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Rebecca Perry: An ode to ginger (or the redheaded renaissance)

By | Published on Friday 21 August 2015

Rebecca Perry

Rebecca Perry is presenting her ‘Confessions Of A Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl’ at the Gilded Balloon this Fringe. But before all that, she’d like to take a minute or two to hail the mighty redheaded renaissance of late. And why the hell not?

Do you remember being teased for being different? In the playground, the slightest bit of uniqueness put a target on your head, and any hint of non-conformity was strictly policed by the annoyingly “normal” schoolyard bully, or the gaggle of girls who strived to all own the most popular brand of 90s lip gloss.

Well, friends. Times have changed. Since the 90s, when I was growing up, there has been a noticeable paradigm shift, that’s right: the strangeness of the creative types is celebrated! Better still – you want to be a niche! Take that schoolyard bully: the brains of the nerds are valued, sports fans are no longer solely muscle-heads, and gingers are the new sex symbols of Hollywood. We are in a time of the redheaded renaissance.

There has never been a time when redheads were not singled out for their visibly rare hair colour. In the ancient past, redheads were thought to be witches, vampires and just generally fierce, fiery or overtly sassy individuals. In more recent times, a child growing up with red hair may have had to endure mean nicknames such as carrot top. But now: the popular girls and jocks have grown to idolising beautiful and successful redheads, like Jessica Chastain, Julianne Moore, Karen Gillan, or foxy male gingers like Beneditch Cumberbatch and Ed Sheeran!

Well, what do all these celebrities have in common? They are all ginger, and not only are they celebrated for their outstanding talent, they have paved the way for red hair to switch from being a not sought after trait, to being thought of as beautiful, sexy and desired. It’s time to celebrate being one in a million! Genetically speaking and otherwise!

‘Rebecca Perry: Confessions Of A Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl’ was performed at Gilded Balloon at Edinburgh Festival 2015.



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