# Origin of the "dumb blonde" stereotype **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 16, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745 "2006-11-16T22:44:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/1 "2006-11-16T22:44:00Z")
How did we, as a culture, get the idea that fair-haired women are stupid, superficial and oversexed? How far back does that go? Is it older than Marilyn Monroe’s movies? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/2 "2006-11-16T23:32:29Z")
It certainly goes back to Anita Loos’ 1925 novel _Gentlemen Prefer Blondes_. [http://www2.wwnorton.com/catalog/spring98/gentlemen.htm](http://www2.wwnorton.com/catalog/spring98/gentlemen.htm) > [@](#): > > If any American fictional character of the twentieth century seems likely to be immortal, it is Lorelei Lee of Little Rock, Arkansas, the not-so-dumb blonde who knew that diamonds are a girl’s best friend. Outrageous, charming, and unforgettable, she’s been portrayed on stage and screen by Carol Channing and Marilyn Monroe and has become the archetype of the footloose, good-hearted gold digger, with an insatiable appetite for orchids, champagne, and precious stones. The 1953 movie version starred Monroe and she sang the song “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” establishing for all time her baby doll image. But Carol Channing played the role in the 1949 Broadway play, with music by Jule Styne and Leo Robin. These roles certainly cemented the character into American lore. There had been both an earlier Broadway play by Loos and a silent film in the 1920s, so the image of the gold-digging but innocent blonde had been around for a generation by then in all media. Lorelei Lee doesn’t quite summon the image of the pneumatic blonde with sex appeal and no brains. That, I think, may be more a character from Vargas’s 1930’s Esquire drawings as adapted by the GIs and flyboys of WWII. But between these they cover the field pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/3 "2006-11-17T00:39:59Z")
In a [Previous thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=198959&highlight=dumb+blond) on the subject, I said that I had found an 1878 cite for “a dizzy blond.” ---
**Author:** ![Valteron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f17d59/32.png) [@Valteron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valteron)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/4 "2006-11-17T00:48:06Z")
There may be a lot of subconscious stuff going on here. For what it is worth: Most lighter Caucasians are fair-haired as children and acquire a darker, chestnut-brown colour as they reach adulthood. Blonde hair on a woman may therefore be representative of youth, therefore inexperience and foolishness. Extremely flaxen-haired Caucasian adults (margarine yellow, say) DO exist, but the VAST majority of very light blondes are dye jobs (including Marylin Monroe). So a woman who does something like that to her hair is assumed to be flighty and narcissitic. Not to mention her devotion to keeping it that way. Intelligent women are assumed to have more to do than dye their hair and spend all that time retouching the roots. Finally, have you heard about the two blonds on opposite banks of the river? One yells: “How do I get to the other side?”. and the other one answers: " You already **are** on the other side!" 😃 [ul] [/ul] ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/5 "2006-11-17T13:02:09Z")
Supposedly, Jayne Mansfield was a highly intelligent woman. She was smart and calculating enough to know that creating a public pesonna that reinforced stereotypes would bring fame and fortune. That doesn’t mean that she is responsible for creating the stereotype but she certainly furthered it. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/6 "2006-11-17T13:16:08Z")
It all stems from men’s eternally wishful thinking. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/7 "2006-11-17T22:21:55Z")
Goldie Hawn probably helped the steriotype on Laugh-In ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/8 "2006-11-17T22:49:26Z")
I believe the stereotype got a big boost when “polack” jokes became no longer acceptable. All the traditional polack jokes got switched over to blonde jokes. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/9 "2006-11-17T23:16:12Z")
If [this page’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Hilton) data is correct, I’m going to go with 17 Feb, 1981. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/10 "2006-11-17T23:59:49Z")
[QUOTE=Valteron] Extremely flaxen-haired Caucasian adults (margarine yellow, say) DO exist, but the VAST majority of very light blondes are dye jobs (including Marylin Monroe). So a woman who does something like that to her hair is assumed to be flighty and narcissitic. Not to mention her devotion to keeping it that way. [/QUOTE] As I have remarked to **DesertRoomie** who is blonde and not dumb, "It has been my experience that it’s not blonde that makes you dumb . . . It’s bleach. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/11 "2006-11-18T02:36:00Z")
