Do Blondes Just Want to Have Fun? A Memoir of Personal Angst

So many women seem to be blonde these days. It seems, especially in affluent countries, to be an "In" thing, no matter the age, and maybe not even social status. It seems to be an emblem of power. Is being blonde a sin? A blessing? Does it have to be "real" to matter? I, being a born natural blonde, tell you that personally, I find it to suck. I don't think many other people get asked if their hair is "real" very often. So I researched into this interesting phenomenon.

The first blonde hair dye was known as "Venetian Hair Dye" and consisted of horse urine. It came from Italy, surprisingly, and was very popular during the Renaissance. It started out being popular with prostitutes, and a woman was quoted as saying, "Men don't care if the hair is real or a delusion, they just keep going back to these immoral women." Before that, especially in Italy and other Eastern European countries, blonde hair was virtually unseen past childhood. Because of that, it was seen (and is still seen today) as a symbol of youth and life and purity.

As more and more women lightened their hair, emulating prostitutes (as we all do to some degree now, with shaving and cosmetics and the like), even High-Art painters got into the act. More and more during the Renaissance, angels and the Madonna were portrayed as having blonde curls (though I find it unlikely that a Jewish woman of that time would have golden hair). This further reinforced the "saintly" quality of blonde hair.

In our modern times, it has this horrible saint/whore connotation. This effect has trickled down into modern questioning, whether people know it or not.

In effect, when you ask me, "Is your hair really blonde?" what you're asking me is, "Are you pure and rare, like an angel or the holy Virgin? or , "are you a common imposter, a common whore?" Which do you most women would like to be?

I know of so many women of varying hair colors, young and old, who cover their greys or enhance their natural color. Did you know that only 1 in 20 blondes is a "real" blonde? And that the overwhelming majority of the "imposters" are brunettes?

Now I know this may not seem like a big deal, but it can be annoying to have to "prove" yourself to complete strangers. What I say, I feel, should be answer enough. No need to call me names. There is a reason why "bombshells" such as Marilyn Monroe or Madonna have been so popular. In some ways, being blonde symbolizes power, sexuality, and modernity.

So the moral of the story is, respect your fellow towheads. Know that there is reason behind the hair color, and respect that we all have many lovely differences that make our world great! Science and genetics make it all possible.