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The Independent 2003: ...and why I'm proud to be a brunette http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4673 |
Author: | Róisín [ Wed Jun 18, 2008 11:29 am ] |
Post subject: | The Independent 2003: ...and why I'm proud to be a brunette |
From here. The full article is "A personal history of blonde ambition" which discusses blonde role models etc. This is at the end. Chalet stuff is bolded, but read on and around it for more girlsown comparisons. Quote: ...And why I'm proud to be a brunette
By Suzi Feay Growing up in a world of blonde archetypes – Cinderella, Farrah Fawcett, Jerry Hall – you had to hunt down your brunette role models. My favourite authors always stressed the plainness of non-blonde heroines. Brunettes could be brave, resourceful, clever – attractive in every way, save the physical. The reader was constantly told that Joey Bettany, the black-haired free spirit of The Chalet School, was a fright: too thin, too sallow, too often racked by a cough. Yet she kept up her joie de vivre over 80 or so volumes. Jo March – the brutal clipping of whose dark tresses is one of the key scenes in Little Women – is likewise a galumphing gal, clumsy, clever, courageous. And who gets to marry the charming Laurie? Blonde Amy, that's who. Jo gets a middle-aged, bearded German, and it's presented as quite a good match – for a brunette. The injustice of it still rankles. Sara, the heroine of Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess, is also, yawn, plain and dark-haired. Clever, noble and imaginative, like so many overlooked brunettes, she is really a "little princess" in disguise. The dark hair being part of the disguise, presumably. Things looked up in the teenage years. I encountered Du Maurier's devilishly beautiful Rebecca, and the unforgettable Scarlett O'Hara. Both ate blondes for breakfast. Royals, too, have always had a thing for brunettes: has any blonde trophy wife wreaked as much havoc as witchy, six-fingered Anne Boleyn? Or Diane de Poitiers, mistress of several French kings? And it was brunette Wallis Simpson who dethroned Edward VIII – though the mysterious "Singapore grip" may have had something to do with it. Now, of course, we've got Nigella, the Ishtar of the egg-whisk. And who is the most prominent blonde seductress? Erm, Camilla. No thanks. I do know something of both conditions, having spent my twenties as a misbegotten blonde. (Nobody seemed to guess – but then, nobody thought I was stupid and/or ravishing either.) It was tiresome: no, not the endless hot dates, but the fact that the only people who kept their heads inverted in bowls more devotedly were bulimics. Did I have "more fun"? If you don't have fun at that age, frankly, nothing trichological will help you. I'm now a born-again brunette, as nature intended. And thank goodness. You never heard of history being rewritten for a mouse, did you? |
Author: | Katherine [ Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:37 pm ] |
Post subject: | |
Quote: And
who gets to marry the charming Laurie? Blonde Amy, that's who. Jo gets
a middle-aged, bearded German, and it's presented as quite a good match
– for a brunette. The injustice of it still rankles.
But Jo could have had Laurie; she chose not to marry him and I saw the Laurie? Amy thing as a comment on Amy’s shallowness (I don’t mean that in a bad way but Jo wasn’t the right person for Laurie). Anyway, Jo got the house! I never saw Fritz as a bad catch but the person who was right for her. |
Author: | Mrs Redboots [ Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:49 pm ] |
Post subject: | |
Quote: Both
ate blondes for breakfast. Royals, too, have always had a thing for
brunettes: has any blonde trophy wife wreaked as much havoc as witchy,
six-fingered Anne Boleyn
Well, Princess Diana had quite a good go, and she was blonde, iirc! |
Author: | Alison H [ Wed Jun 18, 2008 4:20 pm ] |
Post subject: | |
I remember when I was at uni we had to read some article about how Little Women was anti-feminist because Laurie ended up with "simpering" Amy instead of independent-minded Jo, and it really annoyed me because it ignored the fact that Laurie wanted to marry Jo and she turned him down! |
Author: | Clare [ Wed Jun 18, 2008 4:43 pm ] |
Post subject: | |
I've just come in from work and had to log onto the board to see what this thread was about - it was blocked on the school computer for its "pornographic and violent" content?! And of course, my attempt to log on to such a filthy thread has "been logged, recorded and will be sent to [my] headmaster". And now I feel slightly disappointed that it hasn't lived up to its reason for being blocked... |
Author: | Catherine [ Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:28 am ] |
Post subject: | |
Clare wrote: I've
just come in from work and had to log onto the board to see what this
thread was about - it was blocked on the school computer for its
"pornographic and violent" content?! And of course, my attempt to log on to such a filthy thread has "been logged, recorded and will be sent to [my] headmaster". How are you going to explain, Clare?! Quote: The
reader was constantly told that Joey Bettany, the black-haired free
spirit of The Chalet School, was a fright: too thin, too sallow, too
often racked by a cough. Yet she kept up her joie de vivre over 80 or
so volumes
80 or so volumes??? Intriguing ... |
Author: | Kate [ Thu Jun 19, 2008 4:01 pm ] |
Post subject: | |
Alison H wrote: I remember when I was at uni we had to read some article about how Little Women
was anti-feminist because Laurie ended up with "simpering" Amy instead
of independent-minded Jo, and it really annoyed me because it ignored
the fact that Laurie wanted to marry Jo and she turned him down!
As if Laurie was the culmination of feminist desires? I'd prefer Professor Bhaer any day. And I *love* Amy. |
Author: | Clare [ Thu Jun 19, 2008 6:59 pm ] |
Post subject: | |
Catherine wrote: How are you going to explain, Clare?!
Wonder if I could convince the head to read a few of the books? Leave a few of my duplicate copies in his office and slip the address to the CBB inside the last one... *Begins plotting* |
Author: | Emma A [ Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:01 pm ] |
Post subject: | |
The writer conveniently ignores earlier brunette beauties - Snow White, for example, with her black hair. I suspect that Cinderella's blondeness if due to retellings by the Grimms, where a blonde heroine would have been more usual. Jo March had chestnut hair - which I suppose you could interpret as brunette... And to call Amy simpering is overstating the case! She's not as unconventional as Jo, certainly, but she's the one who makes Laurie see how badly he's been behaving: she's certainly strong-minded, though far more diplomatic than Jo. Joey Bettany is certainly black-haired and not pretty, but we're constantly told in the books that she is attractive. The Robin, for example, is a pretty brunette, isn't she? |
Author: | Alison H [ Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:00 pm ] |
Post subject: | |
Marie and Wanda are your standard golden-haired fairytale beauties, and Joyce, Verity, Peggy, Bernhilda and Frieda are also pretty blondes, but EBD seems keen on the idea of chestnut/bronze-coloured hair as being a sign of beauty - Vi, Len, Grizel, Maeve. There are also some girls with dark hair who are described as being pretty - Con, Robin, Julie, Gillian etc. Mind you, almost all CS girls are pretty , and they couldn't all have the same colour hair ... Interestingly, most of the men seem to be blond ... |
Author: | Lolly [ Wed Jun 25, 2008 10:58 am ] |
Post subject: | |
What a fantastic article. So funny! Thanks Roisin |
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