Blond

In the ancient Greek world, Iliad presented the mythological hero Achilles as what was then the ideal male warrior: handsome, tall, strong, and blond.

Sif, the wife of Thor in Norse mythology, and Iseult, the Celtic-origin legendary heroine, were both significantly portrayed as blonde.

The word blond is first documented in English in 1481[3] and derives from Old French blund, blont, meaning 'a colour midway between golden and light chestnut'.

"[6] The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) 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).

"[9] Another hair color word of French origin, brunette (from the same Germanic root that gave brown), functions in the same way in orthodox English.

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",[7] a breed of ray, lager beer, and pale wood.

[31][a 1] The precise genetic origin and spread of blond hair into its present-day distribution is a topic of debate amongst population geneticists.

With the exception of Benevento and the surrounding area in Campania, where various shades of blond hair were present in 10–15% of the population, Southern Italy as a whole averaged between 2.5% and 7.4%.

[51][page needed] A number of blond naturally mummified bodies of common people (i.e. not proper mummies) dating to Roman times have been found in the Fagg El Gamous cemetery in Egypt.

[53] Blonde hair is also found in some other parts of the South Pacific, such as the Solomon Islands,[54][55] Vanuatu, and Fiji, again with higher incidences in children.

[32] Blond hair has been discovered in human burial sites in north-western China and Mongolia dating to the Iron Age.

"[62] Chinese historical documents describe blond haired, blue-eyed warriors among the Xiongnu, a nomadic equestrian culture from Mongolia, who practiced Tengriism.

[78] Additionally, the ancient Greek lyric poet Bacchylides wrote of "the blonde daughters of the Lacedaemonians" (Spartans),[79] while also noting the golden hair of athletes at the Nemean Games.

[83] Blond dye was highly expensive, took great effort to apply, and smelled repugnant,[83] but none of these factors inhibited Greek prostitutes from dying their hair.

[87] Juvenal wrote in a satirical poem that Messalina, Roman empress of noble birth, would 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.

[88] In his Commentary on the Aeneid of Virgil, Maurus Servius Honoratus noted that the respectable matron was only black haired, never blonde.

[89] In the same passage, he mentioned that Cato the Elder wrote that some matrons would sprinkle golden dust on their hair to make it reddish-color.

[97] Yet as late as the 4th century AD, Ausonius, a poet and tutor from Burdigala, wrote a poem about an Alemanni slave girl named Bissula, whom he had recently freed after she'd been taken as a prisoner of war in the campaigns of Valentinian I, noting that her adopted Latin language marked her as a woman of Latium yet her blond-haired, blue-eyed appearance ultimately signified her true origins from the Rhine.

[99] The Goths, a Germanic tribe who played a central role in the Fall of the Western Roman Empire through their conquest, were always described in ancient sources as tall and athletic, with light skin, yellow (blond) hair and blue eyes,[100][101] The contemporary Greek scholar and historian Procopius noted of the Goths: "they all have white bodies and fair hair, and are tall and handsome to look upon.

[103] In the Poetic Edda poem Rígsþula, the blond man Jarl is considered to be the ancestor of the dominant warrior class.

[103] In medieval artwork, female saints are often shown with long, shimmering blond hair, which emphasizes their holiness and virginity.

[105] At the same time, however, Eve is sometimes shown with long, blond hair, which frames her nude body and draws attention to her sexual attractiveness.

[114] The fact that many Nazi leaders, including Adolf Hitler, did not possess these traits was noted with irony by the Allies of World War II.

[115] Senior curator at the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology Jon Røyne Kyllingstad has written that in the early twentieth-century racialist and supremacist thinkers promulgated the theory that human features such as blond hair and blue eyes were hallmarks of a "master race".

[117] Kyllingstad sees classification of race based on physical characteristics such as hair color as a "flawed, pseudo-scientific relic of the past".

[127] Similarly in many eastern cultures (Asia, The Middle East) blond men are often seen as symbolizing western masculinity: excessively manly, flirtatious, and sexually attractive.

[85] Blonde actresses have contributed to this perception; some of them include Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Holliday, Jayne Mansfield and Goldie Hawn during her time at Laugh-In.

[85] In the 1950s, American actress Marilyn Monroe's screen persona centered on her blonde hair and the stereotypes associated with it, especially dumbness, naïveté, sexual availability and artificiality.

[134] She often used a breathy, childish voice in her films, and in interviews gave the impression that everything she said was "utterly innocent and uncalculated", parodying herself with double entendres that came to be known as "Monroeisms".

Although many consider blonde jokes to be harmless, the author of the study stated the stereotype can have serious negative effects on hiring, promotion and other social experiences.