Yahoo News has an AFP wire service story titled “Brainy women face handicap in marriage stakes: British survey” that , as one so often finds, is totally self-contradictory. In two consecutive paragraphs they push exactly opposite theses:
First, the background on what the study found; no great shock-
“The study found the likelihood of marriage increased by 35 percent for boys for each 16-point increase in IQ.
“But for girls, there is a 40-percent drop for each 16-point rise, according to the survey by the universities of Aberdeen, Bristol, Edinburgh and Glasgow.”
But then they get to the quotes on why this is the case. Turns out that it is all the fault of men, for two contradictory reasons:
“Women in their late 30s who have gone for careers after the first flush of university and who are among the brightest of their generation are finding that men are just not interesting enough,” said psychologist and professor at Nottingham University Paul Brown.
OK, we knuckle-dragging Neanderthals who are only interested in beer, ball, and bimbos are boring to the bright, educated New Women who want to keep company with intellectual equals. As one who has always been outnumbered at home by a very bright and accomplished wife and two brilliant daughters, I can understand where that might be the case, though I personally find smart women about sixty times sexier than I find beach bunnies. If you are into blondes, who would you rather spend time with, Laura Ingraham or Pamela Anderson? So far, they haven’t made the case on why the data show what they do. Next quote:
Claire Rayner, writer and broadcaster, said in the article that intelligent men often prefered a less brainy partner.
“A chap with a high IQ is going to get a demanding job that is going to take up a lot of his energy and time. In many ways he wants a woman who is an old-fashioned wife and looks after the home, a copy of his mum in a way.”
Gotcha. Women don’t find men interesting enough to marry, and men want barefoot and pregnant airheads. Totally consistent.
In every case it’s because we males are wrong.
Mn Kurmudgeon 
January 4, 2005 at 5:53 pm |
The real trouble with smart women and marriage is the “having it all” myth. It just doesn’t work; if you have a high-powered job, a husband and kids, something will suffer. If you get an advanced degree after years of hard work and take a great job using your brains, you quickly realize that the elementary school will still expect you to act as a normal Mommy and the church social director will still expect you to arrive at the potluck with a casserole. These are expectations placed on you by other women, not by men. It’s not that the men aren’t interesting OR that they prefer airheads, it’s because the pressures from other women just don’t allow smart women to function well as smart women.