Lithuanian Company Sets Up "Blondes Only" Island

Olialia, a Lithuanian company run by blonde women, is planning to open a resort staffed solely by blondes in the Maldives, a move the company’s managing director claims is part of the company’s goal of breaking blonde stereotypes. Like, totally!

As you can see by the company’s advertising above, they really take this “breaking blonde stereotypes” thing seriously. Because like, science? Is like, always done whilst wearing a sexy scientist costume? As a blonde myself, I know I got chills looking at this picture, because it finally felt that all of the dumb, sex-kitten blonde stereotypes had just, like, melted away? Science is fun! But math is hard. I like bumblebees! What were we talking about? Let’s make out! Glitter and diamonds and boys!!!!!!

The blonde-staffed resort won’t open until 2015, but residents of the Maldives aren’t pleased with the concept: as BBC News points out, discrimination is a concern. “Local laws could make things difficult as resorts in the Maldives are required to hire at least 50% local staff,” writes BBC’s Damien McGuinness, noting that commenters on the Minivan News piece had voiced their concerns that the project was racist and discriminatory. In a slightly confusing statement, Giedre Pukiene, the company’s managing director, tells McGuinness that Olialia hires applicants of all genders, ethnicities, and hair colors, though “we find that when women with dark hair work here, they are surrounded by all these beautiful blondes, so eventually they end up going blonde too.” One would imagine that if employees refuse to dye their hair blonde, they’ll be ineligible to work at the all-blonde island resort.

Pukiene claims that Olialia is meant to prove that blondes aren’t as dumb as society paints them to be, but one look at her company’s advertising makes it fairly clear that the faux-blonde empowerment angle is just a gimmick, and a creepy, exclusionary, objectifying one at that. Some people will argue that the women of Olialia are smart blondes after all, in that an all-blonde staffed island will probably be a draw for bachelor parties, blonde-obsessed tourists, and such, but as a blonde myself, the idea of setting up an island that excludes a sizable part of the population (or, at the very least, demands that people change their physical appearance in order to be employed) and plays off of tired, sexist stereotypes of blonde women to pull in business is, to put it in the language of my hair, like, soooooo totally gross. Like seriously? Eww.

Lithuania Company Reveals Plans to Open Island Of Blondes In The Maldives [Minivan News]
Lithuanian Blonde Island Plan Raises Eyebrows [BBC]