I had a quick question, because I'm finding the varied responses pretty interesting, and I'm also getting strange reactions due to my own preferences.
When you're looking for a potential girlfriend/boyfriend, what level of intelligence do you look for in relation to your own?
I consider myself exceptionally smart: inherently, at least. But what have I done with those smarts other than get a high GPA? Not much. When I used to talk about my "criteria for a girlfriend" my friends and I would always agree that we wanted women who were intelligent, but just SLIGHTLY less-so than ourselves. Now, however, after dating a girl who I initially thought was smarter than me, but actually turned out to be a not-too bright, extremely hard-worker, I find myself seeking out intelligence as the topmost priority. I really do want a girl who is smarter than me, knows more than me in most every area, because I feel like it would be a constant challenge against the gender-normative roles we as a society have manufactured, and which I've so obliviously followed.
All the same reasons I wanted to be smarter before (being able to win mostly in arguments, being able to feel in charge, etc) have now switched around because I feel like it's too easy to take advantage of being smarter, to become controlling, or parental (especially if said partner puts you in that role, but even otherwise) and I'd much rather be the one to be challenged, and to have to meet the friends that I feel I can't quite measure up to, and to have to constantly work to be at her level. Is this extremely odd?
A girl who talks authoritatively, but not arrogantly about a topic she understands extensively on a highly intellectual level has become a major turn-on for me, and I'm not sure why. Looking forward to your responses (if you can find the "quick question" inside all my rambling that is. )