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Blondes always have gotten the better of things in our favorite fairy tales.
Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella. All blond.
And more recently, Elle Woods in the 2001 hit movie "Legally Blonde."
But unlike her plucky predecessors, who apparently were content to settle down with their assorted princes, Elle is back for a sequel.
Perhaps that's because her fight is not yet finished: Elle is battling the backlash against blondness, let's not forget -- a problem far more universal and insidious, in this century at least, than wicked witches and evil stepmothers.
She is determined to win respect for bubbly blondes everywhere.
In July 2001, Elle (played by the perfectly perky Reese Witherspoon) was a pink-clad coed who chased her ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law School.
Her goal: to prove she could be the brainy wife he wanted to accelerate his political career -- a "Jackie" instead of a "Marilyn."
Her motto: "Believing in yourself is never out of style."
Her plea: Don't discount me because I'm beautiful.
This summer, Elle continues the fight for the rights of fair- haired cuties in "Legally Blonde 2: Red White & Blonde."
How pervasive is this blonde bashing, you ask?
Consider this:
How many Web sites are devoted to blond jokes? More than this -- full-disclosure here -- bottle-blond reporter can count. (Remember Polish jokes? Barely there. Brunette jokes? Barely funny.)
Whom do the girls still think it's OK to disparage on book club nights? The pretty blonde next door, naturally.
And, really, what's more proof that the problem is pandemic than the existence of not just one feature film devoted to the topic, but two in as many years? Count "Clueless" and you can clearly see the movement is building momentum.
At last the adage "You can't judge a book by its...
