Dumb Blonde... I Don't Think So

“Miss, there seems to be a problem…” I often hear this when I go to have my car serviced. It’s not that my car is in bad condition and it’s not that they do this to every customer; the fact is I’m a 22 year old blonde haired blue eyed girl who looks like she couldn’t tell an engine from a steering wheel.

When I try to have my oil changed, a service that should cost no more than $35, I suddenly need $400 worth of work done under the hood. A leaky part, a loose screw, whatever they can come up with to scare me into swiping my dad’s credit card and letting them get to work and ensure my safe travels in my car. It’s not only when I get my oil changed that I get stereotyped as a dumb-blonde. People at work and school and even guys I date seem surprised when I say something intelligent. My own brother swore that I’d never beat his SAT score when we took it together one year, him being a senior and me being a sophomore. I blew him away by over 200 points.

I know there are a lot of worse stereotypes out there and I don’t want there to be some Blonde Ambition parade through town; but I do believe that people should look a little deeper before passing judgment on other people. The fact is that we all do it; it’s out of our control. We watch TV and see black people in oversized clothes robbing pedestrians, so what do we do when we see those same black people walking towards us? Get a little anxious, try to smile and tell yourself it was just TV, but hold your bag a little tighter? Or just from watching sex and the city think that all gay men have to have high-pitched voices and a wardrobe of pastels. Society tells us how to think about certain people and it’s very hard to keep a constant mindset of acceptance.

Even with society telling us how to think, sometimes we can manage our own opinions. Some people start at a far greater disadvantage; having prejudice parents. In sixth grade I started “dating” a black boy. By dating I meant he wore my hair tie on his arm, so that meant we were together. Almost all of my girl friends told me that there dad’s would kill them if they dated a black guy. My parents didn’t mind at all. Most of those friends were from this area and their families had lived here forever. My family was moved all around the country because my dad was a marine. We met people of all different shapes, sizes and colors and I was taught to treat everyone the same.

I like to think that I’m an open minded person, but I’ll be the first to admit that I watch people pass by and make some little assumptions of my own about them. I’m usually admiring a pair of cute shoes or thinking of how I could politely tell somebody that they should burn their outfit. I guess I’m fashionably prejudiced; funny sounding, but still wrong. We can all learn something from everyone else, why should we fear something that could possibly help us live better happier lives?