[HPFGU-OTChatter] Hairy hijinks and other laments

[Mary Jennings]

My fellow sinister social scientist Tabouli said:

<alarming snipping!>

>There was also some evidence of buying into the dumb blonde stereotype 
>celebrated in a thousand blonde jokes>

Oh, yes.  Definately.  Most naturally blonde women I've known, no matter how 
intelligent, were forever being perceived as having the intelligence of a 
houseplant by both men *and* women, no less.  Both sexes had labelled them 
as, well, easy bedding material as well.  The only blonde friend these 
labels were never applied to was a natural strawberry blonde who was built 
like a brick wall and had the attitude to match.  Most likely people 
*thought* stereotypes about her, but decided that retaining full use of 
their limbs took priority over telling her their opinions.

Even blondes from a bottle have derogatory phrases like "the peroxide's 
corroded your brain" thrown at them.  Seeing as I have blonde highlights 
myself, this is a personal pet peeve.  Like you, Elkins, I started going 
grey in my early 20's, at the front of my head, of course, and the grey 
hairs showed up beautifully against my mousy brown natural colour.  I'll 
grow out the blonde when I'm 40 or so, but I simply couldn't face having 3 
very young kids and possibly being mistaken for their grandmother.  Hey, I 
have some pride, ya know!

Then, as Tabouli touched upon, there's the supposed fiery redhead 
stereotype, the level-headed brunette, etc.  What rubbish, in my opinion.  I 
simply have to look around the schoolground before classes start to see that 
hair colour has nothing to do with a child's behaviour or intelligence; 
little whatsits come in all shapes, sizes, genders, ethnic backgrounds, and 
haircolours.  It's this endless need for grouping and classification that we 
humans fall prey to, as that's what our opinions of others we don't know 
personally are based upon.  People we "can't figure out" annoy us, so we 
look for any 'ol thing upon which to base an opinion.

Gee, I *did* retain something from my uni years!  Cool :)

Mary Ann
(feeling reasonably intelligent, despite the highlights)

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