Stupidity is... cute?

This is no recent phenomenon and certainly not solely a Japanese one (how I wish it were so). It's also not limited to either gender in particular. Intelligent people feel threatening to the insecure; always been that way.
Your garden variety oaf wants someone even lower than them, so that they may look down upon them and no longer feel threatened (cf. the whole "moé" thing brimming with attributes like "klutzy", "airheaded", "shy", "socially handicapped", etc., and the stereotypical "fujoshi" preferences centring much on the same, neurotic attitude).
This has little to do with gender, age or geographical location, but a whole lot with people as objects vs. people as subjects, and a whole lot more even with insecurity.
Lastly, it has (as everything in social relations) to do with power. Someone who's intelligent is less likely to be blindly obedient, and we know how highly "some" people value subservience.


Yes and no, depending on whom you wish to attract.
The first thing that attracted me to my girlfriend were here towering intellect and her creativity, even before the pretty face. But, that's because I've always been interested in having a partner and not an annoyance, or a vegetable by my side.
Joe Bloggs on the Clapham Omnibus however, would probably have thought different, and would have been put off by it, because he's after different qualities, where intelligence only stands in the way. Such qualities as shutting up and spreading your legs/cleaning the house/preparing dinner, depending on the time of day.


I never noticed anyone dumbing themselves down to seem attractive, no.
I've seen people (and, mea culpa, I do it myself, ALL. THE. TIME.) play dumb to further their position in the work-place, to avoid being asked for help, or to stay out of trouble. I've yet to see someone dumb themselves down in hopes for a mate.
But, I have seen a metric shit-ton and then some of genuinely dumb people!


It's tiresome and exasperating. Try being near a complete and utter cretin for an hour. It's about as taxing as a double marathon, across the Alps, walking on your hands.
You can't even take recourse to my usual tactic of "be silent; let them talk until their mouth hurts and they will shut up and go away", because these people never shut up, and simply being exposed to their blarney leaves huge, gashing wounds in your mind that heal only very slowly.


In 2D girls I find it about as cute as a retarded kid drooling onto my hand. It inspires just about the same indium-cry of disgust in my heart, too, and makes me wish for the following expert solution, which Ms. Mori Kaoru has illustrated so very proficiently:


[size=5]That's one of the reasons I dislike animé so much, by the way, because all protagonists always act so fucking dumb :>[/h]




+1.

From what I see, once they hit high school, girls often split into 2 categories.

The Brains and The Beauties

The Brains.
while not exactly a bookworm, but still studies before latest trends

The Beauties.
keeping up with the latest trends, and start to put lots of make up on before they hit 16 to get guys. (Smoking, skipping school, drinking may follow)


From what I see, girls with beauty need not brains to make a buck, and girls with brains need not beauty to show their skills. Why would you spend so much more effort to do that extra bit. (There are exceptions of course)

It's not like they don't want both, the beauty devotes too much time on appearance that their studies suffer and the brains don't have the time to care too much about appearance.


While I have to admit, girls struggling to do something is cute in some ways. (Mio is a fine example of this) Constantly doing it get irritating. Of course if she can't keep an intelligent conversation up without being totally wrong or making stuff up, that for me is a serious nono.


I have to admit, on first contact, the girl which I feel attracted to is usually the beauty. Don't know if any other of you feel the same. (shallow me)


Stupidity doesn't mean cute
but cute means keeping it light, nothing serious. Not being serious, to some extent, some may feel it as unintelligent.

Lol, that was just used as an example....I'm glad you read my post though.

Btw, I know I'll be better off without common sense, looking at the current society...

@mibuchiha: I read all posts in the threads I visit and post in.

Trust me, having common sense is a valuable trait amongst peers and coworkers. It seems like you're lacking some common sense if I have to tell you that, though.

Back on topic, being Tsundere I think is the fine line of being intelligent but not acting it in terms of emotions. I think many people find Tsundere especially moe, but in real life, I don't think people act tsun-tsun, if it happens at all.

It's more of the social norm of all patriarchal societies. Though much of the industrial world is evolving to more of an equal society for the sexes, these social norms are highly ingrained in our psyche. It will probably take forever to fully remove this facet from the dating/flirting sector of life.

My first girlfriend was just like what the OP is talking about. She acted ditsy and stupid to everyone around her. Luckily I had known her for so long that I already knew that she wasn't as dumb as she let on. But once we started dating she instinctively went into the cutesy mode and it became a real turn off. Lets just say that the relationship did not last long. I've broken up with more women because of this sudden change than anything else.

That being said, I really just ignore it in anime unless it's being forced down your throat. Something that's so stupidly cute leaves a bad taste in your mouth, sort of like eating pure corn syrup. Nasty.

There are very few cases in wich clumsiness can be used to gain a partner.

