A longtime correspondent, himself a specialist in archetypes of the feminine, asks:

Interesting thread on my Victoria-L about redheads being associated with untrustworthiness. Do you know anything about this? How far back it goes?

I'm not surprised. Lilith has often been depicted as a redhead, and Aristotle says in the Physiognomics that redheadedness is an indication of being emotionally unhousebroken. Judas is said to have been a redhead, and a number of cultures across the centuries have viewed red hair as an indicator of the practice of witchcraft. So the perception has been around for quite some time.

As for the Victorians, I would imagine that this has to do with historical British attitudes toward the Irish. As a Victorianist, you’d know far more about that than I. There was always the Irish Question, and while Ireland doesn’t have the largest genetic pool of redheads in the world*, I’d think it would have been uppermost in the British consciousness.

*Scotland has a 13% concentration, as opposed to Ireland’s 10%. The gene exists almost worldwide, though.

Got a redhead question? Ask Ms. Vermillion!