109-418: Blondie is a term sometimes used to refer to a person with blonde hair. Blondie or Blondi may also refer to: Blonde Blond ( MASC ) or blonde ( FEM ), also referred to as fair hair , is a human hair color characterized by low levels of eumelanin , the dark pigment . The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some yellowish color. The color can be from
218-471: A divorce is very difficult in many jurisdictions because of the need to prove fault in court. While attempting a de facto separation (moving away from the marital home) is also impossible because of laws preventing this. For instance, in Afghanistan , a wife who leaves her marital home risks being imprisoned for "running away". In addition, many former British colonies, including India , maintain
327-441: A patriarchal order . In her definition, sexism rationalizes and justifies patriarchal norms, in contrast with misogyny , the branch which polices and enforces patriarchal norms. Manne says that sexism often attempts to make patriarchal social arrangements seem natural, good, or inevitable so that there appears to be no reason to resist them. Evidence is lacking to support the idea that many pre-agricultural societies afforded women
436-774: A "flawed, pseudo-scientific relic of the past". In contemporary Western popular culture, blonde women are sometimes stereotyped as being attractive. For example, Anita Loos popularized this idea in her 1925 novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes . However, studies which sought to verify this found no evidence for a general preference of blonde women among Western men. A 2008 study found that men in Greater London , England preferred dark haired women rather than women with blond hair. A 2018 study based on University of Florida students found that men prefer brunette women over blonde women. Swami, et al. (2008) suggested that men may prefer women with dark hair because they are predominant in
545-413: A Mongolic-speaking ethnic group who were blond-haired and blue eyed. Blond hair can still be seen among people from the region they inhabited, even today. Some Xianbei were described with blond hair and blue eyes according to Chinese historical chronicles. The Uriankhai tribe of Mongols, to which the military generals Subotai and Jelme belonged, were described by Mongol chronicles as blond haired in
654-415: A breed of ray , lager beer , and pale wood. Various subcategories of blond hair have been defined to describe the different shades and sources of the hair color more accurately. Common examples include the following: Artificially blond hair may be called bleached blond , bottle blond , or peroxide blond . A typical explanation found in the scientific literature for the adaptation of light hair
763-486: A broad diversity of shades of blond, red and brown. The minority of statues with blond hair range from strawberry blond up to platinum blond. Sappho of Lesbos ( c. 630–570 BC) wrote that purple-colored wraps as headdress were good enough, except if the hair was blond: "...for the girl who has hair that is yellower than a torch [it is better to decorate it] with wreaths of flowers in bloom." Sappho also praises Aphrodite for her golden hair, stating that since gold metal
872-526: A critical stance on language that calls for a change in the way speakers use their language. One of the most common calls is for gender-neutral language. Many have called attention, however, to the fact that the English language is not inherently sexist in its linguistic system, but the way it is used becomes sexist and gender-neutral language could thus be employed. Romanic languages such as French and Spanish may be seen as reinforcing sexism, in that
981-492: A distinguished professor at the University of California's Hastings College of Law, raised issues with its methodology, pointing out that the fictional female candidates it used were unusually well-qualified. Studies using more moderately qualified graduate students have found that male students are much more likely to be hired, offered better salaries, and offered mentorship. In Europe, studies based on field experiments in
1090-410: A female as a "girl" rather than a "woman", implying that she is subordinate or not fully mature. Other examples include obscene language. Some words are offensive to transgender people, including "tranny", "she-male", or "he-she". Intentional misgendering (assigning the wrong gender to someone) and the pronoun "it" are also considered pejorative. The practice of using first names for individuals from
1199-534: A higher status than women today, however, historians are reasonably sure that women had roughly equal social power to men in many such societies. After the adoption of agriculture and sedentary cultures, the concept that one gender was inferior to the other was established; most often this was imposed upon women and girls. The status of women in ancient Egypt depended on their fathers or husbands, but they had property rights and could attend court, including as plaintiffs. Examples of unequal treatment of women in
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#17327726617641308-552: A lighter tone of blond. In Portugal , the national average of the population shows 11% of varying traces of blondism, peaking at 15% blond people in Póvoa de Varzim in northern Portugal. In Italy , a study of Italian men conducted by Ridolfo Livi between 1859 and 1863 on the records of the National Conscription Service showed that 8.2% of Italian men exhibited blond hair; blondism frequency displayed
1417-549: A ludicrous extreme in Nazi society, where "men were virile blond warriors, women were breeders, and gay men were killed in the death camps". The fact that many Nazi leaders, including Adolf Hitler , did not possess these traits was noted with irony by the Allies of World War II . The most famous joke on the subject asked: What is the ideal German? Blond like Hitler, slim like Göring, masculine like Goebbels. . . . Senior curator at
1526-455: A man, the term is an example of a " sexist stereotype [whereby] women are primarily defined by their physical characteristics." The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED ) records that the phrase "big blond beast" was used in the 20th-century to refer specifically to men "of the Nordic type" (that is to say, blond-haired). The OED also records that that this term for fair hair as an adjective
1635-465: A mixed-gender populace. The OED quotes Grant Allen , "The nation which resulted... being sometimes blonde, sometimes brunette." Blond and blonde are also occasionally used to refer to objects that have a color reminiscent of fair hair. For example, the OED records its use in 19th-century poetic diction to describe flowers, "a variety of clay ironstone of the coal measures", "the colour of raw silk",
1744-531: A person's sex , occurring in the workplace. One form of occupational sexism is wage discrimination . In 2008, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that while female employment rates have expanded and gender employment and wage gaps have narrowed nearly everywhere, on average women still have 20% less chance to have a job and are paid 17% less than men. The report stated: [In] many countries, labour market discrimination—i.e.
