Blonde Jokes?

[Monkey Riding Dragon]

Yesterday people were sharing some of these at my workplace and it got me thinking. Now as for me, though I'm a blond-haired female myself, I don't take blonde jokes as terribly personal or anything. Not the same as, for example, racially-motivated discriminatory jokes. I'm pretty sure blond-haired females overall receive far better treatment than minority people as a whole in this country and even far better treatment than most abroad. I can certainly understand why people might want to have some way of making a joke out of the ridiculousness of that situation. I mean, whenever you might think of calling something like a blonde joke reactionary, when you say what you're thinking in your head, it (your hypothetical response) sounds itself reactionary, like you're defending white privilege and "Aryanism", etc.

Still, I can't help but think: surely we're not all dumb, "dirty whores" or whatever.

Also, what's the deal with blonde jokes being specifically about blond-haired girls and women? Does being male just automatically make you smarter or something?

What do you think of blonde jokes? Are they appropriate?

[Kenco Smooth]

Any joke as long as it remains just that is no problem. The problem comes in when these jokes then slowly become ingrained as true in the public consciousness which can happen all to easily.

But if someone is genuinly descriminatory against another then the jokes they are making aren't exactly the most pertinent aspect at hand. I say don't worry too much about comments made in obvious jest.

[The Ben G]

Im Blond too. I dont really care about them.

[ContrarianLemming]

I'm a blonde male and I make blonde jokes. Thing is, a blonde joke isn't just about "blondes" its about female young blondes, or rather, stupid young female blondes.
I don't think we should be offended by a joke that, we can reasonably assume, has no basis in reality and I think those who tell the jokes will almost always agree, if not always, considering like half of europeans are blonde.

[28350]

Any joke as long as it remains just that is no problem. The problem comes in when these jokes then slowly become ingrained as true in the public consciousness which can happen all to easily.

But if someone is genuinly descriminatory against another then the jokes they are making aren't exactly the most pertinent aspect at hand. I say don't worry too much about comments made in obvious jest.

The thing is, the jokes are already ingrained in public consciousness, and this is true for most jokes about stereotypes. Jokes are usually the first step in introducing unabashed discrimination into what is deemed acceptable.

In this case, I don't think it's that big of a deal when compared to jokes made about groups that have been or are repressed, but I still think they're offensive.

Apparently this "hair discrimination" has hurt at least one person:

youtube.com/watch?v=EY39fkmqKBM

[Jimmie Higgins]

I don't think the offensive jokes make the discrimination and oppression - I think it's the other way around. You can make as many rich white male jokes as you want and it wouldn't do anything to effect the status of rich white men in US society.

Dumb blond jokes are basically holdover sexist jokes, but since, for the most part, sexism has changed from presenting women as mentally feeble to other myths about women, most people probably don't feel the sexism of the jokes as strongly as it originally would have been felt.

It's like how Conan O'Brien makes Irish jokes - if he made fun of Irish drunks in the 1870s, then I think this would be highly offensive and reinforcing oppression and the scapegoating of immigrants - since most Irish Americans do not experience any opression based on their ethnic background, the jokes are seen as pretty harmless and will not likely result in a resurgence of anti-Irish-American sentiment in the US. The same jokes applied to Mexican immigrants would be, in-effect, reinforcing the second-class status of immigrants in the US.

[Crusade]

I'm black and I wouldn't care if someone made a black joke. It's usually if it seems like they mean it or not. Since people never admit that they're racist anymore it's pretty hard to know where people stand. However, if someone made a joke about brown eyed people being something I really wouldn't care if someone meant it or not because that "theory" doesn't hold water in society. Blonde jokes most people don't really take seriously, but at the same time I've seen cases where women are told they should dye their hair or w/e, just because blonde hair seems "unprofessional"(for women only though). In this case they're completely serious and it's affecting their career to a point where their appearance is ultimately dictating their success. In the same token though you have blondes getting the upperhand over other women because blondes are considered more attractive, but these aren't usually jobs of influence and mainly jobs where "eye candy" is what they're after.

My answer to your question though is: Good question.

