In conducting my interview with my friend back at home, Ashley, who has had to deal with the blonde stereotype herself gave me a few good perspectives in seeing what it’s like to deal with that. She did enlighten my research as she told me what it was like growing up when she was always referred to as being a dumb blonde for the most part. She has been a cheerleader for the majority of her life since she can remember and when people would see that and the fact that she was blonde, they always assumed she said that she had no brains. But people without knowing her would make these judgments just from looking at her hair. But truth is she in one of the intelligent people I know. She maintained a 4.0 all throughout high school, as well as was part of many extra curricular activities. Some of those activities consisted of the Student Government Association, cheerleading, Interact club, and Mu Alpha Beta. And not only was the 4.0 was from taking regular high school classes, she took honor and AP classes and was able to earn those college credits. She was at the top of the with being ranked number 4 from a senior class at almost 400 students. She discussed with me how even when people knew all this, if she would a silly decision or didn’t know something, people would just throw out the dumb blonde comment. At times it wasn’t said directly, but she said that it was always hinted at and she easily picked up on it. So she talked about how that stereotype can be a disadvantage to her, no matter how much she has accomplished, people will still refer to the stereotype just because of a silly comment. This really allowed me to see what it is like for a person, one that I actually know, to have to deal with this and how it can really affect one’s life just because of this stereotype that’s portrayed in the media. The way I will incorporate this into my paper is going to be in the area where it talks about how the stereotype in the media can affect peoples’ lives in real life. This will allow me to show from a regular person’s point of view how difficult it can be when people just assume just because from your hair color that you are certain way, even if all other things in your life go against. That with being associated with this stereotype, they are constantly having to prove themselves.
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I think the person you interviewed was great for proving the stereotype to be wrong. If you could incorporate one of the times that you said she didn't know the answer to something and then people would just consider it because she is a dumb blonde that would really help in proving your point. It would also help to just give another view of the stereotype. Also if you could include some of the ways it affected her later in life like how exactly it made her feel like if she tried to work really hard against this stereotype or if she just accepted that it wasn't going to go away. One more idea I have is to interview someone who had blonde hair and switched to brunette, to see what the difference was like.
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