sexist advertisment from Gap y

I married a girl in glasses ( her eyes must have been bad to fancy me)

I think you are missing the point!
The men shouldnt really be like that, should they? Why are they so bothered?

And I dont see why any woman should be flattered by a Neanderthal man as you put it, intelligent or not.

My husband facies me! And my able and bright DDs are in long term relationships with men! Some men may feel threatened but not all. Feminists probabky see men & women as people first and less as a potential sexual partner or gender stereotype.

Good for you GandTea.

I have always told my lot to look beyond looks, and they definitely would not be bothered if their partner was more intelligent than them.

Yes, better avoid the Wail, one of the objectives of which is to objectify and belittle women, day in, day out.

I think the mysogyny which is prevalent in our society is actually due to men fearing women, not feeling superior to them.

Err.... I think the 'Daily Wail', as a previous poster calls it, can have some relevant-to-subject information. Horses for courses perhaps? (Give me the Economist/FT for money matters. Not so hot on relationships)

I think a relationship will work better if the partners are equally matched intelligence-wise.

'Speed daters' might not be the best examples of the male sex. (Article)

The power of language and media, on top of years of societal conditioning, means that we are often not actively aware of our own "prejudices". I include myself in that. It goes for racism,sexism etc etc. Because challenges to "isms" often feel very personal people fall into defensive rather than reflective mode and can become more entrenched in their opinions. Gender conditioning is all around us and none are totally immune.

Agree with your posts jingl.

I dont think that men fear women on the whole. I think, on the whole, that men compete with both men and women, both at work and outside of work. So a woman who is brighter than them is a no no on the whole.

To take it to its logical conclusion, we would probably have more Einsteins if bright men fancied bright women. Just saying!

Didn't stop Thatcher or T May bagging eligible husbands...

Agree with first part of that post penstemonn. Not so much the second part. We can all think subjectively can't we, without being influenced by any long out of date prejudices we may have had in the past?

I agree we can challenge status quo and expectations jingl but first u have to do so consciously. I spent a lot of time as a teacher changing rhymes/stories, ensuring school procedures and systems did not promote one gender over another. Some DM readers would say 'political correctness gone mad' I would say giving girls and boys a better chance to be the people they want to be!

Even last week, in New Scientist, there was an ad for some kind of learning game, with a picture of a father and son. Sigh.

Mighty Girl

obieone There is a story that in the 1920s the dancer Isadora Duncan wrote to the intellectual Bernard Shaw asking him if he would consent to have a child by her. She was supposed to have said: ‘You have the greatest brain in the world, I have the most graceful body. Let us, then, produce the perfect child.’ To which Shaw is said to have replied: ‘But what if the child turned out to have my body and your brain?’

(Some years later, Shaw commented ‘Actually, it was not Isadora who made that proposition to me. The story has been told about me in connexion with several famous women, particularly Isadora Duncan. But I really received the strange offer from a foreign actress whose name you wouldn’t know, and which I’ve forgotten. But I did make that reply.’ )

Nothing is guaranteed!