Editing Red (section)

== Symbolism ==

=== Courage and sacrifice ===
Surveys show that red is the color most associated with courage.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|43}} In western countries red is a symbol of martyrs and sacrifice, particularly because of its association with blood.<ref name=":2"/> Beginning in the Middle Ages, the Pope and Cardinals of the [[Roman Catholic Church]] wore red to symbolize the blood of Christ and the Christian martyrs. The banner of the Christian soldiers in the [[First Crusade]] was a red cross on a white field, the [[St. George's Cross]].  According to Christian tradition, [[Saint George]] was a Roman soldier who was a member of the guards of the Emperor [[Diocletian]], who refused to renounce his Christian faith and was martyred. The Saint George's Cross became the [[Flag of England]] in the 16th century, and now is part of the [[Union Flag]] of the United Kingdom, as well as the Flag of the Republic of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]].<ref name=":3"/>{{Rp|36}}

<gallery mode="packed" heights="150px">
Robert Gibb - The Thin Red Line.jpg|[[Robert Gibb (painter)|Robert Gibb]]'s 1881 painting, ''[[The Thin Red Line (painting)|The Thin Red Line]]'', depicting [[The Thin Red Line (Battle of Balaclava)|The Thin Red Line]] at the [[Battle of Balaclava]] (1854), when a line of the Scottish Highland infantry repulsed a Russian cavalry charge. The name was given by the British press as a symbol of courage against the odds.
Poppies in the Sunset on Lake Geneva.jpg|The red [[poppy]] flower is worn on [[Remembrance Day]] in [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] countries to honor soldiers who died in the First World War.
</gallery>

=== Hatred, anger, aggression, passion, heat and war ===
While red is the color most associated with love, it also the color most frequently associated with [[hatred]], [[anger]], [[aggression]] and war. People who are angry are said to "{{wt|en|see red}}." Red is the color most commonly associated with passion and heat. In [[ancient Rome]], red was the color of [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]], the [[god of war]]—the planet [[Mars]] was named for him because of its red color.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|42, 53}}

=== Warning and danger ===
Red is the traditional color of warning and danger, and is therefore often used on flags. In the Middle Ages up through the [[French Revolution]], a [[Red flag (signal)|red flag]] shown in warfare indicated the intent to take no prisoners.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CNB0DwAAQBAJ&q=%22red+flag%22+%22middle+ages%22+siege&pg=PA11|title=Renaissance Mass Murder: Civilians and Soldiers During the Italian Wars|last=Bowd|first=Stephen D.|date=2019-01-22|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198832614|language=en|access-date=2020-10-16|archive-date=2020-11-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101102146/https://books.google.com/books?id=CNB0DwAAQBAJ&q=%22red+flag%22+%22middle+ages%22+siege&pg=PA11|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kE0C5TFnN5IC&q=%22red+flag%22+%22middle+ages%22+siege&pg=RA1-PA106|title=Naval War College Review|date=1993|publisher=Naval War College|language=en|access-date=2020-10-16|archive-date=2020-11-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101102157/https://books.google.com/books?id=kE0C5TFnN5IC&q=%22red+flag%22+%22middle+ages%22+siege&pg=RA1-PA106|url-status=live}}</ref> Similarly, a red flag hoisted by a [[pirate ship]] meant no mercy would be shown to their target.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=28d0Pap9l2wC&q=%22red+flag%22+mercy|title=Honor Among Thieves: Captain Kidd, Henry Every, and the Story of Pirate Island|last=Rogoziński|first=Jan|date=2001-04-01|publisher=Conway|isbn=9780851777924|language=en|access-date=2020-10-16|archive-date=2020-11-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101102147/https://books.google.com/books?id=28d0Pap9l2wC&q=%22red+flag%22+mercy|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Cordingly, p. 117.  Cordingly cites only one source for pages 116–119 of his text: ''Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, America and West Indies'', volumes 1719–20, no. 34.</ref> In Britain, in the early days of motoring, motor cars had to follow a man with a red flag who would warn horse-drawn vehicles, before the [[Locomotives on Highways Act 1896]] abolished this law.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rzIlDwAAQBAJ&q=%22Locomotives+on+Highways+Act+1896%22+flag&pg=PA92|title=Automobile Heritage and Tourism|last1=Conlin|first1=Michael V.|last2=Jolliffe|first2=Lee|date=December 2016|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9781315436203|language=en|access-date=2020-10-16|archive-date=2020-11-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101102147/https://books.google.com/books?id=rzIlDwAAQBAJ&q=%22Locomotives+on+Highways+Act+1896%22+flag&pg=PA92|url-status=live}}</ref> In automobile races, the red flag is raised if there is danger to the drivers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/flags_guide/default.stm#targetText=The%20race%20has%20been%20stopped,for%20racing%20to%20be%20safe.&targetText=Indicates%20danger%20ahead%20and%20overtaking%20is%20prohibited.|title=BBC SPORT {{!}} Motorsport {{!}} Formula One {{!}} Flags guide|website=news.bbc.co.uk|access-date=2019-10-08|archive-date=2019-11-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191102034845/http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/flags_guide/default.stm#targetText=The%20race%20has%20been%20stopped,for%20racing%20to%20be%20safe.&targetText=Indicates%20danger%20ahead%20and%20overtaking%20is%20prohibited.|url-status=live}}</ref> In international football, a player who has made a serious violation of the rules is shown a red [[penalty card]] and ejected from the game.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/3f3e15cc1ab8977b/original/datdz0pms85gbnqy4j3k-pdf.pdf|title=Laws of The Game|website=fifa.com|publisher=Fédération Internationale de Football Association|pages=39, 72, 82–83|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180311174803/https://img.fifa.com/image/upload/datdz0pms85gbnqy4j3k.pdf|archive-date=March 11, 2018|url-status=live|access-date=Mar 11, 2018}}</ref>

