出典(authority):フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』「2013/01/24 14:09:52」(JST)
Blond or blonde (see below) or fair-hair is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some sort of yellowish color. The color can be from the very pale blond (caused by a patchy, scarce distribution of pigment) to reddish "strawberry" blond colors or golden-brownish ("sandy") blond colors (the latter with more eumelanin). On the Fischer–Saller scale blond color ranges from A to J (blond brown).[1]
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The word "blond" is first attested in English in 1481[2] and derives from Old French blund, blont meaning "a colour midway between golden and light chestnut".[3] It gradually eclipsed the native term "fair", of same meaning, from Old English fæġer, to become the general term for "light complexioned". The French (and thus also the English) word "blond" has two possible origins. Some linguists[citation needed] say it comes from Medieval Latin blundus, meaning "yellow", from Old Frankish blund which would relate it to Old English blonden-feax meaning "grey-haired", from blondan/blandan meaning "to mix" (Cf. blend). Also, Old English beblonden meant "dyed" as ancient Germanic warriors were noted for dying their hair. However, linguists who favor a Latin origin for the word say that Medieval Latin blundus was a vulgar pronunciation of Latin flavus, also meaning yellow. Most authorities, especially French, attest the Frankish origin. The word was reintroduced into English in the 17th century from French, and was for some time considered French; in French, "blonde" is a feminine adjective; it describes a woman with blond hair.[4]
"Blond", with its continued gender-varied usage, is one of few adjectives in written English to retain separate masculine and feminine grammatical genders. Each of the two forms, however, are pronounced the same way. American Heritage's Book of English Usage propounds that, insofar as "a blonde" can be used to describe a woman but not a man who is merely said to possess blond(e) hair, the term is an example of a "sexist stereotype [whereby] women are primarily defined by their physical characteristics."[5] The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) records that the phrase "big blond beast" was used in the 20th century to refer specifically to men "of the Nordic type" (that is to say, blond-haired). Particularly this had associations with Friedrich Nietzsche's Übermensch.[6] The OED also records that blond as an adjective is especially used with reference to women, in which case it is likely to be spelt "blonde", citing three Victorian usages of the term. The masculine version is used to describe a plural, in "blonds of the European race",[6] in a citation from 1833 Penny cyclopedia, which distinguishes genuine blondness as a Caucasian feature distinct from albinism.[7] By the early 1990s, "blonde moment" or being a "dumb blonde" had come into common parlance to mean "an instance of a person, esp. a woman... being foolish or scatter-brained."[8] Another hair color word of French origin, brunet(te) (from the same Germanic root that gave "brown"), also functions in the same way in orthodox English. The OED gives "brunet" as meaning "dark-complexioned" or a "dark-complexioned person", citing a comparative usage of brunet and blond to Thomas Henry Huxley in saying, "The present contrast of blonds and brunets existed among them".[9] "Brunette" can be used, however, like "blonde", to describe a mixed-gender populace. The OED quotes Grant Allen, "The nation which resulted...being sometimes blonde, sometimes brunette."[10]
"Blond" and "blonde" are also occasionally used to refer to objects that have a color reminiscent of fair hair. Examples include pale wood and lager beer. For example, the OED records its use in 19th century poetic diction to describe flowers, "a variety of clay ironstone of the coal measures", "the colour of raw silk",[6] and a breed of ray.[11]
Various subcategories of blond hair have been defined to describe someone with blond hair more accurately. Common examples include the following:
Natural lighter hair colors occur most often in Europe and less frequently in other areas.[24] In northern European populations, the occurrence of blond hair is very frequent. The hair color gene MC1R has at least seven variants in Europe giving the continent a wide range of hair and eye shades. Based on recent genetic research carried out at three Japanese universities, the date of the genetic mutation that resulted in blond hair in Europe has been isolated to about 11,000 years ago during the last ice age.[25]
A typical explanation found in the scientific literature for the evolution of light hair is related to the requirement for vitamin D synthesis and northern Europe's seasonal deficiency of sunlight.[26] Lighter skin is due to a low concentration in pigmentation, thus allowing more sunlight to trigger the production of vitamin D. In this way, high frequencies of light hair in northern latitudes are a result of the light skin adaptation to lower levels of sunlight, which reduces the prevalence of rickets caused by vitamin D deficiency. The darker pigmentation at higher latitudes in certain ethnic groups such as the Inuit is explained by a greater proportion of seafood in their diet. As seafood is high in vitamin D, vitamin D deficiency would not create a selective pressure for lighter pigmentation in that population.
