People say that others dumb themselves down to seem attractive, but recently there has been a resurgence in the media in the appeal of intellect. In the words of Irene Adler in the BBC series Sherlock: "Brainy is the new sexy." Across the media, there are characters that are extremely intelligent and women are very much attracted to that. But for some reason, boys our age seem to take pride in seeming stupid. I overheard some boys in the hall discussing marks, and one announced that he had and overall mark of 36% to which his friends gave a loud and appreciative "Niiiiice!" Why is it that teenaged boys hide their intellect for fear of being called a nerd, when really that's what's appealing to most women? It could possibly stem from most cartoons and TV shows that depict the intelligent boy as being bullied and ugly and "nerdy" while the good-looking jock is popular and gets all the girls. Yet, most television shows feature an extremely intelligent character who, while still picked on for his intellect, is still the object of most viewers' fancy because he is, in fact, extremely handsome. Perhaps these characters have been introduced to counteract the stereotype of the ugly, intelligent boy.
I hate to sound so judgemental, but I do find myself more attracted to intelligent, witty girls, because just being honest, they are more fun to talk to. No one really wants to date the dumb broad who people like for her looks, they want to date someone who they can have actual conversations with, and thats attractive.
ReplyDeleteI think that the being smart and sexy is only applied to women at this point. A lot of the time when girls list off characteristics of males they would be interested in, intelligence is at the bottom, after attractiveness and a good sense of humour. So maybe if we put less pressure on guys to be funny and more on intelligence, more people would strive for that!
ReplyDeleteIt is very true that the media creates this "view" of males as stupid...and that brains are - ironically - dumb.
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