Blonde Bombshell (Supplemental Post #4)

In response to Emily's question that was posed last week about if Monroe would have been as successful if she had been a brunette, I respond with a simple no. As we discussed in class, the blonde hair color suggests that she could be nothing other than white and since America is so xenophobic, having her hair color be a brown, or black or even red could signify other ethnic groups. If she was questioned as to being another ethnic group, her persona and star image would have had much more of a difficult time assimilating into mainstream media and even into main stream American culture.

Also blonde hair, because of Monroe and other icons associated with that same hair coloring has become known as the sex symbol, the bombshell and also the ditzy attitude. Even though there are many sex symbols with brown, black and red hair, the idea of the iconic blonde has been present throughout history with the emergence of Monroe. Blonde is associated with lightheartedness, fun, entertaining and sexy. The mere fact that the color of blonde is light, in stark contrast to browns or blacks that are dark and harsher contributes to Monroe's success. Had she been a brunette she would not have had the same characteristics that were associated with her persona like the ditzy and the fun loving. For example, in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Monroe's friend in the film is brunette and thus more sophisticated and smarter than Monroe. This is not to say that Monroe is not intelligent, it is the fact that her persona gave the audience something new and different from what was typical.

Bright blonde hair color stands out. Marilyn Monroe stood out for, among other things, her hair color. It not only solidified the idea that she was white, but it also emphasized her fun loving attitude and carelessness that was something new for the audience. The blonde blended with her white skin in order to create a wonderful ambiguous look that is very different the brown or black haired look. I believe that had Monroe not been a blonde her career would have suffered and along with that the idea of sex symbols across history would have been drastically different.