May 26, 2007

Seeing Red

Less than 1% of humans have red hair. In the USA, 2-6% of the population is red headed, Ireland and Scotland have a high percent of red heads. Red headedness is just as unnatural as homosexuality, it seems:)

A new scientific study has found "that apes first evolved color vision to help them forage food, after which nature made red the sexiest color around and spiked apes’ evolutionary tree with red hair and skin."

“It looks like red skin and hair became a sexual preference,” said evolutionary biologist Molly Morris, the other study’s author. “So while the benefits in terms of eating may not apply anymore,” she said, it’s still socially—and sexually—relevant for an ape to see red."


This makes me wonder why red headedness didn't become prevalent for humans, since we are just apes after all. Maybe it has to do with climate change and adaption winning the evolution over color attraction. I'm sure there is a very good scientific explanation, I just don't know what it is right now.

I don't know if it is just me, but I've always viewed red headed women as, um ok, I don't want to say easier, but uh, more inclined to be sexual without that much urging. How is that? Like I mean, red heads have a certain do-ableness aura that brunettes and blondes don't have. Blondes have an aura to be easier, but possibly less approachable and less really into it (more artificial) when it comes to appreciating the possible act, if that makes sense. Of course, I'm just generalizing here:)

Going by this South Park video, red heads might be the least trusted minority in the USA. I used to think it was atheists. Probably the least trusted minority in the USA would be a gay red headed Arab atheist.

Come to think of it, has America ever had a red headed President?

27 comments:

  1. Well, I hate to say it but I don't much like redheads. Maybe because my brother is one and used to beat the crap out of me as a kid. Also he was my mother's favourite - another redhead. Go figure. I find some redheads have a naturally nasty disposition in keeping with how many of the redheaded traits they have - like light skin and freckles. I'm not sure which came first - the red hair causing teasing causing temper or what but I don't care. Show me attitude and I won't like you either.
    It's unnatural to expect everyone to like everyone.

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  2. oh damn... now my head hurts. I am an Irish red head (and red bearded), yet I am also color blind. I'm so confused.

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  3. This is a subject that demands further research.

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  4. Wow - I've got a bit of the Eire in me (my red hair doesn't show unless I grow a beard) - & I had no idea there was so much antagonism towards the carrot-topped. (I know your post is tongue in cheek, so no worries.)
    The mark of Cain was said by some to be red hair - there were periods where green eyes & red hair were said to mark witches & werewolves.
    Xenophobia is sadly, terribly human.
    I wonder what Herr völkisch sentinel thinks of all this?

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  5. I generally don't find freckle faced red head ladies attractive, though there are exceptions like Julianne Moore.

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  6. Dang... I guess I should be grateful that as an aging redhead I am going blonde/gray.

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  7. I guess now isn't the time to say that I just had a caramel - reddish rinse out in my hair..

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  8. Pounce says;
    My mam told me in the 70s never to date a red as they are looney tunes. I never took her advice and yes reds are looney tunes.

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  9. The US, according to this site, anyway, http://www.redandproud.com/famous%20redheads%20political%20-%20USA%20Presidents.htm

    has had 7 redheaded presidents included Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower.
    I know I've read that Jefferson and Washington both were in many books so I'll assume it's true.

    I love redheads. My wife has auburn hair and it's one of the physical things that immediately attracted me to her.

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  10. It's my understanding that homosexuality is above 1-2%, closer to 9%.

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  11. "Come to think of it, has America ever had a red headed President?"

    Thomas Jefferson was red-headed. I'm thinking that someone else was, too, but I can't remember.

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  12. Famous Redheads from A -Z can be found here-

    http://www.redandproud.com/famous%20redheads%20A-Z.htm

    Famous redheads list: The Redhead Encyclopedia by Stephen Douglas

    1. Alexander the Great, mighty ruler of Mesopotamia
    2. Billy the Kid, 1870's American gunlsinger
    3. Charlemegne, Holy roman Emperor
    4. Chrisopher Columbus, explorer
    5. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt (questionable, rumor had it she used a lot of henna)
    6. Eric the Red, Nordic explorer
    7. Judas Iscarlot, Traitor diciple of Jesus Christ
    8. George Washington, First president of the United States
    9. Jesus, Rumored redhead, Holy man, son of God, said to have had deep burgundy hair the color of wine.
    10. Galileo, Scientist
    11. John D. Rockefeller, philanthropist
    12. Lief Ericson, Explorer and son of Eric the Red
    13. Mark Twain, America's beloved writer and author
    14. Maureen O'Hara, actress protrayed a fiery redhead in the movie, "The Quiet Man" with John Wayne
    15. Napoleon Bonaparte, military leader
    16. Miles Standish, leader of the early U.S. colonies
    17. Sinclair Lewis, American writer
    18. Thomas Jefferson, Third president of the United States and statesman
    19. Vladimir Lenin, Recolutionary leader of Russia
    20. Winston Churchill, British leader
    21. Mary Magdalene, Rumored redhead, friend of Jesus Christ
    ****************************
    Not sure about the list since it names a couple of mythical characters in it.

