My First (and probably only) Top 13 List.

So, I'm sitting in the computer lab, trying to come up with brilliant ideas for the final paper I have to write for my senior biology seminar on ethics & genetic testing, but I just can't seem to concentrate on the task at hand.

For once, though, I can say that my inability to focus is not completely my own fault; the French-American couple at the table ahead of me is to blame for my lack of productivity.

Typically, I would hesitate to stereotype an individual (or pair of individuals) - especially when they're just a few feet in front of me. They seem happy enough together, so maybe there's something I'm missing. Maybe he treats her differently when they're not in public, maybe he's not being serious when he makes fun of her personality, and maybe he's just as nice to her and she is to him. But from the hour or so that I've been in the same room with them, most of what I've seen points to a classic "nice girl dating a jerk" scenario.

It happens all the time, especially on college campuses: attractive and/or perfectly nice girls date not-so-nice guys. And it only leaves me wondering - why???

And that is the reason I have come up with this list - because it's easier than doing my work and because it's more fun than doing my work, too. That being written, here are a couple explanations, albeit overly-generalized, not always true, and not really all-inclusive, that might shed a bit of insight on this inexplicable phenomenon.

The Top 13 Reasons Why Attractive Girls Date Jerks

No. 1. Low self-esteem.
Sometimes, really attractive (and/or talented) girls don't realize how attractive and talented they actually are, so they settle for guys that are jerks.
No. 2. The fear factor.
Let's face it - deep down inside, way too many of us are afraid of not having a significant other at all in our lives, so much so that we're willing to date someone who doesn't treat us well enough.
No. 3. Physical attraction.
If you don't want a serious relationship but you do want to have fun without the emotional entanglements, then dating a jerk is definitely the way to go.
No. 4. Inexperience.
The simple and unfortunate truth of the matter is that some college girls just don't know any better at this point in the game.
No. 5. The enigma factor.
It's hard to explain, but, for some reason, some girls like it when guys have something to hide - it's as if the less a guy says (no matter how much of a jerk he actually is), the more a girl is attracted to him. And then, there's...
No. 6. The surprise factor.
You know when you're watching a really great, action-packed film and you think you have the personality of the "bad guy" figured out, but then the he does something that completely surprises you 10 minutes before the end of the movie? (Slumdog Millionaire is a perfect example of this.) Makes a girl think - there's always the possibility that your jerk of a boyfriend might surprise you in the end, too, right?
No. 7. Potential for change she can believe in.
Despite copious amounts of evidence to the contrary, you can't change a guy if he's not willing to change himself. You can try and try and try, but sometimes when a guy is a jerk once, he's always a jerk. Some things never change, like a person's...
No. 8. Reputation.
A lot of the time, guys who are jerks can get away with it because they have other things going for them - an IQ that parallels Einstein, a musical ability to sing Bob Dylan like no other (like one of my favorite female artists, Adele), or an athletic talent to throw 3-pointers better than Marcus Jordan.
No. 9. Less pressure.
(Something Michael Jordan's son probably never experienced in his lifetime.) If you're not dating someone who's nice to you, there's less of a reason for you to be nice to them, too. Not to mention, if things don't work out between the two of you, no one will fault you for breaking up with him. Although, that's not to say some girls can't handle...
No. 10. More drama.
Dating a nice guy is just oh-so-boring - they're always complimenting you, giving you way too much attention, telling you how beautiful you look, etc., etc. If you date a jerk, though, you can complain 24/7 to all your friends and get a lot more attention.
No. 11. Deviations from the norm.
There are, at times, however, those rare moments of kindness, when he doesn't degrade you or belittle your every action; those exceptions to his general tendency of being a jerk, the niceties that are few and far between - they're just enough to keep you in a suboptimal relationship.
No. 12. He used to be nice.
But as soon as he started dating a girl as attractive as you, he started to take it for granted and turned into a bona fide jerk. I guess, when that happens, a girl can always feign...
No. 13. Apathy and/or affinity.
Sometimes an attractive girl just doesn't particularly care if a guy is a jerk, and other times, she's actually attracted to a guy who treats her like she's worthless - a sentiment that might stem from a multitude of factors (the most common of them being some sort of dysfunctional relationship between her father and mother, which left her thinking that all guys were jerks and that all relationships were supposed to hurt).

It's true that sometimes jerks do get the girl first, and nice guys end up finishing last. But, at least the nice guys get the nice girls in the end, right? For the betterment of humanity, let's hope so.

Maybe eugenics is only a good thing if scientists happen to discover a gene for niceness and parents selectively choose to have offspring with that gene... that's an idea I could actually use for my paper.