Thomas Knights, a 31-year-old British fashion photographer — and redhead — was sick and tired of his fellow gingers’ “long history of discrimination.”
“It’s so ingrained in people’s subconscious that the ginger man isn’t cool or inspirational or the hero,” laments Knights.
“There is such a difference in how the redheaded female is an overly sexualized, heightened version of a woman, and the ginger man is the polar opposite — a completely desexualized and emasculated version of a male.”
Knights set out to reverse those stereotypes — which he says go back as far as the Anglo-Scottish wars and have been perpetuated by modern-day Hollywood — in his new exhibit, “Red Hot,” running through Sept. 14 at the BOSI gallery on the Lower East Side.
The free exhibition boasts more than 100 (shirtless) portraits and four films depicting the redheaded man as a strong, hot, sexual force to be reckoned with.
“I wanted to show what the general public would deem as sexy, and do the ginger version,” says Knights.
He admits that his own road to self-acceptance was long — and multihued.
“People in the UK would be like, ‘You’re a f – – king ginga.’ And I was just like, ‘Yeah, I am.’ There’s no sense of pride. In the black community, you’ve got a sense of pride. And that just doesn’t exist for the ginger male . . . And that’s why you dye your hair.” (Knights, in his dark days, opted for blond.)
He hopes his steamy exhibit — and Prince Harry’s sex appeal — will help forever change the tide for his carrot-top compatriots.
So far, it seems to be working: “We’ve been getting comments: ‘God, I had no idea that ginger men could be so hot’ and ‘God, now I have such a thing for ginger guys,’ ” says Knights. “You realize, ‘S – – t. The power of advertising is really powerful.’ ”