An alternative hypothesis was presented by Canadian anthropologist Peter Frost, who claims blond hair evolved very quickly in a specific area at the end of the last ice age by means of sexual selection.[27] According to Frost, the appearance of blond hair and blue eyes in some northern European women made them stand out from their rivals at a time of fierce competition for scarce males.[28]
A theory propounded in The History and Geography of Human Genes (1994), says blond hair became predominant in Northern Europe beginning about 3,000 BC, in the area now known as Lithuania, among the recently arrived Proto-Indo-European settlers (according to the Kurgan hypothesis), and the trait spread quickly through sexual selection into Scandinavia. As above, the theory assumes that men found women with blond hair more attractive.[29]
It is now hypothesized by researchers that blond hair evolved more than once. Published in May 2012 in Science, a study of people from the Solomon Islands in Melanesia found that an amino acid change in TYRP1 produced blonde hair.[30][31]
Blonds are also found all around the world, but blond hair is most frequently found among the populations of Northern Europe. Blond hair is especially associated with the Scandinavian peoples indigenous to Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Blondism is also associated with the English people of Great Britain, with its heaviest concentrations in the low-lying eastern counties where the Anglo-Saxons, Jutes, and Viking invaders settled most frequently. This high proportion of blondism also applies to the eastern shores of Scotland, but surprisingly little evidence of blond hair is found amongst the indigenous populations of Wales, Cornwall and Ireland, at least amongst the Roman Catholic community and not the Anglo-Irish Protestant minority. Blond hair is also common amongst the Dutch and within the native population of the northern most regions of Germany. However, the vast majority of Germans would be classified as brunettes. The pigmentation of both hair and eyes is lightest around the Baltic Sea and their darkness increases regularly and almost concentrically around this region.[32]
Generally, blond hair in Europeans is associated with lighter eye color (gray, blue, green and hazel) and (sometimes freckled)light skin tone. Strong sunlight also, on some people but not all, lightens hair of any pigmentation,[citation needed] to varying degrees, and causes many blond people to freckle, especially during childhood.
A 2009 study found that light hair colors were already present in southern Siberia during the Bronze Age.[33]
In Central Asia and South Asia, there is a lower frequency of natural blonds found among some ethnic populations. But blonds are found at comparatively high frequency among the Nuristani people of eastern Afghanistan, who have about one-third recessive blondism.[34] In northwestern and northern Pakistan, the Kalash tribe (related to Nuristanis) also have an unusually high frequency of blond hair, while blond hair is also found among many Pashtuns tribes of the area, such as the Afridis residing near the Khyber Pass. Around 10% of Tajiks also have blond hair, more prevalent in the Pamir region.[35] Blond hair color also naturally occurs among other people from Afghanistan, and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan regions of Pakistan; these groups include Chitralis, Kashmiris, Shinas and Burusho.
Blonds are also found in Turkey, especially in the northern (Caucasus) and western parts of the country.[citation needed] Blonds are also found in parts of southwest and northern Iran, especially in the Caspian and Caucasus provinces.[citation needed] Blonds are also found in the Levant, Israel (especially among the Ashkenazi), in western Syria, lebanon in northern Iraq, and in the Palestinian territories.[citation needed] Jordan have a frequency of blonds as well.[citation needed] Blond hair is also a common sight among Berbers of North Africa, especially in the Rif and Kabyle region and also among Maghreb Arabs of Berber descent.[36]
Aboriginal Australians, especially in the west-central parts of the continent, have a high frequency of natural blond-to-brown hair,[37] with as many as 90–100% of children having blond hair in some areas.[38] The trait among Indigenous Australians is primarily associated with children. In maturity the hair usually turns a darker brown color, but sometimes remains blond.[38] Blondness is also found in some other parts of the South Pacific, such as the Solomon Islands,[30][31] Vanuatu, and Fiji, again with higher incidences in children.
