The thinking man’s sex symbol

Actor-and-scriptwriter Tina Fey, primary occupant of the throne of the ‘thinking man’s sex symbol’, once said that every man, thinking or not wants sexy Hollywood actor Megan Fox. 

Directly countering her statements, The Daily Beast proposed in 2008, a list of women who appealed to ‘the upper mind’ of a man “which works with actual grey matter” as opposed to the lower mind, which can only be described as ‘brainless’. The criterion for the selections was someone with, “Intelligence, success, power, self-confidence, a smart sense of humour, and, of course, not having a castrating nature.”

Author Jhumpa Lahiri, with her ‘devastating eyes’ complimented perfectly by that Pulitzer Prize was number 8 on that list. So who are the other women who are sexy, sultry, smart and witty?

Tinseltown men tell-all...
“I find Gul Panag intellectual and sexy” says comedian-and-actor Vir Das, “Also, (late) Princess Diana epitomised beauty with brains.”

According to DJ Nikhil Chinappa, Ellen Degeneres is incredibly funny and sexy but Nafisa Ali takes the cake. “She is extremely well-spoken and she never says anything out of place. I always wanted to be with a woman who I could have long conversations with and Nafisa Ali is someone with whom I can imagine having endless conversations.”

For author Anish Trivedi, the ultimate thinking man’s sex symbol has to be Jane Fonda or Zadie Smith, “Thinking men, as opposed to the kind of man who seldom uses more than one body part at a time, have a different idea of the woman they want to love. We don’t just want a beautiful woman. We want a beautiful woman with whom we can talk, and one to whom we want to listen.”

In fact, he says that the reason why an intellectual woman is separate from the rest of the league is because of “the fact that even after sex, there is a reason to be in bed with them.”