What is the reason for giving two craps about the whole blonde v. brunette v. redhead battle?

@eponymoushipster i’m assuming try being the operative word

Well, the whole blonde versus brunette thing dates back to caveman days when the rarer coloring was more valued in potential mates. Other than that, I have no idea. Frankly, I’m waiting for someone to say, “I like my women with hair a color not found in nature,” then I’ll be happy. :)

@Simone_De_Beauvoir nothing worth doing comes easy.

Because you all let us.

You have half the money and all of the pussy. You don’t think you could stop it if you wanted to?

Divide and conquer?

You mean none of that is true?

@Blondesjon um, who’s ‘us all’? yeah I don’t think so….and in general your statement makes a huge assumption about women in that they don’t have half the money and about men in that some men do care about more than pussy…can you imagine? I mean, I know it’s shocking…

@pdworkin well I’ve been a blonde, a brunette, with dreadlocks, with rainbow streaks in my hair – and I’ve always been smart, excellent in bed and having fun…so you be the judge

Does anyone really any more???

@Simone_De_Beauvoir . . .True. The men that don’t care about pussy do care about money.

What’s your point. Aren’t you just adding to the problem by giving it play?

@Blondesjon nope, that isn’t true either…some men don’t care about money or pussy…oh they must be gay then, no? ...anyway you’re not answering the question…I am not giving ’ it play’ ...I was looking for actual reasons for this cultural patterns…

I’d love to be the judge. We’ll tawk.

I don’t judge women by hair color, that’s as silly as judging them by skin color. It’s just that some of you ladies can’t pull off the whole completely bald look. I will say that a woman with red hair and green eyes has that certain something, though.

I have no idea, but it’s stupid. I also don’t get people having preferences

A dumb blonde walks into a bar…

You do know that “is it true blondes have more fun?” was a hair-dye ad slogan from the 60s? I repeat my question, “Does anyone really care about this – or even talk about it – any more?

@Simone_De_Beauvoir . . .Why?

the guys who tell you they don’t care about money or pussy are trying to get money or pussy.

@Fred931 guy or girl?

@janbb makes a good point. i haven’t heard anyone i know make a comment purporting a preference for one hair color over another. frankly, a lot of women rotate the color on a regular basis these days.

@janbb not me, but I think that @Facade is a beautiful brunette.

Blondes and redheads are much rarer than brunettes. Anything that is rare is perceived to have more value.

@Blondesjon because that’s what I like to do – analyzing social patterns…is that weird for you?

@janbb I don’t remember the brand but I’m pretty sure I very recently saw a commercial focused on showing the competition between brunettes and blondes

@evelyns_pet_zebra That’s another thing. Would women who look like me actually be brunettes? And thank you for the compliment :)

@Simone_De_Beauvoir . . .Not weird at all. I just noticed that you like to use them as springboards for announcing how “stupid and ignorant” most people are and how you are not.

I like following trends too.

@Facade brown/black hair, right? It’s all the same, no matter what, I mean, if an albino dyes her hair red, she’s still a redhead, isn’t she?

@Blondesjon actually I don’t think I’ve ever called anyone on here ‘stupid and ignorant’...please do find a place where I did that and I’ll stand corrected…all of our questions on fluther are springboards to make our opinions known and to know that of others…do not assume my intent behind my questions and thanks, I’m flattered you took the time to ‘figure my patterns out’, lol

I have been a blonde, a brunette, and a red-head, and my husband loves me just the same, so I doubt that it matters.

But then, Blondes may have more fun but redheads have more sex, according to new research in Germany

And a U.S. study has found that redheads are twice as likely to avoid going to the dentist because we feel pain more acutely than our blonde and brunette cousins

So there may actually be some sort of genetic difference not just in hair color, but in behavior. OTOH, it could be “learned behavior” based on cultural stereotypes, as Wikipedia says here:

“Like many popular-culture stereotypes, the origins of this concept are murky. The 1925 Anita Loos novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady (later used as source for a film by the same name starring Marilyn Monroe) featured the character Lorelei Lee, a beautiful but empty-headed singer. While some look to this as the source for the concept, in fact, it might be far older.”