Natural blond hair is more common among young children than adults, as blond hair usually darkens to a brown shade with age. Natural blond hair is rare in adulthood, with some reports that only about 2% of the world's population is naturally blond.[39]
Blond hair is most common in light-skinned infants and children,[40] so much so that the term "baby blond" is often used for very light colored hair. Babies may be born with blond hair even among groups where adults rarely have blond hair although such natural hair usually falls out quickly. Blond hair tends to turn darker with age, and many children's blond hair turns light, medium, dark brown or black before or during their adult years.[40] As blond hair tends to turn brunette with age, natural blonde hair is rare and makes up approximately 2% of the world's population.[41]
The Greek gods are cited as varying in their appearances. While Poseidon was described as having a blue-black beard, and Zeus blue-black eyebrows, Pindar described Athena as fair-haired, and Pheidas described her as golden-haired. Hera, Apollo and Aphrodite were also described as blonds.[42] Pindar collectively described the Homeric Danaans of the time of the war between Argos and Thebes as fair-haired.[42] The Spartans are described as fair-haired by Bacchylides. In the work of Homer, Menelaus the king of the Spartans is, together with other Achaean leaders, portrayed as blond.[42] Although dark hair colours were predominant in the works of Homer, there is only one case of a dark hero, and that is when the blond Odysseus is transformed by Athena and his beard becomes blue-black. Other blond characters in Homer are Peleus, Achilles, Meleager, Agamede, and Rhadamanthys.[42]
According to Francis Owens,[43] Roman literary records describe a large number of well-known Roman historical personalities as blond. In addition, 250 individuals are recorded to have had the name Flavius, meaning blond, and there are there are various people named Rufus and Rutilius, meaning red haired and reddish-haired, respectively. The following Roman gods are said to have had blond hair: Amor, Apollo, Aurora, Bacchus, Ceres, Diana, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Minerva and Venus.[43] An emperor, Nero, descended from an aristocratic family, is by the historian Suetonius described as: "... his hair light blond,... his eyes blue..."[44]
According to Victoria Sherrow, those Romans who were fair-haired preferred to dye their hair dark in the early period of Ancient Rome; at one point in time blond hair was even associated with prostitutes.[45] The preference changed to bleaching the hair blond when Greek culture, which practiced bleaching, reached Rome, and was reinforced when the legions that conquered Gaul returned with blond slaves.[45] Roman women tried to lighten their hair, but the substances often caused hair loss, so they resorted to wigs made from the captives’ hair.[46]
Juvenal wrote that Messalina, Roman empress of very noble birth, would hide her black hair with a blond wig for her nightly visits to the brothel: sed nigrum flavo crinem abscondente galero intravit calidum veteri centone lupanar. [47] In his Commentary on the Aeneid of Virgil, Maurus Servius Honoratus noted that the respectable matron was only black haired, never blond.[48] In the same passage, he mentioned that Cato the Elder wrote that some matrons would sprinkle golden dust on their hair to make it reddish-color.
From an ethnic point of view, Roman authors associated blond and reddish hair with the Gauls and the Germans: e.g., Virgil describes the hair of the Gauls as "golden" (aurea caesaries),[49] Tacitus wrote that "the Germans have fierce blue eyes, red hair, huge frames";[50] in accordance with Ammianus, almost all the Gauls were "of tall stature, fair and ruddy".[51]
In Norse mythology, the goddess Sif has famously blonde hair, which some scholars have identified as representing golden wheat.[52] In the Poetic Edda poem Rígsþula, the blond man Jarl is considered to be the ancestor of the dominant warrior class.
In Northern European folklore, supernatural beings value blonde hair in humans. Blonde babies are more likely to be stolen and replaced with changelings, and young blonde women are more likely to be lured away to the land of the beings.[53] Elves and fairies were often portrayed with blond hair in illustrations in children's book of fairy tales. This continues the theme that blond hair is associated with beauty and goodness.
In contemporary popular culture, it is often stereotyped that men find blond women more attractive than women with other hair colors.[45] For example, Anita Loos popularized this idea in her 1925 novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.[45] Blondes are often assumed to have more fun; for example, in a Clairol commercial for hair colorant, they use the phrase "Is it true blondes have more fun?"[45] Some women have reported they feel other people expect them to be more fun-loving after having lightened their hair.[45] The "blonde stereotype" is also associated with being less serious or less intelligent.[45] This can be seen in blonde jokes.[45] It is believed the originator of the "dumb blonde" was an 18th century blonde French prostitute named Rosalie Duthé whose reputation of being beautiful but dumb inspired a play about her called Les Curiosites de la Foire (Paris 1775).[45] Blonde actresses have contributed to this perception; some of them include Marilyn Monroe, Judy Holliday, Jayne Mansfield, and Goldie Hawn during her time at Laugh-In.[45]
Alfred Hitchcock preferred to cast blonde women for major roles in his films as he believed that the audience would suspect them the least, comparing them to "virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints", hence the term "Hitchcock blonde".[54] This stereotype has become so ingrained it has spawned counter-narratives, such as in the 2001 film Legally Blonde in which Reese Witherspoon succeeds at Harvard despite biases against her beauty and blonde hair,[45] and terms developed such as cookie cutter blond (CCB), implying standardized blond looks and standard perceived social and intelligence characteristics of a blond. Many actors and actresses in Mestizo America and Hispanic United States seem to have Nordic features—blond hair, blue eyes, and pale skin.[55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63]
In Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote, the ideal beauty is Dulcinea whose "hairs are gold"; in Milton's poem Paradise Lost the noble and innocent Adam and Eve have "golden tresses",[64][65] the protagonist-womanizer in Guy de Maupassant's novel Bel Ami who "recalled the hero of the popular romances" has "slightly reddish chestnut blond hair", while near the end of J. R. R. Tolkien's work The Lord of the Rings, the especially favorable year following the War of the Ring was signified in the Shire by an exceptional number of blonde-haired children. In Terry Goodkind's The Sword of Truth series, the people of D'Hara (notably "full-blooded D'Harans") are characterised by having blonde hair, along with blue eyes.