1853-514: A person, esp. a woman... being foolish or scatter-brained." Another hair color word of French origin, brunette (from the same Germanic root that gave brown ), functions in the same way in orthodox English. The OED gives brunet as meaning 'dark-complexioned' or a 'dark-complexioned person', citing a comparative usage of brunet and blond to Thomas Henry Huxley in saying, "The present contrast of blonds and brunets existed among them." Brunette can be used, however, like blonde , to describe
1962-510: A position analogous to that of the racist—I might call you, in this case, a 'sexist' ... Both the racist and the sexist are acting as if all that has happened had never happened, and both of them are making decisions and coming to conclusions about someone's value by referring to factors which are in both cases irrelevant." According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the first time the term sexism appeared in print
2071-690: A profession that is predominantly female occurs in health care. Physicians are typically referred to using their last name, but nurses are referred to, even by physicians they do not know, by their first name. According to Suzanne Gordon , a typical conversation between a physician and a nurse is: "Hello Jane. I'm Dr. Smith. Would you hand me the patient's chart?" – Nursing Against the Odds: How Health Care Cost Cutting, Media Stereotypes, and Medical Hubris Undermine Nurses and Patient Care Occupational sexism refers to discriminatory practices, statements or actions, based on
2180-400: A progressive country in the region, arguing that discrimination against women remains very strong there. The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has recognized the "independence and ability to leave an abusive husband" as crucial in stopping mistreatment of women. However, in some parts of the world, once married, women have very little chance of leaving a violent husband: obtaining
2289-494: A result of this and the natural rarity of blond hair in the Mediterranean region, by the fourth century BC, blond hair was inextricably associated with prostitutes. The comic playwright Menander ( c. 342/41– c. 290 BC) protests that "no chaste woman ought to make her hair yellow". At another point, he deplores blond hair dye as dangerous: "What can we women do wise or brilliant, who sit with hair dyed yellow, outraging
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#17327726617642398-780: A study found that blond-haired Swedish women were ranked below Chinese women in the female beauty hierarchy. According to the author, the blonde hair of Swedish women reduced their femininity, because it was seen as a Western trait. These women's Swedish husbands were highly attracted to local East Asian women, which further reduced the self-esteem of the blonde Swedish women. Similarly in many eastern cultures ( Asia , The Middle East ) blond men are often seen as symbolizing western masculinity: excessively manly, flirtatious, and sexually attractive. Depictions of relations between blond European men and dark-haired Arab women have even been used as an allegory for European colonialism , specifically in regards to French Algeria . Sexism Sexism
2507-586: A wide degree of regional variation, ranging from around 12.6% in Veneto to 1.7% among the Sardinians . In a more detailed study from the 20th-century geneticist Renato Biasutti , the regional contrasts of blondism frequency are better shown, with a greater occurrence in the northern regions , where the figure may be over 20%, and a lesser occurrence in Sardinia , where the frequency in many of its districts
2616-506: A wide variety of published sources. The authors affirm the previous statements, noting that Ancient North Eurasian -derived populations carried the derived blond hair allele to Europe, and that the "massive spread" of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists likely caused the "rapid selective sweep in European populations toward light skin and hair." In contrast, geneticist Iosif Lazaridis questioned whether or not blond hair could have originated from
2725-718: A woman of Latium yet her blond-haired, blue-eyed appearance ultimately signified her true origins from the Rhine . Further south, the Iberian Peninsula was originally inhabited by Celtiberians outside of Roman control. The gradual Roman conquest of Iberia was completed by the early 1st century AD. The Romans established provinces such as Hispania Terraconensis that were inhabited largely by Gallaeci , whose red- and blond-haired descendants (which also include those of Visigothic origins) have continued to inhabit northern areas of Spain such as Galicia and Portugal into
2834-402: A women's menu without prices left her feeling "humiliated and incensed". The owners of the restaurant defended the practice, saying it was done as a courtesy, like the way men would stand up when a woman enters the room. Even though the lawsuit was dropped, the restaurant ended its gender-based menu policy. A 2021 study found little evidence that levels of sexism had changed from 2004 to 2018 in
2943-411: Is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender . Sexism can affect anyone, but primarily affects women and girls . It has been linked to gender roles and stereotypes , and may include the belief that one sex or gender is intrinsically superior to another. Extreme sexism may foster sexual harassment , rape , and other forms of sexual violence . Discrimination in this context
3052-498: Is a topic of debate amongst population geneticists . Geneticist David Reich said that the hundreds of millions of copies of this SNP , the classic European blond hair mutation, entered continental Europe by way of a massive population migration from the Eurasian steppe, by a people who had substantial Ancient North Eurasian ancestry. Ancient North Eurasian admixture is present in mesolithic fossils from Northern Europe , and
3161-466: Is also a black-haired ideal of female beauty in northern Europe, as shown in plays like Snow White and other forms of entertainment portraying black-haired heroines . Similarly, Nordic Skalds often glorified dark-haired women. During the medieval period , Spanish ladies preferred to dye their hair black, yet by the time of the Renaissance in the 16th century the fashion (imported from Italy)
