Bluestockings, women geniuses, and (old) gossip about Amanda Foreman

Stumbled upon this article. And, it is full of stuff that interests me. Hope you will read about women and fashion and being taken seriously (or not.) Also, interesting notes on Duchess author, Amanda Foreman, and woman politician, Margaret Thatcher. – Kimberly

(excerpt from) Times on Line UK

TV ‘genius’ Gail Trimble leads the march of the bluestockings

Gail Trimble has infuriated critics by both being very intelligent and refusing to have a celebrity-style makeover

by Alexandra Frean and Helen Rumbelow / February 28, 2009

Britain has a problem: we are overproducing something that we have little idea what to do with. We can’t get rid of it, and many loathe it unless it’s disguised as something else. The product? Clever women.

This week saw the “victory” of Gail Trimble, the cleverest contestant on University Challenge. Not that you would know we were celebrating.

The reaction to the 26-year-old – who is studying for a doctorate in philosophy from Oxford – swung wildly between gross sexual insults and gross sexual invitations.

The fact that she did not dress like Paris Hilton simply added to her offence. Here was a living embodiment of that favourite female stereotype: the “bluestocking” – a clever woman unbothered by looks or fashion sense…

…What thanks does the educated woman get for her years of toil?

“Horse-toothed snob”, and “bet she’s got hairy legs”, to judge by some of the kinder comments on Miss Trimble. The internet vitriol easily matched that of William Hazlitt two centuries ago, when he wrote: “The bluestocking is the most odious character in society … she sinks wherever she is placed, like the yolk of an egg, to the bottom, and carries the filth with her.”

At that time the few educated women were considered freaks…

Although Miss Trimble rarely makes mistakes she had, in fact, made two: first, she was clever, and second, she was not clever enough to hide it behind a makeover. “I very much think this would not be happening if I were a man. People would not feel it necessary to comment on my looks so much,” she said.

Out of the goodness of its heart the semi-pornographic magazine Nuts offered to help, asking her brother to help to persuade her to strip. “So of course he sent them an answer saying: ‘Seriously mate, would you give your sister’s contact details to Nuts?’” Miss Trimble said.

Nuts may have been surprised by such a refusal: many intelligent women have regarded a glamorous makeover as a necessary step to advancement. Amanda Foreman, the historian of the Duchess of Devonshire, got more accolades for her [strategically] nude photoshoot for Tatler than for her PhD.

A BBC memo dating from 1957 was revealed this week in which the prospects of a young female politician are discussed. She is described approvingly as “very pretty, and dresses most attractively. Very feminine … her main charm was that she does not look like a career woman.” It was Margaret Thatcher…

“Women don’t become bluestockings until a man has tired of looking at their legs” is the old saying, and Miss Trimble, simply by being demure and bespectacled, looks strikingly old-fashioned. In that, she has an air about her of both Hillary Clinton and Cherie Blair at her age, back when they still believed that clever women could be judged on that quality alone…

Jill Berry, the president of the Girls’ Schools Association, said: “There still exists a culture in some schools where clever girls feel they have to disguise their intelligence to fit in.”

Their salvation may come with the recession. It may not make life easier for most, but it may clarify the priorities of young women.

In the economic boom of the 1990s, the gossip magazines gloated over the excessive consumption of celebrities. Those that had children fitted them in around shopping and beauty regimens. Seriousness was unfashionable.

With the recession deepening, households are more dependent than ever on the security of two incomes. There are signs that women are choosing to take shorter maternity leave, and to avoid giving up work entirely when they have children.

The allure of solely decorative women is fading – now their earning power is crucial. It would be interesting to repeat the University of Chicago dating study [a study that showed that men had an overwhelming bias against women who were more educated than them.] in the midst of the economic downturn. Now, when paying the heating bills is more important than an expensive fake tan. Now, when repaying a mortgage after a husband has lost his job is more important than a selection of store cards. We don’t need designer fishnets now, we need bluestockings. Good job we have so many of them.