The Male/Female Thing part 2 - Height

I am a data nerd. There I said it and now I feel better. Yes it is true that I get some sort of sick enjoyment out of the collection of data. Maybe that explains what happened when I had a friend come over a few months ago and when he left we had an whole new research project in mind. I was excited. I got to collect more data!!!!!
Well our project was to look at the role that height plays in physical desirability, especially as it pertains to women. As a single tall man I am fascinated, and gratified, by the interest that tall women have in men who are even taller. So we set up a survey with open ended questions to find out why height was so important to both men and women.
I have not fully analyzed the data. But one factor comes out again and again to me. A good percentage of the women, not most but a sizable minority of them, mention "protector" or "protect" as part of their reason why they want a tall man. These women are college students and the vast majority of them are under 30 years of age so we are not talking about older women living out values from a traditional time. A good percentage of women are looking for men to protect them.
Now how can a taller man be a better protector than a smaller man? He is not in a better position to protect them from economic ruin is he? Furthermore while we still have differences in the economic opportunities of men and women, they clearly are more equal than in the past. It is reasonable for a woman today to think that she does not need a man for financial protection today, which is something that was less true in the past. I guess a tall man makes a bigger target for a gun and can offer physical protection. But are women really looking for men to be physical beasts? That sounds kind of barbaric to me. But it does suggest that the traditional male role of protector has not gone away in our society.
We talk about equality in our society but traditional gender roles are alive and well in our society. We can make all the rules we want and try to enforce some sort of PC mentality on people but we tend to run back to traditional gender perspective. What are we to think of this phenomenon?
One possibility is that traditional gender roles have been so embedded in our society that we have not had enough time to get rid of them. Perhaps if I do this research fifty years from now the word "protector" will not show up. Perhaps if I do the research in Europe women would not talk about wanting men to protect them. So in time we may see more egalitarian gender attitudes. The alternative possibility is that traditional gender attitudes are embedded in our very nature. Sociologists hate such possibilities and as a sociologist I should not bring it up. But I am a trouble-maker.
What is clear is that the narrative that men and women are alike in their romantic aspirations is not accurate. Men do not look for women as protectors. We fool ourselves if we think of men and women as wanting the same thing in relationships. Distinctive gender roles is alive and well in the United States. Whether that is a good thing or not depends on the values we bring to that question.

Sincerely,

Trouble-Maker