3270-680: Is caused by an amino acid change in the gene TYRP1 . This mutation is at a frequency of 26% in the Solomon Islands and is absent outside of Oceania . The higher frequencies of light hair in Asia are prevalent among the Pamiris , Kalash , Nuristani and Uyghur ethnic groups. According to geneticist David Reich , blond hair has ancient roots in Asia. The derived allele responsible for blond hair in Europeans likely evolved first among
3379-727: Is consistent with a phenotype turnover occurring within the Steppe pastoralists, leading to a shift towards blond hair becoming a common hair color in the later Steppe-derived populations of Europe and Central Asia . Lazaridis further wrote that the frequencies of traits like blonde hair could have been shaped by mass migration or selection; but that it is more complex than "simple stories" of sexual selection, or of spreading by Steppe pastoralists. A 2024 study found that both Neolithic farmer and Steppe-associated ancestries were more significantly associated with blond hair, while European hunter gatherers tended to have dark or even black hair. There
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3488-458: Is defined as discrimination toward people based on their gender identity or their gender or sex differences. An example of this is workplace inequality . Sexism refers to violation of equal opportunities ( formal equality ) based on gender or refers to violation of equality of outcomes based on gender, also called substantive equality . Sexism may arise from social or cultural customs and norms. According to legal scholar Fred R. Shapiro ,
3597-468: Is especially used with reference to women, in which case it is likely to be spelt blonde , citing three Victorian usages of the term. The masculine version is used in the plural, in "blonds of the European race", in a citation from 1833 Penny cyclopedia , which distinguishes genuine blondness as a Caucasian feature distinct from albinism . By the early 1990s, blonde moment or being a dumb blonde had come into common parlance to mean "an instance of
3706-551: Is free from rust, the goddess' golden hair represents her freedom from ritual pollution . Sappho's contemporary Alcman of Sparta praised golden hair as one of the most desirable qualities of a beautiful woman, describing in various poems "the girl with the yellow hair" and a girl "with the hair like purest gold". In the fifth century BC, the sculptor Pheidias may have depicted the Greek goddess of wisdom Athena 's hair using gold in his famous statue of Athena Parthenos , which
3815-642: Is heavily inflected for gender, number, and case; nearly all nouns denoting the occupations or statuses of human beings are gender-differentiated. For more gender-neutral constructions, gerund nouns are sometimes used instead, as this eliminates the grammatical gender distinction in the plural, and significantly reduces it in the singular. For example, instead of die Studenten ("the men students") or die Studentinnen ("the women students"), one writes die Studierenden ("the [people who are] studying"). However, this approach introduces an element of ambiguity, because gerund nouns more precisely denote one currently engaged in
3924-774: Is lightest around the Baltic Sea , and darkness increases regularly and almost concentrically around this region. In France , according to a source published 1939, blondism is more common in Normandy , and less common in the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean seacoast; 26% of the French population have blond or light brown hair. A 2007 study of French females showed that by then roughly 20% were blonde, although half of these blondes were fully fake. Roughly ten percent of French females are natural blondes, of which 60% bleach their hair to
4033-551: Is linked to the prediction of blond hair in stone-age Scandinavians by ancient DNA analysis . Gavin Evans analyzed several years of research on the origin of European blond hair, and concluded that the widespread presence of blond hair in Europe is largely due to the territorial expansions of the "all-conquering" Western Steppe Herders ; who carried the genes for blond hair. A review article published in 2020 analyzes fossil data from
4142-649: Is more emphasis on female candidates' personal qualities, such as their appearance and their personality, as females are portrayed as emotional and dependent. There is a widespread imbalance of lawmaking power between men and women. The ratio of women to men in legislatures is used as a measure of gender equality in the United Nations' Gender Empowerment Measure and its newer incarnation the Gender Inequality Index . Speaking about China, Lanyan Chen stated that, since men more than women serve as
4251-559: Is most often expressed toward women and girls. Sociology has examined sexism as manifesting at both the individual and the institutional level. According to Richard Schaefer, sexism is perpetuated by all major social institutions . Sociologists describe parallels among other ideological systems of oppression such as racism , which also operates at both the individual and institutional level. Early female sociologists Charlotte Perkins Gilman , Ida B. Wells , and Harriet Martineau described systems of gender inequality , but did not use
4360-657: Is related to the adaptation of light skin , and in turn the requirement for vitamin D synthesis and northern Europe's seasonally reduced solar radiation. Ancient DNA analysis (ADNA) has revealed that the oldest fossil known to carry the mutated allele rs12821256 of the KITLG gene, which is responsible for blond hair in modern Europeans, is a 17,000 year old Ancient North Eurasian specimen from Afontova Gora in Southern Siberia . The precise genetic origin and spread of blond hair into its present-day distribution
4469-463: Is significantly less common in adulthood. Naturally-occurring blond hair is primarily found in people living in or descended from people who lived in Northern Europe , and may have evolved alongside the development of light skin that enables more efficient synthesis of vitamin D , due to northern Europe's lower levels of sunlight. Blond hair has also developed in other populations, although it
