Glossary of Redhead Stereotypes

  One of the conditions I rank redheads on is stereotypes. As 99% of fictional gingers (especially animated/drawn ones) are not nuanced, almost all of them will fall into one or more of the following:

1) The nerd.
Though this trope is less popular today, it's still common— especially in serialized cartoons— for a redheaded character to be a caricature of a dork, complete with freckles, glasses, and a silly voice.

The reason for this trope might come from the actual genetic make-up of gingers. With our sensitive skin and transparent eyebrows and eyelashes, we can look a bit awkward. For the redheads with dark skin, I can see the bullying being even worse. From a storytelling standpoint, giving a nerd the rare redheaded gene puts them farther into the “outcast” category. However, this is the most circumstantial of the tropes, because just giving a character red hair doesn’t make them a poindexter. They have to also hold other “nerdy” traits, like glasses, braces, a lisp, etc. Regardless, the nerd character doesn’t pack as big a punch (or take one) without those orange locks.

Some examples of nerdy red headed characters are Gretchen from Recess, Carl from Jimmy Neutron, Carl from Phineas and Ferb, Dexter from Dexter’s Laboratory, and Barb from Stranger Things.

2.) The villain.
The oldest and most universal of redheaded superstitions is red hair as a sign of evil. European paintings often depict Eve (the first sinner) and Judas Iscariot (the traitor) as redheads. Red hair is a bad omen in many cultures: Egyptians burned redheads to get rid of the trait, and during the Spanish Inquisition red hair was considered a mark of sin. As the Russian proverb goes “There was never a saint with red hair.”

But history isn’t the only reason many villainous characters are red in the head: it’s a conscious design choice. As a color, red is very provocative. It denotes danger, blood, and passion. It draws immediate attention, which is why artists have to be careful where they use their reds. Redheaded villains are a very specific kind of evil, though. Blonde villains are usually vain, black-haired villains are devious and smart, brunette villains you don’t know are villains at first. But a redhead can’t hide: as in history, it’s a mark of evil. These blaggards aren’t subtle: they’re malicious and single-minded, and they flaunt it.

**A subset of this category are characters whose dominant personality trait is being angry (ie:Yosemite Sam or Misty from Pokemon).

Some infamous redheaded evil types are Madame Medusa, Chucky, Poison Ivy, and more recently Syndrome, and Crowley and War from Good Omens. You could probably come up with more, as well.

3.) The seductress.
This archetype is applied more often to women than men. I wasn’t able to figure out where this belief comes from, I can only speculate, but my best guess is this ridiculous theory comes from a mix of historical prejudice and color association.
A culture known for their red hair, the Irish, is also known for their drunkenness and bad tempers (which themselves came from racism and poor work conditions). As an extension of this stereotype, redheads are thought to be more passionate than other hair colors: especially in bed. Additionally, back before genetics were fully understood, the birth of a child with the recessive redheaded gene to non-redheaded parents resulted in accusations of an affair. This further encouraged belief in gingers being promiscuous. 

Another factor of this stereotype is the literal scarcity of redheaded women. Redheads make up only 2% of the world’s population, and the women are half that. In the dating sphere, the foxy-haired woman is a rare Pokemon.
For these reasons, fictional redheaded women are the most sexualized, hardest to attain, and often the endgame love interest. This literal 1% of women aren’t your average ginger girl though, oh no. These characters are either smart, gorgeous, rich, successful, or all of the above. They differ from other love interests in fiction in that you aren’t supposed to relate to a redhead: you’re to want her or want to be her.

Famous ginger showstoppers are Jessica Rabbit, Mary Jane Watson, Starfire (in the comics especially), Satine from Moulan Rogue (I’m including her because the blonde actress’s hair was dyed for the part), and Daphne from Scooby-Doo.

**There’s also a weird subset in here of “hot cartoon moms” with red hair and exaggerated curvy features, like Phineas and Ferb’s mom, Dexter’s mom, and Danny Phantom’s mom. In every case they have redheaded children, but the father is never a redhead.

4.) The Special.
This last category is kind of nebulous, and almost exclusively applies to main characters. I’ve dubbed it the “special”, because these gingers can be the Chosen One with cosmic powers, a Mary Sue/Gary Stu of a slice of life comic, or somewhere in between. These characters have it all: looks, luck, smarts, charisma. For these characters, the red hair is an indicator of their specialness. If you change these characters’ hair color, they no longer look as— well— special.

Kim Possible is a prime example of this. Her red hair has no bearing on how she lives her life, but change her hair color and the audience will perceive her differently. The same principle applies to Archie, Ariel, and Pippi Longstocking. Their hair color doesn’t effect how the characters see themselves, only how we see them. Similar to how the redhead’s rarity makes them a peak romantic love interest, it also makes them good “special” material. “There’s no one like me. You can tell by my hair color.”

These are the 4 main stereotypes I'll be considering when I do my rankings. I copied and pasted most of this from my essay on why redheaded people are being recast as POC, which you can read here.
The essay's thesis is that POC are being put into redheaded roles bc the stereotypical roles redheads filled are now being applied to other ethnicities. Give it a read and let me know if you agree.