What exactly is wonderful about being "Blonde"

August1991 · November 20, 2007

The Blonde Mystique has three hosts: Straight-haired brunette Angela Case, who is an actress and a Kokanee beer girl; curly-haired brunette Karen Holness, a Vancouver-based actress; and blond-haired Aubrey Arnason, an actress and power-skating instructor who is the daughter of former NHLer Chuck Arnason and the sister of current NHLer Tyler Arnason.
At one point in The Blonde Mystique, Angela, Karen and Aubrey each position themselves beside a disabled car, just to see how many people will stop and help.

The brunettes each have two cars stop in 30 minutes. The blond gets seven.

But blond Aubrey also gets the most innocently accusatory questions from those who have paused to lend a hand, such as, "Are you sure you have gas?"

...

It also has been suggested that blond hair in females appeals to the male ego. Males see something helpless and child-like in those golden locks and blue eyes, something that needs to be rescued.

But blonds also are stereotyped as dumb and sexually promiscuous. During a bar scene in The Blonde Mystique, blond-haired Aubrey gets the most attention from cruising males, but she also gets bluntly propositioned more frequently, and even inappropriately fondled.

Link

M.Dancer · November 20, 2007

However statistically speaking "Redheads" are meaner and more sarcastic than blondes.
Moxie study c. 2007.

Well, my son has hair straight from the highlands....I can attest hat he can be as sarcastic as a 3 1/2 can posibly be, the prize for meaness goes to his flaxen blond sister.

Brain Candy · December 11, 2007

I belive blonde hair and b;ue eyes are naturally attractive qualities though i possess neither of those trates. The dumb blonde thing is a myth though most of the blondes and, indeed, most of the lighter skinned people in general i meet at my university are arguements against white supremacy.

heretoday · February 4, 2009

It is part of a fashion fad. A way of thinking promoted by....who else? Hollywood!
According to them, "blondes have more fun!" Just ask Marilyn and the other va-va-voom starlets of yesteryears.

Evidence seems to suggest that it is a lot more complex than a fashion fad and the actual source older than the 1953 "Blondes have More Fun" Film - many other things demonstrate that the stereotype was alive and well long before that. This is a subject of much focus in a blog I manage called "Blondes vs. Brunettes" which attempts to resolve this issue. I invite you all to have a look. Input is more than welcomed.

Thanks

http://blondes--vs--brunettes.blogspot.com/

RB · February 4, 2009

can women afford not to be blonde?

blondes are more desirable, they get all the help and seem to have more advantage over brunettes

kimmy · February 6, 2009

Evidence seems to suggest that it is a lot more complex than a fashion fad and the actual source older than the 1953 "Blondes have More Fun" Film - many other things demonstrate that the stereotype was alive and well long before that. This is a subject of much focus in a blog I manage called "Blondes vs. Brunettes" which attempts to resolve this issue. I invite you all to have a look. Input is more than welcomed.
Thanks

http://blondes--vs--brunettes.blogspot.com/

Thank you for the link. I'd been searching for information on the subject just a couple of days ago, oddly enough.

I have believed for a long time that the stereotype does exist in the real world, and not just in the form of those stupid jokes. And a couple of studies reported on your blog definitely support my suspicion.

Once upon a time on another message board there was a discussion about stereotypes (in reference to tattoos and piercings, specifically) and I had said that people make assumptions about all of us based on our appearance, and that purposefully acquiring visual cues that will influence these assumptions for the worse was a foolish choice. I mentioned that I had an interview for a technically-oriented job coming up soon and was strongly considering coloring my hair because I thought I'd have a better chance of being taken seriously if I was brunette (even though I look ghastly in brunette.) The politically correct inhabitants of that message board howled and jeered derision on me for the comment. "When has being blonde ever hurt anyone's chances of getting a job?" In their minds, discrimination was something that only happens to brown people and homosexuals, I guess. But I have experimented with different hair colors at different times in my life, and did feel as if people reacted differently to me when I had different hair colors. People have told me that it was probably just in my head, or that perhaps I acted differently when I had different hair color. There was never any hard evidence, just my gut instinct. But this article will come in handy next time this topic comes up.

-k

{I didn't dye my hair for the interview. And I didn't get the job. And while I'd love to use that as an excuse, the truth is that I was underqualified.}

BC_chick · February 6, 2009

can women afford not to be blonde?
blondes are more desirable, they get all the help and seem to have more advantage over brunettes

Yahoo.ca had a frontpage article a few days ago about a recent poll about Canadians and their preference for hair colour. 'The Results May Surprise You' the caption said... apparently the hierarchy of hair preference for Canadians is as follows - brunettes, black hair (weird, I always used the two interchangeably), then blond, then redhead. I've been searching for that article since this thread caught my eye, but I can't find it. Sorry.