“Some have suggested that, because Caucasian babies are often born with at least a touch of blonde hair, an association has arisen tying those having fair hair with childhood and youth (and the accompanying proclivities toward naïvité and/or innocence). Also, as blonde hair is often associated with physical attractiveness and youth, some argue that those around blondes may have a tendency to admire or fawn over them, encouraging some to behave in a child-like manner (consciously or not) in order to gain attention and affection. Alternatively, this same association may instill a degree of jealousy in others who look to their covetees’ hair color as an excuse for derision.”

“On the other hand, some have postulated that the association is far older, having its roots in ancient times. The ancient Greeks and Romans were fascinated by the fair hair of the Celts and the Nordic peoples and wished to emulate their red and flaxen tresses. People in the Mediterranean area often bleached their hair or bought wigs made from the hair of enslaved Germanic and Celtic peoples, and most notably the highest-ranking courtesans. Due to this association of red and fair hair with harlots, light hair earned a degree of contempt from the high-ranking ladies of society.”

“In Medieval Europe, the upper classes tended to be darker haired than the peasantry, likely due to the period tendency to marry within one’s own class and the fact that lower class people were far more exposed to sunlight. Blonde hair was, at this time, often associated with commoners, who were ostensibly deemed less intelligent.”

Puritans, associating makeup and dyeing of hair with prostitution, forbade the dyeing or bleaching of hair, creating an imprint on dyeing hair that lasted until the 1920s. The “dumb” side could have been a way for wives of adulterous men to reassure themselves about the infidelity of their husbands; to think that their husband’s blonde mistress was sleazy, worthless, ditzy, and not very intelligent.”

“Or, the idea might stem from the idea amongst Romans and Greeks that Northern Europeans were barbarians and thus less advanced than Southern Europeans.”

Entertainment value

@evelyns_pet_zebra I suppose. I just always thought those labels were reserved for everyone else but Black people…That’s kind of weird now that I think about it.

the same reason swatch watches were popular in the 80s.

@Darwin thank you! god, that was insightful

There’s a battle going on? With whom? Blondes are beating up redheads? I have no idea what this question is about, no one I know even discusses hair color.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir – Glad you liked it. It’s the scientist in me.

@chyna the term ‘battle’ is tongue-in-cheek – not to be taken literally

@eponymoushipster which is?

@Simone_De_Beauvoir variety.

@Facade I really don’t think race figures into hair color, I mean, whether you are Black, or Japanese, or Native American, or even White European, if you have a certain hair color, then you would be ‘labeled’ as that hair color type. There was Black lady at the local Lowe’s who had her long hair braided and dyed a bunch of different colors. It looked really unique and when I commented to her on it, the resulting conversation was quite interesting. She was such a fun and interesting person. I love to converse with unique and interesting people.

@eponymoushipster but the variety exists anyway – why put them against each other

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Point being, who even talks about hair color? None of the guys I’m around has ever stated a color preference.

@Darwin we may have to include you in the LWLD list.

@chyna I wasn’t talking about guys, was I? I don’t think I was asking about men and their preferences.

Obviously women care more about this than men do. Why else would so many women change their hair color so often.

I haven’t colored my hair for 20 years now. just sayin

@Simone_De_Beauvoir No clue as to who you meant.

@jonsblond well yes, women do care about this more than guys – but why?

@evelyns_pet_zebra – The what?

@chyna I was just talking about the cultural notion…if none of your friends talk about it, okay…some other people do…please I apologize for wasting your time with a question that doesn’t relate to you or your world and is not interesting to you

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I wish I had the answer for you but obviously I don’t since I’m one that doesn’t fall into that trap.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir . . .“I care to make people’s live easier but so many people are, imo, ignorant and hurtful and a lot of the time, they tire me out, just by the conversations I hear on the train and I think ‘god I’m anti-social’ because I hate pretense, hate small talk, hate simple conversation…I want complexity, I want analysis, I want intelligence..”

Part of your answer to “Are you a people person?”

There are many more but this is the most recent and illustrates my point perfectly.