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4578-465: Is some evidence that natural blond hair is associated with high levels of prenatal testosterone . According to the sociologist Christie Davies , only around five percent of adults in Europe and North America are naturally blond. A study conducted in 2003 concluded that only four percent of American adults are naturally blond. A significant number of Caucasian women who have blonde hair have dyed it that way. The pigmentation of both hair and eyes
4687-718: Is still partially in force in present-day Eswatini ). Restrictions on married women's rights were common in Western countries until a few decades ago: for instance, French married women obtained the right to work without their husband's permission in 1965, and in West Germany women obtained this right in 1977. During the Franco era, in Spain, a married woman required her husband's consent (called permiso marital ) for employment, ownership of property and traveling away from home;
4796-419: Is the first crucial step towards achieving substantive equality between women and men. Personal issues—such as when, how and with whom they choose to have sex, and when, how and with whom they choose to have children—are at the heart of living a life in dignity. Gender has been used as a tool for discrimination against women in the political sphere. Women's suffrage was not achieved until 1893, when New Zealand
4905-588: Is usually not as common, and can be found among the native populations of the Solomon Islands , Vanuatu , and Fiji ; among the Berbers of North Africa ; and among some Asian people. In Western culture , blonde hair has long been associated with beauty and vitality. Aphrodite , the ancient Greek goddess of love and beauty, was described as having blonde hair. In the Greco-Roman world , blonde hair
5014-603: The Aeneid of Virgil , Maurus Servius Honoratus noted that the respectable matron was only black haired, never blonde. In the same passage, he mentioned that Cato the Elder wrote that some matrons would sprinkle golden dust on their hair to make it reddish-color. Emperor Lucius Verus (r. 161–169 AD) was said to sprinkle gold-dust on his already "golden" blond hair to make it even blonder and brighter. From an ethnic point of view, Roman authors associated blond and red hair with
5123-521: The Aphrodite of Knidos , sculpted in the fourth century BC by Praxiteles , represented the goddess' hair using gold leaf and contributed to the popularity of the image of Aphrodite as a blonde goddess. Greek prostitutes frequently dyed their hair blond using saffron dyes or colored powders. Blond dye was highly expensive, took great effort to apply, and smelled repugnant, but none of these factors inhibited Greek prostitutes from dying their hair. As
5232-537: The Ancient North Eurasians . The earliest known individual with this allele is a Siberian fossil from Afontova Gora, in south-central Siberia. Reich has written that the derived SNP for blond hair entered continental Europe by way of a massive population migration from the Eurasian steppe, by a people who had substantial Ancient North Eurasian ancestry. Blond hair has been discovered in human burial sites in north-western China and Mongolia dating to
5341-675: The Democratic Republic of Congo , the Family Code states that the husband is the head of the household; the wife owes her obedience to her husband; a wife has to live with her husband wherever he chooses to live; and wives must have their husbands' authorization to bring a case in court or initiate other legal proceedings. Abuses and discriminatory practices against women in marriage are often rooted in financial payments such as dowry , bride price , and dower . These transactions often serve as legitimizing coercive control of
5450-729: The Gauls and the Germans : e.g., Virgil describes the hair of the Gauls as "golden" ( aurea caesaries ), Tacitus wrote that "the Germans have fierce blue eyes, red-blond hair ( rutilae comae ), huge (tall) frames"; in accordance with Ammianus , almost all the Gauls were "of tall stature, fair and ruddy". Celtic and Germanic peoples of the provinces , among the free subjects called peregrini , served in Rome's armies as auxilia , such as
5559-731: The Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great and members of the Macedonian Greek Ptolemaic dynasty of Hellenistic Egypt had blond hair, such as Arsinoe II and Berenice II . Additionally, the ancient Greek lyric poet Bacchylides wrote of "the blonde daughters of the Lacedaemonians " ( Spartans ), while also noting the golden hair of athletes at the Nemean Games . The most famous statue of Aphrodite,
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#17327726617645668-705: The Middle Ages , long and blonde hair was idealized as the paragon of female beauty. Sif , the wife of Thor in Norse mythology , and Iseult , the Celtic-origin legendary heroine, were both significantly portrayed as blonde. In contemporary Western culture, blonde women are often stereotyped as beautiful, but unintelligent. The word blond is first documented in English in 1481 and derives from Old French blund , blont , meaning 'a colour midway between golden and light chestnut '. It gradually eclipsed
5777-686: The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology Jon Røyne Kyllingstad has written that in the early twentieth-century racialist and supremacist thinkers promulgated the theory that human features such as blond hair and blue eyes were hallmarks of a " master race ". In the 1920s, the eugenicist Eugen Fischer invented a hair palette called the Fischer scale that he said could categorize racial typology—these typologies were abandoned after World War II . Kyllingstad sees classification of race based on physical characteristics such as hair color as
5886-431: The permiso marital was abolished in 1975. In Australia, until 1983, a married woman's passport application had to be authorized by her husband. Women in parts of the world continue to lose their legal rights in marriage. For example, Yemeni marriage regulations state that a wife must obey her husband and must not leave home without his permission. In Iraq , the law allows husbands to legally "punish" their wives. In
