How blond are white Americans?

[Cristiano viejo]

Indeed, Spain is around 17% light-haired, not blonde. (This includes light brown, which like elsewhere is far more common than proper blonde). And 20-30% blonde for White Americans is what I'd estimate.

No way. All light haired people combined (light and dark blonde + light brown) must be around 30%.

[Richard Alvarez]

Blondism among white Americans is probably at Central European levels, I guess.
But it also depends on the region. People in the Midwest are probably very blond. In the Northeast, not so much.

[calxpal]

I lived in the US most of my life, and I'll say they are definitely not as blond as portrayed in the media.

[RyoHazuki]

Less than a quarter on average, coming from a family of mostly blondes and being one myself.

[Mortimer]

I think they used to be generally blonder and lighter eyed then they are now.

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/w...s%201%20in%203.

Also look at for example at new movies, and compare them to old movies, you will see even people or actors who play white roles looking more latino for example or like sasha grey (white greek american porn star and now actor) nowadays, then in old movies where you would see more blondes and light eyed people...

[CosmoLady]

I lived in the US most of my life, and I'll say they are definitely not as blond as portrayed in the media.

I agree, and there seems to be a cultural peer pressure for non-Hispanic white American girls to be blonde, I felt this.

Even though I am dark blonde and so are many of my friends, this colour seems to be considered "boring",
and I would often bleach my hair to be "more blonde" to fit in with all the other dark blonde or light brown-haired American girls with dyed/bleached blonde hair.

[Tooting Carmen]

I agree, and there seems to be a cultural peer pressure for non-Hispanic white American girls to be blonde, I felt this.

Even though I am dark blonde and so are many of my friends, this colour seems to be considered "boring",
and I would often bleach my hair to be "more blonde" to fit in with all the other dark blonde or light brown-haired American girls with dyed/bleached blonde hair.

I've said before that US society values blondeness more than British society does. Maybe it is the ironic long-term effect of being more racially diverse?

[Tooting Carmen]

I've said before that US society values blondeness more than British society does. Maybe it is the ironic long-term effect of being more racially diverse?

To which I would add that, while not as much as in many countries in the Global South such as Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Pakistan, India etc, a certain amount of whitewashing/blondewashing does nonetheless go on in the US media.

[Straightman]

To which I would add that, while not as much as in many countries in the Global South such as Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Pakistan, India etc, a certain amount of whitewashing/blondewashing does nonetheless go on in the US media.

You have to be kidding. Every movie, tv show and commercial out of America now is full with blacks. And they have been quite obsessed with them for decades. Then again I can say the same thing about the UK too.

[Tooting Carmen]

You have to be kidding. Every movie, tv show and commercial out of America now is full with blacks.

Not all of them, no. And even if it may be true that Blacks are well-represented, perhaps even over-represented in the US media, Asians and Hispanics certainly are not. Remember that the US nowadays is only around 60% (non-Hispanic) White.

Then again I can say the same thing about the UK too.

Again, it depends what you watch. Even between news programmes/channels it varies a lot. From most to least White: GB News>Channel 5 News>ITN/Sky News>BBC>Channel 4 News.