Women, men, mating, and science fiction

Science blogger Razib at Gene Expression pissed off a few people recently when he was surprised to see an attractive woman recommending science fiction books. Shelley at Retrospectacle thinks Razib is suggesting either that "smart women aren't hot (and vice versa), that hot women don't like sci fi, or than sci fi somehow denotes intelligence."

I have to stick up for Razib here. I think he was not propagating these stereotypes so much as expressing happiness to find out that they aren't really true.

From my experience, what most men find attractive in women is not nearly as physical as pop culture and stereotypes would have us believe; for me, and for most of the men I know, shared interests and compatible personalities are much more important. This isn't to say physicality doesn't enter into the equation, but that good looks without a compatible personality are typically of only passing interest.

So I think Razib was just expressing his happiness to see women who both shared his interests and were good-looking. It means the pool of potential ideal mates for him is that much larger.

I must admit that I get a similar buzz from noting that the women in my PhD program are all quite good-looking, and all better at economics than I am...even though they are all married and I already have a girlfriend. It's simply an indicator that antiquated sexist stereotypes are wrong, and that the deck is not stacked against men like myself, in terms of finding compatible mates.

(As a side note, I never heard that beautiful women don't like science fiction...apparently Razib has never been to a ComicCon before. I do, however, believe that reading in general correlates with intelligence, and that includes sci-fi.)

At any rate, our society's collective realization that women like everything men have traditionally liked - that includes sports and science - is just part of the sweeping social change that has been redefining gender in America and much of the world since the 1980s. I personally am all in favor of it. The more women and men share interests and can admit to wanting basically the same things out of life, the healthier and fairer our society will be.