Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, Emma Stone, Lindsay Lohan, Anna Paquin, Shakira, Demi Lovato, Keri Hilson, what do all of these women have in common? They’re all blonde. By birth? No. By celebrity status? Yes.
Whenever black people talk about women going blonde, there’s usually a discussion of Eurocentric standards of beauty and black women running from their blackness, but with a hefty number of Caucasian brunettes getting the dark hues lifted from their tresses in favor of platinum strands, it’s almost as though the more success you gain, the lighter the mane. The trend is hardly new but the question is why does this tendency persist?
We all know the saying blondes have more fun and blonde hair and blue eyes have been deemed about as right as being light, but the thing with all of the women mentioned and the slew of others out there who are now rocking the yellow hue is that they hit the scene with dark hair, they made it big with dark hair, but for some reason they always go platinum sooner or later—and not in terms of their album sales.
On MenArticle.com, Austin Silver seems to pinpoint the appeal perfectly with a quote from Barnaby Conrad III, author of The Blonde, who wrote:
“The blonde is somehow more of a woman; the blonde is an innocent; the blonde is an indicator of a thoroughbred heritage; the blonde is a trophy of achievement and affluence; the blonde is a bright blossom on the maternal vine, a conduit of genetic allure. The blonde seems to embody every aspect of American culture.”
It seems the age-old connotations of black/dark being associated with something bad and light/white being good extends even to hair and across color lines to white and black women, effectively leaving us yet again with one acceptable look of beauty in Hollywood. What’s funny is in the entertainment industry the whole idea is that you need to stand out from the rest but what we essentially end up with is a lineup of box blondes who we have trouble telling apart depending on what movie screen, music video, or stage they’re performing on. So much for individuality.
I’m sure some of our biggest gripes might be with the black women who think the lighter the hair the less black they appear, but in my opinion redheads are the worst offenders in this mix. Born with the most rare shade of hair, even a ton of these individuals eventually cave and decide to become a part of the blonde brigade. You could say to each his—or her—own but there’s nothing individualistic about this trend. Just a bunch of women, as Austin Silver said, trying to be all things to all people by a simple change of the hair. This trend is clearly about image and trying to be the innocent Madonna and the sex kitten all rolled up into one flaxen-haired silhouette of femininity and I for one am over it. You?
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