Lens blog at the New York Times is consistently fantastic. This week features the work of an Italian photographer who took some unflattering pictures of redheads. She wants to document redheads before they disappear.
The author of the blog, Matt McCann, explains that redheads are exotic, but aren’t exactly desirable. The world largest sperm bank won’t take any more sperm from redheads. Nobody wants a redheaded kid. Fools! There’s been a shift in the sperm bank customer, and the new customer wants brunettes and blonds.
On the phone from her home in Udine last week, she described how the demand for artificial insemination had changed since the 1990s, when it was dominated by heterosexual couples. Now, buyers are increasingly single women, who, Ms. Rosso said, are looking for sperm that would yield the traits of a “dream mate.” These days, everyone wants to rear a George Clooney or Adrien Brody.
Well, we here at Apt. 11D are doing our part in keeping the redhead gene in circulation.
Apt. 11d 
I don’t really buy the vanishing redhead theory. Redheadness seems to pop up in all sorts of unexpected populations. I remember once watching an Iranian movie and realizing with a start–hey, that’s a redheaded Iranian woman! in a crowd seen.
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If redheads are reproducing, then they’re passing on their genes. They may not be phenotypically expressed in the next generation, but they’re still there in the offspring’s genetic code, and will probably reappear up at some point. Same with any recessive non-deleterious trait. Red hair will only “disappear” if redheads are not reproducing at all. It seems like all these “xx trait will disappear in 50 years!” arguments don’t really understand genetics.
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Red haired Iranians used to be a fairly common sight when I was growing up in India in the 80s – there were a good number of Iranians who studied in India. I think it was (is?) believed that the red-hair gene originated with the Iranians and spread west with their migration.
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Aha!
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There are lots of redheaded Jews too.
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A member of my book group is in a lesbian couple, and when she chose a sperm donor she talked about it a lot. For example she would not accept anyone shorter than six feet, and she strongly preferred donors with advanced degrees (preferably a PhD). Those of us who had to choose a whole human being – and have him choose us back – couldn’t be nearly as picky! For better or worse.
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And of course, sperm bank customers are just like the rest of the population and will totally drive the future of genetics.
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Crazy — I love red hair, and it photographs beautifully. Wasn’t it just a year or so ago that red was the in color for Hollywood starlets. I guess women might not appreciate red-headed men — the media stereotype seems to be the goofy, funny, sidekick and not the star. But my guess is that it’s a sperm bank trend and not a real world one. Among other things, I thing predictable reproducible traits are favored in sperm banks, because people want to control as much as they can.
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I remember reading that the gene for red hair is paired with a gene for a low pain tolerance, so dentists are supposed to be aware that their redhead patients might need more anesthetic.
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Wow, those are some unflattering pictures and say that as a person who generally finds redheads to be more attractive than average. One good thing about being a redhead: they seem to age much, much better than your average person. I imagine that has to do with having fair skin and needing to avoid sunlight. Heavy tanning will age a person quicker than almost anything else.
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Fine photo!! I particularly loved to see you in the mirror there in the background — was it accidental or on purpose? 😉 My kids’ K-8 school is tiny — only 100 students, but there are 3 red-headed kids, one of which is one of my younger sons’ best friends. And one teacher is a red-head too!
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On purpose.
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of course! awesome!
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