Blond ambition: the Brazilian Media’s Manufacturing of the white woman as standard of beauty and the place of black women
Source: Black Women of Brazil
“In a society aesthetically governed by a white paradigm…the lightness or whiteness of the skin…persists as a symbolic mark of imaginary superiority.” – Muniz Sodré
In various other articles, we have highlighted the exclusion of Afro-Brazilians along with the overwhelming representation of white Brazilians in the mainstream media. We have also run a series of articles about interracial relationships which featured a roundtable discussion on the topic of black Brazilian men having a preference for white women, specifically blonds.
In the same vein, this current post really speaks for itself. In articles from October 24, 2011 and January 31, 2012, there were two online articles that highlighted the beauty of white women in Brazil’s TV media. One article was entitled “Loiras da TV: as apresentadoras platinadas que fazem sucesso (TV’s blondes: the successful platinum colored hosts)” and the other “As dez apresentadoras de TV mais bonitas do Brasil (The ten most beautiful TV hosts)”. By its title, the first article is blatant in its promotion of blond beauty. In the second article, one has to look at the photos to note that none of the women regarded as the “most beautiful” of TV hosts are Afro-Brazilian. (Note: The photos in this article from Sabrina Sato to Xuxa are the 30 photos of the women presented in the two articles)
What would explain the invisibility of any women of color on this list? One reason, or one might say, excuse, would be the relative lack of black TV hosts and journalists. Research shows that 86% of television hosts and 93% of journalists on Brazilian television programs are white. Which leads to the question of why there are so few Afro-Brazilians studying in the field of communications in universities and the further discussion of the battle over affirmative action policies to give more black Brazilians access to a college education. In regards to the other article, it’s obvious why there are no Afro-Brazilians on the list of “TV’s blonds”. But over the years, Brazil’s media hasn’t hidden the fact that it prefers blonds, a gross misrepresentation of the country’s population in which more than half of nearly 200 million citizens proclaim themselves non-white and where even the vast majority of white women do not have natural blond hair. Perhaps analyzing Brazil’s modeling industry where Afro-Brazilian women are also vastly under-represented can provide a few clues.
According to João Pina in his article, “On the Hunt for the Next Gisele“, “More than half of Brazil’s models are found among the tiny farms of Rio Grande do Sul, a state that has only one-twentieth of the nation’s population and was colonized predominantly by Germans and Italians.” Today, 81.4% of the population of Rio Grande do Sul defines itself as white. Part of Brazil’s standard of beauty owes itself to one of the state’s most famous citizens.
Correa and Santos citing Erika Palomino reveal that, “the standard of beauty of the Brazilian woman from fashion to the media is represented through the image of Gisele Bündchen, that conquered the world. Thin, with her princess features, full breasts and narrow hips, Gisele revolutionized the aesthetic standard in fashion and outside of it.” (1)
Although the domination of blondes and white women in general is blatantly obvious in the 21st century, the alarms of the coming of this European aesthetic were sounded decades ago. In 1987, anthropologist/historian Gilberto Freyre, whose works are widely credited with spreading the Brazilian myth of “racial democracy” criticized the new standard that he noted. For Freyre, the morena type embodied by actress Sônia Braga was Brazil’s national beauty preference. Braga was short, slightly brownish skin, long, dark hair with a slight kink to it, big butt and small breasts. One could also see in Braga a racial mixture that wasn’t purely European, the Brazilian mestiça (mixed-race woman) that one could argue is embodied in actress Juliana Paes today (photos of Braga and Paes further below).
For Freyre, Brazil was suffering from a European or “Yankee” (American) influence with the success of actresses like Vera Fischer. Fischer was a tall, white woman with blond, straight hair and a less rounded figure (2).
An article from Veja magazine in 2000 proclaimed that Brazilian women didn’t become old, they became blond in reference to the fact that women of Brazil were some of the biggest consumers of hair coloring chemicals in the world (2). But in a country where people will immediately proclaim their pride in biggest the “biggest mixed race country” in the world, why do so many women adapt themselves to this standard? Psychologist Rachel Moreno explained it this way:
“First, it is the fact that we are in a tropical country, with the body most exposed. The other is the imposed standard of beauty, that is absolutely Eurocentric, that of a young, white woman, straight hair, preferably blonde. It has nothing to do with the composition of the Brazilian. What surprised me was knowing that the model of beauty in Europe is the classic model of the Brazilian woman: a morena with curly hair and a body full of curves. In other words, what ends up as the standard of beauty is exactly that which is most difficult to achieve, in order to stimulate consumption.” (3)
In this sense, can we consider the promotion of the white woman as a standard of beauty to be consumed? With this domination of the European aesthetic as the ideal of beauty dominating airwaves and in the media in general, what effect might this have on the image of black women and mate selection of black males seeking partners in long-term relationships? As Tássia Fernanda de Oliveira Silva put it, because Brazilians live in a country that is dominated by a white paradigm, “black women are submitted to a process of racial selection that favors white women.” (4) As we have already discussed in previous articles, although racism persists in Brazil and affects all non-whites, racial identity remains fluid, not only due to racial admixture but also due to the fact that blackness for many is still a negative attribute to be avoided. We won’t tackle all of the implications of this issue in this post but three actors of the Salvador, Bahia-based Banda de Teatro Olodum theater group weighed in on this topic in a book about their long-running theater piece entitled Cabaré da Rrrraça.
Cabaré is a popular piece that has toured throughout Brazil since the late 90s and tackles topics such as racism, racial identity, racially-charged sexual stereotypes and the black experience of African descendants in the state most recognized for its large black population: Bahia. On the topic of black men, black women, white women and interracial relationships, here are a few comments from Telma, Jamile and Jorge.
