Star Trek Game

Or, Mr. Spock is sexy!

Captain Kirk (for those, if any, who are not STAR TREK fans) is a capable hero and a full-blooded human. Mr. Spock is half-alien and is a creature of pure reason and no emotion. Naturally Captain Kirk responded to every danger with an appropriate twist of his handsome and expressive face. Spock, however, kept his long, serene face unmoved. Not for an instant did he allow emotion to dim the thoughtful gleam of his eye; not for a split second did he allow that long face to grow shorter.

And my daughter said, “I think Mr. Spock is dreamy!”

I started! If my daughter said Mr. Spock was dreamy, then he was dreamy to the entire feminine population of the world, for my daughter is plugged into that vague something called “femininity” and her responses are infallible.

But how could that be? Mr. Spock dreamy? He had a strong face, of course, but it was so solemn and serious, so cool; his eyebrows were drawn so outward and upward, and his large ears came to such a long, sharp upper point.

How could he compare with full-blooded Earthlings with normal ears and eyebrows, who were suave, sophisticated, and devilishly handsome to boot? Like me, for instance, just to pick an example at random.

“Why is he dreamy?” I asked my daughter.

“Because,” she said, “he’s so smart!”

There’s no doubt about it. I have asked other girls and they agree. Through the agency of Mr. Spock, STAR TREK has been capitalizing upon a fact not generally known among the male half of the population.

Women think being smart is sexy!

You can always trust a smart, unattractive man in the mold of Isaac Asimov to leap with certainty to the wrong conclusion when women are concerned. Just as you can trust a young woman to have no idea what it is that is tripping her attraction triggers. Granted, Asimov himself knew better - hence his joke about growing his ears out - but men are as deluded about the sex appeal of intelligence, honor, godliness, sincerity, and dedication as women are about educational degrees, snark, and being gainfully employed.

Intelligence is a useful DHV when a man is already considered attractive, but his intelligence is not why Spock was considered dreamy by women. After all, Scotty was plenty smart too and women didn't think he was dreamy.

Spock is, by human standards, a complete psychopath. He has no emotions. He feels no shame and he has no concern for the feelings of others. That's why he is attractive, because he is off the charts with regards to one of the three core components of the Dark Triad, which attracts women like catnip attracts cats, or perhaps more accurately, like flames attract moths.

Spock is also narcissistic, although he is not Machiavellian. If he was, he wouldn't be a Vulcan, he'd be a pointy-eared sex machine. It is Kirk that is narcissistic and Machiavellian - Koyobashi Maru - but Kirk lacks the psychopathy that makes Spock so "dreamy".

Women love an indifferent man who doesn't give a damn about her needs, her feelings, and her opinions. And no man can be more indifferent than one who is a half-Vulcan genetic emotional cripple.