In any case, I don't buy it. I'm a brunette and I can't complain about the attention I get, but it's nothing compared to the one night I experienced life as a blond. It was Halloween and a friend dressed me up. For the final touch I was wearing a blond wig and wow, what a difference. Men of all shapes, colours, ages and social backgrounds were gawking at me everywhere I went. Even from a distance as I sat in the back of a car, it seemed like every pedestrian and every car that pulled up next to us was trying to get a better glimpse of my face.

It felt like that Eddie Murphy clip on SNL where he's white and all of a sudden he's living in a parallel universe.

Shows like Dateline have also documented the same phenomenon by sending the same person to the same place wearing different colour wigs. The results are no different than my one night as a blond. I think men who 'prefer' brunettes do so subconsciously and instinctively because there's less competition for their mate that way. That's why most often you'll find a beautiful blond on the arm of the alpha male, it's the ultimate symbol of their security with the competition.

To get to your question about how can women afford not to be a blond? Easy. Well, for me anyway. First and foremost, there's the 'me' factor. I like me. Why do I want to be something so drastically different than the real me unless I didn't *really* like me? Second, if you have light hair and have blond highlights, it's one thing. But there is nothing more disgusting (IMO) than dark roots on a head of blond hair. I could not imagine having to do my roots every 2-3 weeks. Third, imagine a world where every woman is a peroxide blond.

Edited February 6, 2009 by BC_chick

WIP · February 6, 2009

I belive blonde hair and b;ue eyes are naturally attractive qualities though i possess neither of those trates.

And there are underlying physical reasons why so many men are more attracted to blondes:

Ice age blondes were hot stuff

Anyone who has a strong affinity for women with blue eyes and golden locks can thank the last ice age, according to a recent study in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior........

As a result, Frost wrote that traits such as lighter hair color and blue eyes would have held more allure for prehistoric men, since all other women would have had brown hair and darker eyes.

According to an article in The London Times, other research supports Frost’s claims. For example, some recent studies have suggested that blond hair is a sign of a woman having high estrogen levels, traditionally a sign of fertility.

Just like the hourglass figure and full lips, the blue eyed blondes are not preferred by so many men just for novelty reasons alone.......at an unconscious level, we are somehow able to identify these traits of higher fertility even though we haven't understood the reasons why these features make a woman look more attractive to us until the scientists doing the chemical analysis gave us the lab results.

BigAl · February 6, 2009

-- at which point I started to regret reviving this thread.
-- at this point I stopped reading! Aaahhh!

This made me laugh my ass off. I needed this first thing in the morning; thank you. And for what it's worth, I couldn't care less about a woman's hair colour...it's all in the eyes.

Argus · February 6, 2009

can women afford not to be blonde?
blondes are more desirable, they get all the help and seem to have more advantage over brunettes

Two anecdotal tales.

I know a brunette who was a dyed blonde, very attractive, who got promoted into a job where she was the administrative assistant to an executive. She decided to die her hair brown again, and claimed that she got much more respect thereafter.

I know another girl who is, ironically, in the same position - vacated by the previous one. She is probably a brunette, but she's dyed blonde. Recently she got a boob job to er, enhance her portfolio, as they say. She really likes the attention she gets now.

I'm aware that lighter skinned/haired individuals have been seen as more attractive in a wide variety of cultures for a very long time. But how much of the "image" of blondes in Western society is a self-perpetuating myth is open to speculation. Are blondes sluttier and more "bimboish" than brunettes? Well, the ones who deliberately colour their hair might well be, as they are seeking attention, seeking that kind of reputation, wanting to be seen as more sexually attractive. But this is all cultural, not genetic.

jbg · February 6, 2009

However statistically speaking "Redheads" are meaner and more sarcastic than blondes.

I was a redhead till I was 13. My son is a redhead.

I take exception to your humiliation and encouraging hatred of an identifiable group, redheads.

Oleg Bach · February 6, 2009

I was a redhead till I was 13. My son is a redhead.
I take exception to your humiliation and encouraging hatred of an identifiable group, redheads.

