Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Legally Blondes

A lot has happened since the movie Legally Blonde was released in the mid-eighties. Since then there has been a hit broadway show, and two very successful* sequels, including the most recent straight-to-DVD Legally Blondes.

But one thing hasn't changed. Blondes everywhere are still constantly complaining that their intelligence is being judged because of their hair color. 

I decided to do a little investigative journalism to see if their claims are valid. I wore a blonde wig for a week to see if people would treat this blonde differently. 

Here's a record of what happened: 

8/2 - Bought a beautiful blonde wig that fits my head like a glove, but for my head. 

8/3 - Went to work today. Everyone wanted to know what was up with the wig. Decided I need to take my social experiment to a place where people don't already know I'm not a natural blonde. 

8/4 - Called in sick to work. Walked around town. People were looking at my hair, and giving me weird looks. I never realized how much blonde hair makes you stick out.

8/5 - Called in sick again. Spent the day trying to get a small business loan from Bank of America. In the end, I was unable to get the loan due to having "no references" and "no business plan." But I think it's really because of the golden mane on my head.

8/6 - Weird day. Found myself trapped on a desert island with a brunette, a redhead, and a magic lamp. The brunette and redhead wished themselves off the island. I wished them back onto the island.

8/7 - Got a message from work warning me to "stop abusing my sick days." I find it interesting that I didn't receive this warning back when I was abusing my sick days before I became blonde.

8/8 - One week has passed. With the experiment over, I went to return the wig to the wig shop. They refused to take it back on the grounds that it looked as though the wig had been "run over several times with a car." It had only been run over by a car twice, and a bicycle once.

The results of my week-long experiment speak are disturbing to say the least. It's a shame that our society at large remains so narrow-minded, even with progressive movies out there such as Legally Blondes.

*Successful in spirit

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I can't say how happy I am that you have addressed this issue. As an almost-blonde, I have been advocating to rid the world not only of these stereotypes, but also of the extremely offensive phrase "dirty blonde," as both my hair and my morals are sparkling clean. Thank you guywhoreviewsmovies.