Blonde Like Me: The Roots of the Blonde Myth in Our Culture

Blonde Like Me: The Roots of the Blonde Myth in Our Culture

by NataliaIlyin (Author)

Synopsis

In this irreverant, unsparing and witty look at our cultural obsession with blonde, Natalia Ilyin shows us that our apparently modern fixation has truly primeval roots. Highlighting cultural criticism with personal experience, she cites ancient myths, Hollywood iconography and the daily assault of advertising to reveal why the allure of being a blonde has crossed the boundaries of ethnicity, economics and age. When a woman decides to go blonde, or add some highlights, she is deciding to stand for something, but what? In answer, Ilyin traces the power of blonde back to its primeval goddess origins: the sun blonde, the moon blonde and the innocent blonde. She offers shrew and often hilarious explanations of how they evolved into The Apollo Blonde, The Trophy Blonde and the Ironic Blonde. With a sharp wit and probing intelligence, Ilyin shows us that blonde is a hair colour, but a blonde is a symbol.

$13.93

Quantity

10 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Publisher: Touchstone
Published: 22 Feb 2000

ISBN 10: 0684852144
ISBN 13: 9780684852140

Media Reviews
M. G. Lord author of Forever Barbie Natalia Ilyin takes a premise as wispy as a strand of baby blonde hair and weaves it into a surprisingly rich and entertaining tapestry.
Judith Viorst author of Imperfect Control and Necessary Losses Mix one part Robert Graves, one part Fran Lebowitz, and one part peroxide, and you get this scholarly, slyly funny, and deliciously readable exploration of the ultimate, and not-so-ultimate, meaning of blondeness.
Bruce Jay Friedman Funny -- and helpful to those of us who have spent much of our lives trying to puzzle out the insufferable appeal of blondes.
Ilene Beckerman author of What We Do for Love and Love, Loss, and What I Wore Natalia Ilyin forever puts to rest the theory of the dumb blonde. This very witty, very wise book reads as if Mae West, RuPaul, Princess Diana, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and I all had Freud on the couch and were trying to explain to him why he should lighten up.
Author Bio
Natalia Ilyin has taught courses in American mythic images at Cooper Union and Yale University and is currently a critic at Yale.