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<p>The following isn’t intended to knock you down, this is just an explanation from the female point of view as to why it’s not a good idea to make these statements.</p>
<p>Regardless of the general truth of this statement, which is debatable, I think it’s pretty uncouth to presume that nerds will more often be physically unattractive, and that physically attractive people will more often be dumb. It’s a dangerous assertion to make. I think it perpetuates the lack of women in the field (you can either be smart or pretty, girls, and society says you should be pretty, so don’t bother with taking physics, right…? Yes, it’s <em>completely</em> irrational, but you guys don’t really ‘get’ how the female brain works… it works irrationally when it comes to these things. And when it comes to you guys, but that’s a whole other discussion).</p>
<p>These statements are damaging to your female compatriots’ self-esteem in a field that already challenges everyone’s foregone assumptions that they’re smart, so our egos are already a little tired of regenerating lost limbs, so to speak. If you make a blanket statement that “many of the girls are ugly” in a given location, then EVERY SINGLE GIRL there, regardless of whether they are one of the common ones or one of the rare knockouts, will get a terrible feeling in the pit of their stomach that you are talking about them. They will internalize this, but they will never talk about it with you. In this world of size zero stick-figures who botox the hell out of their visages, those of us who aren’t the one-in-a-millions often have some insecurities about our appearances.</p>
<p>School challenges our belief that we’re halfway-intelligent, even if we’re really smart. Same as how that goes, statements like this challenge our belief that we’re halfway-attractive, even if we’re really gorgeous. Whether it’s true or not, you have to understand the sort of damage that this can cause, even if it’s unintentional.</p>
<p>It’s really best not to go there at all.</p>