“Unfortunately, black women, mainly those that live in the periphery, are judged, most of them, as women for having sex with. Black women aren’t good for dating. Black women are for going out with and white women are for marrying. I’ve already heard this. Black mothers themselves say: I don’t want my son to marry a neguinha because I don’t want to have to deal with combing that hair. We’ve already heard this.”** (5) – Telma Souza
“This happens because we come from an upbringing in which they tell us that black is ugly, it stinks, it’s no good, blacks have bad hair…And who wants to deal with this? No one. So the black man seeks a white woman, with white skin so that he doesn’t see himself to say that he’s made it.” (5) – Jamile Alves
“The television shows us that the standard of beauty is the European standard. School gives us a standard that is not my face. When the guy that’s there in his community turns on the television, what’s cool is the blond from (musical group) Tchan, it’s Xuxa. The blonds have become the standard for these people. The soccer player, when he ascends and starts to earn money, the woman that he’s gonna marry is a blond. When the pagodeiro (pagode music musician) starts to rise in the media, his trophy is to be with a blond woman. I’m not generalizing. Love, love in interracial relations, exists, I am not saying that it doesn’t, but this is not always the case.” (5) – Jorge Washington
Often when the topic is the issue of racism in Brazil, one of the first things people will argue is that the existence of interracial relationships somehow “proves” that racism is not a problem in Brazil. But I would argue that interracial relationships and the perception of more harmonious racial relations have more to due with the history of submission on the part of the black Brazilian population rather than a lack of racism. If it is true that white women and white people in general are regarded as superior, more intelligent, more beautiful, more powerful, etc., and there doesn’t exist a widespread movement to counteract this hegemonic value system, it is very likely that the very population that is discriminated against has itself adapted to and accepted this set of ideals that marks them as inferior. In other words, if there is no “counter attack” of values, if there is no challenge or rejection to white supremacy, social relations would appear to be harmonious. As we have shown in various articles on this blog, the Afro-Brazilian population is consistently subjected to racism, racially-based social inequality, exclusion and genocidal rates of homicide. Even so, this doesn’t necessarily prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the media is fully responsible for the superior position of white women in the feminine social hierarchy, but it is too powerful a tool to rule this out and for some people it is quite obvious. We will continue to develop this theme in future articles, but for now, we will leave you with the comments of three black women who shared their ideas on some of the topics discussed in this piece: Joana: Black actresses appear on television? Yes, they appear, still as maids. (4)
Cristina: I see the black woman in the media in a negative form. In no moment do they put blacks in an equivalent position to whites. They seek to show blacks in a way that for them will never change. Blacks will always be beneath whites and the media certainly does this. (4)
Solange: I am not pretty, I don;t think I’m pretty, pretty is other people. I am not pretty because compared to the standards of beauty, I really far back. I’m small, black and so many other things. And who thinks this way is not just me, it’s the society that thinks of the white woman with a great body, long, straight hair as beautiful. This doesn’t mean that I don’t like my color; of course I like it, but I have consciousness that the white woman is more well regarded. (4)
* – Long time television host, singer and actress passed away on September 29, 2012
** – Note that in her comments, Telma seems to be confirming the colonial era Brazilian saying in regards to race and sex: “White woman for marriage, mulata women for fucking and black women for work.” A number of studies have confirmed that many black Brazilian women feel that black Brazilian men have adapted this slave master’s ideal in their relations with black women.
Sources: Mde Mulher, Moda e Luxo
Bibliography
1. Correa, Suzamar and Robson de Souza dos Santos. Modelo negra e comunicação de moda no Brasil: análise de conteúdo dos anúncios publicados na revista Vogue Brasil. Iniciacom, América do Norte, 4, sep. 2012
2. Goldenberg, Mirian. “Afinal, o que quer a mulher brasileira?” Psicologia Clínica, 2011, vol.23, n.1, p. 47-64
3. Moreno, Rachel. “A beleza virou um problema social.” A Gazeta, Vitória, Caderno Dia-a-dia, p. 16, 26 de abr. 2009. Entrevista concedida a Elaine Vieira
4. Silva, Tássia Fernanda de Oliveira. Representações de mulheres negras na mídia televisiva. Master’s Thesis. Universidade do Estado da Bahia.
5. Uzel, Marcos.Guerreiras do Cabaré: A mulher negra no espetáculo do Bando de Teatro Olodum. Salvador: EDUFBA, 2012
Source: Black Women of Brazil
“In a society aesthetically governed by a white paradigm…the lightness or whiteness of the skin…persists as a symbolic mark of imaginary superiority.” – Muniz Sodré
In various other articles, we have highlighted the exclusion of Afro-Brazilians along with the overwhelming representation of white Brazilians in the mainstream media. We have also run a series of articles about interracial relationships which featured a roundtable discussion on the topic of black Brazilian men having a preference for white women, specifically blonds.
In the same vein, this current post really speaks for itself. In articles from October 24, 2011 and January 31, 2012, there were two online articles that highlighted the beauty of white women in Brazil’s TV media. One article was entitled “Loiras da TV: as apresentadoras platinadas que fazem sucesso (TV’s blondes: the successful platinum colored hosts)” and the other “As dez apresentadoras de TV mais bonitas do Brasil (The ten most beautiful TV hosts)”. By its title, the first article is blatant in its promotion of blond beauty. In the second article, one has to look at the photos to note that none of the women regarded as the “most beautiful” of TV hosts are Afro-Brazilian. (Note: The photos in this article from Sabrina Sato to Xuxa are the 30 photos of the women presented in the two articles)
What would explain the invisibility of any women of color on this list? One reason, or one might say, excuse, would be the relative lack of black TV hosts and journalists. Research shows that 86% of television hosts and 93% of journalists on Brazilian television programs are white. Which leads to the question of why there are so few Afro-Brazilians studying in the field of communications in universities and the further discussion of the battle over affirmative action policies to give more black Brazilians access to a college education. In regards to the other article, it’s obvious why there are no Afro-Brazilians on the list of “TV’s blonds”. But over the years, Brazil’s media hasn’t hidden the fact that it prefers blonds, a gross misrepresentation of the country’s population in which more than half of nearly 200 million citizens proclaim themselves non-white and where even the vast majority of white women do not have natural blond hair. Perhaps analyzing Brazil’s modeling industry where Afro-Brazilian women are also vastly under-represented can provide a few clues.
