Elaine Benes as played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus

The reason for this post is not to focus on my unrealistic aspirations to date and hopefully marry Elaine Benes, but to respond to the unanimous disapproval I find in people's reaction to this. Men and Women alike, find this odd and perplexing. Women usually laugh, simultaneously shaking their head in disapproval, while men look puzzled and disagree. Moderates might pause, then agree on a passive level, but no one has ever understood or shared my sentiment.

Several questions come to mind. A: Am I crazy? B: Is Benes/Dreyfus really just average at best? Or C: Is it her presentation on Seinfeld? Maybe, because she is not presented as a sex symbol and all of the cues aren't there, Men don't pick up on it. Has baggy dresses, funny hair and an absence of overt sexiness left her undetected on most men's radar?

I gravitate towards C, but how could this be? There is always the Baywatch constituency, but forget them. What about the rest of us? Do men really need to see a woman dressed in flattering clothes and portrayed in a sexy light to see her inherent qualities? Are we that predictable? A dangerous question maybe, but I would like to believe in this day and age we don't need our hands held through the screening process to that extent. To me, it's plain to see that with Elaine, we have a keeper on our hands, and the diversions of modest dress, funny hair and a tomboyish predisposition are only testaments to that.



As for women, I only understand this phenomenon less. Elaine is feminine, intelligent and breaks the confining female stereotypes portrayed by most Hollywood stars. She's not overly well-dressed or larger than life, takes pride in her intellectual prowess, jokes with the guys/hangs with the girls and is unabashed in her desire to date at her own will, on her own terms. What's the problem?

Upon further consideration, I've come to this: People do not exercise free will. People don't so much have independent preferences, as much as an adherence to popular opinion. Popular opinion is influenced by various contributing factors, and in this case, one of them is the presentation of a character on a TV show. Elaine isn't supposed to be hot, so she isn't. I would argue, if Elaine was written as an object of sexual desire and hung with a pack of vixens instead of 3 neurotic guys, little boys would have Elaine posters on their walls and men would buy magazines with her face on the cover. It has nothing to do with Julia Louis-Dreyfus' beauty or lack there of, but Elaine's presentation on the TV show.

What is most unsettling to me, is the character of Elaine is attractive to me. What does this make me? And more confusing still, my admiration is double pronged. The woman I think is beautiful and electrifying is Julia Louis-Dreyfus, but the woman I am attracted to is Elaine, who is essentially Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. All her neuroses, preferences and catch phrases are Larry and Jerry, but her beauty, physical comedy and judaism is Julia.

I don't know where I'm going with this, I guess this is an open letter to my friends and strangers who don't share my sentiment. What's the problem people? Why am I alone on this? And Julia, I don't like your new show, what can you do? But I stand behind you, and am jealous of your husband. My roomate had professors who had you in their classes at Northwestern, they said your personality then was not a far cry from Elaine on Seinfeld. There is hope.