Why do blondes have blue eyes

What they point to are implicit or unconscious biases, that most of us have without knowing why or how they got there. Consider the Starbucks incident in Philadelphia and the tendency for more unarmed African-American suspects to be shot than white suspects. Or the tendency to see blonde women as dumb yet more attractive. Biases due to hair colour are quite apparent in many studies: blonde caucasian waitresses earn significantly more in tips and are reportedly paid more in other workplaces too.

Also blonde women are approached more in social situations , yet blond males do not get any special treatment. Poor red-heads receive significantly less attention for both males and females. It gets interesting when the researchers look at why this is occurring. Red-heads are viewed as the least attractive and most temperamental. These views are supported by workplace research too. This study indicates that men view blonde female leaders as less independent and competent , even though blonde women are over-represented in US corporate leadership roles.

Blonde women are seen as likeable leaders but not as competent as brunettes. And have you noticed that in most of the talk about hair colours, a huge portion of the population is missing? But why are black-haired people also ignored? They are the largest group of hair colour in the world! Black, grey and white hair colours belong to a huge group of people, and if those people do not have a category name and are systematically ignored — by popular Western culture at least — a message is being sent, and that message is not kind.

It is symptomatic of a larger issue in which the elderly and people of colour are still not valued or treated equally in our society. Millions of people with black hair all around the world are systematically ignored. Black has often been the colour of bad, while white is pure and good.

The tendency of people to associate blonde features with youth feeds into this: sweet blonde children and fair golden maidens are juxtaposed with brunette bullies and dark, mysterious villains.

Feminine and masculine identities are also assigned to fair and dark features, respectively, though there are exceptions. Being blond is not advantageous to adult males in many cases, yet it is for females. This irresponsible surfer-dude stereotype is a youthful characteristic, and as you might expect far less blond men than women are found in corporate leadership roles.

Blond men are more likely to be viewed as irresponsible and unreliable. So being blonde is a positive for women, but being dark is a positive for men. Dark features are associated with competency, life experience, independence and reliability, which are traditional characteristics for an ideal husband.

They are also seen as better in leadership roles requiring more masculine characteristics, hence the perception that brunette women are more competent bosses. Blondes are associated with being beautiful, youthful and playful fun and bubbly , but docile and naive. These are traditional characteristics for a trophy wife and ideal children, yet we see a disproportionate amount of blonde women in leadership roles. How can that be? Because they can get away with more assertive and aggressive behaviour when their persona is more feminine and childlike.

But the feminine warmth associated with blonde hair disappears in some cases, with the ice-queen persona taking over instead. Lack of colour in light blue eyes, pale skin and white or very blonde hair, is often associated with coldness. The unpredictable and untrustworthy connotations given to blond men may be a part of this stereotype too. Fewer men remain blond into adulthood and they are not perceived so likably as blonde women, plus a myth persists that most real serial killers are white.

I even have an image in my mind of male villains being pasty-skinned blonde men with very light blue eyes. It has been perpetuated in the media and popular culture, like Silas in the Da Vinci Code, the stalker in The Bodyguard, and recently Perry in Big Little Lies was a blue-eyed, fair-haired bad guy. Also Game of Thrones has some notable examples of fair features being positive for women and negative for men: Daenerys Targaryen is a warm, heroic queen, but her brother Viserys was a cold-hearted monster; and young king Joffrey Baratheon is a blond psychopath, while his younger siblings are sweet and innocent that youthful blonde purity again.

Their mother Cercei may also be blonde and ruthless but she has some redeeming features that the audience can relate to; Joffrey, however, was so monstrous that viewers cheered when he was murdered.

These entwined colour and gender stereotypes are continually reinforced in the workplace, in our social lives and in the media. When the colour black is ignored, is associated with impurity or has other negative connotations, or when blonde hair is constantly commented upon and treated as special, they receive the messages.

The stereotypical personalities associated with hair colours fit with how children are viewed and treated, in Australia at least:. The comments I and my friends have noticed about our children fit these stereotypes perfectly. Red-haired kids are noticed but not gushed upon like blondes, and brunettes are rarely commented upon. I am sure black-haired people are not misunderstood or invisible in many circumstances, but when they are the minority within a group of people from European descent, they will often gain negative attention or be ignored.

Children with black hair are visible and need to be valued too. I looked it up after watching the Netflix movie Nappily Ever After, as it is an unfamiliar term here nappy is what diapers are called in Australia. Hlonipha Mokoena discusses the myths about black hair including why it has been considered to be dirty and unmanageable. It has been misunderstood over the centuries, and of course not considered beautiful when it is compared to sleek and light coloured hair.

In my home town Mildura in , a young student was expelled from his Catholic high school for refusing to take out his braids. Black hair is often misunderstood in Western countries. This is not unusual in Australia: many other kids have had to change or be booted out too.

Both of my kids are gorgeous. It was a bit surreal but they have that effect on some people. I ask for their approval before uploading any photo of them online, and I reserve the most special photos for our memories only.

Getting a photo of them together that they both like is really hard! Wrong actually. That is because such people absorb as much UV rays as possible to get vitamin D. The pigment is by the same genes responsible for producing the pigment that color the eyes and hair. It means that the amount of that pigment is pretty less. That is why the eyes become blue in the absence of the melanin pigment, and the hair becomes blonde. In a nutshell, the colder climate in the North European region certainly impacts the hair color and the eye color of such individuals.

Another fact is that the population of people having blonde hair in northern Europe has been relatively higher for centuries. That is why; it is not that uncommon to have blonde hair. The absence of the pigment due to genes that produce UV resistant pigment leads to blue eyes. Now you know why most people with this genetic combination might have a link to a single geographic region. The next time around, you see an individual with blonde hair and blue eyes; you would at least know how rare that combination is.

Not only that, but chances are also, their ancestors, if not them directly, would be related to northern Europe. These were some interesting facts about these individuals. These are individuals with some of the rarest genetic combinations in the world. So if blonde hair and blue eyes are a natural adaptation to a cold environment, what about Eskimos? There are Asian tribes that have lived in Siberia for longer than people have lived in Europe.

Yet they have no blonde hair? No, It is not rare at all for Germans as there are many in my family who is half German and the other half is Scandinavian. These days not as much but previously it was very prevalent. Scandinavian women have blue-grey eyes or pale blue not bright blue like my sisters and cousins.

Robert for love of God, how much of the worlds population is strictly German? Think about that for a bit. Federal ID Its content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of Stanford University or the Department of Genetics. The Tech Interactive. Eye Color. Back to Eye Color. Is eye color connected to hair color? Why do people with blond hair typically have blue eyes?

Where does the blue color come from? But what about blue? The blue color in eyes and water is made by scattering light Image from Pixabay Eyes with no melanin scatter all the light, making them appear blue.

If two parents have different complexions, these genes can get mixed around a bit. Parents with different complexions can have kids with intermediate colors Image from Flickr Imagine if there was a region where most people had lighter complexions.

More Information Rare eye colors Blue eyes and blond hair are linked together Is eye color determined by genetics? Researchers at the University of Queensland found that not only are blonde women paid more than their peers with other hair colors, but they're also more likely to marry a wealthier man.

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