‘Blondism’ as it is often referred to is the discrimination of those people with blonde hair. Discrimination towards blondes is something that we all see and hear every day but does that make it socially acceptable? ‘Dumb blonde’, yes unfortunately for some people with blonde hair they are in fact less intelligent than other people but this cannot be generalised to the wider population, some people with blonde hair are in fact on the other end of the scale and are highly intelligent with goals and aspirations for the future. The discrimination that is directed towards people with blonde hair is often unprovoked, unfair and unlawful, so understandably blondes are not happy and that is why I want to make a stand on this and put up a fight for the intelligent and innocent blondes of the world.
The above table shows the number and percentages of hair colours in the UK Biobank Cohort, by gender. The percentage of people with blonde hair in the UK is 11.5%, this could result in over 11% of people in the UK being subjected to discrimination just because of the colour of their hair.
If I was to ask you, who do you think was more intelligent out of Marilyn Monroe and Albert Einstein, what would your answer be? I am 99% sure that right now you’re saying Albert Einstein, OBVIOUSLY! What kind of person would believe that a major sex symbol had a better IQ than a scientist? Einstein had an IQ of 160, Monroe had an IQ of 163…
You’re probably trying to convince yourself that you have read those numbers wrong and have also probably re-read those figures numerous times, that can’t possibly be true. Why not? Why can’t Marilyn have a higher IQ than Einstein, because she has blonde hair?
The results of a study carried out by Jay L Zagorsky of The Ohio State University also suggested that the dumb blonde stereotype is a myth. Using the NLSY79, this study looked at the IQ of white women and men according to their hair colour. The results concluded that blonde women have a higher mean IQ than women with any other hair colour. Blondes are more likely to be classified as geniuses and less likely to have an extremely low IQ than women with other hair colours.
The discrimination of people with blonde hair is due to stereotyping. Stereotyping is “a fixed, over generalised belief about a particular group or class of people.” (Cardwell, 1996). We are all guilty of stereotyping on a daily basis, this is because the use of stereotypes is a way in which we can reduce the amount of thinking we have to do when we meet a new person. Stereotypes are usually ingrained in a child’s mind from a young age, hearing the words dumb blonde or people telling jokes regarding blondes around children. The term ‘Monkey see monkey do’ refers to the child copying this behaviour without actually knowing why or the consequences. As a child grows older they are likely to form ‘in groups’ and ‘out-groups’, us and them, blondes and not, in psychology this is described as the social learning theory. The people in the ingroup discriminate against the people with blonde hair in the outgroup, they perceive themselves to be superior in order to build their own self-esteem.
But don’t some people with blonde hair act dumb on purpose? Possibly yes. If you are told constantly that you are a dumb, unintelligent blonde for a large percentage of your life, isn’t it easier to act up to this role rather than try and prove these people wrong? This is known as a self-fulfiling prophecy.
I myself, just like the majority of other people with blonde hair have received discrimination and possibly from a young age. Although people believe that this is harmless ‘banter’ as a child this did affect me daily. I believed that I would never achieve what my brunette friends would, that I wasn’t as academic as they were or that I wouldn’t be as successful, I felt inferior to them. As you grow older the obvious discrimination turns more tactful and instead of direct negative comments, it turns to blonde jokes.
Yes, I agree blonde jokes are sometimes quite funny but is publically degrading somebody because of the way they look actually funny?.
Q. How do you confuse a blonde?
A. You don’t, they’re born like that.
If you change the word blonde for ‘woman’, ‘Asian’, ‘Chinese’ then you would be accused, and rightly so, of being sexist or racist. By merely substituting a word it’s easy to see why these jokes are so demeaning to a person but why should these words need to be changed for the stark reality to become apparent.
As the mother of a child who has inherited my hair colour, I only hope that this discrimination stops, having blonde hair doesn’t make him dumb, it doesn’t make him any less intelligent and it certainly doesn’t make him inferior to anybody else, just because he’s blonde. This world is full of hate and prejudice and people will find any excuse to discriminate against people for the way they look, their weight, their race and their religion. But just because there isn’t a particular name for discriminating people because of their hair colour, does that make it right? Does that make it ok to make somebody feel inferior?
