[tempaccount9473]

> Well, there seems to be a lot of assumptions baked into this theory, but one I think is most likely to sink it is this one: Attractive women are, on average, less intelligent and capable than their less attractive counterparts. Seems a bit prejudicial to me.

No, that's not what's being postulated.

Let's stipulate for a moment that attractiveness and intelligence are completely independent. Imagine you have a pool of 1000 men and 1000 women with a standard distribution of looks and ability. Let's say you hire the top 10% of the men in terms of ability, and you also hire the top 10% of women in terms of attractiveness. When it comes time to promote your executives based on ability, you will have 10 men in the top one percent of ability to choose from, as opposed to 1 woman with the same qualifications.