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‘Blonde’ jokes aren’t funny

We blondes face prejudice every day of our lives

Anna Blundy

Wednesday, 22nd August 2007

No other minority would stand for this cruel stereotyping

It is time someone spoke out against the vicious discrimination casually meted out to blonde women in all areas of life. Attractive blonde women are especially liable to be subject to open and unapologetic abuse in the most ordinary of circumstances. Somehow, in this dark corner where the exposing floodlight of feminism has yet to shine, it is still acceptable to make sexist ‘jokes’ and it is still acceptable to state that a person’s appearance makes them unsuitable for the job.

Blonde humour is the last bastion of the Bernard Manning (may he rest in peace) –style sexism that women have fought against for so long. Anyone so much as dimly aware of the work of Sigmund Freud knows that there is no such thing as ‘just a joke’. Humour is often a barely disguised way of making one’s views known without having to own them. And, in the case of gender- and race-based hatred, the humour is liable to be a plain insult with a mirthless laugh to follow.

Q. How do you confuse a blonde?

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