You may not think that hair is a representation, but think of it this way - what influences a person to dye his or her hair? If the person was asked, what would he or she say? Often, the answer would involve a famous person, a picture somewhere, or someone else who is blond. So, in becoming blond(e), a person is "borrowing" the characteristics of these other people. This person is saying to society, "react to me the way you react to other blond(e)s." And, the newly blond(e) person adds another instance or iteration to the social storehouse of blond(e)s.
In fact, you could think of it as a kind of interlocking web of references and representations. There is a long history of blond(e)ness in our society, but not a constant history. It changes, mutates, inverts itself over time. The representations of blond(e)ness proliferate, and if I decide to become blond(e), I am not only adding to that proliferation, but aiding in the mutation of what blond(e)ness means.
2. Codes
We understand our world because it comes to us in codes. These codes do not refer to anything "real" or eternal (i.e., "blonde" does not refer to some necessary truth), but rather refer to the conventional. We agree, explicitly or implicitly, on what codes mean. And, we do this based on the context in which they occur. So, differentiating between a Marilyn Monroe blonde and a Hillary Clinton blonde makes sense. Both are blondes, but their blondeness doesn't mean the same thing. One way to tell - imagine an iconic blond(e) with a different color of hair. Could Goldie Hawn be the kind of character she is, and not be blonde? Even the name points to her identification with her hair.
3. The "natural" vs. the "constructed"
Historically, people who have colored their hair have wanted it to look natural, to look as if it had always been that way. More and more, though, that naturalness has given way to color as construction. Non-Europeans color their hair - nothing "natural" there. Others put in streaks that could not possibly happen in nature. This draws attention to the constructedness of our bodies.
Taken to its logical conclusion, the recognition that blondeness fits into a social system of signifiers is precisely to recognize that it is not natural. That is, even if you have never touched the color of your hair, it is still not natural, because it means something in a system of conventions that could be different. One can imagine that blondeness in some culture might be a socially undesirable trait, that red hair has the status that blonde hair has in our culture.So, counterintuitively, there is no such thing as a natural blonde. Some people may be born with blond hair, but in fact what it means, and more importantly how it means, is conventional.
4. Gender
The fact that most of those who color their hair are women raises questions about the relationship between (re)presentation and gender. Is gender becoming less of an issue, as men also color their hair?
5. Race
As mentioned, blond has been associated with Caucasian. Even if that racial category is highly problematic (and, biologically, it is, even though we can still talk about population groups as having biological commonalities), the social associations are there. Does making one's hair blond mean that that person is trying to be white?
6. Identity
Who is blond(e)? What assumptions do people make about blond(e)s? A person might decide to dye his or her hair, because "blondes have more fun", or get more attention. And, empirically, this may be true. Now, what does blondeness signify, that is, what meanings come along with this hair color?
The first ones that come to people's minds are the subject of virtually every blond(e) joke -
So, if that's the association, why do people choose to color their hair blond(e)? It might be because of the other connotations:
Question: How could hair color indicate either of these things?
7. Media
In what way does media contribute to the social construction of blond(e)ness? What are the portrayals of blond(e)s? "Media" originates in "mediate", or what goes between. In this case, the media goes between the provider of the message and the receiver. However, as has been clear since before Marshall McLuhan (probably as far back as the ancient theorists of rhetoric), media makes the message possible at all. It creates it, it does not simply transmit it. So, as far as blond(e)ness goes, the proliferation of certain kinds of images, their juxtaposition with other images and text, their context, all make up what it means to be blond(e). And, choosing to color your hair necessarily happens within the context of all those images.
8. Textuality
Becoming blond(e) changes the "text" that others read. You are a text, which you write as best you can through your clothing, your habits, your expressions, etc. You do not have complete control, though, over the text you are writing. Indeed, it "gets away on you" sometimes. Becoming blond(e) is a good case in point - you may get attention, but it may not be the kind that you want.
9. Subjectivity
Some people claim to feel better about themselves when they are blond(e). They feel more confident, more "themselves". They create themselves by changing some aspect of themselves. Is there anything intrinsic which has changed in the person? Push the question further: Is there anything intrinsic to the person at all? Is there a real person in there, or are we all an assembly of our actions, the outer aspects of ourselves that we have manipulated in various ways? Who are we?
10. Vision/The Gaze
Blond(e)ness, after all, is a visual quality. It raises the question of what kinds of judgments are made visually. Some people experience blond(e)ness as a kind of oppression - assumptions are made about sexuality or intelligence based on what a person looks like. This is reminiscent of race - people make similar assumptions about race as well. The gaze is a kind of organizing power - you are put in your place. The gaze objectifies - Marilyn Monroe becomes the "sex goddess", an object of desire.
11. Politics
What could possibly be political about being blond(e)? The key is to not think about politics in a narrow manner, in terms of political parties or voting. Politics is about power, specifically the legitimate use and limits of power. Now, being blonde is a kind of social power. It is understood as having or wielding power (over the opposite or same sex). Blondeness is like makeup or clothing in this respect. It is a social marker which includes you with some groups and distances you from other groups, and in the process you take on some of the social power of the group to which you are attached.
12. The Social vs. the Individual
It is very tempting for people to believe that they simply chose their own hair color for their own private reasons. Maybe they wanted a change, maybe that just the way their hair has always been. But if the argument to this point makes any sense, it means that we always choose in a context of already existing meanings, and those meanings become part of the fabric of society. Even if we don't know why we choose (that is, we don't know all the other people who have chosen beforehand, whose choices make mine possible), we still choose from a range of socially possible options, and the choices we make are about our ability to read the social world.
So, there is certainly individuality involved. I want to advance my interests, and so I choose hair color (or clothing, or car, or anything else) to do that. But individualism can only work in the context of already existing social options which are not themselves individual.
What does blondeness signify? Remember that there's nothing necessary about any of this. And, as the list of famous blondes shows, blondeness can signify many things. Here's some of what it has signified (and the ways in which they contradict each other):
a. Sexuality, particularly availabilityb. Inaccessability - the "ice queen"
c. Youth - perhaps because more children are "naturally" blonde than adults.
d. Innocence/naivety
e. Lack of intelligence - "dumb blonde" jokes.
f. Lack of proficiency/common sense
g. Subservience
h. Fun - "blondes have more fun"
i. Materialistic
Every one of these has contradictions. That is, for each one, you can no doubt think of a blonde whose blondeness suggests the opposite. That means that reading the cultural codes is not a straightforward thing. And yet, we do it. We know when we see things. We draw quick conclusions