Lit The Red Hair Purge: Haircolor Diversity in Movies and Lit

While earlier decades where plagued by diversity issues regarding race or gender, which slowly is getting better but not optimal either yet, I do worry for other minorities, namely redheads like myself!

In days of lack of diversity and oversexualisation, like 70s and 80s, comic books, movies etc. were full of blond and redheaded stereotypes in scifi and fantasy, and subsequently books and the Expanded Universe was too. That of course was not perfect either!

These days I miss redheads who I feel have been purged from media due to being seen as a symbol of the stereotypical oversexualisation of old instead of giving them a fair treatment instead.

Every other movie casts a redhead and uses actors with fake-red colored hair instead of natural ones. Every story prefers to cast racially diverse casts and replaces source material redheads with people of color (like The Witcher tv show did with mixed results from fan backlash).

In a society that is for the major part darkhaired with rarer colors like blonde and red being favored and artificially created with hairdye by many (celebrities, social media influencers, etc.) as if its something special to be favored/elite, the true bearers of said colors are neglected (except for regions where they are more common locally). Historic idealisation and stereotypisation of these colors still subconsciously informs many actions like haircoloring though.

There are of course also good examples of redhead uses and shows and movies getting it right. Not just historic ones that are set in ireland but in general.

Also given movies are predominantly made in southern / equatorial shooting locations or California / Florida based studios, the regional domination of darker haircolors heavily influences the castings and preferences of casting agents and directors. With the domination of the movie industry over many other markets, even influencing books and other connected markets these choices too color these other stories character depictions in part.

The EU was heavily filled with redheads... but canon seems to avoid them like poison? Well Cal Kestis being the glorious exception as he shines bright and red! Or Enfys Nest whose reveal was epic and surprising.

 

Good thread. Asking the real questions now.

 

well... both are villain roles to me but yeah they do count! Great actors and very underused outside their respective movies sadly, so why? WHY?

 

I think that the hair color problem is a symptom of a much larger problem: color in general is either not as vibrant and diverse or very vibrant but lacking in depth.

In an attempt at what I assume is realism, a lot of the outfits in the new films are leather or cloth in greys and browns, maybe with a bit of mud or grease flecked onto characters. In the OT and the PT costume design is far more diverse, even when using earth tones.

The lack of blondes, redheads, and greenheads is the same as the current lack of blue, green, and red twi’leks in the new film. A lot of the new aliens are also brownish grey with the same humanoid body plan and beast mammalian eyes.

When color is present, I feel like it lacks depth. I know Rebels is a cartoon and all, but while many of its designs were beautiful they kind of looked like modeling clay. I much prefer the vibrancy of Resistance.

 

Villain? This sweet kind intelligent wise old man is my hero!

If only he had a redheaded daughter...

PS: What if Mon Mothma is his illegitimate daughter actually? (never running out of redhead conspiracies here)

 

I think you describe one of @GrandAdmiralJello 's nightmares

 

Ewan’s coming back for the Kenobi TV series. He’s got a red tinge to his hair.