In science fiction, the nordic aliens are described as human-looking with blond hair and blue eyes, hence the name "nordic". They are benign, following the association of blond hair with beauty and goodness in European folklore and mythology.[citation needed]
| The examples and perspective in this section deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (December 2012) |
One aspect of how blonde women are portrayed in popular culture is their rivalry with brunettes. The existence of the blonde vs. brunette rivalry in American society dates back to at least 1875 when the first female professional baseball players were assigned to teams according to their hair color. Baseball historian John Thorn notes that blonde and brunette baseball teams barnstormed the country in the late 1800s.[66] A more contemporary example is the gridiron football game called blondes vs. brunettes powderpuff football, a charity event that raises money for the Alzheimer's Association.[67] The annual contests were started in the fall of 2005, in Washington D.C. The games have received considerable publicity to include feature articles in The Washington Post and are now played in 16 cities around the United States.[68][69]
In some cases, blondes and brunettes on the same team may compete against each other. Anson Dorrance the women’s soccer coach at the University of North Carolina is known for dividing his team into blondes and brunettes and then having them compete against each other. Losers have been forced to stand in front of the goal facing the rear of the net while the winners take penalty shots against their posteriors.[70] Dorrance, in his years of coaching female athletes, claims to have learned that women are motivated differently than males and that his “blondes vs. brunettes drill” worked with his female team because it was a “matter of pride.” [70][71]
Blonde vs. Brunette contests are not unique to any particular country. An example is the blonde vs. brunette chess match that took place in Moscow as part of the May 2012 World Chess Tournament. The match was hosted by the Botvinnik Central Chess Club and featured two teams of young girls, blondes dressed in light colors and brunettes dressed in dark colors. All of the contestants had to prove a degree of expertise to participate. The blondes won the contest, defeating the brunettes, 36.5 -24.5.[72][73]
The most enduring blonde vs. brunette rivalry in American culture may exist in the comic book industry where Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge have been engaged in a mostly friendly competition for over 70 years.[74] The teenage girls form two-thirds of a blonde vs. brunette love triangle that is completed by their high school classmate and object of their affection, Archie Andrews. As Archie’s next door neighbor in the fictional town of Riverdale, the blonde and blue-eyed Betty Cooper is portrayed in the comic book series as a wholesome, popular, middle class girl.[75] Her high school friend and chief competitor for Archie's affection is the brunette Veronica Lodge.[76] Despite their rivalry they remain good friends. Other comics have used a similar construct where two girls compete for the affections of a young man and the blonde girl is the "good girl, while her brunette rival is the bad girl."[77] The comic book industry's blonde vs. brunette rivalry over a male has been replicated in other forms of media, including television.[78]
In a November 16, 2011 article titled "Blondes vs. Brunettes: TV Shows with Betty and Veronica-Style Love Triangles", media critic Tucker Cummings cited several TV shows that featured a "classic war between blonde and brunette love interests." Typically, she wrote, "... the blonde (is) stable, and typifies the 'girl next door,' while (the) ... brunette, is haughty, and a bit more exotic."[78] Shows cited by Cummings that feature blondes and brunettes competing for a man include:
Three's Company, an ABC sitcom that ran from 1977-1984 also featured a blonde and brunette triangle. The blonde was played by Suzanne Somers and the brunette was played by Joyce DeWitt. The man in the middle was played by John Ritter.[79] Somers and DeWitt were continually faced with media stories that described both an on and off-screen "rivalry"[80] between the two co-stars. Both women repeatedly denied the stories and attempted to dispel "...the myth that women, especially blondes and brunettes, can’t get along in Hollywood."[80]