Others are ignorant, I am smart.

@jonsblond well yes I get that, but the answer doesn’t have to lay with you, it could just be a hypothesis

@Blondesjon again, this post of your is irrelevant to this question so your continuous tirade can be henceforth continued via pm (thanks ahead of time) – and yes I consider many people stupid and ignorant yet I have never called anyone on fluther either of those things…therefore I stand by my earlier statement but fail to grasp what your point is

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I will follow out of curiosity. It is interesting.

@Facade I know black people who are blonde and others who are redheaded, and it is their natural color, not wigs or extensions or dye. Perhaps your family and friends aren’t very diverse? Our family ranges from fish-belly white to so dark that the only thing that shows up in photos are teeth and eyes.

@jonsblond :)

@Darwin the Long-Winded Like Daloon list. }:^)

@Simone_De_Beauvoir . . .”@Blondesjon actually I don’t think I’ve ever called anyone on here ‘stupid and ignorant’...please do find a place where I did that and I’ll stand corrected…”

Not a tirade. An answering post to your request.

Blondesjon out.

@Blondesjon again, you failed to show me where I called anyone on here stupid or ignorant and good night

@evelyns_pet_zebra I thought I was already on that list.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir . . .I, for one, enjoy both small talk and simple conversation.

I’m sure I am not the only Jelly with these preferences. According to your statement above, that not only makes us ignorant but also makes you, a very vocal atheist, pray.

@Blondesjon please, again, move this in pm, thanks…if you only enjoy small talk and simple conversation and nothing else in life, then sure I wont’ think much of your intelligence…but I have never called you, @Blondesjon or anyone on here stupid or ignorant in response to anything you said…though you’re trying hard to change my mind

@Simone_De_Beauvoir 8)

Is this a serious question? If so, here’s the Wikipedia article on redheads, which traces the history of the idea that redheads are more sexually depraved.

Although, the idea that blonds have more fun is also a suggestion that they are more sexually depraved.

If you really want to know more, you should look at this excerpt from the Encyclopedia of Hair.

There’s a lot of history behind stereotypes about the relationship between hair color and personality. Little of it stands up to the glare of scientific inquiry. But who cares? This is about fun. It’s like astrology. It’s a built-in excuse for whatever behavior you are trying to justify.

Should you care about it? Absolutely not! It’s not serious. So move along folks. Nothing to see here. Go about your business.

@daloon yes, it was a serious question, to me
what others have gleaned from it is beyond me

@daloon it’s interesting that the reasoning has to do with sexual depravity when the coloring is supposed to indicate sexuality

I’ve had all hair colors, natural or fake looking.

I kept doing blonde because I felt..I don’t know. I felt more wanted by men that way. When I officially decided to dye my hair brown and stop dying it (almost two years ago) it was a hard decision but the fact that my husband finds me sexier with dark hair makes me feel sexier. `
I don’t buy into the whole blondes have more fun. Anyone can have fun. Hair color has nothing to do with it.

I don’t think you need to make any special effort to get women (or anyone else) to be competitive with each other. People do compete for status, and given that fact, then any excuse to make a distinction (without a difference) is fair game. This hair color thing is not a conspiracy. It’s just another aspect of humanity.

These days, though, women can mess with it as easily as succumb to the stereotype. There are hair salons on nearly every corner. If you don’t like the color of your hair—or how people treat you when your hair is that color—then change it.

Many guys do have sex on their minds a lot of the time (maybe even all the time). I’m one of them. I’m not beyond having fantasies about women based on their hair color. But I don’t really discriminate. I like all the colors—especially if a sexually-actualized women lies beneath all that hair!

Many guys do not have sex on their minds all the time, but that’s not really the point. Neither is the fact that people discriminate based on stereotypes. The only reason to give a crap about any of this is because it amuses you to do so.

I don’t think it’s “truly ridiculous, obviously,” people are naturally attracted to different things, I don’t see anything wrong with that.

@J0E I wasn’t calling the attraction ridiculous – I was calling the putting blondes v. brunettes against each other ridiculous

Ooh ooh ooh!!!

