"Would you rather be pretty or clever?” That was the question my female friend posed to me the other week. I was about to open my big fat male mouth without speaking when I chose, instead, to say “Hmm, good question, let me think–”

Ten minutes later she asked if I was done thinking. I said, “not really, give me five?” Five minutes was, obviously, not nearly enough time. First I was confronted with the problem that, in my opinion, it depends on the culture around you and whether you have ovaries or a penis, then I had to give thought to the pros and cons of being pretty or clever. The conclusion I came to (which, when it arrived half an hour later, was met with little interest–) was that I thought it would be better to be a pretty woman than a clever woman, and that by being a pretty man you weren’t necessarily granted the same special powers as what good-looking women were. By that I mean that men—and let’s not get all upset, because it is, unfortunately, a fact—still largely rule the world and that even a good-looking man can get it in the neck: after all, how many times do you hear people say “this guy had the most amazing body and botox injections, and guess what? Yes! He was clever with it!” I think you catch my drift. The thing is, no matter what sex you are and where you live and how you look, there are draw-backs to being both clever and pretty. Thinking about it, the debate in my mind is still open–