I first heard this phrase last night, when a radio DJ was giving a sports update. He said that the Sixers were treating some other basketball team "like a red-headed stepchild."
Any ideas on the origin of this phrase? I googled it, but didn't come up with much in the way of explanation or derivation.

It did show up on the Board once, in a post by slovovoi in the AWAD in Schools section.

stepchildren are often singled out for abuse by the step-parent; red-heads are even more apt to be, due to the usually obvious differences in appearance.

I knew a chubby red-head in a family of willowy blondes. She wasn't a stepchild; her daughters looked exactly like their aunts

I have a red-headed stepchild. I thank all the powers that be (and any that don't be, just to be safe) that I have never heard this phrase before. I hope he (my red-headed stepshild) hasn't heard it either!

...this being Australia, he gets strangers calling him Bluey. Apparently this is also the reasoning behind the 'Virgin Blue' brand in Australia - Branson's Virgin is associated with red and the Aussies call red things blue. (I'd better go before I get really confused! )

> I'd better go before I get really confused!

This might help Bridget:
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=11971&page=&view=&sb=&vc=1#Post11971