Fiery heroines: Redhead, brave and ready to change the world

Kate Winslet as Rose Dawson in Titanic. (Photo: Paramount Pictures / 20th Century Fox)

by Ruby Phelan
@ruby_phelan

There are a clutch of fictional redheads who’ve inspired me to be brave, determined, creative and active in my outspoken feminism. Although I’m a fake redhead, a false ginge, I feel akin to the colour in the depths of my soul. These fiery heroines have acted as my flaming beacons throughout my early childhood and the ascent into womanhood. 

I’ve always been utterly obsessed with film and especially the presentation of women on screen. I found myself emulating the richly written girls who I grew up alongside, rubbing shoulder to shoulder with their inspirational dialogue and unapologetic actions that defied the male gaze. I dressed as them, nicked little phrases they used, imagined myself inside their complicated situations and used their narratives as a way to exercise the spectrum of my malleable personality. Cinema was a training ground for me to find out who I was, and my electric group of nostalgic heroines continue to be my compass when I feel lost. These special ladies guide me in the darkness and hold my hand when I drown in self doubt. They encourage me to fight for my right to unapologetically take up space and reassure me that women can achieve the most extraordinary things, if they simply follow their gut. I theorise my obsession with copper locks has spawned from my complete devotion to my following deities. 

‘Madeline’ (1998)
”It is better to be super everything, than super nothing!” 

The first of my nostalgic heroines is the red bobbed Madeline from director Daisy Von Schreler Mayer’s 1998 film starring Hatty Jones and Frances Mcdormand as the protective nun Miss Clavel. 

Madeline was the smallest of the girls who formed two straight lines and walked steadfastly through the streets of Paris. They wore stunningly bold matching uniforms with the most majestic yellow hats and electric blue cape coats that little me would’ve died for. 

Although in a defined uniform, Madeline never quite towed the line and always sat outside of the pack. She was a little bit different, departed from the flock and wasn’t afraid of standing up for what she believed in. 

Her actions were led by her morals and she made it her mission to question the ways of the world on a daily basis. She was an early vegetarian inspiration, protesting at the schools nightly meal against the cruel killing of a large chicken. There is a wonderful scene where she uncovers the reality of Chef Helene’s meat and uses the opportunity to begin a veggie revolution with her classmates, which ends in them standing up on their chairs and clucking like poultry. 

Madeline’s navigation through tough trials and tribulations that fall upon her path is perhaps what most made me align myself with this off centre heroine. She really is SUPER EVERYTHING, a fiery redhead whom I continuously revisit when I need to connect with my youthful buoyancy. 

‘Elizabeth’ (1998) 
“I am no man’s Elizabeth” 

I was far too young to watch this film when I first viewed it. Its opening scene is a brutal burning of a group of Protestants after they’ve had their hair hacked off and been dragged down to the pyre. But nevertheless, despite my age, I loved it ! I was an odd child, utterly obsessed with the tudors, historical anthropology and women leaders. I received a dense book of tudor queens for my eighth birthday and was happier than anyone could have anticipated. I became encyclopaedic about this period of time and am still waiting for the moment where I can use my historical knowledge to direct a tudor movie ! It will happen one day, I manifest it. I’ve always adored Cate Blanchett's rendition of Elizabeth I. This was my ill film, the movie that I automatically popped in the DVD player when I had the sniffles and resided under my duvet like a pathetic burrito. I studied Elizabeth’s navigation of her coming of age and her simultaneous rule of England within a patriarchal world of 16th century pigs. 

She was vulnerable, sensitive and chipped easily like delicate china. Yet, she continued to glue herself back together and stand as a monarch against all odds. She grew an armour of steel in order to combat her haters, but still protected her soft heart of gold for people that were worthy of receiving her love. An underdog of great proportions, Elizabeth defied all challenges and became even more famous than her serial killing father. Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur’s gift to me was the contextualization of a deeply passionate young woman under immense pressure and expectation. 

She rejected the male gaze, regained her autonomy and fiercely declared that she’d be NO MAN'S ELIZABETH ! Too right ! I fall in love with Blanchett every time I watch this film and am completely ensconced by the costumes, the candlelit environment and the epic hurdles that Elizabeth overcame. 

