Does it take more, or less, "academic cleverness" to appear sophisticated in gender studies vs., say, mathematics?

[Common Sense]

Cleverness, being academic, sophistication and knowledge are not all the same thing.

I've worked with many academics who were usually knowledgeable in their field but were not sophisticated or clever.

I don't generally follow the MRAs in any detail, but did see Elam in one debate. He started out great, pointing to many irrefutable instances of feminists pushing unequal policies. I thought he had the debate won right there. There was no way his opponent could deny what he said. Rather than address his excellent points, his opponent started attacking him and he fell for it. Rather than getting his opposition to explain the many great points he made, he instead spent the rest of the debate defending himself. He was knowledgeable about the issues, but his opponent was a much more clever debater