Blonde Like Me

In this irreverant, unsparing and witty look at our cultural obsession with blonde, Natalia Ilyin shows us that our apparently modern fixation has truly primeval roots. Highlighting cultural criticism with personal experience, she cites ancient myths, Hollywood iconography and the daily assault of advertising to reveal why the allure of being a blonde has crossed the boundaries of ethnicity, economics and age. When a woman decides to go blonde, or add some highlights, she is deciding to stand for something, but what? In answer, Ilyin traces the power of blonde back to its primeval goddess origins: the sun blonde, the moon blonde and the innocent blonde. She offers shrew and often hilarious explanations of how they evolved into The Apollo Blonde, The Trophy Blonde and the Ironic Blonde. With a sharp wit and probing intelligence, Ilyin shows us that blonde is a hair colour, but a blonde is a symbol.