5995-419: The 20th century, U.S. and English law observed the system of coverture , where "by marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law; that is the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage". U.S. women were not legally defined as "persons" until 1875 ( Minor v. Happersett , 88 U.S. 162). A similar legal doctrine, called marital power , existed under Roman Dutch law (and
6104-579: The 2nd millennium CE. The Tuvans are a Turkic ethnic group with an occasional occurrence of blond hair with freckles, blue-green eyes. Most people in ancient Greece had dark hair and, as a result of this, the Greeks found blond hair immensely fascinating. In the Homeric epics, Menelaus the king of the Spartans is, together with some other Achaean leaders, portrayed as blond. Other blond characters in
6213-501: The Homeric poems are Peleus , Achilles , Meleager , Agamede , and Rhadamanthys . Aphrodite , the Greek goddess of love and beauty, was often described as golden-haired and portrayed with this color hair in art. Aphrodite's master epithet in the Homeric epics is χρυσέη ( khruséē ), which means "golden". The traces of hair color on Greek korai probably reflect the colors the artists saw in natural hair; these colors include
6322-524: The Iron Age. The Hmong people , originally from northern China, were historically recorded as having blonde hair and blue eyes by the Chinese in ancient times, but their features became darker as they migrated out of China and in to Southeast Asia. The ethnic Miao people of Guizhou province from China, a subgroup of Hmong people, have been described as having blue eyes and blonde hair. F.M Savina of
6431-581: The Paris Foreign missionary society wrote that the Miao are "pale yellow in complexion, almost white, their hair is often light or dark brown, sometimes even red or corn-silk blond, and a few even have pale blue eyes." Chinese historical documents describe blond haired, blue-eyed warriors among the Xiongnu , a nomadic equestrian culture from Mongolia, who practiced Tengriism . The Shiwei people were
6540-516: The United States, the female-to-male earnings ratio was 0.77 in 2009; female full-time, year-round (FTYR) workers earned 77% as much as male FTYR workers. Women's earnings relative to men's fell from 1960 to 1980 (56.7–54.2%), rose rapidly from 1980 to 1990 (54.2–67.6%), leveled off from 1990 to 2000 (67.6–71.2%) and rose from 2000 to 2009 (71.2–77.0%). As of the late 2010s, it has decreased back to around 1990 to 2000 levels (68.6-71.1%). When
6649-412: The United States, women are still represented using gender stereotypes in the press. Multiple authors have shown that gender differences in the media are less evident today than they used to be in the 1980s, but are still present. Certain issues (e.g., education) are likely to be linked with female candidates, while other issues (e.g., taxes) are likely to be linked with male candidates. In addition, there
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#17327726617646758-466: The United States. Gender stereotypes are widely held beliefs about the characteristics and behavior of women and men. Empirical studies have found widely shared cultural beliefs that men are more socially valued and more competent than women in a number of activities. Dustin B. Thoman and others (2008) hypothesize that "[t]he socio-cultural salience of ability versus other components of the gender-math stereotype may impact women pursuing math". Through
6867-616: The activity, rather than one who routinely engages in it as their primary occupation. In Chinese , some writers have pointed to sexism inherent in the structure of written characters. For example, the character for man is linked to those for positive qualities like courage and effect while the character for wife is composed of a female part and a broom, considered of low worth. Gender-specific pejorative terms intimidate or harm another person because of their gender. Sexism can be expressed in language with negative gender-oriented implications, such as condescension . For example, one may refer to
6976-486: The ancient world include written laws preventing women from participating in the political process; for instance, women in ancient Rome could not vote or hold political office . Another example is scholarly texts that indoctrinate children in female inferiority; women in ancient China were taught the Confucian principles that a woman should obey her father in childhood, husband in marriage, and son in widowhood. On
7085-565: The blond man Jarl is considered to be the ancestor of the dominant warrior class. The Scandinavians were not the only ones to place strong emphasis on the beauty of blond hair; the French writer Christine de Pisan writes in her book The Treasure of the City of Ladies (1404) that "there is nothing in the world lovelier on a woman's head than beautiful blond hair". In medieval artwork, female saints are often shown with long, shimmering blond hair, which emphasizes their holiness and virginity. At
7194-431: The book which played a major role in the witch hunts and trials, the author argues that women are more likely to practice witchcraft than men, and writes that: Witchcraft remains illegal in several countries, including Saudi Arabia , where it is punishable by death . In 2011, a woman was beheaded in that country for "witchcraft and sorcery". Murders of women after being accused of witchcraft remain common in some parts of
7303-578: The cavalry contingents in the army of Julius Caesar . Some became Roman citizens as far back as the 1st century BC, following a policy of Romanization of Gaul and Lesser Germania . Sometimes entire Celtic and Germanic tribes were granted citizenship, such as when emperor Otho granted citizenship to all of the Lingones in 69 AD. By the 1st century BC, the Roman Republic had expanded its control into parts of western Germany , and by 85 AD
7412-551: The character of gentlewomen, causing the overthrow of houses, the ruin of nuptials, and accusations on the part of children?" During the early years of the Roman Empire , blond hair was associated with prostitutes . The preference changed to bleaching the hair blond when Greek culture, which practiced bleaching, reached Rome, and was reinforced when the legions that conquered Gaul returned with blond slaves. Sherrow also states that Roman women tried to lighten their hair, but
