Smart Men:

Remoff:

"Women are sexually attracted to smart men. In this study, intelligence and good income potential ranked right up there with good looks as components of a man’s sexual razzle-dazzle. In addition to its desirability, intelligence has something else in common with good looks. It’s mentioned quickly, almost in passing, as if it were a necessary prerequisite to all the other good things. When I asked women what it was about a particular man that made him attractive, a rather standard response was, “Well, to begin with, he was very intelligent.” More often than not, they would leave it at that and go on to describe other traits. Obviously it is the woman’s perception of the man’s intelligence that is reflected here. My rankings were not determined by any objective measure of intelligence. The perceived intelligence may be in relation to the woman herself or in relation to other available men. Whatever its origin, I suspect that if I had directly asked these women if their particular sexual partners were intelligent, almost all of the men would have been so described. For example, the woman in the following quote says that she could not fall in love with somebody who did not have intelligence. I've always respected his intelligence. Intelligence attracts me. I couldn't fall in love with somebody that just didn't have it. This woman described five men with whom she had been in love, but she mentioned intelligence in connection with only one. I suspect that this was an oversight on her part, that intelligence is so universal a requirement that its presence is assumed and therefore not always mentioned. (In my coding decision, I coded only one male of the five as intelligent.) Intelligence was often treated in an almost routine way. The following brief examples were pulled at random from dozens of similar quotes. He's very intelligent. I don't think there are many subjects that I could come up with that he couldn't talk about.

So he's very intelligent and all that. He was really sharpy bright, intelligent. He was super-intelligent. Bright I think that's important. He was intelligent. I knew that. I remember waking my mother up and telling her I'd met the most wonderful man. He was just very intelligent and that impressed me.

Some women are so impressed that they go into a bit more detail when discussing a man’s assumed intelligence. The next three women quoted are quite specific about the connection between sex and intelligence. The first woman does not verbalize the impact of intellect on sex but her description was in response to the question, “What made him sexually attractive?”

I met him because he's very intelligent. He's fanatical. He takes twenty-five credits; I take ten. The credits he takes are all calculus, physics, engineerings and he's a straight-A student, top engineering student in the entire school. His mind fascinates me. He's really stimulating. He gets A's and never cares about grades. He cares about how much he understands. He's really stimulated me mentally as far as studying more and he talks to me, and I have to try to understand him. I have to, I think. I've always felt contemptuous of all the men I've known except for John and Taylor and now Andrew. I don't feel contemptuous of him. I knew he was the smartest guy in the class. He's a genius. He s an idealist, highly intelligent, close to genius, so close that he could be in the Mensa Society. I found the intellect exciting. He's very intelligent, very intellectual. He knows a little bit about everything. He's just very sexy. This guy is like really intelligent. He constantly feeds me information and I love it. There's a real sexual attraction.

SEX AND I.Q.

The relationship between intelligence and sex is not unusual. Women often see a smart man as a sexy man. Women s appraisals of intelligence are not always dependent on indications of skill in school or on measurements of I.Q. that would qualify one for the Mensa Society. Their assessments can take a very practical turn and are often concerned with the application of ability. When I inform people that women list intelligence as one of the traits that make a man sexually attractive, I am told that my sample must be well-educated. But the educational level of the woman does not affect her need to perceive the men in her life as intelligent. A woman who never went beyond eighth grade is as likely to list intelligence as a sexually desirable trait as a woman with several degrees. The phrases they use to describe the intellect may vary. And sheer propinquity may account for the fact that college-educated women are more likely to describe college-educated men. But for women from all backgrounds, when the man lacks a college degree, the focus is shifted to his cleverness in other areas. The first quote is from a woman who never attended high school, the second from a college graduate 

He knew everything about medicine. He could put medicine together. He knew every prescription, you know, from working in the pharmacy for so many years. He just picked it up. It was like he could go to school today, take the test and have his diploma tomorrow. That was how much he knew. He never even graduated from high school, but he could pick up on anything. He could do anything, this and that. He was very, very handy. He's very intelligent. If you were to meet him you'd, probably think he was a college person but he wasn't. He only went, I think, to eighth grade, but he's mostly self-taught from the eighth grade on. He reads a lot.

Women become a bit uncomfortable when they suspect that they are brighter than the men with whom they are involved. It is possible to resolve this conflict by seeking out some virtue in the type of intelligence possessed by the partner. This is made easier if he possesses a skill that the woman does not.

He just barely got through school He very rarely reads and I read constantly. Of course, I tell him and then he knows too. But he knows things in a much more basic way. He sees the foundation and I see all the flowery growing stuff. He kind of helps me foundation-wise. There are a lot of things where he is much smarter, like he understands economics and economics just turns me off. So then he'll be talking. He has a different idea of history than I do.

There appeared to be almost a compulsion to see a man as intelligent. In some instances intelligence was stressed in spite of a poor school record. In other instances, a good school record enabled a woman to claim intelligence for her partner even though she failed to directly experience his quickness.  

He's probably the smartest person I've ever met. He retains information incredibly. He can repeat what he said four years ago or what anybody else said four years ago. He's super-smart. He's probably one of those super-intellects. He just wasn't your best student. Now the guy I'm living with, he's smart. He's got intelligence. He doesn't use it. He's a very opinionated person. He doesn't, you know. I like to be with somebody and discuss a movie, but he has no opinion. Or, you know, I'll try to discuss something, sexual roles. You know, I've got questions. And I want to know how he feels. He doesn't. Winston's got some intelligence. He said he went to college for a few years. I don't know if I believe it or not. But there's just some ways he talks and certain things he says just don't strike me as college material.

Sometimes I talk more intelligently than he does, and I've only been to the eighth grade. He was bright. I knew he was bright, not only because he was at a good school, but because, although he didn't talk much, when he did, it didn't come out stupid.

If a failure to say something stupid enables a woman to consider a man intelligent, it is no wonder that women are able to find so many intelligent men! The standards for intelligence vary widely from woman to woman. What remains constant is the need that women have to see their sexual partners as intelligent, at least those partners with whom they have an enduring relationship."