It's A Myth!

I was minding my own business, casually watching the USA channel after watching one of my favorite shows: "Suits".That show was recorded on my DVR ...and my thanks to whoever invented that... which meant that the cable box was still on that channel the next day (yesterday). What I was watching were reruns of Law & Order: SVU. Not a big deal... but what caught my eye was short interviews by some woman sitting on a stoop somewhere. On one of these she interviewed Gina Torres, the "managing partner" of the Suits' fictitious law firm on the show. A gorgeous woman I first saw on Xena playing the part of Cleopatra. The next interview I saw was of Sarah Rafferty, who plays "Donna Paulson" on Suits. "Donna" is a beautiful and smart red-haired legal secretary.

The interview was short and centered on her hair color. In it, she spoke of her father blaming her hair color for her temperament from time to time.

It's a common belief that redheads have quick tempers but it is, of course, a myth. I wonder just how that myth started. I have known many redheads in my life, even married two of them, and they do not have those quick tempers. In fact, I am of the opinion that blondes do not have more fun either. I have noticed, over the years, that a large number of actors and actresses are redheads and wondered about that... especially during the period when most movies were in black and white. I also noticed that actors (of both sexes) were often left-handed... far out of proportion to their percentage of the actual population. I have a theory as to why that is so but I will write of it another time.

I came up with thea theory of why there were so many redheads in film: they tend to look better under the harsh lights on a movie set.

Still, I wonder about the myth of the fiery-tempered redhead and where it came from. We, as parents, are behind it. We believe the myth and treat our redheaded children accordingly. That is, we treat them as if they are hot tempered from their earliest days and then, they tend to live up to that reputation. But how did it start? I have no idea.

I am of the mind that few of our cherished beliefs about personalities are true.