If taller men have been seen as more desirable since ancient times, why is it still so uncommon to be tall as a man? Wouldn’t society weed out shorter men through time?

Question

All love for my short kings

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Answer 1

Short men are not being selected AGAINST. Populations change as one trait is being chosen over another so much so that the other trait prevents those men with it from reproducing. For our population to drastically change height, short men overall would need to be prevented from having kids while tall men having more kids.

This is the same reason left handedness still exists. It’s not selected for or really against. It’s just kind of there.

That doesn’t even consider tall/short women into the equation. All it takes is one 6’ tall man to mate with a 5’ woman to have potentially short children. Height is such a complicated genetic trait that it’s not necessarily tall man = tall child.

We are a species are getting taller, but at a very slow rate.