Petersen - Playboy brunettes

If blonde hair is a permission to dream, brunette is a warning. Perhaps it is a simple matter of color. The eye stops at blonde hair, is led away from other, more revealing details. Dark hair frames the face, draws attention to the eyes, the intelligence behind the entertainment. Like the Mona Lisas, a brunettes eyes follow you around the room. They demand engagement.

Perhaps the power of brunette hair comes from something deeper, more ancient. Consider this entry from an Internet dream dictionary: Dreaming that you are a brunette indicates that you need to be more down to earth. It may also be symbolic of your sultriness and smoldering sexuality. Do people dream about hair color? No matter. Brunettes live the dream. Weird science: Scientists claim that the first humans had dark, wavy hair.

Red and blonde are more recent evolutions. If God exists and we were created in Gods image, She is a brunette. Brunettes are, in other words, serious business. If not God, then other positions are open. A survey by Clairol found that 75 percent of Americans believe that the first woman president will be a brunette. They are the face of advice (think Ann Landers and Dear Abby), have better family lives, and, wouldnt you know it, are more likely to yield at a three-way stop sign.

We have no idea what that means, but brunettes, of course, do. Serious? Rosie the Riveter is a brunette. Quite frankly, we have never understood the stereotype that depicts blondes as sexual bombshells and brunettes as somehow domestic, stable, or, God forbid, boring. If our culture associates blondes with sexual abandon or recklessness, then brunettes represent premeditated, knowledgeable sex, sex with intent. Proof? The original sex goddess, Theda Bara, was a dark-haired vamp who devoured mens souls. Claudette Colbert floated naked in a bath of milk in a sin-and-salvation epic called The Sign of the Cross.

The controversial hit outraged the Legion of Decency, which called for enforcement of the fledgling Production Code. The result: years of silly, nonbrunette films. Indeed, for all the attention given to the blonde, it was the brunette who caused the most consternation, perhaps because she acted against type, with a vengeance. When Howard Hughes discovered Jane Russell and featured her in The Outlaw, would-be censors went ballistic. A judge commented that her breasts floated on the screen like thunderclouds. In 1933, an Austrian actress named Hedwig Kiesler was caught in the throes of Ecstasy, her face surrounded by glorious dark hair.

She allowed the camera to capture what was the first on-screen climax, a moment not repeated for decades. The Treasury Department seized the film, calling it a glorification of sexual intercourse. Wed call it a glorification of brunette. The actress changed her name to Hedy Lamarr and continued to beguile audiences. Moviegoers had no shortage of American brunettes to revere. Natalie Woods tresses were the splendor in Splendor in the Grass.

Although historians say that the Queen of the Nile was a blonde (who dyed her locks with henna), Elizabeth Taylor portrayed a raven-haired Cleopatra. She wrecked a marriage or six. In Boy on a Dolphin, Sophia Loren emerged from the sea in a water-soaked dress that defined the sensuous. Brunettes had a way of doing the unexpected: Barbara Carrera taking off her blouse in I, the Jury, Phoebe Cates diving into the pool in Fast Times at Ridgmont High, Jennifer Beals trick with her clothes in Flashdance. Maria Schneider rewrote the rules for cinematic sex (and what mainstream movies would allow) in Last Tango in Paris. Brunettes have killer moves and give nothing to the competition. They have a way of branding the eyes of an entire generation.

Before we settle on a consensus stereotype, remember that brunette is not a single color. Brunettes play with a palette that includes names like Amazon Indigo, Nutmeg, and Spiced Shadow. The shade ranges from lightTawny Bronze, Amber Shimmerto darkPepper, Rich Sable, Sapphire. Go back to the one about Amazon Indigo. Ancient myths and more recent pop culture creations suggest the power of brunette. Wonder Woman.

Xena, warrior princess. Lara Croft. Trinity of The Matrix. Long before she became a spokeswoman for cell phones, Catherine Zeta-Jones clashed swords with Antonio Banderas in The Mask of Zorro. The bottom line: Brunettes look better with weapons. Brunettes do not need to be rescued. They obey the primal rule, the one that says, The only requirement is keeping up.

Forget forever the notion that gentlemen prefer blondes. One study found that dark-haired men prefer brunettes, while blond-haired men fall for both blondes and brunettes. A few years ago, Sophie Cahill, the reigning Miss Wales and a natural brunette, conducted an unofficial experiment. She walked the streets of her home city first as a brunette, then as a blonde. She received more wolf whistles as a brunette. In June 2004, Evian water conducted a survey to determine the most beautiful woman of all time.

Audrey Hepburn was number one, placed in the top ten by more than 76 percent of the beauty experts who voted. Indeed, 46 percent of the icons placed in the number one spot by panel members were brunettecompared to 32 percent blonde and 22 percent redhead. You hold in your hands some two decades of brunettes. Playboy launched its first issue in the fifties, a decade that made a fetish of blonde. And yet the magazine noticed brunettes from the start: 45.5 percent of the centerfolds have had brown hair, another 2.7 percent classic raven hairedging out blondes at 44.4 percent. They run the gamut, from sleek to statuesque, knowing to innocent, pert to provocative.

Study these pictures. What does their silence tell you? Like the Mona Lisa, these brunettes prefer to let you wonder. NORA CHARLES: You got types? NICK CHARLES: Only you darling, lanky brunettes with wicked jaws. WILLIAM POWELL TO MYRNA LOY IN THE THIN MAN Blown hair is sweet, brown hair over the mouth blown, Lilac and brown hair. T. S.