There is nothing more firey and sexy than a snow white skinned Celtic red headed woman - if they are good looking - pure adventure! Getting to the blonde thing - It's a soothing colour vibration..that nature has created - natural blondes visually present themselves as safe and trust worth and not wicked --- It's the white light thing that represents goodness...nothing more insidious and pitiful than a say and achor woman on CNN who is the classically bred Jew - with the dark eyes and jet black hair - Who dyes it blonde so she will not look like a sinister witch...taking about the less attractive Jewish woman - same as the Italians who are not of northern stock --- they dye their hair blonde - the dark eye brows are a dead give away as are the dark eyes - most real blondes are blue - grey or green eyed...everyone wants to look good - some races that have a nasty disposition genetifcally because of corrupt in-breeding practices....just look sinister - look at the old Italian ladies dressed in black - professional widows most of them....Blondes are almost extinct on the planet....and what is left are mimics who like to present themselves as the ideal.

Argus · February 6, 2009

There is nothing more firey and sexy than a snow white skinned Celtic red headed woman - if they are good looking - pure adventure!

Oleg, stop... you're turning me on.

Oleg Bach · February 6, 2009

Oleg, stop... you're turning me on.

As a little white haired blonde kid I was facinated by this type of female- something to do with genetic memory - maybe I plundered and pilaged them while wearing my horned helmet? The are so totally female - but the stero-typical temper that inhabits the hearts of such creatures is to be respected. Yes - I would say a lanky celtic princess wandering across the barrens by the ocean wearing flowing white statin is a sight to behold. If I could go back in time...awh... The are not like the hardy potatoe picking brood mares made for child birth - they are heavenly and pure pleasure combined with sweet feminine wiles - that have not at trace of masculine inclination - shall I tell you more?

kimmy · February 7, 2009

Yahoo.ca had a frontpage article a few days ago about a recent poll about Canadians and their preference for hair colour. 'The Results May Surprise You' the caption said... apparently the hierarchy of hair preference for Canadians is as follows - brunettes, black hair (weird, I always used the two interchangeably), then blond, then redhead. I've been searching for that article since this thread caught my eye, but I can't find it. Sorry.
In any case, I don't buy it. I'm a brunette and I can't complain about the attention I get, but it's nothing compared to the one night I experienced life as a blond. It was Halloween and a friend dressed me up. For the final touch I was wearing a blond wig and wow, what a difference. Men of all shapes, colours, ages and social backgrounds were gawking at me everywhere I went. Even from a distance as I sat in the back of a car, it seemed like every pedestrian and every car that pulled up next to us was trying to get a better glimpse of my face.

Not exactly related to your experience, BC-Chick, but I was under the impression that you were Asian? It seems to me you mentioned that in talking about why you won't vote CPC.

If that's the case, I have to point out that it adds a different factor to the experience: blonde Asians are pretty darned rare. I suspect most peoples' exposure to blonde Asian women is limited to nude pictures of Tila Tequila.

But yes, I think you're right.

I don't think guys catch a glimpse of blond hair and assume the chick is hot. I think they glimpse the hair, ask themselves "is she hot?" and go on about their business once they've satisfied their curiosity. I've seen this while waitressing... a table of guys sees a blonde from behind, point her out to each other, and watch until she turns around, at which point they go "oh" and completely forget about her. (Or, sometimes they go "eww" and completely forget about her, in fact.)

Shows like Dateline have also documented the same phenomenon by sending the same person to the same place wearing different colour wigs. The results are no different than my one night as a blond. I think men who 'prefer' brunettes do so subconsciously and instinctively because there's less competition for their mate that way. That's why most often you'll find a beautiful blond on the arm of the alpha male, it's the ultimate symbol of their security with the competition.

It sounds as if being blonde would be a big asset if one wishes to become a trophy, attract a mate who will provide everything for you. The studies mentioned above indicate it's anything but an asset if you aspire to achieve things for yourself. The segment from the TV program August mentioned above illustrates it perfectly... more people stopped to rescue the blonde, but they all asked her if she remembered to put gas in the car. Being blonde can certainly get you attention, but the attention it gets you is not necessarily the sort of attention you'd want.

A close friend of mine was "the" blonde when she was in high school. Her looks got her into the right clique, invited to all the right parties, got her access to the boys that the other girls wished they had access to... ultimately it led her into booze, drugs, and adult men, which is not something she was emotionally ready for as a 16 year old. She is now a survivor of serial rapes, substance abuse, multiple suicide attempts, and she works as a stripper. And she is currently worried that she's being stalked. She could attract any man she wished... but she is afraid of them.

When people talk about how unfair it is that outer appearance makes such a difference to peoples' lives, there seems to be the built in assumption that it's the attractive people who benefit and the unattractive people who suffer. I think my friend's life would have turned out a lot different if she were tubby and plain.

