Sex and Meteorology

I want to qualify this post and the ones that will follow by saying that these are my feelings, and I don't mean to attribute them to people in general. If you disagree, you're not wrong; you're just maximizing a different set of aesthetic functions in your crude, tasteless mind.

So anyway, what is sexy? Physical attributes have a lot to do with it, but I can't really provide much insight about them. Anyway, some people who are physically attractive don't merit a second glance, while others can't be ignored. What accounts for the difference?

Competence. Now, I know you don't often hear someone say, "Oh my god, that girl behind us in line was so attractive. Did you notice her high level of competence?" On the other hand, rarely is someone attractive who is incompetent, unless she can pull off the cute-helpless thing. Competence implies a core level of knowledge and self-valuation that makes someone independent and self-possessed. I think this is crucial to confidence, and in fact it's the sexiest kind of confidence.

As Borat would say, "But why?" I'm sure there's an evolutionary reason, but in a pedestrian way I think it comes down to respect. I just don't respect people who, like myself, depend too much on others for validation. An internal sense of worth allows someone to be more than a weathervane or a parrot. Maybe sexiness comes from a sense that someone will be interesting for more than a few days. The funny part is that the competence doesn't even have to be in an area you care about. I might find someone sexy who has a lot of ideas about meteorology, though I'm not that interesting in meteorology itself.

Speaking of meteorology, the sky is turning a beautiful shade of dull purple gray, and I can imagine it splashing down on the green grass and running down windowpanes, and it's time to finish up reading for class.