At the same time ABC was running the Three's Company sitcom, it was also running Dynasty, a night time soap opera. The show starred John Forsythe as an oil tycoon who was caught in the middle of a triangle that featured his wife, the blonde Linda Evans and his ex-wife, brunette Joan Collins. During the show's 10 year run the women had a number of fights. The spectacle of two middle aged woman engaged in a catfight during prime time boosted the show's ratings considerably.[81] Feminist author and cultural critic Susan J. Douglas believed that the shows emphasis on the male lead character, highlighted by women fighting over him, confirmed the traditional patriarchal role of men in society. Notwithstanding, Douglas and other feminists were not only huge fans of the show but were captivated by the sight two women engaged in a catfight. Douglas even suggested that in popular culture, the "purest" form of a catfight was between a blonde and a brunette.[82]
"Dynasty upped the ante ... On one side was the blonde stay at home Krystal Carrington ... in the other corner was the most delicious bitch ever seen on television, the dark haired, scheming, career vixen, Alexis Carrington Colby ... Krystal just wanted to make her husband happy; Alexis wanted to control the world. How could you not love a catfight between these two?"[82]
During Dynasty's run, Collins co-hosted Blondes vs. Brunettes for ABC.[83][84] The show featured a number of skits that gently poked fun at popular culture's blonde vs. brunette rivalry. The final skit featured Collins and co-host Morgan Fairchild in their elderly years offering a toast to each other.[85]
Pitting blondes and brunettes against each other, especially as romantic rivals, is a Hollywood technique that extends back to at least the early 1930s. In a 1932 interview with an Australian newspaper, Hollywood director Dorothy Arzner stated that lead women and women in supporting roles must always have different hair color to accentuate the contrasting beauty of each type. Arzner also stated that blondes were usually cast as the fickle types while brunettes are cast as the more serious and emotional types.[86]
Arraying blondes against brunettes, is not unique to the American film industry. The British film company Hammer Films produced a 1967 movie that took the blonde vs. brunette concept to an extreme. The film Slave Girls (also released under the title "Prehistoric Women") starred Martine Beswick in the role of Kari, the queen of a tribe of brunettes who had enslaved a tribe of blondes.[87][88] Their existence was disrupted by the arrival of a male explorer who discovered the two tribes by means of a time portal. Witnessing the brunette’s cruel treatment of the blondes, he rejected Beswick's advances and was subsequently enslaved himself. He soon discovered a group of men who were also held in bondage. He eventually led a rebellion where the blondes overwhelmed the brunettes, Beswick was killed, and the explorer managed to escape back through the portal. The production has been described as one of the most bizarre films ever released.
"An eccentric and unloved Hammer film that uses a blondes vs. brunettes scenario."[89] -- The Hammer Vault
"Idiotic Hammer Film in which the Great White Hunter stumbles into a lost Amazon civilization where blondes have been enslaved by brunettes. Honest! Nevertheless it has developed a cult following due to Beswick’s commanding, sensual performance as the tribe’s leader."[90] -- Leonard Maltin's 2010 Movie Guide
Advertisements have also used the blondes vs. brunettes construct to sell merchandise. An example is the British-Dutch firm Unilever’s Sunsilk Color Showdown advertisements that tout a "war" between blondes and brunettes. Although Unilever's web site colorshowdown.com is no longer active, the commercials are still available on You Tube and other media sites.[91][92]
"In order to answer the age-old question of who is better: blondes or brunettes?, Sunsilk created the Color Showdown, a campaign to ignite conversation about hair color rivalry while launching our newest line of products: the Sunsilk Color Collections."[93]
Accompanying the ad campaign was an on-line poll sponsored by Sunsilk that asked 4,000 men to express their opinions about the differences between blondes and brunettes.[94] Despite the fact that the advertisement campaign was intended to amuse, some found the approach sexist and the campaign generated discussion on various blog and web sites.[95][96]
A more recent example of using blondes vs. brunettes as part of an advertisement campaign is the 2012 "For Eyes Optical" advertisement titled "No Matter How You See it, See it for Less." The advertisements feature people arguing points of view.