[Foldered]

I don't think they are appropriate simply because they function to perpetuate the idea that blonde women are inherently stupid, regardless of the intent behind the "joke."

[leftace53]

Speaking as a brunette myself,
I think it comes from our imposed aesthetic ideals, where blonde women are supposedly more attractive, more suitable for mating (maybe because of a more "pure" - lighter - ideal). Of course in a patriarchal society this leads to subordination of not just blonde women, but women in general, as if they can have their pick from a bunch. Obviously with subordination comes ridicule, hence blonde jokes.
Also the world is mostly brunettes, blondes are a dy(e)ing hair colour - pun intended - it is percieved as rare, making it more valuable in our scarcity driven world. In the competitive nature of our capitalist society, many jokes must have arose from jealousy. Brunettes simply not feeling valued enough, for instance when a blonde woman is smart, she is considered to "have it all", yet when a brunette is smart, it is just expected. I find the opposite doesn't pan out, because a brunette could be good looking, but is usually still considered "cute" compared to a "hot" for the same amount of good looks in a blonde.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

I feel blonde jokes-typifying a group of women as being stupid because of their hair color, are sexist. I don't think its good to single out people for mockery based on a characteristic.The same would go for the "senior moment" meme which I think is offensive to elderly people.

It is true that blondes have been traditionally seen as more attractive and jokes are a rebellion against this. The "dumb blonde" meme isn't a good replacement for this though. Also admittedly a large number of people who are blonde live in developed countries but I don't think anything can be extrapolated from this. Latvia has a lot of blonde people and to an extent Greece does as well and they are being screwed over by capitalism. The working class is the working class.

Blonde jokes are a big step up from ethnic jokes , which are reactionary and offensive. I'm a dirty blonde myself but I haven't heard a blonde joke in a long while. Maybe people are too polite to say anything!

Tendency jokes on the other hand...

A Hoxhaist, a Trot, and a bourgeois revisionist were in a canoe...

[RedAnarchist]

Personally, I think a lot of people use blonde jokes to disguise their misogyny. By focussing ion a certain part of the female population, these people can make it looks as if they are mocking blonde people for various stereotypes when in reality they are mocking all women. Of course, this is just one reason of many for why some people tell these very unfunny jokes.

[Monkey Riding Dragon]

I think I've come to agree with the overall consensus here, which seems to be that they're not appropriate. The clincher for me though was actually Crusade's opening statement: "I'm black and I wouldn't care if someone made a black joke." If that's the logical opposite of my being offended by a blonde joke, then I think I certainly should be bothered by it because I definitely think black people should be offended by racist jokes...as should we all!

Holdover sexism and "jealousy" mixed together is a satisfactory explanation for the development of this particular phenomena to me.

Thank you all for your help!

[rednordman]

If you think getting jokes against you for being blond is bad, than try dying your hair colour to ginger. That is all I will say.

[cska]

If you think getting jokes against you for being blond is bad, than try dying your hair colour to ginger. That is all I will say.

That must suck. :(

[Chambered Word]

This might seem silly but my mother once told me blonde women are paid less than others, does this hold any truth at all?

[RedAnarchist]

This might seem silly but my mother once told me blonde women are paid less than others, does this hold any truth at all?

Women are paid less than men, but I suppose it might be true.

[Monkey Riding Dragon]

I don't know about pay levels based on hair color, but I do know that the saying "blondes have more fun" (meaning sex, of course) is statistically untrue. According to various surveys on the subject, blond women actually have slightly less "fun" than most other women.

[010]

I've read all kinds of "studies", some saying that blondes earn less to begin with, and then their income later increases (but that's not exactly surprising; as age and experience increase, so typically does pay). Most tend to claim that blondes earn more versus women with other hair colors (again, not exactly surprising considering most blondes are white and that gives them yet another social advantage). Some claim that blondes marry wealthier men (again, not exactly surprising considering that they would typically be marrying white men & that blonde women are perhaps seen as more attractive). And just a google search revealed a sCieNtiFic study which argued that blondes have 380% moar sex than other women (but apparently fake orgasms 8 times as much and apparently twice as likely to wake up in a pool of our own vomit). Anyway, most (all?) of these "studies" serve the purpose of dressing up silly stereotypes with an aura of science.

