Blonde Stereotype by Karalinda

The dumb blonde is a popular-culture stereotype typically applied to people with blonde hair colour, most frequently women. The archetypical "dumb blonde", while attractive and popular, lacks both common street-sense and academic intelligence, often to a comedic level.
"Brunettes were just jealous"... isn't this the basis we blondes rely on when being confronted with a blonde joke? I was born a towhead and stayed that way until about 15, when my hair started turning a dark blonde. What people don't understand is that blond jokes are racist and predjudice. Sure, everyone makes jokes about just about anything regarding the human body, but blond jokes I would have to say definitely take the cake for being the most highly publicized stereotype. I personally, take offense sometimes to the way people percieve me as a person, as a blonde. I realize that because of other's callowness, I have to stay open minded when dealing with people that have these wrong ideas of us fair haired mavens!
I have dealt with supervisors and management treating me more "soft" manner, maybe thinking that I am easily put down or hurt, just because of my haircolor. I had been refrained by my boss from a project that he had needed done... and for what reason? well, because, he thought that "emotionally" I might have not been strong enough to handle it.
Then, it all made sense. Of course I wasn't emotionally capable! I was a blonde! right?!
Naturally, this had pissed me off. Sadly though, I was conditioned well enough to not take offense, since I had been characterized before. I have put up with friends and coworkers, who ridiculously stereotype me as being (and I love this one) "innocent" (oh... the millions of times I have heard that one would astound you. ... but if you're blond you would already understand!) I actually take this one to my advantage... judging by our oh-so-blonde mindframes we would never be the prime suspect, right? Did anyone ever notice that Bonnie Parker was blonde?
Of course, the mass attention that blondes get, whether we are walking through the city, walking into the store, or driving our cars- is unparallel to that of any other haircolor. Both the attention, as well as the degradation are widely publicized on an international scale.

I dyed my hair brunette for a little while, just to see what all the huss and fuss was about. There were two sides to this little experiment: The pro and the con.
The Cons: It was damned hard to get the dark out of my hair when I wanted to return to blond. Another con was that I had recieved less visual attention from people as a whole.
The Pros: My skin tone looked great and my baby blues popped. I was receiving less attention from men as a whole, however I was taken seriously on a whole different level. I would be hit on by different types of men, presumably maybe because some men think that they can take "brunettes more seriously" than blondes... when in fact haircolor is just a product of our genetic melanin! (i.e.- it's just hair!) just like your eyes, your freckles, the way your eyes are shaped, etc. [ I also had a blond friend who had dyed her hair auburn, and had confirmed the notion of being approached by a more professional, serious crowd. ]
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the definition of prejudice: Prejudice is, as the name implies, the process of "pre-judging" a particular person, place or thing for the way it acts, looks, or even who or what it is involved with. It implies coming to a judgment on a subject before learning where the preponderance of evidence actually lies, or forming a judgment without direct experience. When applied to social groups, prejudice generally refers to existing biases toward the members of such groups, often based on social stereotypes; and at its most extreme, results in groups being denied benefits and rights unjustly (see persecution ) or, conversely, unfairly showing unwarranted favor towards others.
Unfortunately, the blonde stereotype has been prominent since women could bleach their hair in the 1930's. Obviously, ignorance has been around longer.