Mind Drifts: Beauty VS Intelligence - What should a woman project?

I am a huge fan of Sia. I love her voice, her artistic creativity, the fact that she isn't even trying to compete with the youthful mainstream singers but has earned their respect in leaps and bounds, what she says she stands for in terms of not wanting to be a celebrity....I could go on and on...I just love the woman. (If you haven't heard her album, 1000 forms of fear, you are sleeping on a bicycle).

So when I say this article on Kol B'Isha Erva's blog (yes, I know, I know, I read the oddest things online *eye roll*), I was excited to read a little something extra on my darling Sia. I liked the piece...especially for the SNL live performance video she shared, but something she wrote caught my attention and is the inspiration for this post.

"Seemingly, it’s impossible for a woman to be beautiful and alluring, while simultaneously being appreciated for her intellect, creativity, strength, kindness, or talent. If one side is revealed, the other is hidden. These two aspects of a woman cannot publicly coexist."

This technically means that a woman who projects her femininity and beauty will only be appreciated and recognised for that. She will not be seen for her intelligence, creativity or anything else that does not emanate directly from her body. Hmmm.

As much as multiple bones in my body want to refute this and speak up for women and say loudly that this thought is wrong and a woman show herself to be the perfect epitome of feminine sexiness and beauty and still be regarded as an intellectual powerhouse,  I tend to sort of, agree with the thought.

Before you chew me up, hear (or in this case, read) me out.

Let us take for instance, the case of Beyonce. I think it is unarguable that she has shown blazing sexiness and steaming intelligence, all embodied in one. But let us take a moment to consider this...Beyonce is Beyonce because of her music. Her music is her creativity. Her creativity reflects her intellect. The world recognised and appreciated Beyonce for her intellect first, and then the hotness of her physic drove her to superstar (raised to power 1000) status.

Let us take the case of Kim Kardashian. She showed herself to us as the the drop dead hottie who had sex with a famous person and video taped it. I personally think that she is also a sharp business woman, in some sense but how many of you identify her with intellectual prowess? Be honest. Asides the superficial titles created by the media to celebrate the vacuous trend in the world right now (things like 'Queen of Selfies', 'Waist training expert' etc), what other real titles, based on intellect, can you ascribe to Kim?

Let us take the case of Paris Hilton. You remember her, yes? She presented herself to us as an heiress and socialite. No notable skill or talent was ascribed to her when she blew up in our faces. Even when she ventured into music (I personally kinna like her song, 'stars are blind' but I think the video doesn't do justice to the strength of the lyrics or the reggae vibe to the song), it was not successful in anyway because she just could not shed her 'socialite' image in our eyes.

I think that it is possible to be an embodiment of blinding sexiness and bamboozling intellect however, to be seen as that, a woman needs to first project her intellect. This is probably a struggle that a lot of females face (especially our dear dear 'instagram celebrities' who really only get likes and followers because of the amount of skin they have showing on pages). I too have gone (and still am going) through this struggle. I have met people who only saw a pretty face when they saw me and it has been more than and uphill task to sway them away from canal thoughts to discussions about work/business/projects.

I say, show forth your intelligence and let your beauty make the words sink in faster. What do you say?