    R. Alexander, I believe homosexuality is closer to 10%, but I was comparing it with the percentages of redheadedness in the West which is higher than 1% and the lowball number Fundies like to use for homosexuality. I've blogged about these numbers before.

    OK, so there were some Presidents who had red hair, but that was before color media was invented. There haven't been in Presidents with red hair since color TV was invented. I don't recall any who even ran for President.

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  13. Come to think of it, has America ever had a red headed President?

    BEAJ: Washington and Jefferson were both said to be natural redheads. The powedered wig style of their time covered it, however...

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  14. I read some stats somewhere (yeah, that is of no help at all to anyone who wants my comment verified), which suggested that a survey done in Australia indicated that 17% of the population had either had a "homosexual/lesbian experience" or nominated themselves as being gay.

    Does this mean that Australia is crawling with gay people more so than the rest of the world? Personally, I don't think so. I think it just indicates that for many Australians, they don't feel a social stigma when they are asked about their sex lives.

    Maybe we are more honest than most. Who knows.

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  15. If memory serves, Kinsey's studies claimed that the percentage of the population that was exclusively gay was probably in the low single digits, but that 10% of the population had periods of time where they were exclusively homosexual. Maybe Anne Heche is an example of that.

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  16. I actually think redheads are kinda sexy, but I don't like the freckles that so often accompany them... Ugh.

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  17. tommy:
    but that 10% of the population had periods of time where they were exclusively homosexual. Maybe Anne Heche is an example of that.
    As I understand it, young Englishmen go thru a period of time where they indulge in gay behavior.
    I suppose that some never grow out of it.

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  18. It's also a well established fact that 64% of statistics are just made up.

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  19. Is it "cucumber season" over at this blog?

    No, the burning question is whether people who dye their hair red have a stronger propensity to drive blue Nissans. And is all this genetically linked...?

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  20. I read in a British tabloid, a recent post, about a family of red heads in England being bullied out of their neighbourhood due to their hair colour. Quite amazing. You can read it here:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=459182&in_page_id=1770

    (Sorry, I don't know how to html the link.)

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  21. I'm not attracted to redheads, like some of the other posters. I can't remember ever being attracted to one. I'm not generally into blondes either, but there have been a couple.

    With regard to homosexuality, the more-or-less official number is 7% (in men and, IIRC, 2% in women). However, for men, the number can fluctuate, as it's been shown that the first-born son has a two percent chance of being gay and after that, each right-handed son is three times more likely to be gay, but left-handed sons are an even 7%. Nature probably tries to level it out to 7%, for reasons currently unknown. These numbers are constant in research, regardless of whether the sons stayed in the same family or not.

    With that said, I do however believe that sexuality is more often gray than black and white.

    @Beaman: Tabloids are tabloids. And you can use HTML to create links just like you do on web pages. In fact, this comment thing explicitly says that you can use the <a> tag.

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  22. AA:
    It's also a well established fact that 64% of statistics are just made up.
    Do you have any polls or surveys that prove that?
    Hehehehe.

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  23. Redhead presidents--Jefferson for sure and apparently Washington.

    Two of our least theistic founding fathers! Only Paine exceeded them.

    Redheadedness is recessive. Recessive genes can't take over; it's statistically impossible.

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  24. Heh. I'm an atheist and a redhead, though now that I'm approaching 40, I'm thinning out up there considerably. I'm a *balding* atheist redhead! I have been mistaken as Irish too, but alas, my genetics are a mixture of Italian, Slavic & Swede.

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  25. One day redheads will rule the world muahahahaha!
    I'm a redhead, and personally I could never see myself dating a male redhead. Although it would be cool to have redheaded children so that I won't have to exile them when we take over the world.
    (JUST KIDDING!)

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  26. I find redheads highly attractive, I'm also gay - it really is like looking for a needle in a hay stack.

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  27. i love burgundy hair color
    look at this website http://www.burgundy-hair-color.com/

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