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Ladies in red
“Gentlemen prefer blonds, marry a brunette and have always had a thing for a redhead,” goes the Playboy-ism. But while blonds and brunettes are plentiful enough to dilute their stereotypes, natural redheads spring from a genetic mutation occurring in less than 4% of the (Caucasian) population. We simply don’t know enough of them to know them. In ancient Egypt, the fire-haired were offered sacrificially to Egyptian gods; in the Middle Ages, they were presumed to be vampires. And while the Celts considered them sacred, the Irish-loathing Brits consequently persecuted them (even today, “gingers” are bullied in savage England). And in the rest of the Western world, true redheads remain as wanted and elusive as that vermilion villain, Carmen Sandiego. (Illustration by Antony Hare)
