Description: In Blonde Like Me, Natalia Ilyin twists personal experience with cultural criticism to show us the essential difference between having blonde hair and being a blonde. Citing ancient myths, fairy tales, Hollywood iconography, and the daily assault of advertising, Ilyin shows us that our very modern fixation has very ancient roots.

When a woman decides to go blonde -- or just add some highlights -- she is deciding to stand for something, but what? In answer, Ilyin traces the power of blonde back to its primeval goddess origins: the sun blonde, the moon blonde, and the innocent blonde. She offers shrewd and often hilarious explanations of how they evolved into The Apollo Blonde, The Trophy Blonde, and The Ironic Blonde, along with many others. Using examples ranging from Princess Diana to Gloria Steinem, from Martha Stewart to Farah Fawcett, Ilyin shows us how a woman somehow always picks the shade that brings out the blonde inside of her.

With bull's-eye wit and probing intelligence, Natalia Ilyin reveals the underlying dreams and fantasies that explain why the allure of being a blonde has crossed the boundaries of ethnicity, economics, and age. She shows us that blonde is a hair color, but a blonde is a symbol.

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