According to João Pina in his article, “On the Hunt for the Next Gisele“, “More than half of Brazil’s models are found among the tiny farms of Rio Grande do Sul, a state that has only one-twentieth of the nation’s population and was colonized predominantly by Germans and Italians.” Today, 81.4% of the population of Rio Grande do Sul defines itself as white. Part of Brazil’s standard of beauty owes itself to one of the state’s most famous citizens.
Correa and Santos citing Erika Palomino reveal that, “the standard of beauty of the Brazilian woman from fashion to the media is represented through the image of Gisele Bündchen, that conquered the world. Thin, with her princess features, full breasts and narrow hips, Gisele revolutionized the aesthetic standard in fashion and outside of it.” (1)
Although the domination of blondes and white women in general is blatantly obvious in the 21st century, the alarms of the coming of this European aesthetic were sounded decades ago. In 1987, anthropologist/historian Gilberto Freyre, whose works are widely credited with spreading the Brazilian myth of “racial democracy” criticized the new standard that he noted. For Freyre, the morena type embodied by actress Sônia Braga was Brazil’s national beauty preference. Braga was short, slightly brownish skin, long, dark hair with a slight kink to it, big butt and small breasts. One could also see in Braga a racial mixture that wasn’t purely European, the Brazilian mestiça (mixed-race woman) that one could argue is embodied in actress Juliana Paes today (photos of Braga and Paes further below).
For Freyre, Brazil was suffering from a European or “Yankee” (American) influence with the success of actresses like Vera Fischer. Fischer was a tall, white woman with blond, straight hair and a less rounded figure (2).
An article from Veja magazine in 2000 proclaimed that Brazilian women didn’t become old, they became blond in reference to the fact that women of Brazil were some of the biggest consumers of hair coloring chemicals in the world (2). But in a country where people will immediately proclaim their pride in biggest the “biggest mixed race country” in the world, why do so many women adapt themselves to this standard? Psychologist Rachel Moreno explained it this way:
“First, it is the fact that we are in a tropical country, with the body most exposed. The other is the imposed standard of beauty, that is absolutely Eurocentric, that of a young, white woman, straight hair, preferably blonde. It has nothing to do with the composition of the Brazilian. What surprised me was knowing that the model of beauty in Europe is the classic model of the Brazilian woman: a morena with curly hair and a body full of curves. In other words, what ends up as the standard of beauty is exactly that which is most difficult to achieve, in order to stimulate consumption.” (3)
In this sense, can we consider the promotion of the white woman as a standard of beauty to be consumed? With this domination of the European aesthetic as the ideal of beauty dominating airwaves and in the media in general, what effect might this have on the image of black women and mate selection of black males seeking partners in long-term relationships? As Tássia Fernanda de Oliveira Silva put it, because Brazilians live in a country that is dominated by a white paradigm, “black women are submitted to a process of racial selection that favors white women.” (4) As we have already discussed in previous articles, although racism persists in Brazil and affects all non-whites, racial identity remains fluid, not only due to racial admixture but also due to the fact that blackness for many is still a negative attribute to be avoided. We won’t tackle all of the implications of this issue in this post but three actors of the Salvador, Bahia-based Banda de Teatro Olodum theater group weighed in on this topic in a book about their long-running theater piece entitled Cabaré da Rrrraça.
Cabaré is a popular piece that has toured throughout Brazil since the late 90s and tackles topics such as racism, racial identity, racially-charged sexual stereotypes and the black experience of African descendants in the state most recognized for its large black population: Bahia. On the topic of black men, black women, white women and interracial relationships, here are a few comments from Telma, Jamile and Jorge.
“Unfortunately, black women, mainly those that live in the periphery, are judged, most of them, as women for having sex with. Black women aren’t good for dating. Black women are for going out with and white women are for marrying. I’ve already heard this. Black mothers themselves say: I don’t want my son to marry a neguinha because I don’t want to have to deal with combing that hair. We’ve already heard this.”** (5) – Telma Souza
“This happens because we come from an upbringing in which they tell us that black is ugly, it stinks, it’s no good, blacks have bad hair…And who wants to deal with this? No one. So the black man seeks a white woman, with white skin so that he doesn’t see himself to say that he’s made it.” (5) – Jamile Alves
“The television shows us that the standard of beauty is the European standard. School gives us a standard that is not my face. When the guy that’s there in his community turns on the television, what’s cool is the blond from (musical group) Tchan, it’s Xuxa. The blonds have become the standard for these people. The soccer player, when he ascends and starts to earn money, the woman that he’s gonna marry is a blond. When the pagodeiro (pagode music musician) starts to rise in the media, his trophy is to be with a blond woman. I’m not generalizing. Love, love in interracial relations, exists, I am not saying that it doesn’t, but this is not always the case.” (5) – Jorge Washington
Often when the topic is the issue of racism in Brazil, one of the first things people will argue is that the existence of interracial relationships somehow “proves” that racism is not a problem in Brazil. But I would argue that interracial relationships and the perception of more harmonious racial relations have more to due with the history of submission on the part of the black Brazilian population rather than a lack of racism. If it is true that white women and white people in general are regarded as superior, more intelligent, more beautiful, more powerful, etc., and there doesn’t exist a widespread movement to counteract this hegemonic value system, it is very likely that the very population that is discriminated against has itself adapted to and accepted this set of ideals that marks them as inferior. In other words, if there is no “counter attack” of values, if there is no challenge or rejection to white supremacy, social relations would appear to be harmonious. As we have shown in various articles on this blog, the Afro-Brazilian population is consistently subjected to racism, racially-based social inequality, exclusion and genocidal rates of homicide. Even so, this doesn’t necessarily prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the media is fully responsible for the superior position of white women in the feminine social hierarchy, but it is too powerful a tool to rule this out and for some people it is quite obvious. We will continue to develop this theme in future articles, but for now, we will leave you with the comments of three black women who shared their ideas on some of the topics discussed in this piece: Joana: Black actresses appear on television? Yes, they appear, still as maids. (4)
Cristina: I see the black woman in the media in a negative form. In no moment do they put blacks in an equivalent position to whites. They seek to show blacks in a way that for them will never change. Blacks will always be beneath whites and the media certainly does this. (4)
Solange: I am not pretty, I don;t think I’m pretty, pretty is other people. I am not pretty because compared to the standards of beauty, I really far back. I’m small, black and so many other things. And who thinks this way is not just me, it’s the society that thinks of the white woman with a great body, long, straight hair as beautiful. This doesn’t mean that I don’t like my color; of course I like it, but I have consciousness that the white woman is more well regarded. (4)
* – Long time television host, singer and actress passed away on September 29, 2012
** – Note that in her comments, Telma seems to be confirming the colonial era Brazilian saying in regards to race and sex: “White woman for marriage, mulata women for fucking and black women for work.” A number of studies have confirmed that many black Brazilian women feel that black Brazilian men have adapted this slave master’s ideal in their relations with black women.