Several studies have indicated that red carries the strongest reaction of all the colors, with the level of reaction decreasing gradually with the colors orange, yellow, and white, respectively.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Contemporary ergonomics 1996|date=1996|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0748405497|editor-last=Robertson|editor-first=S. A.|location=London|pages=148–50|oclc=34731604}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=International encyclopedia of ergonomics and human factors|last=Karwowski|first=Waldemar|date=2006|publisher=CRC|isbn=978-0415304306|edition=2nd|location=Boca Raton|pages=1518|oclc=251383265}}</ref> For this reason, red is generally used as the highest level of warning, such as threat level of terrorist attack in the United States. In fact, teachers at a primary school in the UK have been told not to mark children's work in [[red ink]] because it encourages a "negative approach".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/2688623.stm|title=Red ink banned from primary books|date=Jan 23, 2003|work=BBC News World Edition|access-date=Aug 15, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730024918/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/2688623.stm|archive-date=July 30, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

Red is the international color of stop signs and stop lights on highways and intersections. It was standardized as the international color at the [[Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals]] of 1968. It was chosen partly because red is the brightest color in daytime (next to orange), though it is less visible at twilight, when green is the most visible color. Red also stands out more clearly against a cool natural backdrop of blue sky, green trees or gray buildings. But it was mostly chosen as the color for stoplights and stop signs because of its universal association with danger and warning.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|54}} The 1968 [[Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals]] of 1968 uses red color also for the margin of danger warning sign, give way signs and prohibitory signs, following the previous German-type signage (established by Verordnung über Warnungstafeln für den Kraftfahrzeugverkehr in 1927).

<gallery mode="packed" heights="150px">
Vienna Convention road sign B2a.svg|The standard international stop sign, following the [[Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals]] of 1968
File:SM-PAOK (18).jpg|A footballer is shown a red card and ejected from a soccer match.
Red typhoon alert.png|A red Chinese typhoon alert sign
Hsas-chart with header.svg|Red is the color of a severe terrorist threat level in the United States, under the [[Homeland Security Advisory System]].
AU Fire Danger Indicator.jpg|Red is the color of extreme fire danger in Australia; new black/red stripes are an even more catastrophic hazard.
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=== The color that attracts attention ===
[[File:Magdalena Frackowiak.jpg|upright|thumb|Fashion model [[Magdalena Frackowiak]] at [[Paris Fashion Week]] (Fall 2011)]]
Red is the color that most attracts attention. Surveys show it is the color most frequently associated with visibility, proximity, and extroverts.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}} It is also the color most associated with dynamism and activity.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|48, 58}}

Red is used in modern fashion much as it was used in Medieval painting; to attract the eyes of the viewer to the person who is supposed to be the center of attention. People wearing red seem to be closer than those dressed in other colors, even if they are actually the same distance away.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|48, 58}} Monarchs, wives of presidential candidates and other celebrities often wear red to be visible from a distance in a crowd. It is also commonly worn by lifeguards and others whose job requires them to be easily found.<ref>{{Cite web|last=says|first=fred Wright|date=2017-08-07|title=Why Do Lifeguards Wear Red?|url=https://www.kiefer.com/blog/why-do-lifeguards-wear-red|access-date=2020-09-09|website=Kiefer Swim Shop Blog|language=en-US|archive-date=2020-11-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101102148/https://www.kiefer.com/blog/why-do-lifeguards-wear-red|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Lifesaver and Lifeguard Uniforms|url=https://www.ilsf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/LPS-05-2006-Uniforms.pdf|website=International Life Saving Federation|access-date=2020-09-09|archive-date=2020-12-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201203133737/https://www.ilsf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/LPS-05-2006-Uniforms.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

Because red attracts attention, it is frequently used in advertising, though studies show that people are less likely to read something printed in red because they know it is advertising, and because it is more difficult visually to read than black and white text.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|60}}

=== Seduction, sexuality and sin ===
Red by a large margin is the color most commonly associated with seduction, sexuality, eroticism and immorality, possibly because of its close connection with passion and with danger.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|55}}

