It’s 2021: Isn’t It Time We Had A Gender Reversed Beauty & The Geek W/ Lady Geeks And Himbos?

Beauty & The Geek

Beauty & The Geek is back on Aussie TV and like the sook I am, I did shed a tear. I honestly didn’t think I was going to enjoy the show, but there I was enthralled by it all. However, I do have one bone to pick with BATG and that is only using male geeks and female beauties. We know that geeky men can get hot women, but when will it be the lady geeks turn to bag a himbo (a male bimbo)????

As a tween, the only stories where a plain Jane scored a hottie were the Twilight franchise, the Princess Diaries and Ugly Betty. Aside from that I was pretty certain the only way I could have a better love story than Twilight was to suddenly blossom into Megan Fox overnight. Yet, there were an abundance of stories about nerdy guys winning over a supermodel. Even worse, was the trope where a dumb and unattractive husband has a hot stay-at-home wife .*Cough* King of Queens *cough* Everybody Loves Raymond *cough* Every Adam Sandler movie ever.

I think it’s about time that we saw a smart, capable woman being valued on more than how she looks. Because at the end of the day, in the current economy both men and women need to work, so why aren’t intelligent, hard-working women being given more airtime on reality TV?

PEDESTRIAN.TV put this question to Beauty & The Geek host Sophie Monk, who said this reboot differed from the traditional format.

“It’s not like old school where the Beauties are given maths questions or [the show is] trying to throw them under the bus, it’s just got so much heart,” Monk said.

“They’re adorable [the beauties]! You’re not gonna not like anyone, they don’t have to play the persona of being ditzy as much. You watch them grow as well.”

Sophie also reckons that a reversed BATG could be possible in the future.

“Yeah! Nowadays anything works. I definitely think so, I think as the show develops, if it works, then hell yeah! I don’t think it matters if it’s a man or a woman,” she said.

That’s definitely a good start, but I think the time for a reversed version is now.

As for the current series, the point extends beyond beautiful women can be intelligent too. The point is that a woman’s inherent value is often placed on her appearance and that’s the problem. We are seeing beauty before anything else. Maybe this is feminism 101 but men have never been valued purely on their appearance, it’s often more about power and money (which is essentially power). Women on the other hand are first and foremost judged on how they look.

Why is it that the only professions where women seem to be raking in the dosh way more than men modelling and sex work? Seems rather sus to me.

So yes, no hate against Beauty & The Geek – I’m still going to watch the entire season and cry like a baby. But I think we know that intelligent men can get hot women, that’s nothing groundbreaking. But to teach men that characteristics like intelligence and drive are desirable in women would be something I haven’t seen on reality TV before.

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