I like learning the practical stuff. I prefer a guy who can teach me things. I don’t call my guy friends to fix things for me; I call them to find out how to fix things. One friend in particular talked me through many home repairs over telephone. Then, I can do it myself.
Sometimes, though, I get the feeling that some guys would prefer that I be a little more helpless and let them take care of things. Maybe I’m imagining it.
Yes, a woman needs to be intelligent in order to be interesting.
Together with a good sense of humour, the most sexy aspect of a woman is her intellect.
[sub]Oh, and a good ass can’t hurt either.[/sub] 
Just kidding. Don’t dumb yourself down under any circumstances: if a man is “threatened” by your intelligence, he’s too stupid for you!
Hey, brainychick, sounds like we have the same problem. Almost every boyfriend I’ve dumped (not the other way around), I’ve dumped because they weren’t smart enough. Not necessarily stupid, but I just can’t love a man who doesn’t read books. Guys who mention that immediately as a point of pride are summarily dismissed.
OTOH, I tend to intimidate men I meet in bars or clubs or whatnot because I don’t act dumb. And I talk a lot and ask a lot of questions, but I think most guys appreciate that because the conversation is better.
I have a friend who studies biochemistry in grad school at Johns Hopkins University (very prestigious and challenging). She also has a very high-paying job and has no want for money at all. She’s learned to tell guys in bars that she’s a Social Work major, because otherwise they scare off easily.
Happiness is finding an intelligent unattached woman. 
Sadness is finding out she’s about 3,500 miles away. 
P.S. Intelligent men treasure intelligent women. 
Ar? (<— You need to picture a dog saying that.) Do you mean to say that there are people out there who proclaim, “I’m proud to say I don’t read books. I get all of the information I need offa the TEE-vee.”?
I agree with the rising consensus in this thread. Your intelligence is merely weeding out the turkeys that will break your heart. That your friends have told you to dumb it down is not good advice, and I wonder if they mean you harm deep down inside.
You’d be amazed. :rolleyes:
I dated a guy once who would just open up books to some random page and start reading in the middle. His logic was that the first part of the book is all set-up, anyway, and the good stuff doesn’t start happening until somewhere in the middle.
If there was something he didn’t understand (because he’d skipped the first part), he’d just flip through and look it up.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
But at least he was reading…
Yes. Maybe they all live in Baltimore. I’ve heard the following:
“The only book I ever read was Animal Farm, and I really didn’t like it.”
“Ummm…I really like ‘Maxim’.”
“Books? You mean, like, books, right?”
“Oh, yeah, as soon as I get reading glasses I’m gonna start reading.”
Gah!
There are actually quite a few people who proclaim that “they’ve never read a book” with pride. Some of them work where I work. It never ceases to confound and befuddle me.
Yes, please.
Some men do. I definitely do. I don’t just go for practical smarts either. Bookworms really turn me on. But then I’m kind of strange.
I would say the same number of men look for smart women as women who look for nice guys. It’s a minority, but a significant one.
-DP
I have dated very intelligent, reasonably intelligent, kinda somewhat smart, and stupid women. I met one who is a freakin’ genius, and I’m going to marry her. I was intimidated/turned off by one who was quizzing me on Relativity and talking about MENSA (which is not as tough as it sounds), solely because of the challenging nature of the conversation. One ones dumber than a stick were mentally taxing to me. I’m good with my SO being smarter than I am, and making more money than I do. Stick around here a while, there are a lot of intelligent folks here, and relationships have been known to pop up.
I have a theory that “Guys don’t like intelligen girls” is the female version of “Girls don’t like nice guys.” When you’ve been alone for what seems like too long, it’s easy to notice all the amazingly horrible people who manage to be in couples, and it’s natural to worry that if they can find somebody, and [ib]I** can’t, what’s wrong with me? In this case it’s easy to settle in on “I’m too nice/I’m too smart”, for two reasons: 1), it’s a posititve thing, and a way to insult all those that have turned you down, and 2) it’s not something you can/should fix, so it frees you to bitch and whine all you want without having to actually seriously analyize your life, or, god forbid, make any changes.
When feeling like this, it’s important to remember three things:
Lots of those other people are in relationships, yes, but they are in miserable ones. It’s cliche, but better to be alone than to wish you were.
Some people are just easier matches. Now then, it’s tempting to be smug here and say that the people who are easier matches are “simple” or “average” or something, but that’s missing the point. Being a “difficult” match dosen’t make you more unique or anything, it just means you’re a diffucult match, and the total size of the set of people you could work with is smaller, and the odds of metting them also smaller.
There often are concrete things that can be done to increase the chances of getting into a relationship: meeting new people and new types of people is the biggest. If you are a diffucult match, personal ads can be really useful. The “it’s hopeless, I’m too smart/too nice” attitude often prevents that. There are plenty of poeple who like all most any trait you can think of (and, unless Usenet is just an elaborate hoax, a great many I, at least, had never thought off).
IMHO, a woman with brains would know how to get a date with any guy.
brainychick: Please ignore handy, if you didn’t know that already. He’s like that sometimes.
Speaking for myself, I absolutely prefer intelligent women. I’m an artistic type who married an epidemiologist. Cute-but-dumb is good for a month in the sack, so depending on how old you are you could be up against the short-sightedness of the early-20’s male who isn’t thinking long-term.
As far as where you can meet people, have you tried the bookstore? Especially a good used-book store. Not much conversation goes on between the shelves of your average Barnes & Noble, but it’s a particular kind of customer who browses the used books and pets the wandering cats. (All the used-book shops in Seattle have cats.)
I’d say that I’m totally into intelligent women, but it looks like that topic has been pretty well covered already. So allow me to simply say “word up” to all of the previous posts.
Colin
Do like me, and date your cute lab partner in modern physics lab.
brainychick, would you want to date a man who wasn’t into smart women? I do know where you’re coming from. I’ve found that it’s often a lot easier with guys if you ask lots of questions and laugh and generally look wide-eyed and intrigued. Of course, it’s entirely possible to do this without coming off as a dumb bunny.
What I find interesting is that all the guys I’ve ever seriously dated have been very smart, but smart about different things than I am. In some ways I really like that. I love that they can teach me entirely new things about jazz or ecology or computers, and that I can tell them new things about history and literature.
Hang in there. As evidenced by this thread, there are plenty of smart men out there who dig smart women. Such guys, though, don’t seem to hang around in clubs or bars, though. Maybe you could try taking a class in something that interests you just for fun and see who turns up there. Or ask your smart friends if they know anyone they could fis you up with.
I’m another guy who totally digs intelligent women.
One thing I’ve noticed is that people seem to associate “smart” with “neurotic”. Has anyone else seen this? If so, that could be part of your problem. Play up your sanity and see what happens.
My new mantra.
I totally know where you’re coming from, brainychick. I think the age range of men you’re meeting may indeed play a part in your troubles. Me? At the moment, I’m being courted by a married coworker who thinks I’m the greatest thing on two legs. While I am completely repulsed by the situation, he often tells me that he can’t talk to his wife the way he can to me, and that I’m so much smarter than her. I feel bad for her, him, and me. Her husband doesn’t respect her intelligence, he’s unhappy with his choice, and I’m fending off advances from a married man. In his youth, he obviously didn’t value intelligence as much as he does now. Men often change that way.