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Student Opinion Column: Being Blonde

By Holly Kuhr, a sophomore at Leigh High School on February 22, 2017

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            The stereotypical blonde…has no idea what she’s doing, smiles and nods at literally everything, and has an IQ of approximately 5. Why is it that blondes are assumed to be ditzy and below average? This is the age-old, never-ending question.

            To start off, let’s talk about blonde jokes, shall we? These supposedly funny jokes have been around for a very long time. I’m a blonde who is not offended by blonde jokes because is there really a “funny” blonde joke out there? The answer is no. They are poor, desperate excuses for humor. I’ve also pondered the fact that guys with blonde hair have told blonde jokes to me. After a blonde-haired guy cracks a blonde joke to me, I turn around and say, “You’re a blonde too, bud.” Then it hits me: when you hear a blonde joke, every one of us automatically imagines it as being a girl.

            I was so interested in this that I did a little research to find that blondes may not be as dumb as society has labeled them. A study by Ohio State University analyzed the IQ scores of nearly 11,000 naturally blonde, brunette, and red-haired women. The study found that the average IQ scores were higher for blondes than other hair colors. Blondes represent!

Unfortunately, there are real risks to being blonde as well. Medically speaking, blondes produce less melanin, which leaves our skin more susceptible to skin cancer and macular degeneration, which is an eye condition that can cause blindness. Along with that, only two percent of the world’s population is naturally blonde… we are a rare species, what can I say?

Apparently people think blondes don’t get taken as seriously as brunettes, which can actually be a pro and a con. When a blonde is standing next to a brunette, who do you think strangers nearby are going to assume is smarter? Obviously the brunette… However, people will then be nicer to us blondes, as if to say, “It’s okay. We understand that you’re a blonde.”

I haven’t lost hope though. After all, how many people do you know who go to the hair salon and dye their hair blonde? I don’t know about you, but that has to mean people adore blondes. When worse comes to worse, blondes like myself can blame pretty much anything on a “blonde moment”...what’s your excuse?