"The new commercials from For Eyes Optical's long-time agency, DeVito/Verdi, show a sparse debate stage where two differing points of view are monotonously and succinctly volleyed back and forth. In one spot, two Europeans go back and forth on their beachwear preference for the man-kini or the thong. Another spot shows two voluptuous women simply stating their hair color in the debate as to which one is superior."[97]
The ad features two young women seated at tables and includes a large projection screen in the background that showed the title of the debate: "Blondes vs. Brunettes." The debate itself simply consists of the blonde saying "Blondes" and the brunette saying "Brunettes." The debate ends with the brunette tricking the blonde into saying "Brunette."[98]
A 2006 advertisement for a Scrabble tournament held in France adapted a theatrical poster from the 1957 movie Reform School Girl. The original poster featured a blonde and brunette fighting over a pair of scissors. The Scrabble adaptation used the same image and included a French version of "Blonde vs. Brunette" spelled out in Scrabble tiles. The slogan read, "In Scrabble anything is possible. Grand National Tournament September 23, 2006."[99]
The blonde vs. brunette rivalry has been a popular theme in the adult entertainment industry for at least 50 years. Post war pioneers of pornography such as Irving Klaw produced many films clips of women engaged in catfighting and bondage.[100] Many of Klaw’s works included spanking scenes between women dressed in lingerie and high heels. Some of these scenes featured brunette Bettie Page, one of Klaw’s favorite models.[101] When one of Klaw’s blonde models protested the arrangement where she was being spanked by the dar haired Page and suggested that the roles be reversed, Klaw reportedly said "Blondes don't spank brunettes, that's not the natural order of things." [102]
The popularity of watching women fight each other has increased significantly in recent years. In addition to night clubs that feature mud wrestling or oil wrestling, there is a large internet industry that specializes in women wrestling, boxing and cat fighting.[103]An example of a company leveraging the blonde vs. brunette rivalry can be found in this video description:
Imagine if the women in your office were divided into two rival teams: blondes and brunettes, who decided to settle their differences in a series of catfights, first in one-piece swimsuits and then in their office blouses and skirts. The fantasy comes true on video! The eight girls meet in a deserted basement. Each tall beauty challenges both of her opposite numbers, the small girls do the same. The office manager keeps score, because there is a prize for the winning team at the end of the tournament. There are no time limits: the first to three falls is the winner. Because each girl must fight again, a quick result is in her interest. Attacks are fast and merciless as their team-mates cheer them on. Very pretty women in very fierce hairpulling fights.[104]
In addition to bondage and wrestling, other adult themed videos use blondes and brunettes in beauty or striptease contests. Commercially available adult-oriented films that use a blonde vs. brunette construct include the following:
A number of studies have been conducted over the years to measure society’s attitude toward blondes and brunettes. Many of the studies have shown that men, especially those of European descent, find blonde women more attractive than brunettes, redheads, or women of other races who had darker hair, eyes, or complexion.[113] [114] Other studies have supported the findings by examining behavior shown in public settings. As an example, a Cornell University study showed that blonde waitresses receive larger tips than brunettes, even when controlling for other variables such as age, breast size, height and weight.[115]
In a 2012 interview with NBC news, Dr. Lisa Walker, Sociology Department Chair at the University of North Carolina said that hair color "absolutely" plays a role in the way people are treated and claimed that numerous studies had shown that blonde women were paid higher salaries than other women.
"Most people would tell you, if asked, that it doesn't matter what your hair color is. What style your hair is in. They would say whatever is best for your face," explained Walker. "But from a very young age these stereotypes appear. In cartoons and children's programming, we see the way women are portrayed based on their hair. The associations continue through childhood into adulthood.”[116]
The local NBC news affiliate in Charlotte tested Walker’s theory by asking a natural blonde to walk around the Charlotte business area, drop a scarf and keep going. The volunteer did it 20 times as a blonde and then 20 times wearing a brunette wig. As a blonde, every time she dropped the scarf a bystander picked it up for her, but when wearing a dark haired wig, people simply mentioned that the scarf was dropped or ignored it altogether.[116]
A well publicized 2011 University of Westminster study evaluated how men perceived women who entered a London nightclub as a blonde or a brunette. The study, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, used the same woman and had her dye her hair a different color for each visit.[117]
After spending some time in the club, she departed and then researchers entered to club and interviewed the men who had engaged her in conversation. The results showed that, as a blonde, she was more likely to be approached for conversation than as a brunette. However, when the researchers interviewed the men who spoke to her, the men rated her more intelligent and attractive as a brunette than as a blonde.[118][119] Many news organizations covered the story as evidence that blondes were not preferred over brunettes.[120][121]
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