Re: Why men are attracted to subordinate women
- From: "Energumen" <energoumenos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 13 Feb 2006 14:47:08 -0800
Energumen wrote:
http://www.umich.edu/news/?Releases/2004/Dec04/r120804
Compare to this article,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1423032_1,00.html
Clever devils get the bird
Roger Dobson and Maurice Chittenden
IT REALLY is brains not brawn that women look for in a man. An
exhaustive study of people from primary school to middle age has proved
that clever men are much more likely to marry than those with lesser
intelligence.
But for female high-flyers, the reverse is true. Their chances of
walking up the aisle are considerably lower than those of classmates
who left school at 16.
When Nicola Horlick, the City investment manager nicknamed Superwoman
for juggling her job and family of six, wrote her book on career and
domestic bliss, its title posed the question: Can You Have It All? The
answer, it appears, is yes - but only if you are a man.
The study, based on 900 men and women, measured their IQ at the age of
11 then revisited them 40 years later to find out whether they had ever
married.
Academics at the four British universities who carried out the survey
said the schoolgirls with high IQs later witnessed a dramatic decline
in their marriage prospects. But the brighter schoolboys found it
easier to find a bride.
The results are borne out by evidence from psychologists that
successful career women are struggling to find "interesting men"
who are interested in them.
Relationship experts say professional men prefer to marry women "like
their mum" who will provide the domestic support while they go out to
work.
Women achievers, however, find it difficult to find men willing to
sacrifice their careers to become house husbands.
"The finding that IQ in early life appears to be associated with the
likelihood to marry is important because factors in childhood may
determine a person's marital status in adulthood, which may in turn
influence future health and mortality," says the study, to appear in
the Journal of Personality and Individual Differences.
For boys, there is a 35% increase in the likelihood of marriage for
each 16-point rise in IQ. For girls, there is a 40% drop for each
16-point increase.
The results may explain why a sharp-witted man like Vic Reeves, 45, the
comedian, appears to have found wedded bliss with Nancy Sorrell, 30 -
perhaps she is highly intelligent, but her jobs as underwear model and
lap dancer have certainly enabled her to hide the fact.
Conversely, Horlick, 44, has separated from her husband Tim. "Maybe
you can't necessarily have a happy marriage if you end up being a
very high-powered woman," she said. "It may be that men find it
difficult living with a woman who's forging ahead.
"But would I have wanted to sit around at home just doing the school
run? I don't think I could take that."
Similarly, the actress Renée Zellweger, 35, has men fighting over her
when she plays Bridget Jones but her real life is littered with failed
relationships. Zellweger, who studied English at the University of
Texas, parted last month from Jack White, the White Stripes singer,
after a two-year romance.
The academics at Aberdeen, Bristol, Edinburgh and Glasgow universities
have double- checked their research in a separate analysis based on
earnings.
They found 88% of 40-year-old men in the top socioeconomic class were
married, compared with 80% in the lowest class. Among women aged 40 the
trend is reversed. The researchers found that 82% of the top class were
wed, compared with 86% in the lowest class.
Marriage experts say the results reflect changes in society. Christine
Northam, a senior counsellor at Relate, the relationship guidance
organisation, said: "IQ measurements are frightfully judgmental, but
it is true that men do not want women more intelligent than themselves.
It bolsters their position if their partner is not too challenging."
She added: "Today more and more women are questioning marriage. But
in the past, professional men have been more desirable as husbands,
while for women with low IQs the only prospect of gaining some
recognition and power was to be married."
Dr Paul Brown, visiting professor of psychology at Nottingham Law
School and an expert on relationships, said: "What we are finding is
that women in their late 30s who have gone for careers after the first
flush of university and who are among the brightest of their generation
are finding that men are just not interesting enough.
"It is a really difficult issue. Women want independence but we are
all hard-wired into wanting to be into relationships. The paradox of
the post-feminist position is how we create a social system in which
both independence and inter-dependency can flourish."
Claire Rayner, the writer and broadcaster, has been married for 47
years to Desmond Rayner, a former actor who gave up the theatre when
they wed.
She said: "A chap with a high IQ is going to get a demanding job that
is going to take up a lot of his energy and time. In many ways he wants
a woman who is an old-fashioned wife and looks after the home, a copy
of his mum in a way.
"The bright girl, on the other hand, remembers that old saying that
at first she sinks into his arms only to spend the rest of her life
with her arms in his sink."
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Why men are attracted to subordinate women
- From: mmaker
- Re: Why men are attracted to subordinate women
- References:
- Why men are attracted to subordinate women
- From: Energumen
- Why men are attracted to subordinate women
- Prev by Date: Re: Political magazine pulls cartoon after police warning
- Next by Date: Re: Imams get funky
- Previous by thread: Why men are attracted to subordinate women
- Next by thread: Re: Why men are attracted to subordinate women
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
