Oh where do I begin? First, I disagree with the premise anecdotally: most girls I find attractive are smart. Second, I don't agree that the relationship betwe

Oh where do I begin? First, I disagree with the premise anecdotally: most girls I find attractive are smart. Second, I don't agree that the relationship between nerds and popularity is isomorphic to the relationship between intelligent women and attractiveness. Nerds, practically by definition are not popular; the same is decidedly not true for smart women and being attractive. Additionally, popularity is typically an extrinsic measure, relative to your peers (i.e. it wouldn't make sense for everyone in your high school to be considered one of the popular kids) while attractiveness is an intrinsic measure (in theory, everyone in your high school could be considered attractive). Moreover, I disagree with the conclusion in both directions. It's not clear that being smart is a cause/excuse for being unattractive nor is it clear that being attractive is some sort of excuse for being unintelligent. Finally, I disagree with the idea on principle. I don't think adult men or women should get into the habit of blaming their intelligence for their supposed unpopularity or unattractiveness. A lot of smart people (understandably) used that as a coping mechanism for teen angst in high school, but by adulthood it's about time to let go of that sort of destructive, zero-sum approach to life. I think it's abhorrent to tell smart kids being anti-social in general or smart girls rejecting their femininity in particular that their behavior is some sort of badge of honor. It's not. It's not good, it's not bad, it just is. The older I get, the more I understand that intelligence is a multi-dimensional thing. There are many types of intelligence. If you're great at math but you can't write, are you smarter than your neighbor who's a brilliant essayist but can't calculate an eigenvector? And where does the person fit who can magnificently work a room but is only average at writing and math? Intelligence isn't an axis, it's a plane, er, multi-dimensional surface. If there's something you'd like to change about yourself, change it. If you're happy with yourself as you are, even better. People should accept themselves, flaws and strengths alike, but I'd hate to see people going around muttering under their breaths that more popular, better dressed, or better made-up peers are only that way because they lack intelligence. That's a pretty juvenile conceit, to be honest. And I'd like to think we're all too smart to fall for that sort of self-deception for very long.