They aren’t Greek. That is the first thought that comes to my mind every time I look at a poster for the upcoming movie “Troy.” The cast just doesn’t look Greek.

One of the posters consists of a giant image of Brad Pitt, all blonde and shiny, dressed in an ancient Greek warrior’s outfit. He looked a little out of place.

Having Greek heritage, I was disappointed there were no Greek actors portraying the classic Greek legend of the Trojan war. They could have at least cast a few more people who look Greek.

But apparently, I was wrong. For one thing, in the ancient times Vikings most likely interbred with the Greeks. So a blonde, blue-eyed Greek was rare, but not unheard of.

Although Greeks are generally darker, many dyed their hair even in ancient times. It was considered beautiful to have blonde hair, and many of the gods and goddesses were supposed to be blonde.

The high-class women of ancient Greece would lighten their hair; even the men would try to become blondes. They even used every nasty thing imaginable to achieve blondness, including horse urine and bird dung. Yeah, that’s sexy.

At first it seemed stupid that people would go to such extremes to become blonde. Darker hair never seemed any less attractive. I go in the opposite direction and dye my hair black.

It could have been from the Greeks wanting something they didn’t have. If a blonde was rare in Greece, it is understandable that a blonde was golden and seen as something special.

At first I figured everyone was over this mindset by now, but then I realized there are still many people who bleach their hair.

Does society still think that blonde is better?

Lots of people are as crazy about blonde hair as the ancient Greeks were. At the same time, showing different ethnicities and cultures can also be considered beautiful.

It is OK to look different. It seems like too many people are forced into conformity. So many people strive to be socially acceptable by bleaching their hair, but blonde isn’t always the secret to beauty.

Conformity doesn’t stop at hair color either. It could also happen to people of different cultures.

Pitt’s wife, Jennifer Aniston is Greek. Her real last name was Anastassakis, but she changed it when she got into acting. She shouldn’t have felt like she needed to do that.

People should embrace their different cultures as much as they embrace being American. One of the great things about being an American is you can be one, while also being of a different ethnicity.

Whether a person is blonde or a brunette of any culture, people should be happy about who they really are. It’s fine for people to dye hair and even bleach it. But the bottle blonde shouldn’t be a sign of sheer beauty anymore; diversity is.

Pride in who a person is, no matter what color, shape or name they have should be considered beautiful. It sounds cheesy, but it’s true.

If everyone became blonde, maybe darker hair would become the new desired look. It’s hard to tell. It’s also hard to tell how blondes became so ideal.

I can’t judge if blonde is more beautiful, but I can sit in a movie theater and roll my eyes at Pitt.