Beauty vs Brains: Which is More Important?

[Jimmy Snyder]

Supposedly a woman asked G.B. Shaw to marry her with the proposition 'Think of the children we would have with your brains and my beauty', to which Shaw answered, 'but what if they have your brains and my beauty.'

Anyway, I note that almost everyone marries, the plain, the dull, the poor, etc. What do their spouses see in them? The reason I took out a license to fight was for the whole woman, not anyone part of her.

 

[NateTG]

Making my life better.

As I recall, there is a magic formula somewhere, that works out to this: long term relationships tend to work out when both people in the relationship believe the benefits of the relationship outweigh the drawbacks of the relationship by a factor of about five to one.

So, really, what you should be looking for is people who can make your life better, and whose lives you can make better. I find myself much more attracted to sanity (minimizing the bad stuff) and the capacity to enjoy life (maximizing the goods stuff), than to looks or brains.

Naturally, I should point out that beauty or brains is a false dichotomy.

P.S. (A very geeky thought.) I'm now wondering if it's possible to calculate a theoretical relationship good/bad variance based on the 5 to 1 ratio and the assumption that periodic break-even is necessary to maintain the relationship.

 

[jmnew51]

Basically my view on beauty vs. brains is this:

I have dated girls dumb as a box of rocks and hot as far as looks go, even for a young person.

I have also dated girls that were quite ugly, yet quite intelligent. Hmmmm...a bit better.

The current girl, of 10 yrs., I am with has only average looks, but is a classical musician and has an IQ beyond measurable limits. She is quite a handful and most people eventually find her quite irritating, but I wouldn't trade her for anything on this planet.

You have to find what works for you.

Jim

 

[Astronuc]

Supposedly a woman asked G.B. Shaw to marry her with the proposition 'Think of the children we would have with your brains and my beauty', to which Shaw answered, 'but what if they have your brains and my beauty.'

Anyway, I note that almost everyone marries, the plain, the dull, the poor, etc. What do their spouses see in them? The reason I took out a license to fight was for the whole woman, not anyone part of her.

The woman in the exchange with GBShaw, may have been Sarah Bernhardt, an actress, who was 12 years his senior. She also had numerous affairs during her career, so the exchange is perhaps possible.

 

[ENZenglish]

I believe that, in most cases, the environment has a direct effect on what someone values. If one is around people who constantly make a fuss over looks, then that person, more than likely, will value looks over intelligence and vice versa.