Dear Sir,
I write in connection with your attribution to me of the description of a colleague as ‘dumb without the virtue of being blonde’. There is, of course, so far as I am aware, no implication of virtue in the colour of a person’s hair. What I in fact wrote was ‘dumb without the merit of being blonde’. This was sufficient in itself to cause shock and horror among the sensitive members of our academic community, but probably in the circumstances it was about the nicest thing that I could say. Some amount of cultural clarification seems to be necessary.
I have never assumed that blondes are dumb. In the first place I have known too many clever blondes to make so absurd an equation. Further, there is no such equation made in the medieval English tradition with which I am most familiar. Medieval heroines are characteristically at one and the same time both blonde and intelligent. An obvious case in point is Blanche, the duchess of Chaucer’s ‘Book of the Duchess’ (in fact the daughter of Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster, 1351, and first wife of John of Gaunt). Chaucer describes her hair (in fact every hair on her head) as ‘not red,/ Ne nouther yelowe ne broun hyt nas;/ Me thoghte most lyk gold hyt was’ (BD, 856-58) and tells us also that ‘dulnesse was of hir adrad’ (BD, 879).
Where, then, does this demeaning association of blondes with lack of intelligence originate? According to my brilliant seminar group on ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, it derives from Californian culture and the beach belles to be found there. If so, it is an unfortunate American importation into English culture. Let it be said, then, that Irish blondes, just as English blondes, are both beautiful and clever. And let us use the phrase ‘dumb blonde’ as an ironic reversal of social stereotyping in the best Swiftian manner.
Finally, I may say that I and my ‘Sir Gawain’ group are entirely dissatisfied with the placing of ourselves as 43rd in the world’s universities (Gawain himself, after all, is the best of the best). This is therefore a public warning to Harvard that we are aiming to become the world’s top university. I hope that we have the support of ‘The University Times’ in this laudable endeavour.
Very best wishes,
Gerald Morgan,
FTCD (1993-2002)
