Many men find themselves in a nervous position because of one (1, ein, uno) woman who brought home success from the University Challenge in Britain. Nicholas Lezard from The Independent is one of them, discussing how to impress a woman that's intellectually challenging:

The intellectual powerhouse that is Gail Trimble, captain of Corpus Christi's all-conquering University Challenge team, has divided the nation like no other figure since Margaret Thatcher. The profound difference is that not only is Ms Trimble demonstrably more knowledgeable than the Iron Lady, she is also, we suspect, a lot nicer.

Such scorn as she has suffered is really about nothing more than the man's fear of the clever woman. Personally speaking, I like clever women, and were I 20 years younger I would be using all the cunning at my command to get her phone number and ask her out on a date.

But a woman who has almost single-handedly hauled her team to glory by knowing a staggering amount of stuff isn't going to be easy to impress. And somehow I suspect that she isn't going to be wowed by extra-intellectual abilities, such as being able to do 1,000 keepy-uppies, balance lumps of sugar on the end of your nose, or do a convincing sound imitation of a cat being chased by a terrier, which are the kind of things that men less cerebrally gifted have traditionally done to woo the woman of their dreams.

This guy's problem is that he's basically hiding the fact that he, too, feels bitter over the success of Gail Trimble. I can't impress her, he reasons, so it's a dead case. This is evolutionary male logic: I'm interested in X, I need to impress X to compete with other men, I then win X and she's mine. The Gail Trimble syndrome complicates this process, because men are typically attracted to subordinate women and shun female competition. It's the fragile male ego we see on display here.

But what we easily forget is that many, if not most of the nasty comments made about Gail Trimble, come from female readers who feel jealous over a successful woman with intellectual charm. Women typically shun other successful women, which among other things is displayed in that most women prefer working under male bosses. This is why most female comments focus on Gail being "snobbish"--women don't like same-gender competition.

I support Gail Trimble because:

1) She's smart and knowledgeable.

2) She's cute.

3) She offends most people's fragile egos.

Keep it up girl!