Sources: Mde Mulher, Moda e Luxo
Bibliography
1. Correa, Suzamar and Robson de Souza dos Santos. Modelo negra e comunicação de moda no Brasil: análise de conteúdo dos anúncios publicados na revista Vogue Brasil. Iniciacom, América do Norte, 4, sep. 2012
2. Goldenberg, Mirian. “Afinal, o que quer a mulher brasileira?” Psicologia Clínica, 2011, vol.23, n.1, p. 47-64
3. Moreno, Rachel. “A beleza virou um problema social.” A Gazeta, Vitória, Caderno Dia-a-dia, p. 16, 26 de abr. 2009. Entrevista concedida a Elaine Vieira
4. Silva, Tássia Fernanda de Oliveira. Representações de mulheres negras na mídia televisiva. Master’s Thesis. Universidade do Estado da Bahia.
5. Uzel, Marcos.Guerreiras do Cabaré: A mulher negra no espetáculo do Bando de Teatro Olodum. Salvador: EDUFBA, 2012
When women hit the bottle
The Japanese are doing it, so are the Brazilians. Now even the Iraqis are joining in. They are in search of the American dream by reaching for the peroxide
Source: The Guardian
A couple of weeks ago, a beautiful young Japanese woman walked into Thurloe's, the hair salon in London's South Kensington, went up to the reception desk and said: 'Kami no ke o burondo ni shitai.' The receptionist looked puzzled. The woman repeated her message several times. More staff came forward to try and help. After much faltering sign language, she delved into her bag and fished out a magazine, opening it at a photograph of Gwyneth Paltrow. She pointed at the star's hair and then at her own, nodding her head vigorously and repeating: 'Burondo, burondo!' She wanted her hair dyed blonde.
Young, urban Japanese men and women have recently begun going blonde in large numbers. A walk down Omote Sando in Tokyo today casts you into a sea of blonde heads and can give you the disconcerting impression that you are in Stockholm. Advertising agencies, which probably read the national temperament better than most pundits, make heavy use of blonde models and actresses in television commercials. Shop window dummies are given Western features and blonde hair, while cartoon books, devoured by children and adults alike, depict a strange world in which slim blonde women fall in and out of love with rugged dark men, all speaking perfect colloquial Japanese.
Why do the Japanese want to be blonde? One reason is rebellion. In a society of rigid expectations, young Japanese people want to signal a small measure of independence (even if it takes the same form as thousands of others) before they fall into the social mould and begin lives as salarymen or housewives and mothers. But the other reason is that young Japanese are in awe of the West, particularly the United States. They watch its films, soaps and dramas; they eat its food, drink its beer, listen to its music and want to look like its stars.
They have, in fact, been trying to dye their hair blonde ever since Marilyn Monroe visited Tokyo in 1954 and was mobbed by thousands of admirers who plunged through the glass wall of the Imperial Hotel to get a closer look at her. However, until recently, the standard hydrogen peroxide dyes turned the strong black hair of the Japanese to an unusual shade of burnt orange. It's only recently that chemical cocktails have succeeded in dyeing their hair perfect platinum blonde.
The Japanese are not the only non-Anglo-Saxons going blonde. In Brazil, light-skinned and blonde-haired models grace the covers of magazines so that a stranger, familiarising himself, would, as a recent New York Times article pointed out, 'mistake this racial rainbow of a country for a Nordic outpost ... slender blondes smile from the covers and white faces dominate all but the sports glossies'.
Why do Brazilian magazine editors put pale-skinned blondes on their covers? The phenomenon can be traced back to the arrival in Brazil of the Portuguese in 1500, who set up a power elite with themselves at the top, decimating the indigenous Indian population and then bringing Africans as slaves to the country. Five centuries later, only 40 per cent of Brazil's citizens are white, but they remain the most rich and powerful, and their pale colouring gives them a psychological affinity with the US. The many Brazilian women who dye their hair blonde do so because blonde hair distances them from their mixed-race compatriots and it also brings them closer to membership of the elite, closer to the aspirational ideal of America.
The idea that blonde is best began as early as the eighteenth century when ethnologists, sociologists and anthropologists such as Englishman Charles White began drawing up hierarchical gradations for mankind, starting with what were believed to be the lowliest - the Negroes, bushmen and aborigines - to the yellow races and Slavs, until they reached the white race, thought to be the supreme species. Blonde colouring, supposedly derived from the sun, was believed to be a sign of greatness, together with blue eyes which reflected the sky.
An awareness of the concept of race and colouring spread rapidly throughout Western Europe and the US during the nineteenth century. In 1898, Havelock Ellis, a Victorian sexologist, put together a detailed 'index of pigmentation', ranking the personalities represented in the National Portrait Gallery according to the blondeness of their hair. He ranked 'political reformers' as the blondest. 'They possess in an extreme degree the sanguine irrepressible energy, the great temporal ambitions, the personal persuasive force, the oratorical aptitudes that in a minor degree tend to mark the class that rises to the aristocracy,' he wrote in his report, 'The Comparative Abilities of the Fair and the Dark'.
The belief in the superiority of the blonde-haired and blue-eyed gained adherents until it reached its most grotesque extreme in Hitler's obsession with the mythical Aryan race. But still America and its allies did not give up their worship of blondes. 'The blonde remained the American Dream. She was an idealised image, a representation of everything that was good, strong and righteous about America. It was almost certainly linked to ideas of race,' says Christopher Horak, a film historian and director of the Hollywood Entertainment Museum.
