Why George Clooney’s Engagement Is Encouraging To Smart Girls Everywhere

George Clooney is engaged.

While the rest of the female population weeps, I am rejoicing. And no, I don’t need my libido checked. This was one small step for George Clooney’s commitment issues and one big step for every “girl next door.” Because in the end, Clooney found eternal love with not the model, not the bombshell, not the ex-cheerleader, but the smart, beautiful woman named Amal Alamuddin. It’s the movie ending we’ve all rooted for, with the leading man we’ve all drooled over.

For those with lives “too interesting/busy” to keep up with celebrities and public figures, Alamuddin is a British-Lebanese Oxford-alum lawyer. She speaks three languages, specializes in human rights and criminal law, and oh yeah, she got Clooney (known to date gorgeous waitresses, models and television personalities) to eat his famous words, “”I won’t get married again because I wasn’t very good at it.”
Let’s face it, while magazines, feminists and vampire heartthrobs (coached by their publicists) say “smart is sexy” and that “guys prefer the natural, attainable beauty,” history and CW primetime dramas preach the exact opposite. In fact, a recent study came out that said men’s dream girl looks like a Kim Kardashian/Megan Fox hybrid.

…Yeah, real attainable.

And despite movies like She’s All That and anything starring Katherine Heigl trying their damnedest to sell the story of strong-complex-females-meets-gorgeous-leading-man-and-teaches-him-about-life-and-love-while-the-hot-villain-rots-per-self-destruction, we return to a much more bleak reality when the credits roll. After the curtain closes and that upbeat Train song plays, that leading man retreats to his model girlfriend and the strong, complex female is plastered on every tabloid saying she’s “ALONE AND DEVASTED!” We even have actresses whose brands are essentially being smart, post-modern, successful and of course, unlucky in love. (Love ya, Mindy.)

Therefore when you see a guy like George Clooney run through a bevy of beauties plucked from obscurity and swear off a lifetime commitment to love and monogamy, you barely raise an eyebrow. Actually, it’s kind of tired and cliché. So when he started dating Amal Alamuddin last October, every “clever” news show took bets on how long she’d last, and many “observant” bloggers took hits at her appearance saying she wasn’t as beautiful as Clooney’s previous girlfriends. (Also, false.) She was destined to be other ex-girlfriend and tabloid headline.

Against the odds, and lot of office pools, leave it to a woman of class, prestige and natural beauty to stun everyone, and tame Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor. The high school senior in me who studied for A.P. exams and was never asked to a prom, rose from her desk and cheered “YES! SUCK IT!”

And sure, I am overly-invested in, too excited and definitely romanticizing a relationship I know very little about. But there is something so refreshing, enchanting even, to see the a woman not have to dumb herself down or plump herself up to bag a guy. And yes, millions of these women walk among us (myself included), but it’s nice that we finally got some recognition.