-k

Oleg Bach · February 7, 2009

All the well to do men from good families who are not good looking seem to have landed pretty good looking wives. It really does not matter what you look like as far as being on top of the heap. Privledge has a lot to do with it. Now there is a trend with music and the visual arts to push the new beautiful. What was considered good looks back in the 30's is now forgotten - and that plain girl with the low class demeanor and looks back in high school is now the new beauty - real beauty has been trounced. Everything is make up and artifical hair these days - take a bucket of water and toss it on the new age starlett and she looks like a drowned rat. I see resentment for the natural beauties of Iran and Afghanistan - it's just ugly western spite and jealousy - the new western look is that of the whore...plain and compliant.

BC_chick · February 7, 2009

It sounds as if being blonde would be a big asset if one wishes to become a trophy, attract a mate who will provide everything for you. The studies mentioned above indicate it's anything but an asset if you aspire to achieve things for yourself. The segment from the TV program August mentioned above illustrates it perfectly... more people stopped to rescue the blonde, but they all asked her if she remembered to put gas in the car. Being blonde can certainly get you attention, but the attention it gets you is not necessarily the sort of attention you'd want.
A close friend of mine was "the" blonde when she was in high school. Her looks got her into the right clique, invited to all the right parties, got her access to the boys that the other girls wished they had access to... ultimately it led her into booze, drugs, and adult men, which is not something she was emotionally ready for as a 16 year old. She is now a survivor of serial rapes, substance abuse, multiple suicide attempts, and she works as a stripper. And she is currently worried that she's being stalked. She could attract any man she wished... but she is afraid of them.

When people talk about how unfair it is that outer appearance makes such a difference to peoples' lives, there seems to be the built in assumption that it's the attractive people who benefit and the unattractive people who suffer. I think my friend's life would have turned out a lot different if she were tubby and plain.

I agree completely. I have a beautiful friend now, not blond but really beautiful brunette, and it's really sad to see how much she damages herself because the only thing she seems to have any pride about is her looks. And even that she's insecure about because we're now in our 30's and starting to mature and she's so preoccupied about it. I can sort of relate as I was quite shallow myself when I was younger, but as I started to excel at other things in life and became more well-rounded, looks weren't everything. I couldn't care about attracting the alpha males anymore either, yes the two do go hand in hand.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's nice when women of any hair colour take care of themselves, but it's a whole other thing when your looks are the only thing that you've got. I say that because we all inevitably age. Cate Blanchett, in discussing plastic surgery, mentioned that no matter how much people get pulled, you can still see fear in the eyes. It's so true, the people who take it to extremes and end up destitute are the kind who never learned to value themselves for anything other than their outward appearance.

Oleg Bach · February 7, 2009

My hair was the naturally platinum blonde most of my youth - and I was taken up by some pretty fancey woman - and dumped once the novelty wore off - I got hurt being pretty.. :rolleyes:

kimmy · February 9, 2009

I agree completely. I have a beautiful friend now, not blond but really beautiful brunette, and it's really sad to see how much she damages herself because the only thing she seems to have any pride about is her looks. And even that she's insecure about because we're now in our 30's and starting to mature and she's so preoccupied about it.
(...trimmed so that Charles won't chop the whole thing )

It's so true, the people who take it to extremes and end up destitute are the kind who never learned to value themselves for anything other than their outward appearance.

I think the way we see ourselves is to some degree shaped by the way others see us and react to us.

I'm sure a ton of research has been done on that topic in regard to how racial stereotypes affect peoples' self image, but I think the same principle applies quite broadly. If your friend has learned her whole life that her beauty is what people value her for, then at some point it sinks in that this is who she is and what she has going for her and how she gets what she wants in life.

I think that to some degree the people around us set us on our direction, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse.

You're probably all aware that I imagine myself to be terribly clever, but it might surprise you to learn that this wasn't always the case. I never used to think of myself as being very bright at all. I cruised through school with minimal effort, and got "ok" grades despite frequently skipping classes, ditching assignments, and hardly studying at all. Nobody ever expected better from me, not my parents or any of my teachers and certainly not myself. I was meeting what little expctations anyone had for me at school, so nobody ever told me to try harder or challenged me to actually achieve anything in school.

Academics were for my little brother; my parents pushed me at other things. First singing and dancing, which I hated and was not good at. Realizing the Shirley Temple thing was not going to work, they got me into gymnastics, and figure skating, and diving, all of which I physically outgrew. Having run out of "cute" activities for their little golden-haired princess, it was on to judo and swimming and track and basketball and soccer, all of which I enjoyed and excelled at. That was the family Christmas card every year: Kimmy did very well in sports, and Ed did very well at school.

