Dumb blonde
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The dumb blonde is a stereotype typically applied to women (but may be applied to men) with blonde hair color, which achieved a degree of prominence in popular usage. Several notable actresses have been labelled "dumb blondes", Marilyn Monroe and Suzanne Somers (due to her role as Chrissy Snow on Three's Company) being perhaps two of the most notable examples. Dolly Parton is an example of a singer who used this image to her own benefit, singing songs such as "Dumb Blonde". Goldie Hawn is best known for playing a dumb blonde in several roles, including the stage persona she used on Laugh-In. Jessica Simpson is famous for her 'real life' dumb blonde persona. Paris Hilton is also considered a prominent dumb blonde judging on her many escapades that leak into the tabloids and the media. The bimbo is a similar stereotype, though a bimbo can have any hair color.
There is a common category of jokes that employ the dumb-blonde stereotype for their effect. They usually have a blonde asking the other person in the joke a very stupid question, only to give an even more stupid answer herself.
The stereotype is not helped by blonde female celebrities putting on "dumb blonde" images to gain media attention and to be seen as "cute". Women like Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton and UK Big Brother stars Chantelle Houghton and Helen Adams have done this. Often, the women who play up to the stereotype are not actually stupid and are not natural blondes either.
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[edit] Origins
It is not known clearly how this stereotype came to be, but seeing that Caucasian babies are often born with at least a touch of fair hair, and sometimes blond hair darkens as a person grows into an adult, blond hair could have come from that association of fair hair with childhood and youth, and therefore the person was seen as naïve and/or innocent and lacking the intelligence of an adult. Also, as blonde hair implies childishness, it can instill a desire to nurture among non-blondes and cause blondes to be the target of admiration. This may cause some blondes to behave in a childish manner, either unconsciously or consciously, in order to gain attention and affection. Thus some blondes may be partly responsible for perpetuating the myth.
A possible origin is that dark hair and red hair have much more copper because of their coloring; copper was associated with intellect, and since fair hair has less copper due to its lightness, blondes were seen as less intelligent.
The stereotype could have its roots in ancient times; the ancient Greeks and Romans were fascinated by the fair hair of the Celts and the Nordic peoples and wished to emulate their red and flaxen tresses. People in the Mediterranean area often bleached their hair or bought wigs made from the hair of enslaved Germanic and Celtic peoples, and most notably the highest-ranking courtesans. Due to this association of red and fair hair with harlots, light hair earned a degree of contempt from the high-ranking ladies of society. Puritans, associating makeup and dyeing of hair with prostitution, forbade the dying or bleaching of hair, creating an imprint on dying hair that lasted until the 1920s. The "dumb" side could have been a way for wives of adulterous men to reassure themselves about the infidelity of their husbands; to think that their husband's blonde mistress was sleazy, worthless, ditzy, and not very intelligent[1].
Another possibility: the bleach used to lighten the hair in earlier times was powerful. If this bleach killed off brain cells it might have produced some genuinely "dumb blondes".
Yet again, the myth might stem from the idea amongst Romans and Greeks that Northern Europeans were barbarians and thus less advanced than Southern Europeans.
Or the "dumb blonde" stereotype could simply have come from modern potrayals, beginning very likely with Anita Loos's popular 1925 book Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The story's central character, Lorelei Lee, is a beautiful but empty-headed singer. The roles that Marilyn Monroe, Judy Holliday, Jayne Mansfield, and Betty Hutton played certainly helped to spread the stereotype; all of these women played the "ditzy blonde bombshell" at some point, even though they were known privately as intelligent women. (Monroe even played the Lorelei Lee role in a musical version of Loos's book.)
Reality TV shows like Big Brother in the UK also contribute to the stereotype. Since the series began in 2000, the show has hand 1 or 2 so-called "dumb blondes" as contestants on each series. Often the woman are hired for the show due to portraying themselves that way or are then edited to be seen that way. Almost all these woman are actually naturally brunette, such as Chantelle Houghton, Nikki Grahame and Helen Adams. Despite this, intelligent natural blondes like Shell Jubin who has an Art History degree and Vanessa Nimmo as well as Grace Adams-Short have also been on the show.
Newspapers and magazines also play a big part in the blonde stereotype. Blonde jokes and labelling of blondes as "dumb" or "bimbos" are a regular thing in the media.
In modern day society, the blonde stereotypes are often used by scorned men who have been dumped or feel betrayed by a blonde woman or by brunette women who don't like the fact that blonde women are still very popular with the opposite sex and often considered more attractive than brunettes or redheads. This often leads to blonde women being berated or even physically attacked by other women. Nowadays, more blonde women are trying to conteract the blonde stereotype and take it as a serious insult.
Reese Witherspoon, although not considered a dumb blonde herself, plays one named Elle Woods in the Legally Blonde franchise. The franchise made Witherspoon an A List actress.
[edit] Dumb blonde Antitheses
There have been conscious efforts to subvert the stereotype with blond female fictional characters who are intelligent and appropriately serious in demeanor.
| Character | Fiction Piece |
|---|---|
| Betty Cooper | Archie Comics |
| Usagi Tsukino | Sailor Moon |
| Capt./Maj./Lt. Col. Samantha Carter | Stargate SG-1 |
| Jennifer Marlowe | WKRP in Cincinnati |
| Veronica Mars | Veronica Mars |
| Peyton Sawyer | One Tree Hill |
| Chloe Sullivan | Smallville |
| Maddie Fitzpatrick | The Suite Life of Zack and Cody |
| Claire Bennet | Heroes |
| Urumi Kanzaki | Great Teacher Onizuka |
| Mandy | Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy |
| Seven of Nine | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Kelly Bundy | Married...With Children
[edit] "Dumb Blondes" Who Aren't Natural Blondes
[edit] Brunettes/Redheads/Blondes Who Are Naturally Blonde
[edit] Essex girl
Local variants of the dumb-blonde stereotype (involving the same jokes and much the same use in popular culture) include the United Kingdom's Essex girl — a young, working class woman with an unsophisticated attitude to life. The stereotypical Essex girl wears a short skirt and high heels, and has bleached blonde hair, often pulled back in a severe style sometimes called an Essex facelift. She drinks Diamond White, a very strong cider, which makes her loud and vulgar. Nobody laughs harder at an Essex girl joke than she does. She wears white slingbacks and drives a white Ford Fiesta. Essex girl is the female counterpart of Essex man; both came into currency during the 1980s property boom, when sectors of British society enjoyed an affluence hitherto reserved for the middle classes. Latterly the Essex girl image has waned, to be replaced in part by chavette. [edit] Valley girl
Alicia Silverstone and Stacey Dash in Amy Heckerling's Clueless, played the part of two valley girls. Valley girls are stereotypically spoiled brats, usually with wealthy parents and an active but superficial social life. They live in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, use distinctive words and expressions (such as "grody to the max"), and make excessive use of "totally" and "like"; their dialect became known as Valspeak. Frank Zappa sang about these girls in his song "Valley Girl"; his daughter Moon Unit Zappa performed the Valspeak during the song, some of it improvised. [edit] See also
[edit] External links
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