Height, an annoying trope

The actress and her US stunt doubles --have not seen numbers on the Canadian stunt doubles--are 5'8" or 5'7", which is not very different from the height of an average man, 5'8" or 5'9". Kara Danvers also sometimes wears high heels. She nonetheless often appears to be rather shorter than the men around her, many of them, much of the time. This effect is casting and several TV tropes.

I'm not really sure what your point is, but I think 5'8" or 5'9" is somewhat less than average for a man in the US and Canada. I'm 5'11" and am shorter than many of my friends. I believe most of the actors on the show are 6' or taller, except for Jeremy Jordan. So i guess without more information I don't see an issue.

I disagree let’s look at the heights of the men on the show. Jeremy is listed as 5’10” that might be an overestimated. David Harewood is listed 6’1” and Chris Wood as 6’ even, both seem right. Mehcad Brooks is listed as 6’4” this might be an underestimation. With the exception of Jeremy all the men on the show are taller than the average man and even Jeremy isn’t exactly short. As a shorter than average woman 5'2" I consider myself an expert on heel heights. Kara does wear heels but usually a practical 2"-2.5"" heel, the superboots I would peg as about a 1.5" wedge, that's not high enough to make up for a 4+ inch height differential with most of the men. When Kara and Mon-El danced in S2E5 they were pretty close to the same height because she was wearing high dress heels. In season one when Kara danced with Winn in she was definitely taller than him in dress high heels but even the highest heels aren’t going to make Melissa be near Mehcad's height. Actors, both women and men tend to be taller than average.

Heights that I think are correct
Melissa at 5'8"
Chyler at 5'6" although for some reason they like making Chyler look taller through wearing about 3 to 4 inch boots a good bit of the time.
Katie McGrath 5'5 1/2 she also looks taller a good bit of the time because she almost always wears very high heels, bless her heart.
Calista Flockhart always looked the same height as Melissa because she wore very high heels, but when Melissa was in heels she towered over her. Calists is 5.5 1/2.
Odette Annable is 5.81/2 and you can tell this is correct when Supergirl and Reign are facing off on the roof top.

As far as the guys I think the only ones that are correct are definitely 5'9" for Jeremy it says and 1/2, I don't however believe the 1/2...lol Most of the time him and Melissa look about the same height when she is in her Super boots about 1inch and he is in regular shoes. Chris Wood possibly could be RIGHT AT 6', but I think both David and Mehcad are exaggerated by about an inch. I've seen on a few sources that Mehcad is 6'3", not 6'4"....that doesn't really matter he's just tall. But the one that ended up towering over ALL OF THEM is Brenda Strong at 6' usually wearing 4" heels.

I think its funny when they put in 1/2. But I think the two that are probably the most accurate are Melissa and Chyler. If you watch the scene in "Midvale" out on the balcony in the morning, it is obvious that Melissa is about 2" taller than Chyler, so whatever their heights really are....there is definitely a 2" difference. The fact that they make poor Chyler wear heels so much is just crappy....LOL She's a DEO agent, she should be comfortable.

But, other than interesting to think about.....I don't really see a problem with any of their heights. Not sure what the big deal is.....

One think I have always noticed and thought was interesting. Melissa looks all around more powerful in the Super suit, I've always thought that was cool. Even Mehcad said in a scene in Season 1, the scene where she kicks him out of her apartment, he said she was very intimidating in the suit...lol

I am not following the TV trope aspect. Are you stating that women are generally cast as being shorter than men and that Kara/Supergirl should be taller?

I think that 5'8" is above average for women. Women are generally around 5'6" - 5'7" and there are plenty of actresses on the show who are either at that height or shorter.

Kara is a humanoid from Krypton, which is a comparable planet to Earth. Based on other Kryptonians that we have seen, I'm not sure that she would be thought to be much taller than of average height for a woman.

According to the DC Database Kara Zor-el is 5"5'.....so Melissa is quite a bit taller.

I am proposing that they seem to have cast rather tall men, thanks to the trope, and shorter men might to my eye have been better. However, they found excellent actors, so matters turned out well.

I am not following the TV trope aspect. Are you stating that women are generally cast as being shorter than men and that Kara/Supergirl should be taller?

I think that 5'8" is above average for women. Women are generally around 5'6" - 5'7" and there are plenty of actresses on the show who are either at that height or shorter.

Kara is a humanoid from Krypton, which is a comparable planet to Earth. Based on other Kryptonians that we have seen, I'm not sure that she would be thought to be much taller than of average height for a woman.