The myth of the thin blonde

In the newsroom today, the topic of Kerry Healey came up, which reminded me of in interesting point: Throughout her campaign, I heard people refer to Healey as attractive. I don't see it. I've also heard people call Ann Coulter attractive. Again, I don't see it. And I don't know anyone who does.

And, come to think of it, I never heard anyone attach themselves to this opinion. I never heard "I think Kerry Healey is hot." I always heard, "people say..." or "some consider..."

Here's my theory: People see blonde, they see thin, they think "attractive." They don't look at the rest of the package. They don't bother to form an opinion of their own on the matter. They don't see that Ann Coulter looks like a horse. They just have this ingrained mental shorthand: Thin blonde=attractive.

I also have a double-secret theory, and that's that the only people who think Ann Coulter and Kerry Healey are attractive are heterosexual females who really have no barometer to judge them against. They just secretly think "Well, she's thinner than me, and blonder than me, she must be prettier than me." Bah.