Graduation Date

Fall 2020

Document Type

Project

Program

Master of Arts degree with a major in English, emphasis in Applied English Studies

Committee Chair Name

Michael Eldridge

Committee Chair Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Second Committee Member Name

Janet Winston

Second Committee Member Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Keywords

Redhead, Ginger, Redheadedness, Embodied trope, Rhetorical listening, Gingerism, Whiteness, Whiteness studies

Subject Categories

English

Abstract

The study of redheadedness has been largely neglected in the academic community and beyond. Besides a few outdated psychology studies, pop culture books, a handful of student theses, and one dissertation, there has been little investigation regarding how the tropes associated with redheadedness—namely, weakness and unattractiveness in men and unruliness and hypersexuality in women—become embodied. This project considers the way that such tropes are internalized in a variety of “texts”: Scott P. Harris’s documentary, Being Ginger; Marion Roach’s and Jacky Colliss Harvey’s personal narratives; and Tim Minchin’s song (and performance of) “Prejudice,” together with an interview he gave for The Guardian. Using Krista Ratcliffe’s method of rhetorical listening, I reveal the ways that these texts identify and disidentify with redheadedness. Despite the authors' awareness of redhead-related stereotypes, these texts continue to perpetuate many of those same stereotypes in subtle and complex ways.

Citation Style

MLA

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