Dumb Blondes

"I like intelligent women. When you go out, it shouldn't be a staring contest." Frank Sinatra

Blondes. The hair color commercial told us they have more fun. Leo Robin and Jule Styne wrote a song telling us that gentlemen prefer them. Recently one of them mailed me something, but just around the time I was wondering where it was, she texted me that it had come back to her. She had written my name and street address on the envelope, but the postal service likes to know the city, state and zip as well. She texted "sorry but I'm a blonde." I laughed because she is whip smart and about as far away from the stereotype as one could get.

The dumb blondes come across as all ditzy and flustered and adorably clueless, and they get what they want that way. Maybe some do it consciously, but if it began in childhood, chances are it happens without them even realizing.

Perhaps they learned as kids that boys don't like smart girls, or at least they don't like girls smarter than them. While I guess there might be a handful of men who prefer their blondes dumb, it's kind of insulting to guys to play down your smarts around them. Bright and beautiful are not mutually exclusive, and a real man is not at all intimidated by an intelligent woman.

Have we forgotten that our daughters and granddaughters are observing us, as they try to figure out what it means to be a woman? Some of us need to grow up. We are more than old enough to know better, to drop the persona and let the person we really are shine through.

Susan