Since I believe that larger issues than my hurt ego are involved here, and many people all over the world have been engaged in debating and researching how physical appearance relates to intellectual abilities, allow me to express my opinion and at the same time draw your attention to the particular aspects of the matter.

Although numerous scientific studies had proven long ago that no relationship exists between one’s hair pigmentation and intelligence, the blonde stereotype is, unfortunately, still around. Someone may argue that stereotypes must have their origin, but let me tell you that I do believe that stereotypes have their basis in the material conditions and social practices. Blondness may be deemed attractive in, for example, British and North American society because of its comparative rarity. Indeed, the fact that blonde hair is a recessive trait made it traditionally desirable. Numerous works of visual art could, probably, persuade you: “Blonde Bather” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, “A Blonde Woman” by Jacopo d’Antonio Negretti, “My Blond Bard” by Nicole Uhing – you could encounter many illustrations of blondes even from the Mediterranean, where people generally have dark hair. Besides, even Greek and Roman gods were often portrayed with golden-hair.

A blonde is often thought of as being beautiful and sexually attractive, but why is she considered unintelligent? It looks like if a woman is sexually attractive and intelligent, she is likely to take a dominant position in a relationship, a role that long ago was defined as male by numerous societies. So, I guess, it should come as no surprise that the blonde stereotype is the expression of the dominant ideology. Moreover, such stereotypes serve to establish the power relationships in society, so that the fact that women are often stereotyped as submissive and obedient to men – whether a “dumb blonde” or, let’s say, a housewife – enact their inferior position. Being a blonde female, I can assure you that women are not inherently subservient and passive. A lot of famous women have already revealed in film and life that “blonde” is not a label, but embodies a wide spectrum of all kinds of women – consider the examples of Princess Diana, Marlene Dietrich, Brigitte Bardot, and Hillary Clinton! Thus, I suppose that stereotypes are neither true, nor false but the reflection of the particular set of ideological values. So, the degree to which one accepts a stereotype as being “true” or not depends on his or her knowledge and comprehension of the issue.

I would like to make sure that you realize how significant and how vital that might be to recognize the fact that what is in a woman’s face is more important than what is on it. For the Greeks, for example, beauty was a virtue, a kind of excellence that required that inner beauty would be matched by the attractiveness of one’s appearance. Today, we not only split off the intellect from the looks but we are actually surprised when somebody who is beautiful is also intelligent. The influence of Christianity deprived the notion of beauty of its central place in classical ideals. Setting physical attractiveness adrift, Christianity diminished its prestige, developing a convention which attributes beauty to only one of the sexes: the sex that already expectedly appears to be female. It is worth noting that, at least in English, we do not even observe the usage of the word “beautiful” towards men! To be called beautiful is thought to name something inseparable from women’s character. It looks like men define intelligence, men characterize value, men tell us what is beautiful, and men even tell us what is feminine. What is regrettable is that beauty seems to be the only power that women are encouraged to seek by society, and this power, unfortunately, is not the power to do, to complete, or to execute but to attract and to please men. Why is it that men can rule the world, while women are supposed to wear jewelry and smile? And it is not, of course, the desire to be good-looking that is wrong but the obligation to seek for physical perfection, an occupation that appears to be a duty. Even if a woman decides to join the workforce and manages to climb up to a leading position in any professional sphere, she is always under pressure to work at being attractive. Indeed, nobody objects to a woman being a good engineer or pilot or politician if at the same time she manages to be a good wife, a good mother, good-looking, well-mannered, and well-dressed. Yet while she is keeping up with the standards of beauty, she brings under suspicion her ability to be professional, objective, and intelligent. And here men do not really leave us any choice – if we look beautiful, we are automatically unintelligent, and if we are knowledgeable and clever, we don’t seem womanly enough – and once again we are expected to adhere to the social ideology. After all, don’t you find that it is just too easy to begin with defining women as caretakers of their surfaces, and then, on of a sudden, to belittle them for being superficial?

I have to remind you that throughout history women have struggled with suchlike labels, stereotype, and prejudices, joined women’s liberation movements, and created feminism because of misery, despair, and desolation. Nevertheless, if we stand up for our rights, we seem aggressive and unfeminine, and if we do not, we are perceived as typical weak females, an observation that only supports stereotyping. It is certainly true that there are unintelligent women; however they are not necessarily blonde. Besides, I truthfully believe that many beautiful, smart women all over the world just play along with the norms and standards. Thus, I believe, that Marilyn Monroe and Diana Dors, for instance, who played up to a hyper-sexualized typecast, were not the victims of their blondness and physical attractiveness but of their upbringing that complied with the public expectations and social obligations to be feminine and nothing more. And well, it was not just blonde women who were treated inadequately at that time, it was all women. And as a matter of fact, unfortunately, that is still the case.

In order to get out of the trap created by those who consider themselves dominant, I would suggest that women themselves get some critical distance from the constructed concept of beauty, enough distance to see how this very concept has been reduced and edited.

And I ask nothing better than that people, men and women, could see, at least sometimes, a human in me, rather than only a well-groomed woman, that they could recognize my mental power. And I will do my best to live up to my claim to intellect.

Ms Petite Marie