> > I'm also going to make up a proven fact and say that intelligent people who happen to like gossip probably feel slightly guilty about drooling over the witless daily pursuits of celebrities, and quite like being told that it's really a sign of how intelligent they are.
> >
>
> I don't see what there is to feel guilty about. I think people just like being told they're intelligent.
>
> If people enjoy reading about Celine Dion's baby, so what? It doesn't mean they're stupid or smart....it just means they like frivolous entertainment once in a while. Judging anyone for a harmless hobby seems pretentious to me.
>
> --Jezzika

I mean that, in general, liking celebrity gossip tends to be out of favour as a pursuit of the intelligent. I'm not saying it *is* stupid, just that that's the way a certain sector of society portrays it. Virtually all of the intelligent women I know who read women's magazines feel they have to justify it or laugh it off self-deprecatingly as some kind of silly guilty character flaw, instead of just saying "I like this stuff, so I read it." I used to notice this a *lot* at university.

It's a sadly common characteristic of intelligent women which I find very, very irritating. I want to kick these people in the pants and tell them to stop degrading themselves by feeling they have to trivialise their personal tastes. It comes into the same category as intelligent women who are offered a big piece of chocolate cake and have to justify it by wittering "Oh I couldn't! I shouldn't! I mustn't! I oughtn't!" for twenty minutes first instead of saying "Thanks" and eating it.

Brunnen-"I hope that makes more sense than it looks like to me"G