To Be ‘Blond’ Is…

Based solely of the title of “Blond” by Natasha Tretheway, I immediately wondered what this poem was going to be about. I knew from the small picture of the author of the back of the book and from the information that the author gives us about her immediate family history that she was probably not blonde at least naturally. Still, only looking at the title I started to think about all the stereotypical reasons that girls want to be blonde. After I read the poem a few times, I realized that perhaps my initial reaction to the title of the poem may have not been all that far off from what the author may have been trying to say.

The poem begins with the author examining the possibility that because of her parent’s genes (born to a black mother and white father), she had the possibility to be born with blonde hair. Sure, there are other differences in her appearance that could have been possible but the speaker is most concerned with hair color.

Although, there are other ideas and ways that the poem can be interpreted I found myself going back to that same question. “Why is the speaker most concerned with hair color?” Personally, growing up I always wanted to change my hair color. Maybe it was just the thrill of a drastic change but I find that perhaps, we dye our hair because a certain hair color can make us feel like a new person. The reader can observe an example of this in the text where the speaker recalls waking up on Christmas day to find a blond wig, a pink sequined tutu, and a blond ballerina doll. (39) Dressed in these things, the speaker “’prances’ around the living room/in a ‘whirl of possibility’” (39). I can’t help but wonder if it’s the blonde wig itself that makes the speaker feel as if she is on top of the world and she can set out to do anything. There is one particular influential blonde figure I think of when I read this line. If you guessed Barbie, you’re right. Barbie can do anything she sets her mind to. She can be a teacher, a veterinarian, a big sister and a mom, all done seamlessly at the same time. This infamous role model is of course, blonde.

So despite the color of a persons skin, it seems that if you can just tweak the hair color and make it lighter somehow, like Barbie, you can be anything you want to be. It’s something ‘blonde’ seems to say to us in the media without actually saying it.