Today, female beauty has become a standardised product, conspicuously white, Western, slim, young and typically blonde. 'Adults with striking naturally blonde hair are extremely rare, so that may be part of the attraction of the blonde,' says Professor Jonathan Rees, a dermatology professor at Edinburgh University who is studying the genetics of blonde hair. 'Many children turn from having almost white blonde hair to having dark brown hair in the space of 10 years. So those who retain their blondeness have something extremely rare. The strange thing is no one knows very much yet about its genetics. All we know is that it has great powers of attraction.'
Accepted as a standard of female beauty, the image of the blonde is pumped out to all corners of the world by a global culture machine controlled by America. This ideal of American beauty travels the world, neatly packaged in films, television soaps and magazines, to enamour billions. Audiences in Bogota, Kuala Lumpur and Moscow watch the beautiful, slim, blonde stars of Sex and the City , Friends and countless other shows. They gaze at the blonde cover girls of Cosmopolitan and other glossy magazines. They watch endless streams of blonde anchor women on television and chart the rise of blonde pop stars and models. They see blonde actresses scooping the prizes of success, fame and wealth in Hollywood.
They absorb the messages of global marketing campaigns, selling blonde Western glamour in any language. And eventually, they enter that white Western world in their imaginations, regardless of how distant they are in ethnic or economic terms. In dyeing their hair, they believe they're buying themselves some small sense of dignity and self-esteem along with the glamour. They are coming a tiny bit closer to the power of the American ideal.
Lil' Kim, Serena Williams, Tina Turner and occasionally Naomi Campbell dye their hair blonde or wear blonde wigs to grab attention with the unnatural contrast of blonde hair against dark skin. RuPaul, an African-American drag queen, explains the rationale: 'When I put on a blonde wig, I am not selling out my blackness. Wearing a blonde wig is not going to make me white. I'm not going to pass as white, and I am not trying to. The truth about the blonde wig is simple. It really pops. I want to create an outrageous sensation and blonde hair against brown skin is a gorgeous, outrageous combination.'
Parisoula Lampsos, an Iraqi woman who used to be Saddam Hussein's mistress, has dyed her dark hair to obtain a remarkable shade of platinum blonde - perhaps her homage to America hastened her departure from Hussein's inner circle. Suha Arafat, Yasser Arafat's wife, has been seen sporting a head of unlikely golden hair.
The nod to America may not be conscious in the Arab world, but in Siberia it definitely is. According to Colin Thubron, in his book In Siberia , everybody there wants to be blonde. In the street kiosks that sell identical preserves, chocolates, contraceptives and fruit juice: 'Half the dozing heads wear low carat gold bouffants. Office clerks with peroxide chignons are betrayed by dark complexions, black eyebrows and black body hair. But at least for the moment they feel they are blondes ... everyone seems to be mimicking the lustrous inhabitants of Lisa magazine or Him Plus Her or She. Even the children's dolls are all blonde.'
Thubron discovered that the rationale behind the dye-jobs was simple. 'Blondeness turns its back on Asia. It is classically Slav (tinged, perhaps, by California). It is even ousting the traditional ginger henna of the middle aged, or invading it in a red-gold compromise.' Blondeness evidently works to assuage fears of Siberia's southern neighbour, China. Chinese labourers, builders, retailers, farmers and poachers have been trickling into Siberia ever since the end of the nineteenth century, but since 1989 the trickle has grown to more of a consistent flow. Siberians told Thubron that there may be one million Chinese living illegally among them and that a purposeful population shift is under way. For Siberian women, blonde hair is a signal of alignment with the West. They are dyeing their hair for political reasons.
I first noticed the beauty homage to America some years ago when I heard that fashionable Chinese women were having small ivory wedges inserted along the bridge of the nose by plastic surgery, to give them more aquiline, 'Western' features. In Japan, it is not unusual for women to have operations to reshape the upper eyelids, to abolish the perceived reproach of almond shaped eyes. But dyeing the hair has been recognised as a cheaper, quicker, less permanent and considerably less painful solution for those wanting to emulate the American ideal.
Unless and until the balance of world power swings from the West to the East or the South, it is likely that billions of urban women from all corners of the world will carry on trying to look like Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Anniston and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Oe On Blondes by Joanna Pitman (Bloomsbury, £12.99) is published on 3 March. British Blondes is at the National Portrait Gallery, 3 March to 6 July. Blondes is at Getty Images Gallery, 6 March to 26 April.
Source: The Guardian
The Japanese are doing it, so are the Brazilians. Now even the Iraqis are joining in. They are in search of the American dream by reaching for the peroxide
Source: The Guardian
A couple of weeks ago, a beautiful young Japanese woman walked into Thurloe's, the hair salon in London's South Kensington, went up to the reception desk and said: 'Kami no ke o burondo ni shitai.' The receptionist looked puzzled. The woman repeated her message several times. More staff came forward to try and help. After much faltering sign language, she delved into her bag and fished out a magazine, opening it at a photograph of Gwyneth Paltrow. She pointed at the star's hair and then at her own, nodding her head vigorously and repeating: 'Burondo, burondo!' She wanted her hair dyed blonde.
Young, urban Japanese men and women have recently begun going blonde in large numbers. A walk down Omote Sando in Tokyo today casts you into a sea of blonde heads and can give you the disconcerting impression that you are in Stockholm. Advertising agencies, which probably read the national temperament better than most pundits, make heavy use of blonde models and actresses in television commercials. Shop window dummies are given Western features and blonde hair, while cartoon books, devoured by children and adults alike, depict a strange world in which slim blonde women fall in and out of love with rugged dark men, all speaking perfect colloquial Japanese.
Why do the Japanese want to be blonde? One reason is rebellion. In a society of rigid expectations, young Japanese people want to signal a small measure of independence (even if it takes the same form as thousands of others) before they fall into the social mould and begin lives as salarymen or housewives and mothers. But the other reason is that young Japanese are in awe of the West, particularly the United States. They watch its films, soaps and dramas; they eat its food, drink its beer, listen to its music and want to look like its stars.
