Redheads let hair down for BBC film

"I think the last time I was in a room with this many redheads was with my family," ginger-haired Irish comedian Owen O'Neill told the Princeton Redheads Society yesterday. "There's 32 of us."

O'Neill is the narrator of a new BBC documentary, "The Ginger Gene," which producer David Malone calls "a look into the future of redheaded-ness." O'Neill, Malone and an Irish film crew were in Princeton yesterday gathering footage for the film during the Redheads Society's "Ginger Gathering."

Malone found out about the Redheads Society — a campus group founded in 2004 to bring together the "minority group" of student redheads — through a simple Google search. He then got in touch with Anne Daniel, a lecturer in the English department and author of "Redheads," a book about redhead stereotypes, who referred Malone to current club president Savannah Sachs '08.

Sachs organized yesterday's "Ginger Gathering" as a chance for casual conversation with Daniel and the BBC crew about the redhead experience. About 20 "carrot-top" students gathered in the library of Cloister Inn, which was decorated with red and green balloons. Clementines, orange soda, carrots, Cheez-Its, orange Tic Tacs, ginger ale and other orange-hued and ginger-flavored snacks were served.

The "Ginger Gene" documentary investigates the genetic future of redheads in addition to stereotypes concerning them. The film crew has been traveling around the United Kingdom and the United States talking to redheads about their experiences. In the past 10 days, the crew has crossed the Atlantic four times.

Ginger-haired people make up less than 5 percent of the population, O'Neill said, and since the gene for red hair is recessive, it is possible there will be no more "gingers" in just 150 years. Because redheads have always been a dramatic minority in the population, their appearances in art and literature are often heavily stereotyped.

Daniel said that she was drawn to study historical notions about redheads in 1996 while reading "Vanity Fair," the classic 19th-century work by British author William Makepeace Thackeray, in which the titian-haired heroine, Becky Sharp, appears fiery-tempered and lascivious.

"Why are all the red-haired characters so scummy?" Daniel, who sports fiery locks herself, recalled asking her husband after reading Thackeray's book.

"If you're so angry about it, write a book about it," he told her.

In her book — fittingly entitled "Redheads" — Daniel surveys redheaded characters in art and literature, finding that they are often stereotyped as hot-tempered and bold. Biblical characters portrayed with red hair, such as Mary Magdalene, Judas and John the Baptist, are all marginalized outsiders, she argues. Redheaded men are seen as clown-like, as in the case of Harry Potter's sidekick, Ron Weasley, while redheaded women appear mischievous and overly sexual, like Becky Sharp.

Redheads' fiery reputations were echoed in a poem by O'Neill that he shared with the group. "We are not the roses from the lover," he said. "We are the scratches on the back."

Malone said the BBC crew wasn't sure how popular the idea would be at first, but the topic has "really captured the imagination of a lot of people." O'Neill appeared on Good Morning America yesterday, and he will be performing at the Comedy Cellar in New York City on Monday night.