Stereotypical Jokes on Intelligence
Opinion column in the glamour magazine – Stereotypical jokes on intelligence – For years and years I’ve been subjected to blonde jokes. You hear blonde jokes at elementary schools, you hear them around the water cooler at work and you hear them on morning drive-time radio. Ever heard of this one before? “Q. How do you get a blonde to laugh at a joke on Saturday? A. Tell it to her on Tuesday. ” Are those jokes about blondes or intelligence of a certain ethnical group really considered as funny? Are they politically correct?
One could tell a joke about intelligence of almost every ethnical group or attribute of someone, does this mean that these jokes are political correct now, because everyone is affected by it? A random person tells a joke about my intelligence assuming that I am stupid just because I am blonde. I don’t care about the blonde jokes, simply because the ones who tell the joke know exactly that it is not true. If people start to believe and take it personally, it could cause a lot of problems. I am aware that I am not stupid, why would I be successful in my work then?
Last week I walk into the office, everything as usual; my coffe and work awaiting on my desk, the employees getting ready to work. I get introduced to a new employee. A young tall man, seems confident, blue eyes, brown hair and dressed in a suite. Let’s say: Good looking. We talk, we laugh, I spill my coffee. He laughs and immediately has a blonde joke ready. Does he never spill his coffee? I could assume he’s a dumbass, just because he has the stereotyp of a good looking arrogant man. Certainly he didn’t mean to offend me, because we both know that blonde jokes are not true. Where is the context between blonde and dullness?
The answer I believe is jealousy. Blondes are also seen as men-attracter, no matter if it is true or not. “Men prefer blonde women”, therefore other hair colored women are in the shadow of the blondes. Smells of jealousy! The men are not getting blamed for prefffering the blondes, but the blondes as stupid as they are “running after men”. Jealousy? Seriously? Are human beings getting so upset that they have to discrimnate someones intelligence only because of their hair color? Hair color neither has feelings nor can it talk, so what is it about the hair color? It is not only the blondes who are hearing the jokes over and over again.
The first impression of an Asian people have is that they are smart. Without even talking to them their prejusdice is that this Asian person is smarter than everyone else. What would you say about the intelligence of an American? Yes, I can forsee you would say that they have no general knowledge. A joke about Americans “How does an american search for a rabbit ? He imitates the sound of a carrot. “ The joke itself is funny and everyone knows that it is not true, since it is unrealistic. The thought behind the joke though is still considered as true, that Americans are stupid.
Here is the point where it could cause troubles, if people actually believe in it. One cannot judge the Americans as stupid, since their culture might have teached them differently. Eduaction is different, but judge the one who is responsible for it and not the ones who are dependet of it. If they are not intelligent, why are we then buying their products? I use my Iphone everyday, I am writing on my MacBook and I love Starbucks. They all are American products. It needs intelligence to succeed, no matter what kind of product. It could be food, clothing or technic.
I’m comparing Asians, Europeans and Americans now with their culture. People also say that the geographical knowledge of Americans are the worst, but does everyone in the world besides the Americans know where Estonia is? Would you know off by heart without looking at a map? I believe half of us wouldn’t know. In the American culture, people express one’s sentiments no matter if it is right or wrong and in case it is wrong they will laugh with it and correct is whereas in Europe it is embarassing. In Switzerland, where I live, it is an embarassement if you said something „very“ wrong and people will laugh at you and not with you.
In the Asian culture, for example in the Chinese culture there is the one-child policy. Obviously the parents want his only child to be successful and need to push them, therefore their effort overall in the culture is much higher than the ones of Americans. This still does not mean that Asians are smarter, only that some put in more effort and I would consider this as positive rather than negative. Maybe some are just again jealous that they don’t have the endurance to put in enough effort to achieve a goal. All these jokes about intelligence are superficial and therefore spread easily within a community or even outside the community.
There is no logic behind these jokes, since one is proud of ones individuality and the whole world discloses individuality, but these jokes show the opposite. I clearly cannot see any correlation between these to human thoughts. I will just live with the blonde jokes and be amused of them rather than being offended, they are still funny. Intelligence cannot be measured through appearance or nationality. It’s obnoxious, unfair and stereotypical to blame intelligence on appearance or on an entire nationality. The lack of intelligence or “overdose” of intelligence simply doesn’t come from these factors.
