Quote:
Originally posted by bold_n_brazen
Bullshit on your bullshit. Most men who want a chick to be smart still don't want her to be smarter than they are.
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Dissent. First, I want to say that I'm not accusing you of any of these things or attitudes I'm about to describe, but I've never really liked this sort of statement. I associate it with the kind of people I hated in law school: people who thought that they had some sort of inherent intelligence which entitled them to better treatment, jobs, grades or whatever because they were "smarter" than others. Or because they tried to get people to believe they were smarter than others, even if they really weren't. The person described by this stereotype would want to be in relationships (either romantic or otherwise) with others so that they could get an advantage from these people without actually putting any worthwhile involvment into the relationship. I knew a bunch of people in school who exhibited this kind of "relationship selfishness," and they all ended up with spouses (of both sexes) who they could dominate. But I don't think that trait is gender-specific.
You seem to be ascribing a pretty despicable quality to all men: that they want to be married to some woman that they can subjugate, or just generally trick or outwit, and that they never want to be challenged intellectually or how their abilities questioned. Or, that their egos don't allow them to spend time around intelligent women without feeling emasculated. I don't see those kind of attitudes in anywhere near all men. Especially in the last few generations, many men have desired mates who are equals or superiors. I almost married a devestatingly intelligent woman, and the fact that we didn't get married didn't have anything to do with how her intelligence made me feel. I know a lot of guys who are with women who might be objectively be considered to be smarter than they are. Which brings me to my next point...
Intelligence is so subjective that you can't really make statements like "men don't want to be with women smarter than them." How do you define smarter? Everyone defines it in the ways that they are intelligent, and at lot of the marriages I know of involve intelligent people who are intelligent in different ways? Is the fact that someone's wife makes a killing in the stock market but couldn't fix a light switch indicative of a lack of intelligence?
Anyway, if you can really look at the men you've been around and say that they don't want to be involved with women smarter than them, I feel sorry for you. You haven't been around many decent men.
