Blonde

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Biography

Blond or blonde ( #Etymology, spelling, and grammar|see below ) or fair-hair is a Human hair color|hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment melanin|eumelanin . The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some sort of yellow ish color. The color can be from the very pale blond (caused by a patchy, scarce distribution of pigment) to reddish "strawberry" blond colors or golden-brownish ("sandy") blond colors (the latter with more eumelanin). On the Fischer–Saller scale blond color ranges from A to J (blond brown).

Etymology, spelling, and grammar

The word "blond" is first attested in English in 1481"blonde | blond, adj. and n.". OED Online. March 2012. Oxford University Press. Web. 17 May 2012. and derives from Old French blund, blont meaning "a colour midway between golden and chestnut hair|light chestnut ".Harper, Douglas. "Blond (Adj.)." Online Etymology Dictionary. 17 May 2012. It gradually eclipses the native term "fair", of same meaning, from Old English wikt:fæger|fæger , to become the general term for "light complexioned". The French (and thus also the English) word "blond" has two possible origins. Some linguists say it comes from Medieval Latin blundus , meaning "yellow", from Old Frankish *blund which would relate it to Old English blonden-feax meaning "grey-haired", from blondan/blandan meaning "to mix" (Cf. blend ). Also, Old English beblonden meant "dyed" as ancient Germanic peoples|Germanic warriors were noted for dying their hair.

However, linguists who favor a Latin origin for the word say that Medieval Latin blundus was a vulgar pronunciation of Latin wikt:flavus|flavus , also meaning yellow . Most authorities, especially French, attest the Frankish origin. The word was reintroduced into English in the 17th century from French, and was for some time considered French; in French, "blonde" is a feminine adjective ; it describes a woman with blond hair., from Online Etymology Dictionary .

"Blond", with its continued gender-varied usage, is one of few adjectives in written English to retain separate grammatical gender|masculine and feminine grammatical genders . Each of the two forms, however, are pronounced the same way. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language|American Heritage 's Book of English Usage propounds that, insofar as "a blonde" can be used to describe a woman but not a man who is merely said to possess blond(e) hair, the term is an example of a " sexism|sexist stereotype women are primarily defined by their physical characteristics." from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1996) The Oxford English Dictionary records that the phrase "big blond beast" was used in the 20th century to refer specifically to men "of the Nordic type" (that is to say, blond-haired). Particularly this had associations with Friedrich Nietzsche 's Übermensch ."blonde, blond, a. and n." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online . Oxford University Press. 5 Aug. 2010 < http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50023771>. The OED also records that blond as an adjective is especially used with reference to women, in which case it is likely to be spelt "blonde", citing three Victorian usages of the term. The masculine version is used to describe a plural, in "blonds of the European race", in a citation from 1833 Penny cyclopedia , which distinguishes genuine blondness as a Caucasian race|Caucasian feature distinct from albinism . Penny cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge , s.v. Albinos. Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain, 1833). By the early 1990s, "blonde moment" or being a "dumb blonde" had come into common parlance to mean "an instance of a person, esp. a woman... being foolish or scatter-brained.""blonde, blond, a. and n." The Oxford English Dictionary. June 2006 . OED Online . Oxford University Press. 5 Aug. 2010 < http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50023771>. Another hair color word of French origin, Brown hair|brunet(te) (from the same Germanic root that gave "brown"), also functions in the same way in orthodox English. The OED gives "brunet" as meaning "dark-complexioned" or a "dark-complexioned person", citing a comparative usage of brunet and blond to Thomas Henry Huxley in saying, "The present contrast of blonds and brunets existed among them"."brunet, a. and n." The Oxford English Dictionary. June 2006 . OED Online . Oxford University Press. 5 Aug. 2010 < http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50028357>. "Brunette" can be used, however, like "blonde", to describe a mixed-gender populace. The OED quotes Grant Allen , "The nation which resulted..being sometimes blonde, sometimes brunette.""brunette, n. and a." The Oxford English Dictionary. June 2006 . OED Online . Oxford University Press. 5 Aug. 2010 < http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50028359>.

"Blond" and "blonde" are also occasionally used to refer to objects that have a color reminiscent of fair hair. Examples include pale wood and lager beer . For example, the OED records its use in 19th century poetic diction to describe flowers, "a variety of clay ironstone of the coal measures", "the colour of raw silk", and a breed of Batoidea|ray ."blonde, blond, a. and n." The Oxford English Dictionary. Additions Series 1997. OED Online . Oxford University Press. 5 Aug. 2010 < http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50023771>.

