really blond white girls

"Caitlin Spencer" has been the name of a character in 2 less-than-horrible films in the last six years. In What Lies Beneath (2000), "Caitlin" is the barely present daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Spencer (Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer). In Take the Lead (2006), "Caitlin Spencer" is the rich white girl who finds herself more comfortable with the kids at Pierre Dulaine's inner city dance class. In fact, she delivers one of the classic lines of the film as she watches her peers at the fancy dance school: "It's like sex on hardwood."

So. Maybe I'm jealous about having to share my name, because I've rarely had to do so (it's not like my name is so generic as Jane Smith). But perhaps I'd feel better if "Caitlin Spencer" was the name of a super secret, super hot spy in a super slick, super stylin movie. Or maybe it's just that I'm thrown by the noticeable similarity between the two onscreen representations of my name:













Notice anything? Anything?
You guessed it. Bleached, refined, white bread!

According to Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (authors of Freakonomics), this is the predominant make-up of girls named "Kaitlin" all across the United States. So, fine, my name is one of the whitest girl names in America (I imagine the stats are similar for Canada). Oh, I'm not foolish enough to believe that my dark hair, and the minor trace of Cree in my blood exempts me from this pattern. But I guess I'm uncomfortable with my membership in that club. I have preferred not to consider myself any colour at all - to be colourless, rather than whitey mcwhite white. There are some pretty severe stereotypes about people with that particular skin colour, and I obviously have some discomfort being associated with them: privileged, elitist, and oppressive are words that come to mind.

I love my name. I love the way it sounds and the way it looks. I own it. I'm proud of it. I love that at the time my mom chose "Caitlin" (1980), it was still relatively unique. And I love that I was named after the wife of her favourite poet: Caitlin Thomas. I especially love the connection to Caitlin Ryan of Degrassi Junior High (who you can bet was just as white as the rest of the "Caitlin" club). I've always adored my name. I have especially cherished its Celtic heritage, and its ability to tie me to my Scottish/Irish/Welsh ancestry....... I suppose I just never considered what colour the Celts were.