It is no secret that men love a smart woman.
Or at least, they think they do. In fact, it is research-proven that men simply like the idea of a smart woman; once one appears in real life they start to shift around and shuffle uncomfortably, as if they were standing on a rug threaded by fragile masculinity and suddenly being pulled unceremoniously and grievously from under their feet.
In all seriousness — it does seem to be true, time and time again, that men love to say that they like intelligent women, and they will swear by this in every online dating profile and drunken bar conversation right up until the very moment that a woman uses her wits to challenge him. Once she dares to actually be intelligent — or even, heavens forbid, more so than he — he will either feel threatened and distance himself, or he will feel threatened and patronize her.
They want the idea of a woman's intelligence for them to wear as a means of enhancing their own image, as an accessory for their own use, and not for the value of intelligence itself.
Ladies, if you happen to be any sort of intelligent, do not give a man the satisfaction of having power over it by being able to commodify and fetishize it. If you happen to be any sort of intelligent, let it be on your own terms.
There also exists in some men the urge to resist a woman’s intelligence all the more if she is physically beautiful, as if women are only allowed to occupy one space at a time, one compartment of femaleness.
In a patriarchal world, female beauty holds a certain kind of power; but it is a non-subversive one, complicit in a system of male dominance whereby the very definition of female beauty is still determined by men and in relation to desirability to men.
It is in female intelligence where the true subversion lies, the ability to challenge the social norms that shape our ideas of female beauty in the first place.
With our beauty, we can force men to listen to us — they will, gladly and eagerly — but it is what we have to say that will cause them discomfort. And it is in their discomfort that a universal truth becomes clear: In a patriarchal world, women will be gladly granted certain superficial powers, and barred from the rest.
