French academics to settle an age-old question: Do men really prefer blondes?
A high-brow academic debate on whether men really do prefer blondes is to be held at Paris’s prestigious Sorbonne University. The conference – called Gentlemen prefer Blondes – will also explore why men are said to believe that it is easier to seduce a fair-haired woman. Organiser Marie-Camille Bouchindomme said that throughout history, blondes had been depicted as either the most beautiful, the most erotic and even the most stupid women. She said: ‘Blonde hair on a woman seems to awaken some kind of desire in men, which can be anything from quite innocent to outright perversion. ‘Venus, the goddess of love, and there has always been a strong link between blonde hair and male desire. ‘In so ways, blondeness seems to invite transgression and eroticism in men that darker hair does not.’ She added: ‘Artists have also always been fascinated by blondes, especially film-makers Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch. ‘In Vladimir Nabokov’s book Lolita, the girl was actually a brunette, but in all f
