Dumb idea for what purpose?

This article says Prime Minister Yingluck wants to start a reality show to prove that smart women are beautiful. The winner will be crowned “Smart Lady Thailand”.

I am puzzled by the attempt to correlate brains with beauty. Beautiful women get more than enough attention in Thailand. It’s time we paid some attention to the ugly ones. They are extremely disadvantaged, mainly because of the importance the Thai value system places on external appearance.

The writer Steve Rosse observed long ago that there are so many beautiful women in Thailand that ugly women have a really tough time competing. It follows logically that it’s the ugly women who must be smartest, because they have to work so hard to compete. My husband Horace says that if he were an employer, and he wanted to hire a woman to actually do some work rather than just serve as an office ornament, he’d hire an ugly one every time.

Of course, in our politically correct world, it would be hurtful to call ugly people “ugly”. We have to call them aesthetically challenged, looks-wise (ECL).

I doubt the new reality show will ever get off the ground. It is basically a stupid idea. But this is Thailand, where stupid ideas often gain more traction than they would anywhere else. If the show does get off the ground, I suggest that, in the interests of fairness, all women should be eligible to compete whether beautiful or not. And winning ought to be based on brains, not beauty. But I know how far that idea will get in Thailand. 

Constance ECL Beasley

Bangkok