I thank you, yes you! Thank you for your discrimination, thank you for making me feel dumb and thank you for making me feel inferior just because of the colour of my hair, you have made me into a stronger and more determined person. I won’t succumb to your expectations, instead, I will do everything in my power to prove you wrong.
References
Bearman, P., & Hedstrom, P. (2011). The Oxford Handbook of Analytical Sociology. Retrieved 1 January 2020, from https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199215362.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199215362-e-13
Jay L Zagorsky, (2016) ”Are Blondes Really Dumb?”, Economics Bulletin, Volume 36, Issue 1, pages 401-410
McLeod, S. A. (2015, Oct 24). Stereotypes. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html
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Great read. As a kid I had the whitest of hair, proper snow white hair which went more yellow blonde by the time i was 10yrs old, only for it to get darker since im over the age of 40 but growing up with blonde hair as a male I never experienced any discrimination , in fact I had loads of compliments from adults ” Aww your hair is lovely, I wish I had your hair” my first born has the same blonde hair as I did and my other daughter has a light brown colour but the stigma with them perhaps will be very different from my own but looking back at the stigma that women get from the colour of their hair is preposterous, it must tie in with the ultimate bimbo look that was so fashionable in the 70’s and 80’s , that wasn’t helped in the media on TV and films. Its ironic that the majority of women will dye there hair blonde, a lot did in the 80’s by choice, maybe the phrase blondes have more fun didn’t help the stigma either but like anything, with education people will be less stereotypical about peoples looks more so from the colour of their hair, to me its just absurd that a person IQ is prejudiced from whats ON there head rather than whats IN there head.
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Great blog really interesting. But heres 1 for you to ponder over? Whats your view on why would you think people with blonde hair who are getting negative attention would not just dye their hair rather than put up with the discrimination?
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So are you saying that the problem lies with the person with blonde hair rather than the actual person that is causing the negative comments? Why should somebody change their appearance to fit into the norms? I think it’s more important to educate people regarding stereotypes and how their discrimination may affect a person’s self-esteem. Your reply implies that the person is in the wrong for having blonde hair, that is them. If a person is discriminated against for their gender, would you suggest that they considered changing their gender to meet social norms? If a child was getting bullied at a school would you suggest that they should move schools or that the actual problem, being the bully, should be dealt with and educated about the psychological damage that their hurtful words may be causing?
I totally respect your reply though, I, in fact, did dye my hair brown once to see what the response from people would be and to whether or not the discrimination would stop. The jokes didn’t stop but did change. People that knew me started to refer to me as a Malteser ‘brown on the outside but still blonde on the inside’. People that I didn’t previously know, would continue to make jokes about other people with blonde hair, but instead of being in the out-group, like I was before I dyed my hair, I was now in the ingroup. I was now looked at by people with blonde hair as superior and more intelligent than them when in fact I was the exact same person on the inside. The brown hair didn’t last long, I didn’t want to be in the ingroup, I wanted to be me and not succumb to peer pressure.
The reason that I wrote this blog was to educate people about why people discriminate and also the consequences that this has on the people on the receiving end of this, I really hope that it was successful in doing that for you.
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I totally agree with this blog being a natural blonde myself, I’ve always grown up with jokes about me being a dumbo blonde and living up to my hair colour when really I’m not dumb! I always felt like I had to justify my hair, I once died it brown to see if the jokes would stop but in fact brown hair wasn’t me ! And we shouldn’t change who we really are for narrow minded individuals. Great blog 🙂
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I’ve also dyed my hair brown in the past but instantly regretted it when I became part of the ingroup, I felt uncomfortable and like I was a ‘fake’. Why should I suddenly become more accepted just because of the colour of my hair, why should I become more superior?!
I believe I’m definitely guilty of a self-fulfilling prophecy, I’ve always found that sometimes its easier to pretend that you are the person that you are stereotyped to be. If society wants me to act dumb because of the colour of my hair, then so be it!
We should be proud of the hair colour that we are given and not try to change this to fit into a society that is full of discrimination. If it wasn’t our hair colour people would most certainly find another reason to make us feel inferior in them.
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