The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsDumb blonde?
In the mid-80s, after giving a tour at a paleontological site where I worked, a thirty-something man in the tour group complimented me on my presentation and also on how thoroughly and interestingly Id answered the questions I was asked during the tour.
Then he asked me, who'd been blond all her life and still was, if Id ever thought of dying my hair brown. He said that brunettes are taken more seriously than are blondes, and he thought Id be able to advance more quickly in my career if my hair were brown.
He went on about how the rumps of female baboons swell when they are in heat, which makes their rumps appear even redder and signals the males that theyre ready to mate. Also, female baboons turn their rumps toward other baboons to show submission.
He said hed like to do a study on the correlation between blonde hair on women and baboon butts. Weird.
edited to change "blond" to "brown."
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)geardaddy
(24,931 posts)He sounds like an arse. Big red baboon arse.
Raine1967
(11,589 posts)Why is this lounge material?
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)I should have posted a penis joke, I guess.
Raine1967
(11,589 posts)Maybe I'm having a bad day, it didn't seem funny to me.
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)His suggesting that I dye my hair brown, or my post in general?
Regardless, no, it wasn't a joke. It happened to me, and I still think about it from time to time and wonder if he ever did his study.
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)was given for the starting salary. Authors predicted that brunettes would receive the highest
ratings and starting salary and that blonds would receive the lowest, based on popular stereotypes
and past research.
..
Blonds were depicted as rather feminine and with qualities
such as interesting and warm (Clayson and Maughan, 1986; Lawson, 1971).
Brunettes were also typically seen as possessing valuable interpersonal qualities (Clayson and Maughan, 1986;
Lawson, 1971). They, along with redheads, may be seen as being more intellectual than their blond contemporaries (Clayson and Maughan, 1986;Lawson, 1971).
http://web.mnstate.edu/nickell/classes/psy430/Sample%20student%20paper%20for%20Psy%20430.pdf
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)Thanks for posting this. I think I now understand why the tourist man suggested I dye my hair brown if I wanted to be taken more seriously.
I still don't get what baboon rumps had to do with it, though. Maybe he was saying he thought the "dumb blond" attitude was instinctive.
Thanks again!
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)can be tied up in the most superficial of things, regardless of how intelligent or competent the person is...Some of them are justifiable (hygiene, neatness, etc.), while some others are gray area...
For example, there are countless stories of professional women who had to drop (or heavily dilute) their regional or foreign accents to be "taken seriously"
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)men had fewer restrictions placed on them than women did. (I'm thinking of the 60s.)
I grew up in western Nebraska, an the summer I was 19, my mom asked me to go stay with her sister in Troy, NY for a while, to keep her company because her husband had recently died and she was depressed and lonely.
My aunt was wealthy, and she insisted on buying me stylish clothes, and we dined in expensive restaurants. She introduced me to her friends whenever they happened to stop by our table. My aunt got a huge kick out of my "western drawl" and always made me say something, so as to amuse everyone. Her favorite thing for me to say was "You never can tell, can you?" because according to her, the "proper" way to say it, was "One never knows, does one?" Hilarity ensued whenever I spoke.
One couple who stopped by our table to say hello were Gov. Rockefeller and his new wife, Happy. My aunt introduced me as her niece from the Nebraska sticks, and then made me talk for them. They looked at me kindly, and then at my aunt, not so kindly. As they walked away, Happy squeezed my shoulder.
I never make fun of people's accents, and it irks me that one's regional way of speaking should have anything to do with being taken seriously.
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)petronius
(26,603 posts)frogmarch
(12,158 posts)him as having short medium-blond hair.
Skittles
(153,174 posts)that's what your subject line should be: Total creep?
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)I think he believed he was being helpful.