Friday, November 16, 2007

Feminism Fallout?

In Maureen Dowd's column today, "Should Hillary Pretend to be a Flight Attendant?" she revisits the idea that a women's developed intelligence - and career/financial success - is her most damaging feature when it comes to scoring a date. Maureen is my sister-kin (single, smart, redhead) and she has visited this topic more than once.

On more than one occasion, I have played down, or rather, chose not to fully reveal my intelligence just to see how it affected my date and the theory is proved correct. Unfortunately, I can never keep this charade up for too long, which is why, relationships never formulate. At this point, I have given up on dating indefinitely until I find a man who's ego is self-contained and not tied to the size of my boobs or the power of my brain - and both are quite substantial.

I often wonder if I wouldn't mind being less smart if it meant I could connect with more members of the male species. I mean, fer chrissakes, it's not like I'm Ayn Rand or Madeline Albright or Carly Fiorina. I'm not a big player in the scheme of things and that's the way I like it - too many meetings. Blech.

My feelings vary on this, depending on the day, but I recall one interview that shed some disturbing light on this. For about five minutes, Chris Rock had a talk show on Comedy Central and I happened to catch it when his guest was Pamela Anderson. Chris cut to the chase:

Chris: "What does it feel like knowing that every person, every man, that you meet wants to have sex with you and has no interest in what you have to say?"

Pam: "Honestly, Chris, I don't mind."

Chris: "You don't care that people don't necessarily see you as a fixture of intelligence?"

Pam: "No, I'm perfectly happy being a person of normal, average intelligence and people seeing me that way. I know some incredibly smart people and, to be honest, they don't seem very happy. Believe me, I'm just fine being a 'bimbo' to the world. The people that know and love me in my personal life know differently and that's good enough for me."

DAMMIT! I HATED that she was right. Furthermore, when asked about the state of her career, Pam had the wherewithal to respond: "Hold on, I don't have a career. My boobs have a career. I'm just along for the ride."

DOUBLE DAMMIT!

I wish I had the answer here but I don't. Feel free to enlighten, argue or cheer me up on this.

4 comments:

Howard said...

I like that you are smart AND have boobs. Boobs are fun.

Ooo, here's one: Men who only go after boobs are the exact thing they are after.

Too long?

Heather Clisby said...

Hey! Snazzy! I like it! We should sign you up as the copy writer for NOW.

Heidi's heart said...

We are here to learn, and loving is just one part of the overall lesson. That you and I may never find a man who is matched to us is sometimes sad, but as I told my husband when he told me that no one would ever love me, "I am interested primarily in truth. Without truth there can be no happiness. And this relationship is not true." For me to be other than who I am would not be true. If that means that no man who is matched to me will ever love me, so be it. Sex and companionship are fantastic, but I am primarily a spiritual being and to sell my soul just to have a man at my side is too high of a price to pay.

Heather Clisby said...

Amen, Heidi.