Red was long seen as having a dark side, particularly in [[Christianity|Christian]] theology. It was associated with sexual passion, anger, sin, and the devil.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Theology of the Old Testament|last=Oehler|first=Gustav Friedrich|date=2015|publisher=Arkose Press|isbn=9781345212341|editor-last=Day|editor-first=George E.|pages=320}}</ref><ref name="StClair">{{Cite book|title=The Secret Lives of Colour|last=St. Clair|first=Kassia|publisher=John Murray|year=2016|isbn=9781473630819|location=London|pages=136–137|oclc=936144129}}</ref> In the [[Old Testament]] of the [[Bible]], the [[Book of Isaiah]] said: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isaiah+1:18&version=KJV|title=Isaiah 1:18 - King James Version|website=Bible Gateway|access-date=Nov 26, 2018|quote=Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181127022423/https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isaiah+1:18&version=KJV|archive-date=November 27, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> In the [[New Testament]], in the [[Book of Revelation]], the Antichrist appears as a red monster, ridden by a woman dressed in scarlet, known as the [[Whore of Babylon]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+17&version=KJV|title=Revelation 17 - King James Version|website=Bible Gateway|access-date=Nov 26, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181126221622/https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+17&version=KJV|archive-date=November 26, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Satan]] is often depicted as colored red and/or wearing a red costume in both iconography and [[popular culture]].<ref name="StClair" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Symbols of the Christian faith|last=Steffler|first=Alva W.|date=2002|publisher=W.B. Eerdmans Pub|isbn=978-0802846761|location=Grand Rapids|pages=132|oclc=48557619}}</ref> By the 20th century, the devil in red had become a folk character in legends and stories. The devil in red appears more often in cartoons and movies than in religious art.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

In 17th-century New England, red was associated with [[adultery]]. In the 1850 novel by [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]], ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'', set in a [[Puritan]] [[New England]] community, a woman is punished for adultery with ostracism, her sin represented by a red letter 'A' sewn onto her clothes.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The scarlet letter|last=Hawthorne|first=Nathaniel|date=2004|publisher=Pocket|isbn=978-0743487566|editor-last=Brantley|editor-first=Margaret|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/scarletletter0000hawt_p9a6/page/136 136]|oclc=55483830|url=https://archive.org/details/scarletletter0000hawt_p9a6/page/136}}</ref><ref name="StClair" />

Red is still commonly associated with [[prostitution]]. At various points in history, prostitutes were required to wear red to announce their profession.<ref name="StClair" /> Houses of prostitution displayed a red light. Beginning in the early 20th century, houses of prostitution were allowed only in certain specified neighborhoods, which became known as [[red-light districts]]. Large red-light districts are found today in [[Bangkok]] and [[Amsterdam]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Red Light District Amsterdam {{!}} Amsterdam.info |url=https://www.amsterdam.info/red-light-district/ |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=www.amsterdam.info |archive-date=2022-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220326202309/https://www.amsterdam.info/red-light-district/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Finlay |first=Leslie |date=2018-03-27 |title=A Guide to Bangkok's Red Light Districts |url=https://theculturetrip.com/asia/thailand/articles/a-guide-to-bangkoks-red-light-districts/ |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=Culture Trip |archive-date=2023-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326032323/https://theculturetrip.com/asia/thailand/articles/a-guide-to-bangkoks-red-light-districts/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the [[handkerchief code]], the color red signifies interest in the sexual act of [[fisting]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cornier |first=J. Raúl |date=2019-04-23 |title=Hanky Panky: An Abridged History of the Hanky Code |url=https://historyproject.org/news/2019-04/hanky-panky-abridged-history-hanky-code-0 |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=The History Project |archive-date=2024-06-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240606044528/https://historyproject.org/news/2019-04/hanky-panky-abridged-history-hanky-code-0 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In both Christian and Hebrew tradition, red is also sometimes associated with murder or guilt, with "having blood on one's hands", or "being caught red-handed.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/red-handed | title=red-handed | work=Cambridge Dictionary | access-date=26 July 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190726212711/https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/red-handed | archive-date=26 July 2019 | url-status=live }}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="150px">
Whore of Babylon (XIV).jpg|The [[Whore of Babylon]], depicted in a 14th-century French illuminated manuscript. The woman appears attractive, but is wearing red under her blue garment.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 057.jpg|''Reine de joie'', (''Queen of Joy''), a book cover illustration by [[Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec]] (1892) about a Paris prostitute
At the Devil's Ball 1.jpg|Sheet music for "At the Devil's Ball", by [[Irving Berlin]], United States, 1915
Amsterdam red light district 24-7-2003.JPG|The [[red-light district]] in Amsterdam (2003). Red is the [[sex industry]]'s preferred color in many cultures, due to being strongly associated with passion, love and sexuality.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|39–63}}|alt=The red-light district in Amsterdam (2003). Red is the sex industry's preferred color in many cultures, due to being strongly associated with passion, love and sexuality.: 39–63
Red lipstick (photo by weglet).jpg|Red [[lipstick]] has been worn by women as a cosmetic since ancient times. It was worn by [[Cleopatra]], Queen [[Elizabeth I]], and film stars such as [[Elizabeth Taylor]] and [[Marilyn Monroe]].
</gallery>