They have, in fact, been trying to dye their hair blonde ever since Marilyn Monroe visited Tokyo in 1954 and was mobbed by thousands of admirers who plunged through the glass wall of the Imperial Hotel to get a closer look at her. However, until recently, the standard hydrogen peroxide dyes turned the strong black hair of the Japanese to an unusual shade of burnt orange. It's only recently that chemical cocktails have succeeded in dyeing their hair perfect platinum blonde.
The Japanese are not the only non-Anglo-Saxons going blonde. In Brazil, light-skinned and blonde-haired models grace the covers of magazines so that a stranger, familiarising himself, would, as a recent New York Times article pointed out, 'mistake this racial rainbow of a country for a Nordic outpost ... slender blondes smile from the covers and white faces dominate all but the sports glossies'.
Why do Brazilian magazine editors put pale-skinned blondes on their covers? The phenomenon can be traced back to the arrival in Brazil of the Portuguese in 1500, who set up a power elite with themselves at the top, decimating the indigenous Indian population and then bringing Africans as slaves to the country. Five centuries later, only 40 per cent of Brazil's citizens are white, but they remain the most rich and powerful, and their pale colouring gives them a psychological affinity with the US. The many Brazilian women who dye their hair blonde do so because blonde hair distances them from their mixed-race compatriots and it also brings them closer to membership of the elite, closer to the aspirational ideal of America.
The idea that blonde is best began as early as the eighteenth century when ethnologists, sociologists and anthropologists such as Englishman Charles White began drawing up hierarchical gradations for mankind, starting with what were believed to be the lowliest - the Negroes, bushmen and aborigines - to the yellow races and Slavs, until they reached the white race, thought to be the supreme species. Blonde colouring, supposedly derived from the sun, was believed to be a sign of greatness, together with blue eyes which reflected the sky.
An awareness of the concept of race and colouring spread rapidly throughout Western Europe and the US during the nineteenth century. In 1898, Havelock Ellis, a Victorian sexologist, put together a detailed 'index of pigmentation', ranking the personalities represented in the National Portrait Gallery according to the blondeness of their hair. He ranked 'political reformers' as the blondest. 'They possess in an extreme degree the sanguine irrepressible energy, the great temporal ambitions, the personal persuasive force, the oratorical aptitudes that in a minor degree tend to mark the class that rises to the aristocracy,' he wrote in his report, 'The Comparative Abilities of the Fair and the Dark'.
The belief in the superiority of the blonde-haired and blue-eyed gained adherents until it reached its most grotesque extreme in Hitler's obsession with the mythical Aryan race. But still America and its allies did not give up their worship of blondes. 'The blonde remained the American Dream. She was an idealised image, a representation of everything that was good, strong and righteous about America. It was almost certainly linked to ideas of race,' says Christopher Horak, a film historian and director of the Hollywood Entertainment Museum.
Today, female beauty has become a standardised product, conspicuously white, Western, slim, young and typically blonde. 'Adults with striking naturally blonde hair are extremely rare, so that may be part of the attraction of the blonde,' says Professor Jonathan Rees, a dermatology professor at Edinburgh University who is studying the genetics of blonde hair. 'Many children turn from having almost white blonde hair to having dark brown hair in the space of 10 years. So those who retain their blondeness have something extremely rare. The strange thing is no one knows very much yet about its genetics. All we know is that it has great powers of attraction.'
Accepted as a standard of female beauty, the image of the blonde is pumped out to all corners of the world by a global culture machine controlled by America. This ideal of American beauty travels the world, neatly packaged in films, television soaps and magazines, to enamour billions. Audiences in Bogota, Kuala Lumpur and Moscow watch the beautiful, slim, blonde stars of Sex and the City , Friends and countless other shows. They gaze at the blonde cover girls of Cosmopolitan and other glossy magazines. They watch endless streams of blonde anchor women on television and chart the rise of blonde pop stars and models. They see blonde actresses scooping the prizes of success, fame and wealth in Hollywood.
They absorb the messages of global marketing campaigns, selling blonde Western glamour in any language. And eventually, they enter that white Western world in their imaginations, regardless of how distant they are in ethnic or economic terms. In dyeing their hair, they believe they're buying themselves some small sense of dignity and self-esteem along with the glamour. They are coming a tiny bit closer to the power of the American ideal.
Lil' Kim, Serena Williams, Tina Turner and occasionally Naomi Campbell dye their hair blonde or wear blonde wigs to grab attention with the unnatural contrast of blonde hair against dark skin. RuPaul, an African-American drag queen, explains the rationale: 'When I put on a blonde wig, I am not selling out my blackness. Wearing a blonde wig is not going to make me white. I'm not going to pass as white, and I am not trying to. The truth about the blonde wig is simple. It really pops. I want to create an outrageous sensation and blonde hair against brown skin is a gorgeous, outrageous combination.'
Parisoula Lampsos, an Iraqi woman who used to be Saddam Hussein's mistress, has dyed her dark hair to obtain a remarkable shade of platinum blonde - perhaps her homage to America hastened her departure from Hussein's inner circle. Suha Arafat, Yasser Arafat's wife, has been seen sporting a head of unlikely golden hair.
The nod to America may not be conscious in the Arab world, but in Siberia it definitely is. According to Colin Thubron, in his book In Siberia , everybody there wants to be blonde. In the street kiosks that sell identical preserves, chocolates, contraceptives and fruit juice: 'Half the dozing heads wear low carat gold bouffants. Office clerks with peroxide chignons are betrayed by dark complexions, black eyebrows and black body hair. But at least for the moment they feel they are blondes ... everyone seems to be mimicking the lustrous inhabitants of Lisa magazine or Him Plus Her or She. Even the children's dolls are all blonde.'
Thubron discovered that the rationale behind the dye-jobs was simple. 'Blondeness turns its back on Asia. It is classically Slav (tinged, perhaps, by California). It is even ousting the traditional ginger henna of the middle aged, or invading it in a red-gold compromise.' Blondeness evidently works to assuage fears of Siberia's southern neighbour, China. Chinese labourers, builders, retailers, farmers and poachers have been trickling into Siberia ever since the end of the nineteenth century, but since 1989 the trickle has grown to more of a consistent flow. Siberians told Thubron that there may be one million Chinese living illegally among them and that a purposeful population shift is under way. For Siberian women, blonde hair is a signal of alignment with the West. They are dyeing their hair for political reasons.
