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Readers of The Obsidian Files will know well Ms. Susan Walsh of the blog Hooking Up Smart. There, she attempts to help young college aged, middle and upper middle class and primarily White Women navigate the college campus “hookup” scene. There aren’t any hard and fast studies to look to that gives any indication as to how successful she is in this regard, although her blog has garnered something of a steady following of regular readers and commenters, and according to Ms. Walsh herself, she receives many letters per week from young ladies asking for matronly advice about the whys and wherefores of the world.
Ms. Walsh is no stranger to the O-Files; we’ve had quite a few interesting exchanges over the past year or so, and yesterday’s post-article by her suggests that we’ll have quite a few more before it’s all said and done, LOL.
I say that because Ms. Walsh, and apparently a goodly number of her readers, seemed to get rather upset with my making the simple observation, that on average, really smart gals don’t tend to be real hot lookers. That prompted not only heaps of hot shoals on my head by her readers, but Ms. Walsh’s missive attempting to decry and then debunk my cold-eyed commentary.
Here’s the problem, though – it won’t work.
Not because I say so, because rather, because Men overall do.
That’s right – what Ms. Walsh and so many other Women in our time simply refuse to get, is that they have NO say whatsoever, as to who and what Men find hot. Men, and ONLY MEN, do.
Now, Obsidian, how can you say that?
Simple, I reply. It’s called Maxim.
For those who’ve been living on a desert island ala Cast Away for the last few decades, Maxim magazine is considered one of the best sources of information if one is curious, and serious, about what young lads find sexually attractive in a Woman. Their annals are packed to the gills with lists of the best looking and hottest ladies around, and have come to be known over the past decade for their famed “Maxim Hot 100″. They’ve released their Hot 100 for the year 2010; let’s take a look at the smart ladies Ms. Walsh listed in her piece and compare and contrast, shall we?
•Emma Watson: attends Brown (no Maxim rating)
•Jennifer Connelly: attended Yale and Stanford (no Maxim rating)
•Kate Beckinsale: studied French and Russian literature at Oxford (no Maxim rating)
•Geena Davis: IQ 140, Mensa (No Maxim rating)
•Sharon Stone: IQ 154, Mensa, enrolled at Penn at age 15 (No Maxim rating)
•Claire Danes: attended Yale (no Maxim rating)
•Elisabeth Shue: attended Harvard (no Maxim rating)
•Brooke Shields: attended Princeton (no Maxim rating)
•Madonna: IQ 140 (no Maxim rating)
•Nicole Kidman: IQ 132 (no Maxim rating)
•Shakira: IQ 140 (no Maxim rating)
•Asia Carrera: IQ 156 (but, ahem, very poor judgment) (no Maxim rating)
•Zooey Deschanel: gifted singer songwriter, briefly attended Northwestern (Maxim #73)
•Danica McKellar: UCLA grad, math whiz (no Maxim rating)
•Loren Rabinowitz: New Miss Massachusetts, 2010 Harvard grad, double major in pre-med and (no Maxim rating)
Now, of course, we can quibble about a few things here; I don’t think many guys would disagree with the proposition that Sharon Stone or Brooke Shields weren’t hot in their day, or that Asia Carrera wasn’t a head turner either. And surely, it would be hard to find a Man who still got a pulse who would deny that Shakira ain’t got it goin’ on.
Still, it’s very interesting – and telling – that only ONE Woman on Ms. Walsh’s “brainy” list actually made the Maxim Hot 100 for 2010 cut – at #73. Didn’t break the first half of the list, didn’t make the top 25, and damn sure didn’t make the top ten.
Hmm.
By the way, I looked up another of Maxim’s lists, this one focusing on Hot babes of the 80s? Madonna didn’t appear on it – and when was the last time you ever heard a bunch of guys raving on about Madonna’s looks anyway? I’m hardpressed to think up any myself.
Just for kicks, here’s the top ten of Maxim’s Hot 100 for 2010 list:
10. Marisa Miller
9. Kim Kardashian
8. Olivia Munn
7. Elisabetta Canalis
6. Rihanna
5. Megan Fox
4. Blake Lively
3. Zoe Saldana
2. Brooklyn Decker
1. Katy Perry
Notice something? Yup, that’s right, KIM KARDASHIAN is rated #9.
Natalie Portman doesn’t rate at all.
Now, let’s address the Evolutionary aspect, shall we?