7521-553: The concept of restitution of conjugal rights , under which a wife may be ordered by court to return to her husband; if she fails to do so, she may be held in contempt of court . Other problems have to do with the payment of the bride price : if the wife wants to leave, her husband may demand the return of the bride price that he had paid to the woman's family; and the woman's family often cannot or does not want to pay it back. Laws, regulations, and traditions related to marriage continue to discriminate against women in many parts of
7630-427: The experiment comparing the math outcomes of women under two various gender-math stereotype components, which are the ability of math and the effort on math respectively, Thoman and others found that women's math performance is more likely to be affected by the negative ability stereotype, which is influenced by sociocultural beliefs in the United States, rather than the effort component. As a result of this experiment and
7739-842: The fashion and modelling industries, or because they may be perceived as healthier or more fertile than blonde women. In Central Asia and East Asia , blonde women are ranked below black-haired women in the hierarchy of female attractiveness. In the Soviet Union , Russian schoolteachers struggled to convince Central Asian students that blue-eyed, blonde heroines in Russian poetry were attractive. The ethnic Kyrgyz students, in particular, regarded blonde women as "hideous", and insisted that their hair be changed to black. Popular television commercials in Japan have portrayed blonde women as highly jealous of black-haired Japanese women. In 2014,
7848-564: The female diner would not know the prices of the items. In 1980, Kathleen Bick took a male business partner out to dinner at L'Orangerie in West Hollywood. After she was given a women's menu without prices and her guest got one with prices, Bick hired lawyer Gloria Allred to file a discrimination lawsuit, on the grounds that the women's menu went against the California Civil Rights Act. Bick stated that getting
7957-415: The form of sexual violence. Victims of such violence are often accused of promiscuity and held responsible for their fate, while infertile women are rejected by husbands, families and communities. In many countries, married women may not refuse to have sexual relations with their husbands, and often have no say in whether they use contraception ... Ensuring that women have full autonomy over their bodies
8066-405: The gatekeepers of policy making, this may lead to women's needs not being properly represented. In this sense, the inequality in lawmaking power also causes gender discrimination. Until the early 1980s, some high-end restaurants had two menus : a regular menu with the prices listed for men and a second menu for women, which did not have the prices listed (it was called the "ladies' menu"), so that
8175-698: The labor market, provide evidence for no severe levels of discrimination based on female gender. However, unequal treatment is still measured in particular situations, for instance, when candidates apply for positions at a higher functional level in Belgium, when they apply at their fertile ages in France, and when they apply for male-dominated occupations in Austria. Studies have concluded that on average women earn lower wages than men worldwide. Some people argue that this results from widespread gender discrimination in
8284-432: The labor market. It also found that although almost all OECD countries, including the U.S., have established anti-discrimination laws, these laws are difficult to enforce. Women who enter predominantly male work groups can experience the negative consequences of tokenism : performance pressures, social isolation, and role encapsulation. Tokenism could be used to camouflage sexism, to preserve male workers' advantage in
8393-611: The length and color of a woman's hair, considering long, blond hair to be the ideal, as it was associated with gold . In Norse mythology , the goddess Sif has famously blond hair. In the Old Norse Gunnlaug Saga , Helga the Beautiful , described as "the most beautiful woman in the world", is said to have had blond hair so long that it can "envelope her entirely". In the Poetic Edda poem Rígsþula ,
8502-575: The masculine form is the default. The word " mademoiselle ", meaning " miss ", was declared banished from French administrative forms in 2012 by Prime Minister François Fillon . Current pressure calls for the use of the masculine plural pronoun as the default in a mixed-sex group to change. As for Spanish, Mexico's Ministry of the Interior published a guide on how to reduce the use of sexist language. German speakers have also raised questions about how sexism intersects with grammar. The German language
8611-457: The migration of Steppe peoples. He found evidence for blond individuals in ancient Southern Europe and the Levant , with no Steppe ancestry. He also observed that blond hair was rare in the available samples for early Bronze Age Steppe groups, yet common in the later Bronze Age groups, which is inconsistent with the theory that Steppe populations spread the phenotype for blond hair. However, this
8720-661: The modern era. The Goths , a Germanic tribe who played a central role in the Fall of the Western Roman Empire through their conquest, were always described in ancient sources as tall and athletic, with light skin, yellow (blond) hair and blue eyes, The contemporary Greek scholar and historian Procopius noted of the Goths: "they all have white bodies and fair hair, and are tall and handsome to look upon." Medieval Scandinavian art and literature often places emphasis on
8829-468: The native term fair , of same meaning, from Old English fæġer , causing fair later to become a general term for 'light complexioned'. This earlier use of fair survives in the proper name Fairfax , from Old English fæġer-feahs meaning 'blond hair'. The word blond , taken from Old French, may derive from the Medieval Latin blundus , meaning 'yellow'. The feminine form blonde
