The DHG

The DHG

Many of the things I'll write about in this space are ones which I've considered sharing with a broader audience for a long time. In particular, many of the topics I'll cover will revolve around things my friends and I used to spend countless hours debating and discussing, for no compelling reason other than they were either:

A) fun to talk about while drunk
B) a way to pass the time at lunch
C) a way to pass the time during work (don't long and pointless email chains rock?)
D) fun to talk about while getting drunk

The first such topic I'll cover will be The DHG.

What is the DHG you ask? Well it's an acronym I coined several years ago (no really, I coined it) to capture the most mysterious of phenomena: the Disproportionately Hot Girlfriend. A little confused? Perhaps this picture will help:

Still not clear? What about this one:

Ok so these really aren't the best pictures to represent what I'm trying to capture (well, maybe the second one is) but unfortunately, these were the best I could come up with after searching Google Images with strings like "hot girlfriend ugly boyfriend" and "cute girl ugly guy" . . .

I can't tell you how many couples I've seen where a DHG is involved . . . now I know there are several arguments and or hypotheses behind why the DHG exists and I'll try to summarize the majority of them here:

1) she's insecure and being with an "unattractive" guy makes her feel more comfortable that he won't run around on her
2) he has a trust fund
3) he has certain abilities that are prized by the superficial woman (he's great in bed)
4) he's really "nice"
5) he has other indefinable qualities that transcend the norms of what she's expecting from a man . . . (he's REALLY great in bed)
6) they have a long history together, probably got together in high school and/or college when she wasn't capable of realizing she could do "better", and the comfort of their bond keeps her from leaving him

I know there are countless other reasons why she could be with him but for now, I think the list above will suffice. Also, I know that by calling out such a phenomenon (as well as the aforementioned reasons for it), it might sound like I'm an overly critical, disrespectful, and inconsiderate jerk . . . and anything but a romantic . . . however, nothing could be further from the truth . . . (although opinions vary).

In my mind, our calling out and discussion of the DHG was (and always has been) rooted in fun but more importantly, I think that in the back of our minds, the curiosity and wonder was always based on our fascination with relationships, and with why we were single and the "ugly" guy wasn't. In particular, rather than work harder on meeting someone or try to improve our own dating situations, we chose to critique and blast those more fortunate than us . . . I guess you could call this "taking pleasure in the fortune of others"? Better than "taking pleasure in the misfortune of others" . . . right? I say pleasure because there would always be an absurd amount of laughter involved . . . up until one of us would get serious and say something like "NO REALLY - WHY THE ^$%#* IS SHE WITH THAT GUY?! IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE! WHAT THE $#^#!" . . . (for the record, the guy that usually brought this to the table was the single one).

At the end of the day, I think the DHG speaks to the beauty and randomness of relationships and how what might appear to be strange and/or visually disconcerting on the outside can possess something very real and compelling beneath the surface . . . or the guy could just be good in bed :)