As the tides of history and gender change, it would be easy to assume that men — recently unseated as the dominant intellects and degree-havers in the U.S. — would adapt to a world where women are not only their equals, but often their intellectual superiors. After all, there's nothing like dating someone who makes you a little sharper. But more and more research reveals that though the thought of a smart woman is appealing to men, a real, live smart woman standing in front of them is actually a turnoff.It never ceases to amaze me that women find it so impossible to understand that men do not share their preferences with regards to the opposite sex. Women prefer to marry up in terms of intelligence, as they do with pretty much everything else from height and weight to income. So, it should be obvious that either a) men prefer to marry down, or b) every man who permits a woman to achieve her goal of marrying up is actually too stupid to realize he is marrying down, in which case perhaps she isn't marrying up after all.
It's not bad that men prefer to marry down in terms of intelligence. If they didn't, then women who achieved their preference of marrying up would be reliably marrying into a structurally unhappy marriage.
The French, at least, understand this. Let women be beautiful. Let men be brilliant. Vive la différence.