I want to take a look at how the world perceives differently red hair for each gender, and specifically the popular depiction of males with red hair.
I have a lot to say about this. In fact, I have been nearly obsessed with this over the last few years and I really should gather all my evidence into a compelling, comprehensive thesis of some kind. Anyway, the thing that irks me is there is a double standard here in the public consciousness about red hair and beauty. For as long as I can remember, females with red hair have been celebrated as sex symbols. You can go from Ann Margaret all the way to the pre-blond/pre-anorexic Lindsey Lohan:
and throw in people like Julianne Moore and Gillian Anderson from the X-Files in between.
Even consider the comic book character of Mary Jane from "Spider Man". It is also quite common for me to hear that a guy "has a thing for redheads".
What is not common is for any of this adulation to be heaped on guys with red hair. Has a male with red hair ever really been a sex symbol in popular culture? Are they ever used in modeling ads? Actually, I have noticed two in the last 5-6 years. One was a cologne ad that featured a shirtless guy but it was sort of in black and white so his red hair was de-emphasized. The other was a Timberland ad which I saw on some buses and the like last year.
Usually, the guy with red hair is the nerd or the outcast like Napoleon Dynamite,
or just disturbing and freaky like the Malachi character in "Children of the Corn".
One recent development has particularly bothered me. Many of you may remember the actor Cole Hauser from "Good Will Hunting". He played the good friend and drinking buddy of Matt Damon's main character, appearing in various scenes with curly red hair and scruffy facial hair.
In this and other supporting roles from his early career like "School Ties" and "Dazed and Confused", I thought Cole Hauser was noteworthy as a handsome male actor not portraying the guy with red hair as "the weird one" or "the dork", but as just one of the guys (and a good looking one at that).
Now, Mr. Hauser has moved up in status. Last year he starred in the Mel Gibson produced action/thriller flick "Paparazzi" as a famous action movie star who seeks revenge after photographers terrorize his family. What am I complaining about then, you may ask? Doesn't this go against my argument? No, because shockingly, the Cole Hauser who appears onscreen in this film does not have red hair anymore but hair that has been dyed dark black!
Recently I have also seen the trailer for another action/horror film called "The Cave" in which Mr. Hauser appears to star with dyed dark hair yet again. In each case he is unrecognizable as a man who seemingly has natural red hair.
Why is it that someone (probably more than one person actually) in Hollywood decided that it would not work to have a male with red hair as the action hero of a movie? Are men with red hair just not believable as anything other than the stereotype of pale, frail, gawky geeks? Obviously, this bothers me as a negative stereotype that I actively try to defy in my life. I consider myself athletic and graceful and physical and don't see why that should be unbelievable.
People often bring up Eric Stoltz as an example of a male actor with red hair who has broken out of the conventional geeky roles paradigm. Has he really?
What are his best-known roles? I would have to say a slobby, grungy, drug dealer in "Pulp Fiction" and a severely disfigured teenager in "Mask". I wouldn't say he was portrayed as even remotely attractive or sexy in either one. To further prove my point, he also starred in a film called "The Waterdance" as a writer who became paralyzed but still had Helen Hunt as a girlfriend and even got an awkward love scene with her. However, just like Cole Hauser, his hair looked noticeably and disappointingly darkened in the film.
I think guys with red hair have it a lot tougher than females because the stereotype of the male with red hair is quite at odds with the model of standard desirable masculinity. Perhaps no popular figure exemplifies this more than Ron Howard. He is probably the archetype of the non-threatening, un-sexy male with red hair. From his roles as Opie and Richie Cunningham to his career as a director of middle of the road, non-edgy films he specializes in projecting bland safeness that appeals mostly to moms. I have often felt that most females view males with red hair as nothing more than Opie
-
- far more like a little cousin, brother, or nephew of theirs than anything close to a sexual male.
Thoughts anyone?
