A Dumb Blonde: A term often used for a blonde woman who isn’t very smart. Blonde as a characteristic is even used as a corruption for men: ‘Are you blond?’. Not fun for all those blonde women who populate the Netherlands: being judged or discriminated against based on your hair color. Where does it actually come from, and is there any truth in it, or is it a fable? Dumb blondes, a term for a woman who is blonde and is said to have acquired her stupidity from that. Other prejudices of blonde women are: easier to approach and more eager for sex than non-blonde ladies. Moreover, they would have more fun: ‘Blondes have more fun’. We all know the term ‘dumb blonde’, but its origins are not very well known. Reason enough to take a look at it:
- Back in time
- Ten thousand years ago: first blonde spotted
- Roman women: blonde makes you younger
- Blonde fairytale characters
- 1930s: best effect in black and white films
- Hitler: blond perfect breed
- Turbo language: dumb blonde becomes doblo
- What do the studies say?
- Blonde: attractive and youthful
- Blondes are not dumber, but they do make men dumber
- Will the blonde woman become extinct?
Back in time
You would think that the dumb blonde image is something of the last few years. But a search back in time shows that the distinction of blonde women is timeless. Back in Roman times we see that blonde was an issue among women.
painting of Veneto / Source: Bartolomeo Veneto, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Ten thousand years ago: first blonde spotted
A Japanese study once showed that the first blondes lived around 8000 BC. Since then, blonde women seem to be in the picture and prejudices – both positive and negative – have arisen about them.
Roman women: blonde makes you younger
Blonde makes you youthful, the Roman women thought. Jealousy of Germanic women is seen as the cause. Centuries later, during the war itself, the hair of Germanic women was cut off to make blonde wigs for Roman women. In the Renaissance, light hair was seen as a piece of jewelry, which we see in the blond locks of goddesses and nymphs in paintings by Boticelli, Veneto and Bellini.
blonde Little Red Riding Hood / Source: Public domain, Wikimedia Commons (PD)
Blonde fairytale characters
We also spot many blonde ladies in fairy tales. Little Red Riding Hood was still blonde in the original version by the Brothers Grimm. At the time as a sign of pure, perfect and innocent. Cinderella also went through her fairytale life with blonde hair. These figures became known around the year 1900 by the Brothers Grimm, two German brothers. These fairy tales are originally old German sagas. We will encounter blonde in Germany again later in the years of Hitler.
1930s: best effect in black and white films
In the 1930s, more and more black-and-white films were made. It soon turned out that blondes turned out much better than other hair colors. Soon there was a rise of blonde movie stars: Mae West, Jean Harlow, Marlene Dietrich, Grace Kelly, Doris Day and last but not least Mariyn Monroe. Her blonde and dumb image was confirmed in her roles in her various films. She became world famous and rich, and in reality she was intelligent. Blonde has since become a sign of seductive and glamour, but also of stupid, banal and frivolous.
Hitler: blond perfect breed
In his book Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler described his preference for blond people with blue eyes. His ideal is a world where blond Aryans are in power: his image of clean people. He sees contemporary human culture, art and technology as the almost exclusive product of the Aryans. And above all, these were not to ‘mix’ with the Untermenschen, but to remain a pure people. Hitler was also a blond fan, which unfortunately resulted in the terrible Holocaust.
Turbo language: dumb blonde becomes doblo
doblo first appeared in the late 1980s , as a turbo language abbreviation for dumb blonde. Jan Kuitenbrouwer already mentioned it in his book Turbotaal. In those years, abbreviations became the language of hip young people, and were a sign of the faster world, in which it was useful to communicate using shorter words. The successor to the turbo language is the SMS language and Breezer language.
What do the studies say?
In 1999, Coventry University conducted a survey into the opinions of 120 people, half of whom were men. Men in particular appeared to consider platinum blonde female models much less intelligent than other hair colors.
Other studies show that women from lower classes in our society in particular dye their hair blonde because they want to identify with what they consider to be the more attractive blonde members of the same sex. The result of this is that more intellectual men (consciously or unconsciously) are less willing to commit to a blonde woman, because they think they will be labeled as dumber themselves. Just think of the construction workers whistling at blonde women. Conversely, blonde women from higher levels often paint themselves dark.
Blonde: attractive and youthful
And why does a man find a blonde woman attractive? This is because the stereotype of a blonde woman is often depicted as having large breasts and long legs, which gives her a young and youthful appearance. And thus gives a fertile image to the man who wants to reproduce based on his nature.
Blondes are not dumber, but they do make men dumber
It has now been proven that blonde women are relatively no dumber than non-blonde women. However, a French study showed that men who looked at blonde women became dumber! The reason is that men adapt to the stereotype of a blonde woman, which is stupidity, whether or not caused by the appearance of youth. This means that their behavior is influenced by the cliché. A kind of self-fulfilling prophecy…
Will the blonde woman become extinct?
Be that as it may, in 200 years this subject would be obsolete. After all: there will be no more blonde women in the world. At least that is what the World Health Organization reported. An interesting detail was that this organization based itself on a false scientific report. Nothing could be further from the truth: the blonde woman will not become extinct. Unless selection is applied, either on a natural basis or on an artificial basis. Like the selection that Hitler wanted to apply, but the other way around. It has now been established that the number of blonde women in the world could decrease, but that the blonde genes will never completely disappear.