Author and Narrator: Jacky Colliss Harvey
Publishers: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers (Hachette Book Group) / Hachette Audio
Genre: Non-Fiction; Art History, History, Social Science
Recommended Age: Not Given By Publisher; Adult / General Non-Fiction
With an obsessive fascination that is as contagious as it is compelling, author Jacky Colliss Harvey (herself a redhead) begins her exploration of red hair in prehistory and traces the redhead gene as it made its way out of Africa with the early human diaspora to its emergence under Northern skies. She goes on to explore red hair in the ancient world; the prejudice manifested against red hair across medieval Europe; red hair during the Renaissance as both an indicator of Jewishness during the Inquisition and the height of fashion in Protestant England, under the reign of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I; the modern age of art and literature, and the first positive symbols of red hair in children's characters; modern medicine and science and the genetic and chemical decoding of red hair; and finally, red hair in contemporary culture, from advertising and exploitation to "gingerism" and the new movement against bullying.
Content Warnings:
Graphic: Racism, Antisemitism, Sexism, Sexual Content, Eugenics
Tags:
Art History, History, My Hair Colour Is My Entire Personality
Review
While starting strong, Red often uncritically repeats white supremacists, eugenics, racist, and sexist talking points. Harvey often co-opting narratives of oppression that don’t belong to her as a white woman in order to illustrate to the reader the “exotic” and “empowering” nature of redheads.
I came across Red: A History of the Redhead on TikTok being recommended for its content on depicting Jews in medieval and renaissance art. Unfortunately, instead of education on art history, I got a racist mess of a book. Where the author's victim complex over their natural hair colour completely takes over any educational material you can find in its pages.
About 40% art history and 40% history and biology Red: A History of the Redhead touts itself as a captivating history of red hair throughout the ages. The book looks at everything from the barbarian stereotype, the depiction of Jews in renaissance art, to redheads as the sexual other and Freudian analysis’ of redheads. But, what starts as a solid analytic look at how many different cultures viewed redheads slowly begins to delve into pseudoscience, sexism, and racism.
And while Harvey tries to back up her claims of the uniqueness of Redheads by citing many articles, however, these pieces range in quality and often reinforce sexist and racist talking points. And instead of debunking or critically analysing these pieces of work, Harvey often uses these as a way to promote the unique, exotic and empowering nature of redheads.
A sample of the points I came across include:
Quotes a sitter for Thomas Knight's RED HOT 100 project in 2014 who said "it was easier to come out as gay than to come out as a redhead," and Harvey continues "What does that say about red hair as one of the last great social prejudice?" (Kindle Edition, Pg. 139)
This was also the period of the patronisingly famous remark by singer Taylor Swift, "I would do a ginger." (Try substituting "person whose skin, rather than hair, is a different color from mine" for "ginger" in that remark, and see how bad it tastes then.) (Kindle Edition, Pg. 146)
Harvey asks a Black Sengali woman with natural red hair if she has ever experienced racial prejudice and then tries to link it to red hair. (Kindle Edition Pg. 160-161)
Uncritically presents redheaded women as sexual deviants and redhead men as hot-headed and impulsive, playing into the previous racial and antisemitic stereotypes she highlights in her book.
Part of the problem here is that gingerism doesn’t *look* like it’s racism, and in a way it’s not, or at least not in the way we are used to thinking of it. (Kindle Edition, Pg. 149)
Going back through my Kindle highlights to write up my review, I can't believe this even got published - And I gave up highlighting most of the occurrences about 200 pages into this book.
I assure you that Harvey, a white English woman, has never suffered the same oppression for her red hair as a Person of Colour or Jewish person because bullying is not racism or antisemitism.
While red hair may have been an identifier for the other in the past, it is not in modern society. And, for Harvey to try and link her struggles with body image to being systematically oppressed is downright offensive. Not only does it co-opt narratives that do not belong to her as a white woman, but it downplays and satirises the history and trauma of marginalised communities. And, whatever attempts at eduction are thrown out the window when Harvey attempts to equate her modern complex over her hair colour to the historical and current struggles of communities she is not a part of.
Red: A History of the Redhead is one of the worst books I've read this year. And had I brought a physical copy of it I probably would have burnt it.