People of Hair Color: Difference between revisions

[[File:EdmundBlairLeightonTheHostageEdmund Blair Leighton - The Hostage.jpg|framethumb|400px|Guess which one is not a local.]]

There is a certain amount of [[Truth in Television]] here. Before widespread genetic diversity, with people [[LampshadedIf DoubleYou EntendreKnow What I Mean|meeting]] and mixing between different countries or continents, the traits of a single tribe or village or other group of people were often common across the entire population. One group of people, who haven't been mixing with outsiders, will generally share the same general appearance. It's part of why, for instance, there are two main stereotypical depictions of Irish people, the 'black' Irish, like [[Colin Farrell]], and the 'red' Irish, like [[Colm Meaney]] (Miles O'Brien from ''[[Star Trek]]''), or how people from countries such as China, Japan, and Korea have black hair and dark eyes.

And inwith the better fantasy writers, this predisposition is all there is.

In all too many works, however, the races are absolutely uniform, living in an ethnic [[Patchwork Map]]. Even at the borders, [[Halfbreed|half-breeds]]s are unusual and physically distinctive. [[Phenotype Stereotype]] usually prevails: [[Blue Eyes]] for blonds, [[Green Eyes]] for [[GreenSignificant Green-Eyed Red HeadRedhead|redheads]], [[Gray Eyes]] or [[Brown Eyes]] for dark-haired people. Furthermore, the physical appearances are also used as a short hand for [[Planet of Hats]] traits.

The prevalence of [[Medieval European Fantasy]] makes the subdivisions of whites plausible, but other ethnic subdivisions are known, and, sometimes, a blond race will contrast with a dark-haired race that is clearly not white. Often, the mere presence of whites and blacks in the same area will not preclude their regarding themselves as more finely divided than that -- whichthat—which is also [[Truth in Television]].

{{examples|Examples}}

* In [[JRRJ. TolkienR. (Creator)|JRRR. Tolkien]]'s Middle-earth, there are often a set of common hair-colours among various peoples, although averted as they are not uniform and not without exceptions. Of both Men and Elves, there are tribes who are dark-haired and those who are blond; Hobbits are generally brown-haired, while blond is rare.

** In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', the Riders of Rohan from the North tend to be blond, while the people of Gondor were chiefly dark-haired. Given the hierarchy he describes, this peculiarly puts blondness at the top and the bottom, among the good peoples at least (the blond Vanyarin Elves are almost sickeningly angelic, while the Rohirrim are supposedly lesser) and dark-haired peoples in the middle (the Noldor are troubled and rebellious, but still Elves and therefore more awesome than any human, while the Numenorians of Gondor and Arnor are "superior"--whatever—whatever that means--tomeans—to the Rohirrim).

*** Except when they weren't, such as the men of Bree, some non-Dunedain Gondorians, some hobbits, the Woses, even the Wild Men of Dunland (who were antagonists, but weren't portrayed as evil). And some of the most evil villains were white- namely, the Black Numenoreans, who were pretty much Nazis [[Recycled in Space|IN ANCIENT EUROPE]], wore the Hat of being a bunch of [[Evil Sorcerer|Evil Sorcerers]]s, and produced such notables as the Witch-king and the Mouth of Sauron. Tolkien ''did'' use racial stereotyping broadly, but it tended to break down the closer into things you actually looked.

* In Joy Chant's ''Red Moon Black Mountain'', the races are divided by appearance, including an [[Planet of Hats|entire race]] of [[Dumb Blonde|Dumb Blondes]]s.

* [[Ursula K. Le Guin|Ursula K. LeGuin]]'s]] ''[[Earthsea Trilogy]]'' has the race contrast by skin color as well as by hair, but the white race is [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|also chiefly blond]].

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' universe, the barbarians of the north are divided into the Aesir, who are blond, the Vanir, who have red hair, and the Cimmerians, who have dark hair. Howard had a whole essay on the various human races of Hyboria and how they got to be where they are in the story in question, "[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Hyborian_Age The Hyborian Age]". The racial descriptions given there are characterized by the very best racial science of his day.

* In [[Gene Stratton Porter]]'s ''[[Freckles (Literature)|Freckles]]'', the Irish characters are all red-haired.

* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[Hermetic Millenium (Literature)|Count to a Trillion]]'', Blondies. Indeed, when Menelaus is viewing an old SF series and realizing it depicts the future (which didn't happen) as racism-free, a white man kissing a black woman is described as a Blondie kissing a Swarthy -- theSwarthy—the hair color trumps the skin color for the man.

== [[Anime]]Live-Action and [[MangaTV]] ==

* In ''[[FullmetalDoctor AlchemistWho]]'', the Ishbalanstwo haveraces greyon hairSkaro andseem redto eyes,be asdefined wellby ashair dark skin. Other racescolour in- the series[[Proud tendWarrior alsoRace toGuy|warrior-race]], haveThals, aare commonuniformly hairblond and/or(mostly eye colourstraight), butand notthe quitescientific toKaleds thehave samebrown extenthair as the(mostly Ishbalanscurly).

* Long-after-the-fact depictions of the Saxons and the Normans after the conquest make the Saxons blond and the Normans dark-haired. [[Robin Hood]] is typically blond, when Maid Marian is a Norman, as in ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood (Filmfilm)|The Adventures of Robin Hood]]'', she is dark-haired.

* [[Dungeons and Dragons|Dungeons & Dragons]] seems to take yet another cue from Tolkien here. The various elf "subraces" (including the distinct Drow) have hair color and skin tone determined by their elven ethnicity (with a wider range of pigments than humans). Conversely, humans in the D&D universe seem much more integrated and ethnically homogenized.

* The [[Mystara (Tabletop Game)|Mystara]] setting's ''Dawn of the Empires'' boxed set explored this trope a good deal, with humans from different regions of imperial Thyatis and Alphatia having distinctive ethnic phenotypes, as well as cultural quirks. Those ancient Alphatians who immigrated from another world included both pale-skinned and copper-skinned ethnic stock, with intolerant subgoups within each of these choosing to remain "pure" and not marry the other; the majority of Alphatians, however, consider ethnic bigotry secondary to anti-Muggle [[Fantastic Racism]].

* In the NES version of ''[[Final Fantasy I (Video Game)|Final Fantasy I]]'', each town had its own uniform hair color and clothing color, due to graphical limitations.

* Similar to ''[[Final Fantasy I (Video Game)|Final Fantasy I]]'', this occurred in the first-generation ''[[Pokémon]]'' games to some extent. Yellow had it so that each town was the color of its name (as all of the towns were named after colors). This also happened to the black-and-white Red and Blue, but only when played on the [[Super Game Boy]] and Pokemon Stadium; on colorized handhelds, the entire game was made either red or blue, depending on the version.

* Depending on your interpretation of canon within the ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'' series, the people of the flying Kingdom of Zeal could qualify. They all have blue/purple hair, while the Earthbound Ones of the same era all have earth tones as their hair colors.

* The [http://nine.frenchboys.net/ Serendipity] [https://web.archive.org/web/20120208202256/http://nine.frenchboys.net/eth.php ethnicity generator] works on a similar principle, where the generated ethnicity has one hair color (or a narrow range) and one (or at most two) eye colors, in addition to skin tone and quirks of physique. A milder version of this trope.

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