Brainy women face handicap in marriage stakes: British survey

Morning, y'all,

One of the Bajan Girls sent me this news story that says the same thing smart women have been saying for years: it's darn hard to find a man, much less marry a good one.

I didn't need a news agency to tell me that. When I was in university (raise the roof for Concordia U. in Montreal!), I was chatting to some dude in my usual hangout, Eaton Centre.

"So, what do you do?"

"I'm in school," I answered, probably waiting for Marianne's tail to stop giggling under some guy.

"What school do you go to? Dawson? Vanier?" Dawson and Vanier were two very popular CEGEPs in the city. You attend CEGEP first, then you go on to university. Unfortunately, a lot of the young Black people in Montreal would do one year of CEGEP and deem it too hard. They'd go off and work for the hospital making $19 or $20 an hour. A lot of money when you're 18, not so much when you're 28.

"I graduated from Dawson in May. I'm at Concordia."

"University?"

"Yes."

"Really. So, you think you're smart," he said smugly, like he knew something I didn't.

"Think I'm smart?" Why would he ask me that? "I know I''m smart."

That was the end of that. He wanted nothing more to do with me -- maybe it was my snarky response... Maybe he was a jackass... I don't know.

As one of the Bajan Girls said, "ahhh....so that's my problem..... If I had known, I would have saved some money on the BA : )"

No girl. It was worth it -- heck, you could be single and working at Walmart. And then you'd feel REALLY dry.

More than smart women finding men less interesting, I think some men find smart women intimidating. And that is where the problem lies. When a man believes that he should be the smartest person in the relationship and can't appreciate an intelligent woman, of course the woman isn't going to find him interesting. She's going to find him to be an idiot.

Women have found ways around this for years: "Smart women (especially smart, BLACK women) have known this from time. But i have learned a trick from my mother--just let the man THINK he's smarter than you, and it's all good. his fragile, silly little ego is kept in check, and you have the relationship you've always wanted. certainly not talking about dumbing anything down, but really, men don't like women smarter than them," said Marlo Girl.

Sigh. That's just too much work for me.

Anyway, read the article. All comments are welcome!

Brainy women face handicap in marriage stakes: British survey

LONDON (AFP) - A high IQ is a hindrance for women wanting to get married while it is an asset for men, according to a study by four British universities published in The Sunday Times newspaper.

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.

The study is based on the IQs of 900 men and women between their 10th and 40th birthdays.

"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 in The Sunday Times.

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."