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Mariella Frostrup has complained that blonde women are still saddled with prejudice.
The broadcaster, 47, said she "would have thought twice" about going blonde at 16, when her father's death left her grey, if she had "known then what my shade of choice suggested to the world".
She told the Radio Times: "Being blonde means never saying you don't understand unless you want to be predictable. Being blonde means always trying to tell the blonde joke first.... 'What do you call a brunette between two blondes? An interpreter'."
She added: "Few women may be born blonde but that hasn't stopped it becoming a noun. In blonde world whether you're a brain surgeon, a lap dancer or an oligarch's wife, it's all the same.
"Blonde is the description, anything else merely informs us of the variety. Pinch me if I'm living in the 21st century."
She added: "Lifting the veil of prejudice clearly continues to be a struggle."
Mariella said recording Radio 2 series Blonde On Blonde had revealed "female stereotyping had changed little in the last seven decades".
She said of the likes of screen stars Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Lana Turner: "In retelling their stories there are echoes of the challenges still faced by women who wind up feeling their highlights have overshadowed their lives."