If a girl, for instance, tells you she doesn't know how to play golf and wants to learn, you can't help but to teach her some strokes. (Extra points if she pretends to be a slow learner).

But if a girl keeps slamming her head into glass doors just to look cute,
then that would be a huge turn-off.

I don't care if the woman is smart or not... just as long as she knows she belongs in the kitchen.

Joke.

But in all seriousness, I would prefer a smart girl. Girls who dumb themselves down try too hard which is an annoyance in itself, but when you have to repeat yourself all the time or you have to explain everything, it gets on your nerves after a while. Naturally dumb girls are even harder to deal with seeing as how you know their intelligence will never get better.

Stupidity is stupid. Nothing attractive about that. I don't mind clumsiness, but even a clumsy person can be intelligent or wise.

Well it as ever so often depends on what you include in stupidity. But in general I prefer smart girls / women due to the simple fact that I like to discuss important topics on a certain level and that it can really become a pain if you want some entertainment with some class to it. Yes, it is hard to find these days, but it still exists in some niches of our modern society :P

Well big difference between manga/anime & reality is that in manga/anime the characters themselves are often cute, hence why the trick sometimes works as it also is quite annoying (depending on how likable the character is). However in reality (as many things) this does not translate well.

Personally I couldn't imagine myself being attracted to someone because they act stupid in an attempt to be cute, because often it just annoys me. There's enough different ways to be cute, and I find myself more attached to people who are smart. (Not solely booksmart as I don't stress on grades, often just having a decent idea and grasp of the world, people and things around you can make you appear as a rich individual.) I've had multiple cases of people whom very cute because of the fact that they actually knew quite a lot, acting dumb has quite the opposite effect on me. The only reason I can imagine why a guy would want a person actually acting stupid is because they're either not very bright themselves or they just want to take advantage of their stupidity to get laid.

In Manga yes, girls that are stupid are cute... in real world my GF she's cute and she's smart as hell... got top grade.. not like me

Subcategories:

Under Brains:

The Bookworm - no need to explain further

The Philosopher - not necessarily academically intelligent, but thinks of things far deeper than a normal person can/want to comprehend. They are my favorite, too bad they are a rare breed.

Under Beauties:

The Class Whore - every guy gets shy when she's in a 1.5 Meter radius and everybody knows the latest person she slept with. Doesn't study, but always passes miraculously. Acts the stupidest.

The Cute girl - always funny, fun to be with, but always have a boyfriend so getting a chance with her is thin. Acts freely in class, but changes personality in front of her guy. Stupidity level varies according to her environs.

Stupidity made me ignore all those girls. Yes that is true, some girls do that. Didnt work for me though.

Stupidity is for the short run AKA one nighter and wham bam please leave mam.
Book/Street smarts better.

Everyone is different, i've meet some girls who are like obviously putting up an act and i get so mad because i don't think girls should be thinking they have to be stupid in order to get men's attention even if you do get attention it's negative attention.

Well, I'm probably in the minority here but I think that most people dumb themselves down at least a little bit without thinking about it too much. Gibbous was right when he said that it's not gender-exclusive but something that boils down to how insecure a person is or how much they want to be accepted.

When people are insecure of themselves, they're more conscious of what they say and how they act; it's just natural for them to speak about "less-intelligent" topics around the people that they feel talk about the said topics. Not to say that they look down on anyone - just liken it to talking about hockey with hockey fans, it's just more appropriate to them because they want to fit in.

It might also be a bit of an Asian trope although I don't really expose myself to a lot of Asian media. I was watching an episode of Infinity Challenge (Korean show) and the MCs of the show had a psychoanalysis done on them and the person that I thought to be the dumbest was actually more intelligent than the other members: the psychologist said that he acted dumber than he really was because he thought that people would like him more that way. Out of curiosity, has anyone noticed it happen frequently in other forms of Asian media?

"False supidity" in real life is not cute. The occasional ditziness might be, but stupidity isn't and never will be. It just gets flat out annoying. If I had somebody following me around all day who was incapable of helping me in any constructive way, I would probably tell them to just fuck off.

Obviously if they were just absolutely clueless I would help them, but playing dumb just isn't attractive in any way, it just makes you look dumb (duh).

lol its not just women... ignorance seems to becoming a bigger and bigger plague to the human race..

first of all this is a purely subjective question. each person will have his or her own response to it. my self... i feel it can be in very certain situations. the Reality of it to me is "hey im stupid you can take advantage of me to get what you want" and well in majority of the male mind (nothing personal gentlemen) is sex. in the anime/manga world its just apart of the characters

you say that they are allow me to make a few contrary examples
Saber, and Rin both (fate stay night)

but all this aside personally no i don't think its cute in fact, when i have met quite a few chicks like that, regardless of how attractive i think they are, i feel they are more a burden