ONE CUP.

yessssssss!

@daloon yes it does amuse me, so what? you’re amused by asking questions about lurve and various things connected to it – so what?

@kevbo are you talking about two girls 1 cup?

Hahaha red-head fo’ life! (:

@Simone_De_Beauvoir There you go!

You seem a bit testy tonight. Is something going on?

@daloon oh my god not at all…i’ve had an incredibly relaxing day, actually…hence the light hearted question above…

@Simone_De _Beauvior, two craps! ;-)

@Simone_De_Beauvoir no this question is valid, i guess someone called blondesjon would consider it uncomfortable, the reduction of women into consumable flavours is bad enough and then to foment some kind of contest out of the concept is pretty deplorable.

as is a certain jelly’s grasp of the written word. . .

Like several of the others on this thread, my hair has been many different colors. However, I always return to either black/dark brown or crayola-bright colors.

I agree with @KatawaGrey, and wish that having crazy hair colors was more socially acceptable.

More on-topic: I feel, personally, that those with darker hair are more attractive than blondes (although red heads are good-looking, too). But that is my opinion, and as someone attracted to those with Semitic/Mediterranean looks, well, it’s just my two cents.

And although I am a heterosexual female, the only females who I think are very attractive are brunettes or those with dark hair, especially dark, long, curly hair, like Kate Beckinsale in Van Helsing. I don’t have anything against blondes, they’re just not as attractive to me.

@mammal lol…blondesjon uncomfortable. hahahaha

I have read this thread carefully, and in my opinion, it’s crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide.

People’s love of gossip, i.e. the same reason why some people wonder whether Obama is white or black or whether B’Elanna Torres’s outbursts of fury come from her Klingon or human side. Hab SoSlI’ Quch!

I prefer my women bald.

I think it’s mainly an example of a whole class of behavior where people wonder about the meaning of something meaningless. It’s what human brains mainly do, actually, and mostly we’re wrong that we’re right about our deductions, and we have no idea we’re even doing that. We think we’re relating to true facts. (The ideas we come up with are usually more useful than random behavior.) But sometimes we notice that other people don’t notice, and we tease them. Or less flatteringly, we encourage others’ preoccupation with meaningless obsessions, to try to suppress them. At a slightly higher level, both women and men tease women with many different meaningless competition concepts that are mostly totally made up and only have any agreement when other people share the same ideas.

Another nearly-as-meaningless story about that: men and rival women want to limit women’s sexual security/mobility, and if a woman is preoccupying herself with insecurities about meaningless contests, she’s less secure and mobile, more likely to value and stay with the man who chooses her, less likely to seduce another woman’s man, whatever the perpetrators are afraid of. (If you follow my nearly meaningless theory.)

Or see sport commentary. Much of it is about what players are thinking, and the game of controlling such thoughts and causing preoccupation and worry for the opposing players. Most of it has no material truth. Mind over matter.

@pdworkin Read Victorian murder mysteries much?

I really don’t know/care.
I think the whole thing is just too silly

Every year, entire TV shows and TV segments are built around the stupid question, “Do blondes have more fun?” I used to remember that stupid question routinely being asked on game shows or magazine shows as a lead-in to some idiotic segment.

Anyone who asks the question “Do blondes have more fun” on TV or in real life, or anywhere…. is an emptyminded dolt. There’s nothing funny or interesting about it. I guess it’s just an advertising slogan from long ago…. so beware of the long-lasting memetic effects of advertising.

Speaking of the whole battle, how did we get into the stereo type of blondes are dumb, brunettes are smart, and redheads have fiery tempers?

I like these questions. I’ve wondered similar things myself. I think it’s as simple as guys have preferences and there are women who use that against each other.

The guy I’m into is attracted to red hair and it makes me want it, but whatever. I’m happy with my brunette hair and he still likes it… I mean, he’s told me he never said he didn’t like my hair and he’s told me that his crushes have mostly been brunettes and dirty blondes, despite him being attracted to red hair. I feel silly wanting to dye my hair red just to please him when he doesn’t even care if I do or not.