8938-576: The other hand, women of the Anglo-Saxon era were commonly afforded equal status. Sexism may have been the impetus that fueled the witch trials between the 15th and 18th centuries. In early modern Europe , and in the European colonies in North America, claims were made that witches were a threat to Christendom . The misogyny of that period played a role in the persecution of these women. In Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer ,
9047-400: The provinces of Germania Inferior and Germania Superior were formally established there. Yet as late as the 4th century AD, Ausonius , a poet and tutor from Burdigala , wrote a poem about an Alemanni slave girl named Bissula , whom he had recently freed after she'd been taken as a prisoner of war in the campaigns of Valentinian I , noting that her adopted Latin language marked her as
9156-482: The same time, however, Eve is sometimes shown with long, blond hair, which frames her nude body and draws attention to her sexual attractiveness. Iseult was so closely associated with blondness that, in the poems of Chrétien de Troyes , she is called "Iseult le Blonde". In Geoffrey Chaucer 's Canterbury Tales , the knight describes the Princess Emily as blond in his tale . In the older versions of
9265-536: The semantic rule in operation in language of the male-as-norm . This results in sexism as the male becomes the standard and those who are not male are relegated to the inferior. Sexism in language is considered a form of indirect sexism because it is not always overt. Examples include: Various 20th century feminist movements, from liberal feminism and radical feminism to standpoint feminism , postmodern feminism and queer theory , have considered language in their theorizing. Most of these theories have maintained
9374-520: The sociocultural beliefs in the United States, Thoman and others concluded that individuals' academic outcomes can be affected by the gender-math stereotype component that is influenced by the sociocultural beliefs. Sexism in language exists when language devalues members of a certain gender. Sexist language, in many instances, promotes male superiority. Sexism in language affects consciousness, perceptions of reality, encoding and transmitting cultural meanings and socialization. Researchers have pointed to
9483-429: The story of Tristan and Iseult , Tristan falls in love with Iseult after seeing only a single lock of her long, blond hair. In fact, Iseult was so closely associated with blondness that, in the poems of Chrétien de Troyes , she is called "Iseult le Blonde". In Geoffrey Chaucer 's Canterbury Tales (written from 1387 until 1400), the knight describes the beautiful Princess Emily in his tale , stating, "yclothed
9592-508: The substances often caused hair loss, so they resorted to wigs made from the captives' hair. According to Francis Owen , Roman literary records describe a large number of well-known Roman historical personalities as blond. Juvenal wrote in a satirical poem that Messalina , Roman empress of noble birth, would hide her black hair with a blond wig for her nightly visits to the brothel: sed nigrum flavo crinem abscondente galero intravit calidum veteri centone lupanar . In his Commentary on
9701-554: The term ambivalent sexism to describe how stereotypes about women can be both positive and negative, and that individuals compartmentalize the stereotypes they hold into hostile sexism or benevolent sexism. Feminist author bell hooks defines sexism as a system of oppression that results in disadvantages for women. Feminist philosopher Marilyn Frye defines sexism as an "attitudinal-conceptual-cognitive-orientational complex" of male supremacy , male chauvinism , and misogyny. Philosopher Kate Manne defines sexism as one branch of
9810-410: The term sexism , which was coined later. Sociologists who adopted the functionalist paradigm, e.g. Talcott Parsons , understood gender inequality as the natural outcome of a dimorphic model of gender. Psychologists Mary Crawford and Rhoda Unger define sexism as prejudice held by individuals that encompasses "negative attitudes and values about women as a group." Peter Glick and Susan Fiske coined
9919-544: The term "sexism" was most likely coined on November 18, 1965, by Pauline M. Leet during a "Student-Faculty Forum" at Franklin and Marshall College . Specifically, the word sexism appears in Leet's forum contribution "Women and the Undergraduate", and she defines it by comparing it to racism, stating in part, "When you argue ... that since fewer women write good poetry this justifies their total exclusion, you are taking
10028-538: The unequal treatment of equally productive individuals only because they belong to a specific group—is still a crucial factor inflating disparities in employment and the quality of job opportunities [...] Evidence presented in this edition of the Employment Outlook suggests that about 8 percent of the variation in gender employment gaps and 30 percent of the variation in gender wage gaps across OECD countries can be explained by discriminatory practices in
10137-410: The very pale blond (caused by a patchy, scarce distribution of pigment) to reddish "strawberry" blond or golden-brownish ("sandy") blond colors (the latter with more eumelanin). Occasionally, the state of being blond, and specifically the occurrence of blond traits in a predominantly dark or colored population are referred to as blondism . Because hair color tends to darken with age, natural blond hair
10246-516: The wife by her husband and in giving him authority over her; for instance Article 13 of the Code of Personal Status (Tunisia) states that, "The husband shall not, in default of payment of the dower, force the woman to consummate the marriage", implying that, if the dower is paid, marital rape is permitted. In this regard, critics have questioned the alleged gains of women in Tunisia , and its image as
10355-530: The workplace. No link exists between the proportion of women working in an organization/company and the improvement of their working conditions. Ignoring sexist issues may exacerbate women's occupational problems. In the World Values Survey of 2005, responders were asked if they thought wage work should be restricted to men only. In Iceland, the percentage that agreed was 3.6%, whereas in Egypt it
