@robinarkell7221

3 months ago

Not a romance girlie, but i can comment on the phenomena lol

Theres some deeply ingrained cultural/social associations between height and power/leadership/attractiveness.

There are additional associations and social norms for women that make this less noticable (being powerful or imposing isnt considered traditionally feminine) but for men there aren’t as long as it’s within whatever is considered a normal/plausible/not abnormal height range.

6' to 6'6" is tall enough to be notably on the upper end of the height spectrum, and thus 'tall', but not so much as to be considered weird (anything describable as "nearly 7 feet tall" is usually too far). Anything taller than 5'8" would work for this at least a bit, but the cultural associations in the west of being 6' make it more effective.

So basically, it’s a way to subconciously imply power and attractiveness by use of a relatively non story important detail, so authors who want you to be attracted to the male lead can use it as a shortcut unless there's a reason not to. Similar to how the male lead usually have good skin/cheekbones, clear eyes, aren’t overweight, etc unless they need to have a tasteful facial scar or something else that goes against the standard "attractive man" package. Sometimes it's for more in depth reasons (wanting to make him dominating, for instance), but it's usually not that deep.

Height is also masc coded, so it's not surpising that someone who doesnt feel attraction to men wouldn’t have internalized the link between height and attractiveness the same way (even if you might still have the height=power association).

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