I recently read a very interesting post by my classmate Beverlyn that I wanted to respond to. In it, she talked about the word, “smart”, and how it means different things to different people. However, she specifically focused on the question,
Do you think one’s intelligence can be linked with one’s physical appearance?
Obviously, I completely disagree with this statement. What a person looks like has absolutely nothing to do with what they look like.
There can be a sort of stigma that comes with being smart. Sometimes, people equate “smartness” with “nerdiness”, which can caused people to be embarrassed by how smart they are. People who are smart can be seen as “try hards” and have other negative terms thrown at them. For this reason, some people do not want others to know that they are smart, or will even dumb themselves down to be considered more “normal”.
The problem is though, that society has created this sort of “ideal smart person”. This person is usually male, has glasses, and looks “nerdy”. So I decided to google the phrase, “smart person”, to see what would come up. Of the first 10 pictures that popped up, they were all male, 5 were wearing glasses, and 4 were of Albert Einstein. This made me start to think…
Why is it only men that are thought to be smart?
This might have to do with that “nerd” social stigma that I mentioned earlier. Women especially are very concerned with their image, and did not want to be associated with the “ugly, nerd” stereotype. There is also the stereotype of women being mostly seen as the house maker; as a person who stays at home and takes care of the kids. Although this stereotype is now changing so that it becoming more and more normal for women to be working high-paying, high-power, and well-respected jobs, many times women did not want to be seen as “too smart” so as to not scare off potential suitors. This ties along perfectly with what I have been researching all quarter; gender inequality. However, with the work of women standing up for themselves and continuing to prove that women are truly equal to men, this stigma is changing. Now, a woman can be as girly and fashionable as she wants while still being the smartest person in the room. One does not need glasses, a plaid button down, and especially does not need to be a male to be considered “smart”.
Image:
Image 1: http://giphy.com/gifs/smart-brilliant-amanda-bynes-O54ccAi0NWcW4
Image 2: http://giphy.com/gifs/larry-stylinson-naya-rivera-michelle-obama-NBCSqfONIzCEM