Ever *dumb* yourself down because you didn't want to seem too smart?

Wyldgusechaz

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I am middle aged and when I was in high school, college, and grad school, there were very few really smart girls. All my competition was from other boys. But now that girls are kicking the snot out of boys in virtually all realms of academia, there simply by plain stats had to have been really smart girls in my classes years ago who simply must of held it back, maybe to feel accepted. The brain power had to be there, it was just hidden. Now girls don't hide it. They excel.
 

Principessa

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I am middle aged and when I was in high school, college, and grad school, there were very few really smart girls. All my competition was from other boys. But now that girls are kicking the snot out of boys in virtually all realms of academia, there simply by plain stats had to have been really smart girls in my classes years ago who simply must of held it back, maybe to feel accepted. The brain power had to be there, it was just hidden. Now girls don't hide it. They excel.
Your post is much different from the title question. Yes, I have dumbed myself down a bit socially, especially where men were concerned but never in the classroom.
 

Wyldgusechaz

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StraightCock4Her

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The only people that feel the need to dumb themselves down are the people that secretly look down upon everyone.

I openly look down upon everyone so it's not an issue with me.
 

Principessa

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The only people that feel the need to dumb themselves down are the people that secretly look down upon everyone.
I openly look down upon everyone so it's not an issue with me.
Not true! I have had men ask me what I majored in and when I rattle off my degrees they walk away. From this I learned to to not necessarily dumb down, but I don't mention anything past my BA unless specifically asked. Or we happen to be discussing subject matter which I studied in grad school.
 
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Wyldgusechaz

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Not true! I have had men ask me what i majored in and when Irattle off my degrees they walk away. From this I learned to to not necessarily dumb down, but I don't mention anything past my BA unless specifically asked. Or we happen to be discussing subject matter which I studied in grad school.


Maybe I did not write this well but there had to be girls I grew up with that simply did not show their stuff. With women now accounting to 60% of degrees and the grad school i went to had only 4% women and now has 53%, I realize some women had to have either shortchanged themselves or were short changed by the system and I feel a little sad for them because it brings it to a more personal level for me and I think I know exactly who were the girls that COULD have gone to Med, Dent, law, MBA school and did not. Their faces appear to me.
 

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I still find myself in situations where I wished I'd just looked coy and said nothing. I'm no good at playing dumb but at times I wish I could just not spout off about how much I know. I don't know how many times I've heard that men don't want a woman that is smarter than they are. Heck, probably the most attractive feature of my ex-husband was his mind, and that he loved how smart I was. That boy was so damned smart. No common sense and a total SOB, but brilliant otherwise.
 

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Maybe I did not write this well but there had to be girls I grew up with that simply did not show their stuff. With women now accounting to 60% of degrees and the grad school i went to had only 4% women and now has 53%, I realize some women had to have either shortchanged themselves or were short changed by the system and I feel a little sad for them because it brings it to a more personal level for me and I think I know exactly who were the girls that COULD have gone to Med, Dent, law, MBA school and did not. Their faces appear to me.
Maybe an advanced degree wasn't financially available to them. I don't think that's dumbing down. Or have I misunderstood yet again. :confused:

I do it every time I get married. :rolleyes:
cigarbabe:saevil:
You crack me up CB! :lmao: :rofl:
 

StraightCock4Her

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Arts degrees are kind of tailor made for the female personality and we don't graduate that many science degrees. That could explain that. A growing number of lazy ass men and a growing number of independent women.
 
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kundalinikat

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I've held in my voluminous blatherings before, or used smaller words. Generally the longer I know someone (in whatever capacity) the more vocab I allow to emerge. But I've always gone for the smart ones in the end. My boyfriend right now is a physics nerd and we totally geek out about it sometimes, he loves to answer my questions, and I really enjoy being able to ask relatively complex ones seeing as I've never studied it outside of high school science. I also love to blather about kinesiology and musculature, bodywork and bio-energetic stuff...
 

melis

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Arts degrees are kind of tailor made for the female personality

Really? Hmm... That's a slight bit old-fashioned, isn't it? I'd like to think there are more neuances to my personality than simply male or female traits. I'm working on my PhD, it's science related - does that mean I should feel less ...uhmm... womanly?

I'm sure there are several reasons for why women choose traditional; personality traits are just one, the values we are taught another, advice from peers/ parents/ student guidance... The rate of women choosing non-traditional trades is steadily - yet slowly - increasing (well, at least in Europe and Northern America, those are the countries I'm more familiar with). I don't think that the male-female rate will necessarily reach 50-50 in many of the traditional gender biased fields like engineering or nursing, but I think what we look at as an untraditional choice today will seem less ...let's say surprising... within the near future.

As for the original poster; yes, I think women were more likely to tone down their sholastic abilities - and achievements - before. The more delicate traits were encouraged, women weren't supposed to excel past the eight grade. Also, it wasn't so many years ago that women were not allowed to spend her family's money on an education that would be of no use - after all, her mission was to be a mother and a housewife. Today, women have a choice to choose a career, a family, or the combination of the two. Still, though, I find that men are sometimes turned off by being outsmarted by a female... I'm with NJQT - I tend not to give a complete resume when I first meet someone: partly because I don't feel I'm solely defined by my choice in education, partly because I know it sometimes makes people uncomfortable.

To the OP; I think that girls and women of the younger generations speak more freely about most things; they are taught that they are entitled to an opinion, an education, a career, and a good life - it doesn't occur to us that we should ..uhmm... tone down in class or in work.