Feeling a little insecure

OK, while randomly surfing the net, I came upon a video clip from 2007 showing (I'm not going to name specifics) a young blonde country singer as a celebrity contestant on a game show, and as for her performance.... shall we say she was totally perpetuating the dumb blonde stereotype. I suspect it was for laughs, that *no one* can actually be that stupid. For example, she thought Europe was a country (where the language spoken is French) and wasn't sure whether or not France itself was a country. Later she stated that while she has heard of Turkey, she has never heard of a country called "Hungry" (obviously Hungary.) She also thought a piccolo was a percussion instrument because they both begin with the letter P. Note that she is a musician for a living, AND one who presumably tours the world as part of her career, which clues me in on the "it's all an act" angle.

Whether or not she was putting on a show, she was quite convincing in her "stereotypical dumb blonde" persona.

The kicker came in a random peanut-gallery comment. One viewer gave the opinion, "Leave her alone. She may be dumb, but she is sooooo foxy."

And that's what disturbs me. I could go on about "women as nothing but objects for men's visual entertainment," but I'm going to take this in a different direction.

Yep. "Foxy" is what counts, and it seems to be the ONLY thing that counts. As long as you're foxy, you don't have to be smart or talented or anything else. I also assume that if you are not foxy, nothing else you are amounts to anything worthwhile.

Because, you see, I'm not foxy. I've been told all my life how smart I am intellectually, but often this was counterpointed with the attitude that "book smarts" don't matter in life, and I don't have the traits that do matter, such as social skills or "common sense" or athletic ability or..... foxiness.

Sigh. Self-esteem malware threat here. Anybody know of any emotional anti-viral software that will help?

Man, I can relate to this statement. I think this all the time. =/

As a child I was taught this. Then later reminded of this again and again. Reminded by myself, by those around me, and even by the kindest person I've ever known my entire life. But for whatever reason knowing that doesn't even begin to hurt my self-esteem. Funny isn't it?

Some people really like sharing company with smart people.