The other night my husband and I were having a conversation about one of our favorite topics: the future possibilities of our first son who is 6 months old. It went something like this:
Husband: Do you think he will be really good looking?
Me: He’ll be the MOST HANDSOME MAN IN THE WORLD!
Husband: Yeah, I guess it’s possible. Look at Prince Harry! There’s a chance!
It took me a second to realize that my dear husband thought that our child (who is still 99% bald but showing the promise of red hair), would somehow overcome the fact that he’ll be a boy ginger and triumph over such a disadvantage to be handsome anyway. It took me one more second to go off on him for such a subtly discriminatory thought, especially since he married a ginger!
But here is the thing–I’m a girl. And girl gingers, while we have the few people who like to poke fun, are usually considered to be attractive because of their red hair. Ginger guys, however, seem to be looked down upon and begrudgingly recognized as handsome despite being redheads.
Many strides have been made in Ginger Acceptance in recent years. There are powerful, sexy ginger ladies everywhere you look now. Having porcelain skin and freckles is chic. Long gone are the days of awkward, goofy Pippy Longstocking, now it’s all about Freckleface Strawberry (thanks to Julianne Moore’s Freckleface Strawberry book).
But redheaded guys still seem to have it really hard.
In the words of my auburn haired (and dashingly handsome) brother, “Online dating is not a very friendly place for a ginger dude.” And that’s the least of it.
Society seems to be dragging its feet on the acceptance of desirable ginger men. Need an awkward, unattractive, unathletic character in your commercial, TV show or movie? Why not make him a redhead so the audience really knows how weird he is!
It’s strangely socially acceptable to make redheaded guys the subject of jeering or pity.
There was even a news story recently that announced a very popular sperm bank was no longer accepting donations from redheaded men, because no one wanted them. Yikes. (But, times have changed! Read more here)
Ginger sisters: we need to step up and advocate for our male counterparts. It’s not fair, and it’s not right. Their red hair makes them special, not weird and unattractive.
The bright side is that there are stirrings of a chance in attitude, thankfully. The top few results from a Google search of “redheaded men” are all positive articles. As my doofus of a husband pointed out, Prince Harry is righteously carrying the banner for hot redheaded men (the fact that he’s an actual Prince Charming also does not hurt).
The wildly popular “Outlander” TV series has an extremely attractive redheaded male lead, Jaime Fraser, that people are losing their minds over–rightly so. There was even a photography exhibition last year in New York City, titled “Red Hot,” dedicated to changing the long held negative stereotypes associated with redheaded men by photographer (and redhead) Thomas Knight. The title does not mislead you, ladies. And no discussion on terribly attractive, strong, redheaded characters in media is complete without including Tom Hiddleston, Damien Lewis, or Michael Fassbender. Swoon!
So next time you catch wind of someone talking negatively about redheaded guys, speak up! Boy gingers are gingers too. And we gotta stick together.
Now, it’s time to view: 21 of the Hottest Redheaded Men You Have Ever Seen
..What do you think about all of this? Rock it like a Redhead!
