I’m sure most of you have heard of the stereotype “dumb blondes.” I know I have heard it a thousand times considering I have blonde hair. I do not know how that stereotype even started. How does the color of one’s hair determine if they are smart or not? I know when people say it they mean it as a joke, but it now it has prompted me start to think if blondes are actually less smart?
In one study, researchers showed pictures of women wearing a blonde, red, and brown wig. The picture of the woman in the blonde wig was rated as less intelligent compared to the other pictures. Another study done in 2006 studied the hair color of 500 United Kingdom CEOs. The conclusion of this study was very similar to the one before. The study showed that he blonde CEOs were underrepresented in the workplace compared to the rest of the population. Lastly, these same researchers surveyed photos from a number of different magazi
nes across a couple of years. They found that there was a higher percentage of woman with blonde hair featured in the magazine than any other color. After reading these studies, it made me think more about this stereotype. It seems to me that people don’t take blonde haired woman seriously. People see them more as models or designers instead of CEOs or managers.
There are many successful blonde haired women in the workplace. The first one that came to my mind was Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a former United States Secretary of State, U.S. Senator, and First Lady of the United States. She represented New York in the U.S. Senate from 2001 to 2009. J,K. Rowling, a famous British novelist, best known as the author of the very famous Harry Potter fantasy series. Martha Stewart, an American business woman, writer, and television personality. Marissa Mayer, current president and CEO of Yahoo! Before she was president of Yahoo! she was an executive and spokesperson for Google. One physical trait that all of these woman have in common is that they are successful blonde business woman. They overcame the stereotype and showed everyone that blond-haired w
omen, can be very successful in this world.
Another question I have always wondered about this topic is which hair color do guys prefer? Many people would assume the answer to that question is blondes. However, that assumption would be incorrect. Surveys and studies have shown that guys prefer brunettes over blonde
s. Why is that? One study says this is the case because men consider brunettes healthier and therefore better life mates. Another study of 6,000 people reveal that brunettes earn a higher salary and are considered more intelligent. Men prefer brunettes over blondes by a rate of 46% to 19 %. That is a large percentage. All of these conclusions are based on the stereotype that blondes are dumb. The only way that these results will change is if people stop using stereotypes to judge a person. How can you tell if someone is smart or not by their hair color? Obviously, we know the answer is that there is no correlation between the two. One needs to learn so much more about the person before making any judgement.
As a blonde haired college student, I obviously am going to think that these stereotypes are wrong. I would say I am doing pretty well in school so far and did well in high school too. But the lesson here is so much more. People are always making judgements on others based on first impressions and one’s appearance. It is important to get to know the person. The world now is very tense with the various events happening everywhere. We have to be careful not to simply judge someone by their looks or a stereotype. Get to know someone, talk to them. More times than not, I am sure you will find that the person you have met is so much more than the stereotype or first impression you had.
And I bet you thought this blog would not have as much meaning as the title led you to believe initially. See, don’t judge a book by it’s cover or a blog by it’s title.
Essentially every physical trait possible has a stereotype associated with it and that is unfortunately based on the public’s reliance on stereotypes and societal beliefs. This blog definitely made me realize that blondes are underrepresented and have a harsh stereotype associated with them. I certainly think that this stereotype against blondes is probably as a result of the majority of people having brown hair, making blondes a minority, and automatically, easier to target with a negative stereotype. This is actually a blog written by a blonde female Harvard student who expresses the greater issues of stereotyping blondes and she even goes in depth with how people cover up the stereotype with Elle form Legally Blonde which further digs into the stereotype as she wins a court case based on her knowledge of hair products. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/12/2/having-a-blonde-moment-i-am/ It’s a very interesting article so check it out!
I enjoyed reading your blog and finding out they blondes are actually being underestimated just by the color of their hair? Talk about discrimination. This just gives another reason why it’s harder to be a women in society these days. But aside from that i found this blog that has six different scientific facts between blondes and brunettes. Being blonde has some perks to it like they on average receive better tips as waitresses than brunettes do. They also have thicker and more hair than brunettes do to protect their scalp from the sun. This allows them to have fuller better looking hair than brunettes. Nonetheless no women no matter what their hair color is should be discriminated or judged by the color of their hair. They should be happy with how they look and embrace it.
This was a very interesting post. I never really thought about blondes being underrepresented in the workplace and other settings. I understand how it happens though because of the stereotypes that people usually associated with blondes, which are rarely true. But I really liked how you organized this post and shut down judging people/blogs based on looks or titles. Great work!