to 5'3", so it's totally doable. Just a bit tougher!

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Quote from: Knik on March 20, 2018, 06:31:55 PMthat's bs, I see a lot of couples where the girl is slighty taller than her boyfriend. But rarely more than 5 cm
Modelling influenced a lot height perception since most models are about 5'9+

My cousin is 5'9 and married to a 6 feet woman, and not in a country where she didn't have the option of taller men.

Different types of people are different. His wife is someone who does not place the most weight on appearance. She was also already older when they married. A lot of these studies would look differently if they interviewed enough 30yo+ women.

As for myself, I have my preferences in appearance, just like anyone else, but I'd never reject someone based solely on their height. I prefer shorter than myself, but I wouldn't reject taller - no matter how tall.

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Western women have a lot of contradictory criteria. But finally their criteria become more realistic. They realize that 6'5 men are rarely beautiful, but 6'1 stay the most sides