But the Sporty Kimmy identity my parents had helped me build was as stupid as their first idea, Singing Dancing Kimmy. Being good at sports is useless once you're out of high school. I had no idea what to do next. I'm still sort of piecing things together.

And ... it's hard for me to know what role peoples' expectations played. I don't have a brunette sister to compare notes with. Maybe she'd have received the same sort of direction in life from mom and dad. Or maybe not. Would they have tried to push a brown-haired daughter into singing and dancing? If I'd been plain or bespectacled or fat, would I have been encouraged to think in terms of a career instead of frivilous nonsense? If I'd been brown-haired or fat or bespectacled, would a teacher at some point have tapped me on the shoulder and said "you could do a lot better," or is the school system so numb that only the most dismal cases get the attention they need? I don't know.

A couple of years ago I did attend university, partly to find out if it was for me, and partly to spite mom (who had said it would be "a big waste of money". I paid every cent of it from my own pocket.) I signed up for the toughest possible schedule of math and science courses, and finished with an "A" average. I haven't had the opportunity to continue, and I'm not sure I ever will, but proving something to myself and to certain others was important for me.

-k

Oleg Bach · February 9, 2009

Out of the whole population on earth - the white skin pale eyed blonde human is nearly extinct! There is a drive to wipe us off the planet and blend the races to a pale brown...we are the last....of the demi-gods...and they hate what they wrongly believe are Hitlers dream children...It's not our fault that the dark haired semi-jewish Hitler...exaulted us to a postion that we did not ask for - The UN - believes that once were are gone the world will be better ----- but - once we are gone - a darkness will decend on the earth - we are good people and not the blue eyed wolves of myth.

WIP · February 9, 2009

Out of the whole population on earth - the white skin pale eyed blonde human is nearly extinct! There is a drive to wipe us off the planet and blend the races to a pale brown...we are the last....of the demi-gods...

Maybe you should stop reading those Nazi and fascist websites! There is no drive to wipe out the white race, regardless of what David Duke, Pat Buchanan and the folks who write stuff for the Christian Identity movement try to claim.

This crap about wiping out the white race, and those ni****s who want to sully our white girls and foul our pure white bloodline belongs in the last century, not this one! If you want racial purity, go to one of those Mormon compounds with all of the deformed children -- lots of racial purity there!

kimmy · February 11, 2009

The "blondes are becoming extinct!" story was a hoax played on the media a few years ago by someone (I believe he created hoaxes as a hobby, although I can't recall for sure) who purported to be from the World Health Organization and forwarded this "research" to a variety of media outlets, which bought into it hook, line, and sinker.

CTV looked particularly foolish. Their reporter on the streets found a couple of blonde teenagers, who he asked if they'd be willing to help propagate the blonde gene for future generations by having sex with blond guys.

Tee hee.

I don't believe the reporter was blond, but he came off looking like by far the bigger idiot, even before the fake WHO report was revealed as a hoax.

-k

kimmy · February 11, 2009

Out of the whole population on earth - the white skin pale eyed blonde human is nearly extinct! There is a drive to wipe us off the planet and blend the races to a pale brown...we are the last....of the demi-gods...and they hate what they wrongly believe are Hitlers dream children...It's not our fault that the dark haired semi-jewish Hitler...exaulted us to a postion that we did not ask for - The UN - believes that once were are gone the world will be better ----- but - once we are gone - a darkness will decend on the earth - we are good people and not the blue eyed wolves of myth.

And yet last week you posted ...

The mutant blue eyed whites are and will always be the cruelest and most politely preditorial creatures on earth. In some cultures they are refered to as the blue eyed wolves...and the rest are sheep...just like the idea of democracy that the whites so embrace....can be explained as "Two wolves and one sheep VOTING on what's for dinner".

-k

RB · February 11, 2009

Studies from the University of Paris X-Nanterre show that the same effect of walking and talking slowly in front of the elderly that men mimic the "blonde bimbo" stereotype and actually become say less intelligent. Men actually lose their heads when confronted with interaction with blondes.

Edited February 11, 2009 by RB

Argus · February 11, 2009

Studies from the University of Paris X-Nanterre show that the same effect of walking and talking slowly in front of the elderly that men mimic the "blonde bimbo" stereotype and actually become say less intelligent. Men actually lose their heads when confronted with interaction with blondes.

Only temporarily, and we don't need them as we're busy thinking with our other heads...