Do blondes have less fun?

It doesn't seem to have been a good week for blondes; Natalie Bennett crashed and burned, and not for the first time in a interview where she was asked to explain her policies and Madonna crashed in a slightly less metaphorical way at the Brits.

Radhika Sanghani in The Telegraph ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/11431987/Natalie-Bennett-doesnt-deserve-our-sympathy-or-a-hug.-Just-a-Lemsip.html) characterises the treatment of Bennet as sexist, or at least the attitudes expressed on twitter.  It's hard not to agree with her when the Daily Mail chooses the headline "This Aussie blonde's just not up to the job" (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2967671/Ian-Birrell-says-Green-Party-leader-Natalie-Bennett-exposed-poor-media-performer.html) Is it relevant that she's is blonde?  Are they implying that blondes are dumb?  Is it different when Boris Johnson is described as blonde? Or posh? Or nice-but-dim?

If we are are going to reduce politicians to stereotypes then does it matter which one?  Natalie Bennett has done some pretty rubbish interviews, but then Ed Miliband really got it in the neck after forgetting to mention the deficit in his conference speech, and for forgetting the names of the candidates for the scottish Labour party leadership and for forgetting the name of the party donor, no wait - I think that was Ed Balls - or is that just could it be a good headline?  Turns out anyone can forget things.

The Green Party didn't used to have a leader, they were and are trying to things differently in politics, although they perhaps felt that they needed to have someone for the public to identify , and not just Caroline Lucas.  She's kind of done that. And that's kind of what Nigel Farage has done as well. And Boris Johnson.  They have made careers out of seeming slightly buffoon-ish, and now, strangely, Farage looks the least buffoon-ish out of all of his membership.  Isn't there something rather British about that? You start with an idea that sounds ludicrous, but the longer it hangs around, the more acceptable it seems.  I never thought they'd ban smoking in bars.

Madonna also received a great deal of sympathy on social media.   I missed the event but wondered what all the fuss was on Facebook.   There were the expected jokes about her age, her attention seeking nature, the lyrics of her song...I didn't see any about her being blonde.

In fact, both women, while not necessarily triumphing, certainly seem to have gained some credibility.  They have literally and / or metaphorically picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and carried on.  If that's what you have to do to be taken seriously, I'm going to throw myself down the stairs more often.