Pretty, pretty smart!
She can play the party girl to perfection, manage to look as harmless as a powder puff and have a mind as fast as a whip. So who said pretty faces are airheads?
She can play the giddy party girl to perfection, manage to look as harmless as a powder puff and have a mind as fast as a whip. She’s so easy on the eyes that you can almost be forgiven for thinking she’s just a pretty face…almost.
Women use their wiles to get ahead, as has been evident from the time Mata Hari held the world painfully tightly to ransom in her cleavage. But which man (red-blooded and all that) was smart enough to look behind the beguiling eyes? Apparently, not many did then and not many do now.
Male speak
Concurs ad-film maker Prahlad Kakkar, “Obviously men don’t take beautiful women seriously because men have only one thing on their minds. If they thought from between their ears instead of just between their legs, they’d eventually look past a woman’s beauty and delve into her intelligence. The reason most men never get there is because they’re too busy figuring out how to get into her pants!” he chortles with a sneer.
Though his outlook is trivial, how do women see this ‘objectification’?
Just a laughing matter
Says former Miss Asia Pacific and Bollywood star Dia Mirza, “I enjoy the fact that men sometimes think I don’t have a brain. It amuses me because they don’t know that I know. It gives me the upper hand in the situation because they have no idea what they are up against,” she laughs. On a more serious note she adds, “People are so consumed in what they want from others that they forget to see who the person really is. Once you look past that you really open your mind. This made me realise that the notions of right and wrong that had governed my life were just useless limitations. I have a brain and I’m not afraid to use it.”
Not a laughing matter
Jewellery designer Neelam Kothari has an opposing view. “It’s very unfair to judge someone on their looks and not their capabilities. Women work twice as hard as men most of the time and to be brushed off as having gotten on by solely on their looks is insulting. Of course, to be considered beautiful is a compliment but there comes a point when it should be ignored. Women need to base their self image on their achievements and not the world’s opinion.”
Doesn’t matter
Fashion designer Deepika Gehani, whose collection at the Lakme Fashion Week had good friend Brain Lara walk the ramp, is quite unperturbed by the notion. “I haven’t really been faced with this situation, the only thing people have been surprised by are my business skills. If you are mature and competent, you aren’t likely to be seen as an airhead. If you’re good at what you do it will shine through stronger than your looks.”
Psyche speak
Clinical psychologist Seema Hingorrany says it is ultimately about confidence and communication. “Most average-looking people are threatened by beauty and it is insecurity and spite that lead to such notions. Hence, the good-looking woman tends to feel left out and it could hamper her self-esteem. Communication can help break these barriers. It is heartening to see women like Sushmita Sen proving that beauty and brains go hand in hand.”
Babes with brains
Brooke Shields: The actress, author and former sex symbol is a Harvard graduate.
Cindy Crawford: Probably the world’s most famous supermodel, Cindy studied chemical engineering.
Renee Zellweger: She may have played a ditsy Bridget Jones but this Oscar winner also has a journalism degree from the Ivy League University of Texas.