They aren't consciously choosing which dude they'd rather bang if they had to, but our lizard brains are kinda simplistic. So yes. Tall-ish and good looking seems healthier, just like symmetry does. And we do subconsciously lean toward these attributes in leaders. I don't have time to go on a cite rampage here but the study was most recently done by Louisiana State, I think.

But that study ONLY used looks as a criteria for voting. People are evaluating more than that. Quasimodo would get my vote if he were running against George Clooney if he was on record as pro-choice, pro-single payer, pro-union and living wage.

I'm not saying people don't go for prettier packaging. Well...depending on what you mean when you say go for.

Not all men treat women as things to be overlooked (or even treat badly) unless they find them attractive, but plenty do, and I think playing into that kind of sexism doesn't help to make fewer Tucker Maxes in the world.

I've got to give my mother the props she deserves, she let my sisters and I have any standard-boy-thing that we wanted. I had a chemistry set and was pushed towards the more technical things. There were some nifty science toys that were labelled "The thinking boy's toy", and all of us looked at that and went "that's not right," and my mother got the magic marker and blacked out "boy's". This was in the late '60s.

Why couldn't she have understood that the fact that we turned to be strong, self-assured, stand-up-for-ourselves women was a good thing, even if it meant we disagreed with her? It meant she did a good job.

But that study ONLY used looks as a criteria for voting. People are evaluating more than that. Quasimodo would get my vote if he were running against George Clooney if he was on record as pro-choice, pro-single payer, pro-union and living wage.

But that assumes all voters are thinking. I'm not so sure about that.

I know they are not, or at least not always.

Just weighing in because Connie struck a chord with me:

Why couldn't she have understood that the fact that we turned to be strong, self-assured, stand-up-for-ourselves women was a good thing, even if it meant we disagreed with her? It meant she did a good job.

I overheard my mother talking to a friend the other day that she worries about me because I'm "taking care" of her, but (since I don't have a husband or kids) who will take care of me? I think she is proud of the fact that I'm very independent, yet her training, upbringing, what-have-you still makes her focus on who will "take care" of me.

But that assumes all voters are thinking. I'm not so sure about that.

The thing that I genuinely fear. So many people think in soundbites...scary times we're living in.

Probably not all, but I'd assume the greater half aren't that stupid. And you know what? I bet a tea partier would vote for ol' Quasi too if Fox News or Glen Beck told them to.

Look all I'm saying is that sexist men confer a tiny amount of power solely to women they'd like to sleep with. That's wrong and it's sexist.

Women don't, and possibly can't do that if they don't have the power to confer, and on the whole, we don't.

Why couldn't she have understood that the fact that we turned to be strong, self-assured, stand-up-for-ourselves women was a good thing, even if it meant we disagreed with her? It meant she did a good job.

Yep, dealing with this as well with my mom. She's failing to understand that the reason I don't blindly accept her bullshit, "Do as I say, not as I do," or "Because I said so," routine any longer is because she instilled it in me to question and to call shenanigans when needed.

She just never expected that I'd ever be calling shenanigans on her.

Interesting conversation. There have been plenty of times I wish I was female instead of male. Sucks being shy/nice guy, I tell you what. But I don't think I could handle the biological items that come with being female. Hats off to y'all. As for sucker punch in the nads... I doubt it happens often enough that it would be a dis qualifier. You must be hanging with the rough crowd, or part of Fight Club or something.

ION- I got a quick note from my Realtor. She said the place I stalked last night is so cheap and on the market for so long because it has less than 30 years on its land lease. Which means financing will be next to impossible. Which makes me scratch my head, of why is the land lease so high? If it was along the lines of other places in the area, I could afford a 15 year mortgage. I dunno. Either way, looks like it's a no-go for that place. Sad too, it had great potential.

She just never expected that I'd ever be calling shenanigans on her.

Ha. Yeah. Like, I'm pretty sure I get my stubbornness from my mom. Looks like that backfired.