My Perfect Woman #5: World View

This post is the introductory volume of a five-part series detailing those characteristics that would be present in what I would consider a "perfect" woman. To start things off, we'll look at the world view I'd want her to have.

1. Decent

I am socially very liberal, mostly because I deny the right of any person to dictate the limits of acceptable behavior to others. Carried to it's logical extreme this principle would result in anarchy, but I do not demand that it be pushed quite that far. But what I do expect, and would require in even a tolerable woman (let alone a perfect one) is a decent respect for the self-determinative rights of others. She doesn't have to like homosexuality, but I expect her to support gay marriage. She may dislike religion, but I require her to protect it's free exercise. She may disapprove of affirmative action, but she has to hate racism.

2. Irreligious (at least somewhat)

I am an atheist. My perfect girl need not be herself. I don't need someone who thinks the same way I do. It wouldn't really bother me if she did identify with a particular religion. But I couldn't countenance a fundamentalist, especially one that seeks to push her views on the rest of the country or to legislate her particular brand of morality. The only other view I couldn't accept is someone with no opinion. It's alright if she had a faith. It's alright if she didn't. It's not alright if she never thought about it.

3. Objective

Objectivity is very important to me. Too many people now, especially in the political arena, determine a desirable conclusion and then tailor their positions (and their "facts") to suit. I find this practice intellectually bankrupt, and indeed one of the greatest bulwarks protecting prejudice and inequity. My perfect woman is someone who values rationality, can admit when she's wrong, and is willing to surrender the blind comfort of partisanship for the admittedly less reassuring, but ultimately more rewarding rigors of objectivity.

4. Curious

My perfect woman is someone who thinks about the world. She wonders why things are one way and not the other. What other people consider useless trivia she sees as a window whose view affords a more complete picture of life. She doesn't have to be an existentialist like me, but she should have an opinion on the subject.

5. Restive

I would want a person who was motivated by a perpetual, and insatiable, appetite for life. Even though she'd be a better person than anyone would ever need, still she should be worse than she wants to be. I'm not looking for a perfectionist. In fact, I have very little use for perfection, and a good deal of suspicion for those who pursue it. But what I do want is someone who is never satisfied with the status quo.