10464-572: The workplace. Others argue that the wage gap results from different choices by men and women, such as women placing more value than men on having children, and men being more likely than women to choose careers in high paying fields such as business, engineering, and technology. Eurostat found a persistent, average gender pay gap of 27.5% in the 27 EU member states in 2008. Similarly, the OECD found that female full-time employees earned 27% less than their male counterparts in OECD countries in 2009. In
10573-478: The world, and to contribute to the mistreatment of women, in particular in areas related to sexual violence and to self-determination regarding sexuality , the violation of the latter now being acknowledged as a violation of women's rights . In 2012, Navi Pillay , then High Commissioner for Human Rights , stated that: Women are frequently treated as property, they are sold into marriage, into trafficking, into sexual slavery. Violence against women frequently takes
10682-540: The world; for example, in Tanzania , about 500 elderly women are murdered each year following such accusations. When women are targeted with accusations of witchcraft and subsequent violence, it is often the case that several forms of discrimination interact – for example, discrimination based on gender with discrimination based on caste , as is the case in India and Nepal, where such crimes are relatively common. Until
10791-587: Was 0.5%. With the exception of Benevento and the surrounding area in Campania , where various shades of blond hair were present in 10–15% of the population, Southern Italy as a whole averaged between 2.5% and 7.4%. A number of blond naturally mummified bodies of common people (i.e. not proper mummies) dating to Roman times have been found in the Fagg El Gamous cemetery in Egypt . "Of those whose hair
10900-415: Was 94.9%. Research has repeatedly shown that mothers in the United States are less likely to be hired than equally qualified fathers and if hired, receive a lower salary than male applicants with children. One study found that female applicants were favored; however, its results have been met with skepticism from other researchers, since it contradicts most other studies on the issue. Joan C. Williams,
11009-582: Was displayed inside the Parthenon . The Greeks thought of the Thracians who lived to the north as having reddish-blond hair. Because many Greek slaves were captured from Thrace , slaves were stereotyped as blond or red-headed. " Xanthias " (Ξανθίας), meaning "reddish blond", was a common name for slaves in ancient Greece and a slave by this name appears in many of the comedies of Aristophanes . Historian and Egyptologist Joann Fletcher asserts that
11118-557: Was forced to do so by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland . French women were granted the right to vote in 1944. In Greece, women obtained the right to vote in 1952. In Liechtenstein , women obtained the right to vote in 1984, through the women's suffrage referendum of 1984 . While almost every woman today has the right to vote, there is still progress to be made for women in politics. Studies have shown that in several democracies including Australia, Canada, and
11227-615: Was frequently associated with prostitutes, who dyed their hair using saffron dyes in order to attract more customers. The Greeks stereotyped Thracians and slaves as blond and the Romans associated blondness with the Celts and the Germanic peoples to the north. In the ancient Greek world, Iliad presented the mythological hero Achilles as what was then the ideal male warrior: handsome, tall, strong, and blond. In Western Europe during
11336-737: Was in Caroline Bird ’s speech "On Being Born Female", which was delivered before the Episcopal Church Executive Council in Greenwich, Connecticut , and subsequently published on November 15, 1968, in Vital Speeches of the Day (p. 6). Sexism may be defined as an ideology based on the belief that one sex is superior to another. It is discrimination, prejudice, or stereotyping based on gender, and
11445-432: Was introduced in the 17th century. Blond/blonde , with its continued gender–varied usage, is one of the few adjectives in written English to retain separate lexical genders. The two forms, however, are pronounced identically. American Heritage 's Book of English Usage propounds that, as "a blonde" (just so, with "blonde" as noun) might not uncommonly be used to describe a woman, but less often "a blond" used to describe
11554-525: Was preserved 54% were blondes or redheads, and the percentage grows to 87% when light-brown hair color is added." Excavations have been ongoing since the 1980s. Burials seem to be clustered by hair-colour. Blonde hair is also found in some other parts of the South Pacific, such as the Solomon Islands , Vanuatu , and Fiji , again with higher incidences in children. Blond hair in Melanesians
11663-416: Was she fressh, for to devyse:/Hir yellow heer was broided in a tresse/Behinde hir bak, a yerde long, I gesse" (lines 1048–1050). Because of blond hair's relative commonness in northern Europe, folk tales from these regions tend to feature large numbers of blond protagonists, although these stories may not have been seen by their original tellers as idealizing blond hair. Furthermore, it is noted that there
11772-432: Was the first country to grant women the right to vote. Saudi Arabia is the most recent country, as of August 2015, to extend the right to vote to women in 2011. Some Western countries allowed women the right to vote only relatively recently. Swiss women gained the right to vote in federal elections in 1971, and Appenzell Innerrhoden became the last canton to grant women the right to vote on local issues in 1991, when it
11881-554: Was to dye their hair blond or red. In 'Mark Twain and the American West', American novel writer Willa Cather 's depiction of Alexander the Great in ' Alexander's Bridge ' was described as "embodying the ideal", a "large, strong man with broad shoulders and rugged, blond good looks". In Nazi Germany , blond, stern-jawed men were seen as the masculine ideal as depicted in the films of Leni Riefenstahl and other propaganda. Writer R. Horrocks noted that totalitarianism reached
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