Smart ladies, good dates

Who said a stupid girl is a turn-on?
By AVINASH GANDHI
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Great legs? Check. Striking chest? Oh yeah. Pretty face and lush hair? Without a doubt.
"Is this chicken, what I have, or is this fish?" Whoa, hit the brakes.
I don't know when stupid became beautiful, but this has to stop. When men first saw Jessica Simpson, we thought, "incredible." Then she opened her mouth, and, I'm sorry to say, the first impression died a violent death. Through a combination of media exposure and superficial attractions, however, younger and younger girls have taken a liking to her style in the hopes of attracting boys.
It's really starting to bother me.
I'm going to make a rather unconventional statement: To any man worth catching, ladies, attractiveness has many factors. There is the physical factor, yes, but there is also (among others) the personality factor, the public-image factor and the intelligence factor.
It doesn't matter if you look like the daughter of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt; if you are mean, rude and ask if they make walls at Wal-Mart, good luck finding a meaningful relationship.
"Stupid girls" do not attract long-term relationships because they scream "HIGH MAINTENANCE!" A "stupid girl" can't take care of herself. And if she can't take care of herself, she can't take care of me. If I'm in the dating game as a serious player, that trait is unacceptable.
Growing up
Also, ladies, tastes grow with maturity. In eighth grade, all the boys liked a select group of beautiful girls. At a time in our life when we didn't know any better, my friends and I would sit on the playground with our Yu-Gi-Oh cards (please, it was eighth grade) and daydream about those girls. The majority of them had the "stupid girl" persona, and we thought that was great because we were too insecure to want a girl who could deal with us on the same level.
Four years and a high school experience later, the only one of those girls who is still attractive is the one who never played stupid. The rest kept those personas, perhaps because media figures such as Simpson and Paris Hilton continue to make it cool, and perhaps because it was too difficult to find a personality of their own. They may be gorgeous now, but no one I know would really date any of them. On the other hand, as a junior, I dated a girl who is now at Stanford. Her ability to go toe-to-toe with me intellectually and her more sophisticated maturity level were both major turn-ons.
So, ladies, the next time you wonder if you should pretend you don't understand words with more than three syllables, remember: It's hot to be smart.
And guys, next time you're faced with the decision of whether to ask the dumb-but-beautiful blonde girl (or brunette, redhead, etc.) or the suave, intellectual woman out on a date, please ask yourself: Do you want to spend two to five hours talking about pink, puppies and how much cuter the salad fork is than the dinner fork?
Oh, and no matter what the media says, Jessica Simpson is NOT hot.
Avinash Gandhi is a senior at San Ramon Valley High School in Danville, Calif.