Judging by Jean Harlow’s comic performance in the 1933 version of _Dinner at Eight_ the stereotype was alive and well long before then. ---
**Author:** ![C-TATUM89](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/48db29/32.png) [@C-TATUM89](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C-TATUM89)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/12 "2006-11-18T02:40:07Z")
It may interest you to know that the saying, “Blondes have more fun” is true, in a way. People with blonde hair are statistically more fertile than people of other pigmentations. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/13 "2006-11-18T03:04:30Z")
[QUOTE=C-TATUM89] It may interest you to know that the saying, “Blondes have more fun” is true, in a way. People with blonde hair are statistically more fertile than people of other pigmentations. [/QUOTE] Can you link to a source for that snippet? One assumes you mean natural blondes. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/14 "2006-11-18T03:30:59Z")
And now for some more evidence that the stereotype was actually quite broadly realized in the 1870’s, if not before. I can find a myriad of newspaper articles from the 1870’s and early 1880’s which report on the activities of a Vaudeville troupe of women who were billed as, among other titles, “The Dizzy Blondes.” They went all over the US. There are enough articles about various women who were part of this troupe of actors who had “off-stage” problems to pretty well ascertain that a “dizzy blonde” from this period was probably the forerunner of the “dumb blonde” of the 1900’s. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/15 "2006-11-18T04:17:38Z")
The question remains whether the cultural stereotype remained active in the U.S. from the 1870s on, or was revived later. Interestingly, “peroxide blonde” as a term only dates from 1918. I wouldn’t be surprised if the change to blondness on the part of a lot of young women, presumably including many flappers, helped push that stereotype into national awareness. Something that the savvy Loos would be the first to jump on with her book. One other source that may go back deep into the annals of vaudeville and Broadway is the chorus girl joke, which newspapermen and press agents never tired of telling. The heyday for the chorus girl probably starts in the early 1900s as theaters multiply in New York City and elsewhere. But again the combination of girl, columnist, movie, and image probably hits a peak in the 1920s. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/16 "2006-11-18T04:46:54Z")
[QUOTE=C-TATUM89] It may interest you to know that the saying, “Blondes have more fun” is true, in a way. People with blonde hair are statistically more fertile than people of other pigmentations. [/QUOTE] !!! Cite? Sometime this year Steven Colbert did a routine about some conservative’s complaint that the “blonde race” is in danger of dying out. (Try selling that in Iceland!) BTW – since this is GQ – is there perhaps some scientific evidence that (natural, genetic) blondes really **are** stupider on average than the general population? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/17 "2006-11-18T04:48:54Z")
Obligatory blonde joke: Q: How do you drown a blonde? A: Glue a mirror to the bottom of a swimming pool! (Try making **that** work as a Polish joke!) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/18 "2006-11-18T05:18:28Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] The question remains whether the cultural stereotype remained active in the U.S. from the 1870s on, or was revived later. Interestingly, “peroxide blonde” as a term only dates from 1918. [/QUOTE] From an 1897 news story > [@](#): > > A few weeks ago, Smith and Fulsome, two advertising fakers, came to Fort Wayne, accompanied by a peroxide blonde. and from 1910 > [@](#): > > Yea, and as champagne followeth sauterne, so doth his heart yearn next after a peroxide blonde of the chorus and 1904 > [@](#): > > New York Times: The doom of the peroxide blonde has been sealed. Throughout the past theatrical season, it has been evident that the brunetter has been regaining her place in the choruses of Broadway… ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/19 "2006-11-18T05:24:35Z")
Interesting. I got the cite from the Online Etymology Dictionary, which is normally quite good on dates. However, both your 1910 and 1914 cites concern chorus girls which fit in well with my speculations. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745/20 "2006-11-18T05:39:34Z")
[QUOTE=Valteron] Most lighter Caucasians are fair-haired as children and acquire a darker, chestnut-brown colour as they reach adulthood. [/QUOTE] Cite? Brown _is_ probably the most common color for white adults, but a cite for the part about “most” of them being fair haired as children? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-dumb-blonde-stereotype/380745.md?page=2)