Before beloved modern classics such as Legally Blonde and Barbie, there was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire – two 1953 films that helped shape the blonde cinematic archetype, cementing Marilyn Monroe’s status as the most iconic blonde in Hollywood history.
In British Blonde, art historian Lynda Nead traces blondeness from religious hagiography to its appropriation by 20th-century consumer culture. Blondeness also came to symbolise whiteness and racial superiority, a racist ideal that gained traction in the 1950s and 1960s. During this period, ads for blonde hair dye proliferated, using promises of glamour to lure consumers with the Hollywood allure of stars, including Monroe.