== Varieties

Many sub-categories of blond hair have also been defined to describe someone with blond hair more accurately. Common examples include the following:

blond / flaxen : when distinguished from other varieties, "blond" by itself refers to a light but not whitish blond with no traces of red, gold, or brown. This color is often described as "flaxen".

yellow : yellow-blond ("yellow" can also be used to refer to hair which has been dyed yellow).

platinum blond or towheaded : whitish-blond; almost all platinum blonds are children. "Platinum blond" is often used to describe bleached hair, while "towheaded" generally refers to natural hair color.

sandy blond : greyish-hazel or cream-colored blond.

golden blond : a darker to rich, golden-yellow blond.

strawberry blond , Venetian blond or honey blond : a light or dark amberish golden blond.

dirty blond or dishwater blond : dark blond with flecks of golden blond and brown.

ash-blond : pale or grayish blond.

bleached blond , bottle blond , or peroxide blond : artificial blond slightly less white than platinum blond.

Evolution of blond hair

Natural lighter hair colors occur most often in Europe and less frequently in other areas., from The Times . Note, the end of the Times article reiterates the disappearing blonde gene hoax; the online version replaced it with a rebuttal. In northern European populations, the occurrence of blond hair is very frequent. The hair color gene Melanocortin 1 receptor|MC1R has at least seven variants in Europe giving the continent a wide range of hair and eye shades. Based on recent genetics|genetic research carried out at three Japanese universities, the date of the genetic mutation that resulted in blond hair in Europe has been isolated to about 11,000 years ago during the last glacial period|last ice age .

A typical explanation found in the scientific literature for the evolution of light hair is related to the requirement for vitamin D synthesis and northern Europe's seasonal deficiency of sunlight.Robins, Ashley H. Biological perspectives on human pigmentation. Cambridge University Press, 1991, pp. 195–208. Lighter skin is due to a low concentration in pigmentation, thus allowing more sunlight to trigger the production of vitamin D. In this way, high frequencies of light hair in northern latitudes are a result of the light skin adaptation to lower levels of sunlight, which reduces the prevalence of rickets caused by vitamin D deficiency. The darker pigmentation at higher latitudes in certain ethnic groups such as the Inuit is explained by a greater proportion of seafood in their diet. As seafood is high in vitamin D, vitamin D deficiency would not create a selective pressure for lighter pigmentation in that population.

An alternative hypothesis was presented by Canadian anthropologist Peter Frost (anthropologist)|Peter Frost , who claims blond hair evolved very quickly in a specific area at the end of the last ice age by means of sexual selection . from Evolution and Human Behavior , Volume 27, Issue 2, Pages 85-103 (March 2006) According to him, the appearance of blond hair and blue eyes in some northern European women made them stand out from their rivals at a time of fierce competition for scarce males.

A theory propounded in The History and Geography of Human Genes (1994), says blond hair became predominant in Northern Europe beginning about 3,000& nbsp;BC, in the area now known as Lithuania, among the recently arrived Proto-Indo-Europeans|Proto-Indo-European settlers (according to the Kurgan hypothesis ), and the trait spread quickly through Sexual selection in human evolution|sexual selection into Scandinavia. As above, the theory assumes that men found women with blond hair more attractive.

It is now hypothesized by researchers that blond hair evolved more than once. Published in May 2012 in Science (journal)|Science , a study of people from the Solomon Islands in Melanesia found that an amino acid change in TYRP1 produced blonde hair.

Geographic distribution

Europe

Generally, blond hair in Europeans is associated with lighter eye color ( eye color#Gray|gray , eye color#Blue|blue , eye color#Green|green and eye color#Hazel|hazel ) and light (sometimes freckled) skin tone. Strong sunlight also, on some people but not all, lightens hair of any pigmentation, to varying degrees, and causes many blond people to freckle, especially during childhood.

Asia
In Central Asia and South Asia , there is a lower frequency of natural blonds found among some ethnic populations. But blonds are found at comparatively high frequency among the Nuristani people|Nuristani people of eastern Afghanistan , who have about one-third recessive blondism. In northwestern Pakistan , the Kalash people|Kalash tribe (related to Nuristanis) also have an unusually high frequency of blond hair, while blond hair is also found among many Pashtun people|Pashtuns tribes of the area, such as the Afridi (Pashtun tribe)|Afridis residing near the Khyber Pass . Around 10% of Tajik people|Tajiks also have blond hair, more prevalent in the Pamir Mountains|Pamir region. . Nicholas Shoumatoff, Nina Shoumatoff (2000). University of Michigan Press . p.9. ISBN 0-472-08669-3 Blond hair color also naturally occurs among other people from Afghanistan, and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan regions of Pakistan; these groups include Chitrali people|Chitralis , Kashmiri people|Kashmiris , Shina people|Shinas and Burusho people|Burusho .