Although I am no monarch, I feel so aligned to Elizabeth’s grapple with her seat of power and the manoeuvring of her unexpected life. She is an early redheaded inspiration.

Rose Dawson in ‘Titanic’ (1997) 
“A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets” 

Rose Dewitt Buckaterr’s metamorphosis into Rose Dawson is, in my opinion, completely monumental. Her evolution is one of my favourite feminist transformations in cinema. Another auburn haired protagonist that ignited a fire within me to follow my instinct and run away from my oppressors. She had a drive to choose her own fate and mould her adventures. 

I may have been one of the only people in the world who was glad that Jack Dawson didn’t fit on the wooden door that bobbed in the Atlantic. Jack, although completely beautiful and a baby masc inspiration, became a tool for Rose’s freedom ! 

A subverted love story where the man was a device to move the woman’s narrative forwards. Woohoo ! We observe Jack light the match that allows Rose to see what she truly deserves. She lets go of her oppressive family expectations and chooses a new independent existence. 

Rose ultimately ends up as a satisfied, well travelled and fulfilled woman in her nineties who dies warm in her bed above the site of the Titanic’s wreckage. She keeps all of her framed pictures of her achievements on her bedside table, surrounded by evidence of her full existence. 

I have always been a picture hoarder because of Rose. She inspires me to be able to look back on my life and celebrate the ways that I have saved myself. 

In moments of fear, duty and feelings of being trapped, I have always spat in the metaphorical face of oppression, just like Rose spat at Cal Hockley! 

‘Thelma & Louise’ (1991)
”You said you 'n' me was gonna get out of town and for once just really let our hair down. Well darlin', look out 'cause my hair is comin' down!”

We didn’t get one, no, we got two fiery ginger gals in this epic film. I’m ashamed to say that Thelma & Louise was a late addition to my cinematic vocab. 

It became the film that EVERYONE told me I SHOULD watch. I never quite got round to touching base with it. 

However, once upon a Covid afternoon, I decided to take the plunge! 

And by god had I missed out on some redhead, feminist, semi-sapphic cinematic gold. The modern classic, directed by Ridley Scott, has two of my favourite icons at the helm of the ship. I was watching in utter adoration as I saw these powerhouse ladies reclaim their stories in a universe of rigidity and male danger.

The ultimate Odyssey of sisterhood/ feminine love which spanned into the realms of subtle queer representation. 

It is no secret that Geena Davis is one of my favourite women in the world, the face of my childhood in so many different forms ( BeetleJuice, The fly, Stuart little) and now an inspiring global activist for women's rights. I’m in love, in awe and endlessly inspired by her visible fight for change. As Thelma, she evolves from victim to empowered leader through the slow unpeeling of her male approved facade. With the assistance of her cut throat sista, Louise, she finds solace in surrendering to her internal rage and allowing the dirty sand in the desert atmosphere to whip through her red follicles and stain her spotless skin. She becomes raw, honest and unapologetic in her presentation. 

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I was once sat down by a very successful director and shown a scene from North by North West by Alfred Hitchcock. The scene, which he hailed as the BEST SCENE in cinema history, was of the wet dishcloth Eva Marie Saint telling Carey Grant , “I had nothing to do one weekend, so I decided to fall in love.” The director went on to tell me “This is how all women should be. Mysterious, sexy and alluring.” It is safe to say that my cinematic taste was unperturbed by his attempt to educate me into how women SHOULD behave on the big screen……………. 

I have hung onto these sizzling firecracker heroines as examples of the kind of women I WANT to be. I don’t want to be alive in service of a man, I don’t consign myself to existing only for the purpose of a male's epic story arc and I endeavour to go out into the world flicking anyone who tries to silence me with my ginger waves. My redhead compass of strong female protagonists gives me the strength to continue on my voyage of leadership, self discovery and female led filmmaking. They’re warriors of modern cinema, and as a proud and loud Queer Feminist, they guide me through the darkness.