red hair
Gillian Owens is a character played by Nicole Kidman in the movie Practical Magic. Gillian is the sister who runs away to start living life as soon as she can; the party girl who basically goes from man to man trying to find one who sticks. When one of the men is trouble for her, she comes home and needs her sister, Sally, to help her out with a little of the family magicks.
I loved this movie, and also the book by Alice Hoffman that the movie was based on. It’s about being afraid, and how we decide to deal with our fears, especially in the context of relationships. Gillian is a bit of a trouble-maker, the wild-child, and I’m sure I could come up with a few more stereotypical hyphenations, but her place here is as a foil for her more conservative sister.
Delirium is a character in the DC Vertigo series The Sandman written by Neil Gaiman. While her hair is technically multicolored, I notice that several (not all) of the artists make the bulk of it red, as if that were her true hair color to which the other colors are applied. I am counting her among the “redheads” for that reason, and also because it amuses me to do so (which would probably be reason enough to her).
Delirium is the youngest of the Endless. She used to be Delight, but she changed for reasons no one knows. She often seems random, mostly appearing interested in fun and whimsical chaos, enamoured of bubbles and butterflies.
Touga is a character in the anime series Revolutionary Girl Utena. Part of what makes his character intriguing is that we are uncertain about him. He is both tender and ruthless, the confusing anime badboy we hope will redeem himself with some word or action.
Touga is president of the Student Council with whom the protagonist, Utena, must duel in succession in order to try to discover the secrets of both Ohtori Academy and, possibly, her own half-remembered past.
Jessica Rabbit was the surprisingly faithful wife of Roger Rabbit in the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit. She wasn’t bad, she said, “just drawn that way.” She was quite the sensation for a time, an exaggeration of the pin-up model redheads we’ve seen before. And she will do anything she has to in order to keep her rabbit husband safe.
Though her character has gotten a lot of flack for her unrealistic proportions, it seems to me the animators and writers are exaggerating her to a purpose: She’s the stereotypical red-haired bad girl, the one the hero isn’t supposed to go home with in the end. That her personality is at odds with the way she’s drawn is, after all, the point.