Blonds are also found in Turkey , especially in the northern ( Caucasus ) and western (European) parts of the country. Blonds are also found in parts of southwest and northern Iran , especially in the Caspian and Caucasus provinces. Blonds are also found in the Levant , Israel (especially among the Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazi ), in western Syria, in northern Iraq, and in the Palestinian territories . Jordan and Lebanon have a frequency of blonds as well. Blond hair is also a common sight among Berber people|Berbers of North Africa, especially in the Rif and Kabyle people|Kabyle region and also among Maghreb Arabized Berber|Arabs of Berber descent ."On the whole, blondism is strong in the Rif; over half of the adult men show some trace of it. But the Rif is not a blond country in the sense that Norway, Sweden, Finland, or even England are blond; it is, however, blonder than most of Spain or southern Italy.", Carleton S. Coon , The Races of Europe (1939) , Greenwood Press, 1972, p.482

Oceania
Indigenous Australians|Aboriginal Australians , especially in the west-central parts of the continent, have a high frequency of natural blond-to-brown hair, with as many as 90–100% of children having blond hair in some areas. The trait among Indigenous Australians is primarily associated with children. In maturity the hair usually turns a darker brown color, but sometimes remains blond. Blondness is also found in some other parts of the South Pacific, such as the Solomon Islands , Vanuatu , and Fiji , again with higher incidences in children.

Natural blonde hair is more common among young children than adults, as blonde hair usually darkens to a brunette shade with age. Natural blonde hair is rare in adulthood, with some reports that only about 2% of the world's population is naturally blonde. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/race.html

Relation to age

Blond hair is most common in Caucasian race|Caucasian infants and children,Ridley, Matt. Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature. Published by HarperCollins, 2nd ed. 2003, pp. 293–294. so much so that the term "baby blond" is often used for very light colored hair. Babies may be born with blond hair even among groups where adults rarely have blond hair although such natural hair usually falls out quickly. Blond hair tends to turn darker with age, and many children's blond hair turns light, medium, dark brown or black before or during their adult years. As blond hair tends to turn brunette with age, natural blonde hair is rare and makes up approximately 2% of the world's population. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/race.html"

Folklore and mythology

Southern Europe

The Greek gods are attested varying in their appearances. While Poseidon was described as having a blue-black beard, and Zeus blue-black eyebrows, Pindar described Athena as fair-haired, and Pheidas described her as golden-haired. Hera , Apollo and Aphrodite were also described as blonds.Myres, John Linton (1967). Who were the Greeks? , pp. 192-199. University of California Press. Pindar collectively described the Homeric Danaans of the time of the war between Argos and Thebes as fair-haired. The Sparta ns are described as fair-haired by Bacchylides . In the work of Homer , Menelaus the king of the Spartans is, together with other Achaean leaders, portrayed as blond. Although dark hair colours were predominant in the works of Homer, there is only one case of a dark hero, and that is when the blond Odysseus is transformed by Athena and his beard becomes blue-black. Other blond characters in Homer are Peleus , Achilles , Meleager , Agamede , and Rhadamanthys .

According to Francis Owens, " (Francis Owen,; their Origin Expansion & Culture ", 1993 Barnes & Noble Books ISBN 0-88029-579-1, page 49.) Ancient Rome|Roman literary records describe a very large number of well-known Roman historical personalities as blond. In addition, 250 individuals are recorded to have had the name Flavius, meaning blond, and there are many named Calvisius Rufus|Rufus and Rutilius, meaning red hair ed and reddish-haired, respectively. The following Roman gods are said to have had blond hair: Cupid|Amor , Apollo , Aurora (mythology)|Aurora , Dionysus|Bacchus , Ceres (Roman mythology)|Ceres , Diana (mythology)|Diana , Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter , Mars (mythology)|Mars , Mercury (mythology)|Mercury , Minerva and Venus (mythology)|Venus . An emperor, Nero|Nero , descended from an aristocratic family, is by the historian Suetonius described as: "... his hair light blond,... his eyes blue..."

