A Ginger Rates

 The next subject of this blog is a more recent addition to the redhead catalogue: Katie Mitchell, from Sony's The Mitchells vs the Machines. Katie is a character I really would have vibed with if I were still in high school. She's a spunky aspiring filmmaker with a "lol random" sense of humor and chronic Nobody Gets Me syndrome. Which hey, might have been true. The film doesn't show any of Katie's friends before getting to college, so maybe she had zero friends in high school, but I digress. Katie has one brother and two parents, none of which have red hair. The main conflict of the film is the progressive, redheaded Katie not getting along with or understanding her bearded traditional father, and suddenly I'm getting The Little Mermaid flashbacks. Not that that's a bad thing. So, how does she rank? 1) Accuracy to the redhead experience: 3/5 Like 70% of the redheads I'll be reviewing, and probably 100% of the recent ones, Katie is an outsider. Her...

 Meilin Lee of Turning Red is such an interesting case because she's a rare instance (in film) of the magic of a redhead being tied to their character identity and arc. But how does it fare for representation? (No spoilers except what's in the trailers.) Meilin (or Mei) is a Chinese-Canadian 13-year-old girl in 2002. She is in a close but domineering relationship with her mother, Ming, and as she enters puberty she begins to rankle under her mother's helicopter parenting. Their relationship comes to a head when the family gift/curse falls on Mei, turning her into a red panda whenever she gets emotional. This transformation permanently turns her black hair red. As stated, Mei's hair color is an odd case, but does that mean she's a "bad" ginger? 1) Accuracy to the redhead experience: 2/5 Not to diminish the existence of red-headed Asians-- redheads of every race are valid and valuable-- but the way Turning Red goes about showing it is, obviously, unrealisti...

 Since the first Rating Redheads subject was near and dear to my heart, I thought the second should be one I'm indifferent to. When Brave came out, I was SOOO excited for another redheaded heroine. Then I watched it and... eh. But we're not here for my opinions on the film, but my opinions on whether or not Merida is good redhead representation! Merida is the daughter of a king in ancient Scotland. She's fiery and outspoken, and is good enough with a bow and arrow to shoot well from horseback. She is one of four children, all of which are redheads! Her father is also a redhead, with only her mother being a brunette. Coming from a country where redheadedness is part of their culture, Merida has unique insight as a fire-haired character. 1) Accuracy to the Redhead Experience: 5/5 Brave takes place in Scotland, which is about 13% redheads at the time of writing, the highest percentage on Earth. So it makes sense when, in Merida's family of 5, only her mother is not a ginge...

As my first foray into rating fictional redheads, I thought I'd begin with one I know intimately, one who has had a lot of influence on me as a redhead myself, and one most people are familiar with. No, not Jessica Rabbit... though I'll get to her. Today I'm rating Ariel from Disney's The Little Mermaid I'll be rating all redheads based on 3 conditions (though I may change these as the blog evolves). The first 2 will be ranked on a scale of 1-5, then added together. The last condition will take off a point for each violation. The conditions are: 1) Accuracy to the redhead experience 2) How being a redhead is used, or not used, in the film, and 3) How many redhead stereotypes the character hits. If you'd like an overview on redhead stereotypes, I have a short article about them in the Pages of this blog. Let's begin with a summary of Ariel and her personality. (For the sake of this rating, I'm only going to be considering the 1989 film, not the sequels or...