Dumb blonde
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Numerous actresses have played characters labelled as "dumb blondes", famously including Marilyn Monroe, Suzanne Somers (primarily for her role as Chrissy Snow on Three's Company), and Goldie Hawn (for her persona on the variety show Laugh-In.) Country music chaunteuse Dolly Parton, aware of this occasional characterization of her, has used it to her own benefit, performing songs such as Dumb Blonde. More recently, Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton, have both been characterized as dumb blondes due to their public personas, which are portrayed by popular culture as promiscuous and self-absorbed.
There is a common category of jokes that employ the dumb-blonde stereotype for their effect. They usually involve a situation in which a blonde performs a random or dangerous act because she misconstrued the meaning of the words describing the act, to comedic results. Another variation employs two blondes, one as the recipient of the other's stupid question, only to give an even more ridiculous answer herself.
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[edit] Origins
Like many popular-culture stereotypes, the origins of this concept are murky. The 1925 Anita Loos novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady (later used as source for a film by the same name starring Marilyn Monroe) featured the character Lorelei Lee, a beautiful but empty-headed singer. While some look to this as the source for the concept, in fact, it might be far older.
Some have suggested that, because Caucasian babies are often born with at least a touch of blonde hair, an association has arisen tying those having fair hair with childhood and youth (and the accompanying proclivities toward naïvité and/or innocence). Also, as blonde hair is often associated with physical attractiveness and youth, some argue that those around blondes may have a tendency to admire or fawn over them, encouraging some to behave in a child-like manner (consciously or not) in order to gain attention and affection. On the other hand, some have postulated that the association is far older, having 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. In Medieval Europe, the upper classes tended to be darker haired than the peasantry, likely due to the period tendency to marry within one's own class and the fact that lower class people were far more exposed to sunlight. Blonde hair was, at this time, often associated with commoners, who were ostensibly deemed less intelligent. Puritans, associating makeup and dyeing of hair with prostitution, forbade the dyeing or bleaching of hair, creating an imprint on dyeing 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]. Or, the idea might stem from the idea amongst Romans and Greeks that Northern Europeans were barbarians and thus less advanced than Southern Europeans.
[edit] Dumb blonde antithesis
There have been efforts to subvert the stereotype with blonde female fictional characters who are intelligent and appropriately serious in demeanour.
| Character | Fiction Piece |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| Penny | Inspector Gadget |
| Seven of Nine | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Buffy Summers* | Buffy the Vampire Slayer
|
[edit] Alleged "Dumb blondes" who aren't natural blondes
- Marilyn Monroe
- Helen Adams
- Leslie Bibb
- Madonna (entertainer)
- Anna Nicole Smith
- Helen Slater
- Nikki Grahame
- Brittany Murphy
- Courtney Love
- Goldie Hawn
- Kelly Ripa
- Pamela Anderson
- Jo Guest
- Dolly Parton
- Jayne Mansfield
- Jenny McCarthy
- Chelsea Handler
- Tori Spelling
- Nicole Richie
- Betty White
- Tara Strong
- Trish Stratus
- Gwen Stefani
- Ashley Tisdale
- Michelle Marsh
- Torrie Wilson
- Patricia Stevenson
[edit] Natural blondes (natural and dyed red/brunette)
- Meghan Walsh (categorical odd girl out)
- Kelly Osbourne
- Brody Dalle
- Anna Faris
- Hayden Panettiere
- Kaley Cuoco
- Bette Midler
- Scarlett Johansson
- Reese Witherspoon
- Hilary Duff
- Winona Ryder
- Hailey Duff
- Christy Hemme
- Paris Hilton
- Ashlee Simpson
- Jessica Simpson
- Stacy Keibler
- Shell Jubin
- Jean Harlow
- P!nk
- Cameron Diaz
- Drew Barrymore
- Uma Thurman
- Cynthia Nixon
- Kate Walsh
- Christina Aguilera
- Gillian Anderson
[edit] Essex girl
- Main article: 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
- Main article: 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
- Bimbo
- Chav
- Essex girl
- Ganguro
- Kogal
- Paninaro
- Sloane Ranger
- Valley girl
- Yuppie
- Sex and intelligence
- Chabelo
[edit] External links
- "Valley Girl" lyrics - Lyrics to the song that popularised the valley girl phenomenon.