I first noticed the beauty homage to America some years ago when I heard that fashionable Chinese women were having small ivory wedges inserted along the bridge of the nose by plastic surgery, to give them more aquiline, 'Western' features. In Japan, it is not unusual for women to have operations to reshape the upper eyelids, to abolish the perceived reproach of almond shaped eyes. But dyeing the hair has been recognised as a cheaper, quicker, less permanent and considerably less painful solution for those wanting to emulate the American ideal.
Unless and until the balance of world power swings from the West to the East or the South, it is likely that billions of urban women from all corners of the world will carry on trying to look like Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Anniston and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Oe On Blondes by Joanna Pitman (Bloomsbury, £12.99) is published on 3 March. British Blondes is at the National Portrait Gallery, 3 March to 6 July. Blondes is at Getty Images Gallery, 6 March to 26 April.
Source: The Guardian
Why do men find blonde women so very attractive? Carole Jahme
From an anonymous male
Dear Carole, I am attracted to women with blonde hair. This seems to be true of a lot of men. Is there a biological/reproductive explanation?
Carole replies:
Ten years after he published On the Origin of Species in 1859, Darwin started to research the sexual selection of blonde hair in women in preparation for his book The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, which was published in 1871. Unfortunately he was unable to find enough data to support his theory that blonde hair is sexually selected and had to drop the subject.
Today there are plenty of theories about the evolution of blonde hair and the science of genetics has furthered the debate. Research on variation in human hair colouration has shown that mutations in genes that are involved in the synthesis of melanin pigments are largely responsible. Individuals with lower levels of a melanin pigment called eumelanin are likely to have blonde hair.1
There is no single gene for blue eyes and blonde hair, but these adaptations are often found expressed together because the genes for each trait are located close together on the same chromosome.
It has been theorised that the blonde hair and blue eyes seen in Caucasians are recent adaptations, dating from approximately 11,000 years ago. The traits are thought to have evolved among northern European tribes at the end of the last ice age. Although both natural and sexual selection have played a part in the evolution of the blue-eyed blonde, sexual selection was probably the primary force.
As regards natural selection, depigmentation allows greater penetration of the skin by ultraviolet B (UVB), which is needed to synthesise previtamin D3. Northern Europe has fewer hours of sunlight compared with Africa, so the theory is that tribes migrating into Europe underwent a genetic mutation that resulted in the depigmentation of skin and hair.2
Sexual selection would certainly have been a powerful driving force behind evolution in northern Europeans. Late Palaeolithic females in southern Europe and Africa could forage for food and feed themselves and their infants, with males occasionally supplementing their diet with meat. In northern Europe, however, where ice covered much of the terrain, people were dependent on meat. Bands of men went in search of herds of prehistoric bison or mammoth. These hunting trips were dangerous, resulting in many fatalities.
It has been suggested that as a result this was a time of intense sexual rivalry between females due to their numbers exceeding those of males.3 At any given time far more fertile women than men were left unmated, so females had to compete for mates and for a favourable share of meat. The theory is that when given the choice, Pelaeolithic males chose blondes, who stood out from their rivals.
In addition, before bottles of hydrogen peroxide became available, blonde hair in females could be interpreted as an honest signal of youth and therefore reproductive fitness. This is because postmenopausal women rarely retain the flaxen locks of their youth, of course eventually becoming grey grannies.
Interestingly, Aboriginal tribes have evolved blonde hair in females independently of the Nordic blonde.3 As this has occurred in an environment not lacking UVB this suggests that sexual selection has been more important than the forces of natural selection. But in some parts of the world, such as central Africa, mutations that result in albinism (or a significant depigmentation) of a baby can provoke fear and superstition and sometimes even infanticide. Colour mutations can only proliferate in populations if they are seen as desirable and are sexually selected for.
There are higher numbers of females born blonde than males and retention of blonde hair into adulthood is a sexually selected indicator of fitness in females.4 Caucasian blondes are usually slightly higher in oestrogen than brunettes and are likely to exhibit other infantile sexually selected traits (indicating low levels of testosterone) that are considered desirable by males, for example finer facial features, smaller nose, smaller jaw, pointed chin, narrow shoulders, smooth skin and less body hair, and infantile behaviour such as higher energy levels and playfulness.5
Another possible reason for Nordic gentlemen preferring blondes is to assure their paternity. The genes for blue eyes and blonde hair are recessive, meaning both parents must have the genes for them to be expressed in their offspring.6 So it has been proposed that blue-eyed men prefer blue-eyed women as mates because they have some degree of certainty over fatherhood. A blue-eyed male with a brown-eyed mate would not have the same assurance the resulting brown-eyed infant was his child and therefore worthy of a slice of the mammoth he risked his life trapping and slaughtering and then spent days dragging back across miles of icy tundra.
This would also help to explain the existence of blond males. Blond hair in males does not correlate with oestrogen levels as it does in females and blond hair in males is not a known indicator of fitness as it is in females. In addition, females don't select for physical appearance to the degree that men do. For a female to choose a blond male he must be able to deliver resources (mammoth), as his blond hair alone is not enough to turn her on.
Blondes do not seem to have lost any of their popularity since the end of the last ice age. Research suggests that blondes feature more often as Playboy centerfolds than they do in women's magazines, and the percentage of blondes in each type of magazine exceeds the base rate of blondes in the normal population.7
This would suggest that the selection pressures that shaped the standards of Western female beauty in the late-Palaeolithic are still the same today, and it may well explain why you are attracted to blonde women.
References
(1) Mengel-From J et al (2009) Genetic determinants of hair and eye colours in the Scottish and Danish populations. BMC Genetics; 10: 88.
(2) Nina, G, Jablonski, NG, Chaplin, G (2000) The evolution of human skin coloration. Journal of Human Evolution; 39(1): 57-106.
(3) Frost, P (2008) Sexual selection and human geographic variation. Journal of Social, Evolutionary and Cultural Psychology, Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society.
