Keyboard for Blondes

By Heather Huntington on August 28th, 2009

• Share
• Link to StumbleUpon
• 3 Comments

It has happened. Years of annoying blonde jokes have mated with technology and produced: the Keyboard for Blondes. It’s a pretty pink thing with keys that say stuff like ‘OMG’ where the ‘O’ key should be and ‘Oops!’ where the ‘Delete’ key is.

I’m aware that as someone who is generally not known to be either particularly uptight or self-righteous, one would expect me to find this amusing. But I guess after a week of my first embarkation into the world of Mad Men (Season 1 on Netflix almost done!), any jokes about women being stupid – regardless of hair color – are not not sitting particularly well.

Truthfully, I have never been a big fan of blonde jokes. As a very dark brunette (so dark, my hair still sometimes shocks the aesthetic sensibilities of the locals from my Iowan husband’s home town), one would think I would find them some sort of poetic justice. But mostly I never found them very funny. And now that my nightly TV viewing primarily consists of a foray into what were evidently the most sexist ’60s (just wait for my Mad Men post), the modicum of tolerance I had for that sort of joke has completely vanished. I’m sure if you call me next week, I’ll be onto something new. I’ll have watched Seven Years in Tibet and be angry about China again. But for now, I’m feeling feminist, and this thing has me all sorts of humbug.

The thing is, they keyboard is cute. It’s pink and silly and whimsical. It’s probably a great gift for a tween/teen girl (all the OMGs and LOLs and Elle Woods-y-ness of it is perfect for that set). And I am all for jazzing up boring workaday artifacts. I just object to the marketing of it that makes fun of any particular type of woman for being a bubblehead. In fact, if you called it a Bubblehead Keyboard I would probably be fine. A Keyboard For Morons? Delightful. Of course, those don’t have the same ring to them. I worked in advertising. I get it. It makes sense. I just don’t have to like it.