[010]

Im Blond too. I dont really care about them. Well duh, they're blonde jokes. When was the last time you heard a blond joke which involved a man? :confused:

[RedAnarchist]

Well duh, they're blonde jokes. When was the last time you heard a blond joke which involved a man? :confused:

Marsella, I've heard plenty of jokes about blond men, although I don't know many blond men.

I have dark-haired privilege because we don't get jokes aimed at those of us with dark hair (then again, we're a majority). The level of nastiness aimed at people because they have blond/e or red hair is far too high.

[A.R.Amistad]

I find that the "dumb blonde" jokes are more of a male chauvinist statement than a racially based one.

Either way, politically speaking its nothing but a bunch of idealist bullshit, so stick to your historical materialist guns :)

[mikelepore]

The dumb blonde jokes have several sources. One source is the stereotype produced intentionally by movie and TV writers and directors, for example, the movie scene where Marilyn Monroe gets her toe stuck in the bathtub faucet, or the half-witted characters portrayed in TV sitcoms by Eva Gabor and Suzanne Somers.

Another source is a popular misunderstading of statistics. The assumption is that people selected for their looks must therefore be unintelligent. In fact, if looks and intelligence are independent random variables, a valid assumption if no actual correlation between them has ever been measured, then a group of people who have been selected for something about their looks would tend to have the same mean and variance in intelligence as the general population.

[rednordman]

Marsella, I've heard plenty of jokes about blond men, although I don't know many blond men.

I have dark-haired privilege because we don't get jokes aimed at those of us with dark hair (then again, we're a majority). The level of nastiness aimed at people because they have blond/e or red hair is far too high.I struggle to understand why people care so much about hair colour anyway? Hair is hair, so what does it even matter what colour or style it is?

[RedAnarchist]

I struggle to understand why people care so much about hair colour anyway? Hair is hair, so what does it even matter what colour or style it is?

People will always find something to divide themselves with, to make someone else "different" and sometimes "inferior". These divisions are often superficial and/or arbitrary.

[rednordman]

People will always find something to divide themselves with, to make someone else "different" and sometimes "inferior". These divisions are often superficial and/or arbitrary.Sad but true I guess. Being what i could only describe as 'slightly ginger' I have always found this a touchy issue. Not because of abuse i ever recieved (I got of lightly - guess im not ginger enough:rolleyes:) but because of the abuse that alot of real red heads get nowadays.

A bit of fun is a bit of fun, but some people today, literally do seem to see 'gingers' as having some physical deficiency or something - especially with men. I have even heard people claim that ginger smell and stuff like that, or even more extreme that offspring of a ginger parent are more likely to have 'deficiences'. That just crosses the line for me - and is where i think that a bit of fun making borders on descrimination.

I suppose if there was to be a correlation between blonds and gingers, it would be that with blonds, its women who take the stick, and with gingers it men. I think that the ones who have come to the conclusion that these hair colour jokes are sexist, are probably spot on.

I mean really, its such a silly thing to talk seriously over, but in reality, it can imo be a serious problem to some men or women. The whole 'dizzy blonde' stereotype may just seem like a laugh at the time to the ones taking the piss, but im sure that it gets very tiresome when it happens everyday. Especially If someone takes pride in the intellect and wants to express that freely or doesnt want to seem 'easy'.

[Foldered]

A bit of fun should never involve making people out to be inferior based on their appearance- whether hair, stature, freckles, etc.

[Obzervi]

All forms of discrimination are wrong, but obviously blonde jokes are nowhere near as severe as say racist jokes against People of Color. This is because of the historical context. Personally, as a blond male, blonde jokes don't bother me that much because they are targetted towards a certain percentage of fake blondes who do a good job of living up to the stereotypes. This is because of social conditioning which influences them to act a certain way after they dye their hair. This in turn reinforces the stereotype. Its a viscous cycle.