Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site unc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!unc!fsks From: fsks@unc.UUCP (Frank Silbermann) Newsgroups: net.singles,net.social Subject: Re: Intelligence Message-ID: <399@unc.UUCP> Date: Fri, 7-Jun-85 15:39:02 EDT Article-I.D.: unc.399 Posted: Fri Jun 7 15:39:02 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 10-Jun-85 06:16:43 EDT References: <253@unc.UUCP> <270@looking.UUCP> <371@h-sc1.UUCP> <2763@nsc.UUCP> <1209@cbosgd.UUCP> <1571@hao.UUCP> Reply-To: fsks@unc.UUCP (Frank Silbermann) Organization: CS Dept., U. of N. Carolina at Chapel Hill Lines: 89 Xref: watmath net.singles:7214 net.social:624 Summary: Greg Woods: >> While I recognize that females participate in sports too, there doesn't seem >> to be the social "pecking order" among girls based on athletic ability as >> there is among the boys) In article gmack@denelvx.UUCP (Gregg Mackenzie) writes: >You're right, Greg. The female pecking order is based on 1) looks and 2) "Does >she put out?" rather than athletic ability. And, concerning boys, athletic >ability isn't always enough; see (1), above. I, too, speak from experience. >While I was not a "smart kid", I did play ice hockey. However, I was also a >band-nerd/pizza-face/four-eyes type kid. Athletic ability did not improve my >social life. > >Every now and then I run into one of those girls who blew me off whenever I >asked for a date and it's funny to see how they're all of a sudden interested, >now that my looks have improved. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Aha! At least one person agrees with me on the value of being good-looking. But don't be too hard on theses women, Gregg. They're only behaving normally. To bad your athletic ability didn't help you much. I guess having the athletic IMAGE is more important that actual skill. But maybe you are just the exception that proves the rule. It is common among many animals in nature that when mating, the female chooses the male who is the best physical specimen. This gives the children two advantages -- a greater likelihood of growing up to be equally strong, and the greater protection from a father who is dominant in the herd. Such instincts probably influence human mating even today. Nowadays, intelligence, cunning and wealth are more important than physical strength when establishing dominance, but women are still affected by their instincts that say "Go for the hunk." This is especially true about younger women (high school hackers take note!) whose thinking is more emotional and instinctive. When they get older, they learn that jocks don't always make the best partners, so the their rational mind begins to ignore these stirrings of the reptilian cortex. As a child I was a skinny ectomorph with had asthma and flat feet. I suffered greatly -- not from the disabilities themselves, but from the way the other kids reacted to them. Starting in high school, my health slowly began to improve. Custom orthotic shoe inserts improved my walk, and by my mid-twenties, weight training had made my body hard and wiry (though still very slender). About this time I went to a singles weekend at a rustic resort in the Catskill mountains. The singles group made up half the clientel that weekend -- the other half were families on longer vacations. All the other participants, it seemed, were Jews from Brooklyn and Queens, NY. I must mention that among all the ethnic groups in America, Jews de-emphasize athletics the most (many of the older crowd spent their time out in the country sitting indoors playing cards). I bring this up because it gives special emphasis to the following anecdote's lesson. I met a reasonably attractive young woman there with whom I felt I had much in common. She was friendy, yet cool and reserved. Though other singles were pairing off, she still seemed to treat me as merely "one of the gang." Then, on the second day, we came across an older man bouncing his pre-school daughter (or grand-daughter) into the air and catching her. The child was gigling. My friend said, "I used to love it when my father did that to me." I thought to myself, "Dare I risk it? Will she think I'm a jerk? Nah, go for it!" I picked the woman off her feet and began tossing her into the air and catching her, just as the man had done with his daughter. That really broke the ice between us, and began a very serious relationship (which unfortunately ended some months later). After it ended, we were still friends, so I asked her what had attracted her to me in the first place. She said, "I first noticed my feelings for you after you threw me up in the air at that resort." Now this lady is certainly no jock groupie. Most of her other dates were computer nerds like me. Yet, it was a showing of raw, stupid machismo that got her hormones flowing. So it never hurts to play up the your athletic side. It may help a great deal. You might not like being judged on looks and athletics, but it's a fact of life. You can spend your time whining about how the world SHOULD be, or you can recognize the way it IS, deal with it, and achieve your goals. Happy huntin' Frank Silbermann ANYBODY OUT THERE FROM PALATKA, FLORIDA, OR THEREABOUTS?