According to Victoria Sherrow, those Romans who were fair-haired preferred to dye their hair dark in the early period of Ancient Rome ; at one point in time blond hair was even associated with Prostitution in ancient Rome|prostitutes . The preference changed to bleaching the hair blond when Battle of Corinth (146 BC)|Greek culture, which practiced bleaching, reached Rome , and was reinforced when the legions that Gallic Wars|conquered Gaul returned with blond slaves.Victoria Sherrow. Encyclopedia of hair: a cultural history . Roman women tried to lighten their hair, but the substances often caused hair loss, so they restored to wig|wigs made from the captives’ hair. Victoria Sherrow, ''For Appearance' Sake: The Historical Encyclopedia of Good Looks, Beauty, and Grooming , Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 136,

Juvenal wrote that Messalina , Roman empress of very noble birth, was used to hide her black hair with a blond wig for her nightly visits to the brothel: sed nigrum flavo crinem abscondente galero intravit calidum veteri centone lupanar .

In his Commentary on the Aeneid of Virgil, Maurus Servius Honoratus noted that the respectable matron was only black haired, never blond.
In the same passage it's said that Cato the Elder wrote that some matrons were used to sprinkle golden dust on their hair to make it reddish-color.

From an ethnic point of view, Roman authors associated blond and reddish hair with the Gauls and the Germans: e.g., Virgil describes the hair of the Gauls as "golden" ( aurea caesaries ), Tacitus wrote that “the Germans have fierce blue eyes, red hair, huge frames”; in accordance with Ammianus , almost all the Gauls were "of tall stature, fair and ruddy”.

Northern Europe

In Norse mythology , the goddess Sif has famously blonde hair, which some scholars have identified as representing wheat|golden wheat . Hilda Ellis Davidson|Ellis Davidson, H. R. (1965). Gods and Myths of Northern Europe , page 84. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-013627-4 In the Poetic Edda poem Ríg (Norse god)|Rígsþula , the blond man Earl#Scandinavia|Jarl is considered to be the ancestor of the dominant warrior class.

In Northern European folklore , supernatural beings value blonde hair in humans. Blonde babies are more likely to be stolen and replaced with changeling s, and young blonde women are more likely to be lured away to the land of the beings. Katharine Mary Briggs|Katharine Briggs , An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, "Golden Hair", p194. ISBN 0-394-73467-X elf|Elves and fairy|fairies were often portrayed with blond hair in illustrations in children's book of fairy tales. This continues the theme that blond hair is associated with beauty and goodness.

Blonds in fiction

In Miguel de Cervantes ' Don Quixote , the ideal beauty is Dulcinea whose "hairs are gold"; in John Milton|Milton 's poem Paradise Lost the noble and innocent Adam and Eve have "golden tresses", the protagonist-womanizer in Guy de Maupassant 's novel Bel Ami who "recalled the hero of the popular romances" has "slightly reddish chestnut blond hair", while near the end of J. R. R. Tolkien 's work The Lord of the Rings , the especially favorable year following the War of the Ring was signified in the Shire by an exceptional number of blonde-haired children.

Contemporary popular culture

In contemporary popular culture, it is often stereotyped that men find blond women more attractive than women with other hair colors. For example, Anita Loos popularized this idea in her 1925 novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (novel)|Gentlemen Prefer Blondes . Blondes are often assumed to have more fun, for example in a Clairol commercial for hair colorant they use the phrase "Is it true blondes have more fun? " Some women have reported after lightening their hair they feel other people expect them to be more fun-loving. The " blonde stereotype " is also associated with being less serious or less intelligent. This can be seen in blonde jokes . It is believed the originator of the "dumb blonde" was an 18th century blonde French prostitute named Rosalie Duthe whose reputation of being beautiful but dumb inspired a play about her called Les Curiosites de la Foire (Paris 1775). Blonde actresses have supported this role; some of them include Marilyn Monroe , Judy Holliday , Jayne Mansfield , and Goldie Hawn during her time at Laugh-In . Alfred Hitchcock preferred to cast blonde women for major roles in his films as he believed that the audience would suspect them the least, comparing them to "virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints", hence the term "Hitchcock blonde". This stereotype has become so ingrained it has spawned counter-narratives, such as in the 2001 film Legally Blonde in which Reese Witherspoon succeeds at Harvard despite biases against her beauty and blonde hair, and terms developed such as cookie cutter blond (CCB), implying standardized blond looks and standard perceived social and intelligence characteristics of a blond. Many actors and actresses in Latin America|Mestizo America and Hispanic United States seem to have Nordic features& mdash;blond hair, eye color#Blue|blue eyes , and pale skin

In science fiction, nordic aliens are described as human-looking with blond hair and blue eyes, hence the name "nordic". They are benign, following the association of blond hair with beauty and goodness in European folklore and mythology.

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