Patti Stanger, the star of one of my favorite guilty pleasures, Millionaire Matchmaker, has never been shy about the fact that she hates redheads. I recently watched this season’s redhead episode, hoping it would be favorable to redheads.
Despite all the girls at the mixer having red hair, very few were real redheads. If the guys actually wanted a redhead, my guess is that the hair color isn’t what they are after; there is the whole complexion and whatever stereotypes go along with that. Very few of the non-redheads even had the complexion to pull off the color and just looked ridiculous.
Thankfully I still see some positive examples in the media. During the redhead Millionaire Matchmaker episode, I saw this ad.
The little red haired girl is not only operating her own business, she is shown as being physically strong, pulling the delivery truck out of the ground and across the field.
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| (via http://tv.broadwayworld.com) |
I then followed Millionaire Matchmaker with Suburgatory, starring Jane Levy. Levy’s character in Suburgatory is a high school student who is uprooted from Manhattan to the suburbs. She lands in a town where everyone appears to be the same; the fact that she is a redhead makes her not quite fit in. The writers of the show are able to use this to make a point, but I think it is one of the reasons that my non-redhead friends and family do not quite understand my sensitivity to the subject.
Many brunettes and blondes that I know change their hair color without much thought. People routinely get highlights and change their hair color seasonally. Hair color does not become an essential part of their self identity. Even in the most homogeneous community, every red haired child has stuck out. Their hair attracts attention, both positive and negative; it always makes one unique.
While there is some debate on the internet over whether Levy is a natural redhead, she has the complexion to pull it off. Emma Stone is not a natural redhead but she has the complexion to pull it off and has embraced her identity as a red haired actress. I certainly want people to see being a redhead as a good thing so I am normally not one to publicly call out dyed redheads; if the person is willing to commit to being a redhead and not just use it as a publicity stunt, as Stone has, I have no problem. However, there are plenty of dyed redheads who go around doing stupid things and calling themselves redheads, making it necessary for redheads to counter the claims made by the crazy dyers.
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| (via http://omelete.uol.com.br) |
***SPOILER ALERT*** The 2011 film Crazy, Stupid, Love stars two red haired actresses: Stone and Julianne Moore, who plays Steve Carell’s wife. The film’s multiple story lines converge when a twist is revealed: Stone is the daughter of Moore and Carell. I watched the film with my mom and nana, both brunettes. They seemed genuinely surprised at this revelation. I had to point out that the only reason films ever seem to cast two redheads is to establish a blood relationship.
Suburgatory resorts to this trick when they introduce a red haired Malin Akerman as Levy’s mother. There is no reason that a red haired child must have a red haired parent; to the best of my knowledge, my great-grandma is the only red haired relative that I have met.
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| Team Coco! (via eonline.com) |
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| (via craftyiscool.blogspot.com) |
I have only touched on female redheads so far. As much as I may get riled up about the portrayal of female redheads, they exist. There are very few male red haired celebrities, and it is not a color that men tend to choose when dying their hair. Conan O’Brien is arguably the most famous red haired male on television right now. Even people who aren’t fans of Conan are probably aware of his Tonight Show conflict. While this seemingly had nothing to do with his hair, it played out as the new redhead in town being bullied around by everyone else. Conan’s supporters gathered together as Team Coco. Suddenly you could find t-shirts and nearly anything else covered in a splash of red hair. I respect O’Brien’s career on the whole, but I really respect the fact that he has made it as a red haired comedian, who uses his hair as a rally cry, without resorting to dumb redhead jokes. My favorite red haired comedian is Louis CK and he generally just avoids the subject entirely. This is in contrast to comedians like Carrot Top whose entire persona is centered on their hair.
In closing, I will allow Tim Minchin to sum up this post.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for tolerating my red haired ranting of the week 🙂
