A blonde walks into a classroom...

When someone mentions the idea of judging someone by their appearance, most individuals shake their heads, begin talking about how that is inappropriate and wonder why, in the 21st century, we haven't moved beyond the physical. However, we all know this discrimination still exists in many forms.

We are all judged everyday by strangers passing us on the street, acquaintances we are meeting for the first time and even those we've been friends with for years. While most of these judgments are fleeting and remain internalized, some come out in ways that others may not find offensive, but have the potential to really hurt someone.

Recently, a close friend of mine was upset about an incident that took place in her business class at the university she attends. The female teacher had made a blonde joke. My friend, as a blonde, took extreme offense to it, but felt forced to be the bigger person and kept her thoughts to herself. "What's next?" she asked. "Next week is she going to make a racist joke?"

It's disappointing because in an academic and work environment one should not feel demeaned or insulted. It is unfortunate that that particular professor thought it was okay to say, maybe because it was in joke form. It's also disappointing because this is not an isolated incident. I too had a professor in university drop a DB joke during a lecture. She laughed and soon after realized half of the class was not laughing with her and apologized. What bothered me was that the majority of pupils that did laugh with her were young women with dark hair. This is disheartening because not only are DB jokes demeaning to blondes, but they are also sexist. How often do you hear a DB joke about a man?

As a naturally fair-haired individual, why should I try to cover up my natural hair colour in order to feel more accepted? I don't think I should. I do feel the brunt of passing judgments from others though because of my blonde locks. I once got into a political debate with a young man with whom I shared mutual friends. Midway through the conversation he interrupted me to announce that I was much more intelligent than he thought I was before he talked to me and he apologized. I asked why he would underestimate my intelligence when he had never spoken to me before but knew my academic background. He said it was the blonde.

We all know that stereotypes are bad, so why is this behaviour continuing to make an appearance, even showing up in our classrooms and work spaces? I've known many women who have felt pressured to dye their hair dark from their natural blonde because they thought they would be treated differently. Many have said the difference in treatment from men and women when you are a brunette is strikingly different. I refuse to change my hair colour to make others take me seriously. This is me and people can get to know me for who I am, not for what they assume I represent due to my appearance. If this presents a challenge in my future workplace then I know that that is somewhere I do not want to work. Discrimination and harassment on any level and in any form is unacceptable.