(4) Ridley, M (1993) The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature. Penguin.
(5) Grammer, K, Thornhill, R et al (2003) Darwinian aesthetics: sexual selection and the biology of beauty. Biological Reviews; 78(3): 385-407.
(6) Laeng, B et al (2007 ) Why do blue-eyed men prefer women with the same eye colour? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology; 61(3): 371-384.
(7) Rich, MK, Cash, TF (1993) The American image of beauty: media representations of hair color for four decades. Sex Roles Journal; 29(1-2): 113-124.
Source: The Guardian
From an anonymous male
Dear Carole, I am attracted to women with blonde hair. This seems to be true of a lot of men. Is there a biological/reproductive explanation?
Carole replies:
Ten years after he published On the Origin of Species in 1859, Darwin started to research the sexual selection of blonde hair in women in preparation for his book The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, which was published in 1871. Unfortunately he was unable to find enough data to support his theory that blonde hair is sexually selected and had to drop the subject.
Today there are plenty of theories about the evolution of blonde hair and the science of genetics has furthered the debate. Research on variation in human hair colouration has shown that mutations in genes that are involved in the synthesis of melanin pigments are largely responsible. Individuals with lower levels of a melanin pigment called eumelanin are likely to have blonde hair.1
There is no single gene for blue eyes and blonde hair, but these adaptations are often found expressed together because the genes for each trait are located close together on the same chromosome.
It has been theorised that the blonde hair and blue eyes seen in Caucasians are recent adaptations, dating from approximately 11,000 years ago. The traits are thought to have evolved among northern European tribes at the end of the last ice age. Although both natural and sexual selection have played a part in the evolution of the blue-eyed blonde, sexual selection was probably the primary force.
As regards natural selection, depigmentation allows greater penetration of the skin by ultraviolet B (UVB), which is needed to synthesise previtamin D3. Northern Europe has fewer hours of sunlight compared with Africa, so the theory is that tribes migrating into Europe underwent a genetic mutation that resulted in the depigmentation of skin and hair.2
Sexual selection would certainly have been a powerful driving force behind evolution in northern Europeans. Late Palaeolithic females in southern Europe and Africa could forage for food and feed themselves and their infants, with males occasionally supplementing their diet with meat. In northern Europe, however, where ice covered much of the terrain, people were dependent on meat. Bands of men went in search of herds of prehistoric bison or mammoth. These hunting trips were dangerous, resulting in many fatalities.
It has been suggested that as a result this was a time of intense sexual rivalry between females due to their numbers exceeding those of males.3 At any given time far more fertile women than men were left unmated, so females had to compete for mates and for a favourable share of meat. The theory is that when given the choice, Pelaeolithic males chose blondes, who stood out from their rivals.
In addition, before bottles of hydrogen peroxide became available, blonde hair in females could be interpreted as an honest signal of youth and therefore reproductive fitness. This is because postmenopausal women rarely retain the flaxen locks of their youth, of course eventually becoming grey grannies.
Interestingly, Aboriginal tribes have evolved blonde hair in females independently of the Nordic blonde.3 As this has occurred in an environment not lacking UVB this suggests that sexual selection has been more important than the forces of natural selection. But in some parts of the world, such as central Africa, mutations that result in albinism (or a significant depigmentation) of a baby can provoke fear and superstition and sometimes even infanticide. Colour mutations can only proliferate in populations if they are seen as desirable and are sexually selected for.
There are higher numbers of females born blonde than males and retention of blonde hair into adulthood is a sexually selected indicator of fitness in females.4 Caucasian blondes are usually slightly higher in oestrogen than brunettes and are likely to exhibit other infantile sexually selected traits (indicating low levels of testosterone) that are considered desirable by males, for example finer facial features, smaller nose, smaller jaw, pointed chin, narrow shoulders, smooth skin and less body hair, and infantile behaviour such as higher energy levels and playfulness.5
Another possible reason for Nordic gentlemen preferring blondes is to assure their paternity. The genes for blue eyes and blonde hair are recessive, meaning both parents must have the genes for them to be expressed in their offspring.6 So it has been proposed that blue-eyed men prefer blue-eyed women as mates because they have some degree of certainty over fatherhood. A blue-eyed male with a brown-eyed mate would not have the same assurance the resulting brown-eyed infant was his child and therefore worthy of a slice of the mammoth he risked his life trapping and slaughtering and then spent days dragging back across miles of icy tundra.
This would also help to explain the existence of blond males. Blond hair in males does not correlate with oestrogen levels as it does in females and blond hair in males is not a known indicator of fitness as it is in females. In addition, females don't select for physical appearance to the degree that men do. For a female to choose a blond male he must be able to deliver resources (mammoth), as his blond hair alone is not enough to turn her on.
Blondes do not seem to have lost any of their popularity since the end of the last ice age. Research suggests that blondes feature more often as Playboy centerfolds than they do in women's magazines, and the percentage of blondes in each type of magazine exceeds the base rate of blondes in the normal population.7
This would suggest that the selection pressures that shaped the standards of Western female beauty in the late-Palaeolithic are still the same today, and it may well explain why you are attracted to blonde women.
References
(1) Mengel-From J et al (2009) Genetic determinants of hair and eye colours in the Scottish and Danish populations. BMC Genetics; 10: 88.
(2) Nina, G, Jablonski, NG, Chaplin, G (2000) The evolution of human skin coloration. Journal of Human Evolution; 39(1): 57-106.
(3) Frost, P (2008) Sexual selection and human geographic variation. Journal of Social, Evolutionary and Cultural Psychology, Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Meeting of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society.
(4) Ridley, M (1993) The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature. Penguin.
(5) Grammer, K, Thornhill, R et al (2003) Darwinian aesthetics: sexual selection and the biology of beauty. Biological Reviews; 78(3): 385-407.
(6) Laeng, B et al (2007 ) Why do blue-eyed men prefer women with the same eye colour? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology; 61(3): 371-384.
(7) Rich, MK, Cash, TF (1993) The American image of beauty: media representations of hair color for four decades. Sex Roles Journal; 29(1-2): 113-124.
Source: The Guardian