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

(Paperback)

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In this unsparing and witty look at our cultural obsession with blonde, Natalia Ilyin shows us that our apparently modern fixation has truly primeval roots. She cites ancient myths, Hollywood iconography and advertising. When a woman decides to go blonde she is deciding to stand for something, but what The author traces the power of the blonde to its primeval goddess origins and offers explanations of they have evolved into the blondes we know today. The text highlights cultural criticism with personal experience to reveal why the allure of being a blonde has crossed the boundaries of ethnicity, economics and age.

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. She lives in New York City.