Guys aren't that picky about size. We are picky about picking women that will pick us back. Size is very low on the priority list. I'm 6'2". Only one girlfriend was taller than 5'4". They all chose me.

Women are the ones who put height requirements on their Tinder profiles, not men. I've never come across a single profile where the woman is looking for someone shorter. So your question seems very alien to me.

Case in point: my girlfriend says she would not have started dating me if I was shorter than her. As a guy I am conditioned to avoid such superficial thinking because it leads to toxic behavior. Imagine if I would tell her that I wouldn't date her if her boobs were a different size.

I don't understand people who are only interested in a very specific type. As long as a woman is generally attractive to me,^1^ I can be interested regardless of her height. Sexy little hobbit or death by snu snu, it's all good. Same goes for skin color, hair color, and most healthy body types.

^1^ Obviously, finding them attractive in the first place is kind of the point. But I think we can also understand the difference between "would be attractive if not for [insert turn off here]" and "is not at all attractive."

There is the theory that sexual attraction is towards characteristics that are on the opposite side of the normal curve from yourself, specifically so that your kids are nearer the average of your species and thus more fit for their environment. I'm tall and had a huge underbite (until it was corrected surgically) and I go for tiny women with overbites. Also, smart women with money and style.

I'm 6'3" and my wife is 5'4", she's told me many times that my height is super important to her and that she wouldn't have dated me if I were shorter than at least 6'.

Why do most (in my experience) women insist on tall men?

I'm 6'5" and I've had many short girls hit on me. Tall girls almost never do.

I'm 5'7 and my gf is 5'10, she wants to step on me pls send help

Afaik not many guys go out of their way for really short girls. Tall guys rarely meet a woman as tall as them.

If you're a tall guy nearly all ladies are tiny to you. Whether or not they're a bit shorter than average is kinda immaterial.

I rarely ever see tall women. I'd prefer someone closer to my height (6'6'') but women aren't commonly that tall, and it's not something I care that much about.

Because girls are shorter than me. It's not a thing I "go for" it's just my reality.

There's no one answer to your question, but from an ecological standpoint, sexual selection plays the main role in this. There are a lot of variables and the societal pressures are integral. The people you live around, and the multigenerational influences that shape your community steer this selection. But that's not to say that nature is intentional.

As an example, the people who came to Hawai'i had a tendency towards very large men and very small women. Because of the isolation in the islander cultures and the relatively small population sizes, this could exaggerate selective pressures. I think it's important to point out for whoever needs to hear it that being small statured should not be confused with subservience, absolutely.

This is one example in a whole world of variables that agree with your observation, but there are many cultures where that sexual selection is completely different. The ideas of who does what in a relationship in order to build a life with another person is influenced by the agreements we've been taught in our communities and carried on in a way that expresses itself genetically over time. Like you said, people like what they like, and as such, the idea of beauty (or desirability as a mate, more accurately) continues to change and is not the same in other places. Ultimately, those that reproduce will give rise to certain selections, but the reasons are so varied that it can't be apparent until looking at long spans of time and generalized pressures.

All that to say, nature is not choosing or steering anything. Natural selection is backward-looking. It is an adaptation to pressures that existed, not an ideal or purpose for the future. It's accidental, and stumbling, and pure chance in a lot of instances.

I’m pretty tall (5’17”) and I would totally date a tall woman, but chasing someone with one specific physical characteristic has always felt weirdly fetishistic to me. But now that I think about it, is me pursuing smart/funny people any different?

Anywho, I tend to get chased by tiny gerbil people, and I’ve been told my height did matter to them; and the person I'm with is almost 5’3”.