Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Academy, Modernity, Matrimony

My latest post, on the University Theater auditions, is up at UChiBLOGo. I'm posting there, too, on things of interest to the greater UChicago community, i.e. not on my trips to the zoo or on Theodor Herzl's overbearing mother. For that, stick with WWPD, but I urge you to check out UChiBLOGo as well...

I left The Jew in the Modern World in NYC. And no, this is not me using strange terms to describe one of my relatives back home. It's a book, one that I needed for a class before and that, as it happens, I need for a class I'm taking now, and my mother said she doesn't see it in my room where I'd thought it was. Being the clever Jew in the modern world that I am, I found that they had it in Harper...

Quick response to this article that Dylan linked to: How can it be concluded that, if a high IQ makes a man more likely to marry and a woman less likely, then "[a] high IQ is a hindrance for women wanting to get married while it is an asset for men"? It may well be the case that, of the high-IQ women wanting to get married, their IQ is no hindrance whatsoever, but rather that fewer high-IQ women wish to get married in the first place. Couldn't it be that intelligent men correctly assume they'll lead better lives if married while intelligent women, also correctly, assume they'll be better off staying single? It's not that intelligence is a turn-off to men, but that intelligent women have more to lose professionally by marrying and having kids than do intelligent men. The implication of there being all these desperate-but-brilliant single women, being passed over for ditzes, might be somewhat inaccurate.

4 comments:

  1. I agree with you Phoebe. I heard a report on that finding (about Hi-IQ women) this morning and thought the exact same thing - that hi-IQ women have less of a desire to marry. The article (and the commentary I heard while in the car on NPR), I think, makes a huge assumption that the world is full of women waiting for men to come and marry them (that is, the choice of marriage is all up to the men). This seems somewhat anachronistic to me and not particularly in touch with the reality of what actually happens in the world right now.

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  2. Nonsense. Smart women don't get men because we (= men) don't want to marry them. We know why. ;)

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  3. Bill Maher, is an intelligent man who according to entertainment news, tends to date youngish models rather than women closer to his own age (late 40s) and (probably) his I.Q. Maher is also a confirmed bachelor; he has stated that the example of others' marriages is bad advertizing for the institution. Anyway, a telling moment occurred on his HBO Show "Real Time with Bill Maher" that corroborates some of the above comments. In the midst of a similar debate re: men wanting smart women, a female guest told Bill that he didn't date smart women because he didn't want to contend with their strong opinions. "You're right" was Bill's snappy reply. An honest man. And though not handsome, smart and funny (and rich for women who care about that) enough to be very date-able. --JM

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  4. Bill Maher is repulsive. He's smarmy, un-funny, and, as noted, physically unappetizing. Any woman, regardless of her IQ, would be smart to avoid him. His alleged confirmed bachelorhood is but a woeful cover for his lack of appeal.

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