A simple law of nature states, that in all things, there are tradeoffs. Simply put, more brains equals less sex appeal, all things being equal. This explains why really smart folk have fewer kids, for example, if one accepts that kids are a rough proxy for having sex. They have a harder time getting together and making whoopee, and this is especially true for really smart Women – I remember reading Half Sigma, a Jewish HBD blogger out of NYC, who cited the GSS that indicated that really smart ladies had a tougher time finding a mate and settling down with him, or if they did, they had a higher rate of divorce. Surely really smart gals tend to be more nuerotic than gals of middling or a bit above average IQs – in other words, like their Male Mensa counterparts, there comes a point where having a scalebusting IQ becomes counterproductive, when it comes to forming close relationships. We all know well the nerd archetype. There’s a Female version of this, too. It’s called the Jane Austen Club(s). (By the way, please take note of the painting of Austen; case in point.)
Look, why any of this should come as a surprise to the Hooking Up Smart crew is a bit beyond me – it just comes as commonsense to me that everyone can’t be smokin’ hot, that’s just Life. But that doesn’t mean that one can’t be happy, either; a big part of life is knowing what your limitations are, staying in your lane and yea, I’m gonna say the dreaded “S” word – settling. For Women, this is extremely hard to do, especially in a time where the doors of limitations restrictions are blown off for them. But what I’m saying above, about who Men in aggregate find hot, isn’t likely to change anytime soon, and it is a serious Fool’s Errand to attempt to do otherwise. If one accepts that we are the result of tens of thousands of years of shaping and molding by our environment and the adaptations to same, then it only makes sense to simply acknowledge these truths and move on with our lives.
I know I did. Readers here will know that I’m not exactly the tallest guy in the room; at 5’8″, I’m actually quite short in stature for a Man. And, being on the smaller side has its disadvantages.
How so, you may ask? Easy – for one thing, Women don’t prefer Men my height. Don’t take my word for it, see for yourself – go hit up Match.com, or OKCupid, or eHarmony, or Craig’s List, and take a look at listings from the ladies seeking gents – five will get you ten that few if any will actually call for a Man UNDER 5’10″, which in America, is the average height for a Male. I know I certainly haven’t. Nor will Women experience any bit of cognitive dissonance in the least for their outright prejudice and clinging to double standards in this regard, while decrying Men for their “superficial” likes, wants and desires in a Woman - if anything, they’ll defend it, and vociferously at that, coupled with a goodly bit of shaming language; you’re merely a loser for mentioning such a thing, and so forth. Simply put, when Women can choose – and anyone who knows anything about Game knows that Women do the choosing most of the time – they choose a taller Man over a shorter one, all things being equal. That’s just the way it is.
So too, is it this way on the job – the University of Pennsylvania, in my hometown of Philly, did an extensive study on Male height and how it impacts Men’s lives; they found, that for every inch over 6′ or so, a Man earns an extra thousand dollars a year. And the reverse is true for every inch a Man is under 6′. So, in other words, there are real costs to being a shorter guy like me. I’ve been judged in all kinds of ways, simply because of my lack of height. Nothing more. But that’s the way we human beings are wired – out in the hinterlands of the Savannah, a Man with Size mattered, and it made sense for a Woman to seek out such guys. (I always chuckle at those ladies who like to pretend their oh so enlightened, and then turn right around and betray their brains for declaring thier thing for tallish Men. At least we guys are honest about being in thrall to our hindbrains.)
I could curse the darkness for enduring the slings and arrows of Fate, but instead, I sought ways to overcome my shortcomings, pardon the pun, and compensate for it. In the years since that time, which was very long ago, I think I’ve done OK for myself – I’ve led Men in the business world of sales, and not only was the highest paid man in my union shop who wasnt management or a journeyman in less than three years by standing out as the hardest working and smartest Man in the room and was in the running for union shop president, but I also have date quite a few ladies who were 5’10″ or taller – including my current lady, Ms. Brown Sugah. I haven’t had any complaints. To paraphrase another Little Big Guy: “Look at me! Judge me by my size, do you? And well you should not. For Game is my ally; and a powerful ally it is.”.
And that’s the message I bring to the ladies of Hooking Up Smart – when it comes to guys, brains are nice, but they don’t come before other things Men find appealing, first and foremost being looks. And if you don’t have a heck of a lot of that, there are things you can do to address it. It’s called Sephora. If you can’t catch a Man’s eye, what you say out of your mouth, is at best, moot. Being a Gal with a Big Brain is of interest, nine times out of ten, only to YOU. For most guys, it’s most definitely a plus, but it don’t come before being easy on the eyes, being loyal, being good in bed, and not being a headcase.
There, I’ve said it.
Now adjourn your asses…
Obsidian’s iPod is now playing: “I’m Not A Player” by Big Pun
The Obsidian
