Redhead/Ginger?

[$ally]

Even the positive side of being treated like a novelty item can get annoying at times.

 

[doghouse]

I'm a redhead married to a redhead, AND all of our children are redheaded. We can't go anywhere without at least one person commenting on the fact we all have red hair. My daughter is so accustomed to the comments she will introduce our family with, "We ALL have red hair!" Some of the comments are positive, quite a few are negative.

These aren't the best pictures but they are the most recent and it's easy to see the kid's hair color...

My husband..

My daughter, Dreviana (she's 5)

My son, Brodie (he's 3)

My son, Luther (he's 2)

My son, Oliver (he's 1)

and we are expecting another... wanna bet he/she is a readhead? Hahaha.

 

[dhermann1]

This red headed thing may go back to the Roman Empire. At the height of the Roman Empire the barbaric people of northern Europe were considered to be naturally inferior. There are plenty of quotes from that time that say that those red headed Celts were just naturally inferior intellectually, and that Mediterraneans were that natural "master race". Sound familiar? The red hair on Bozo and Ronald McDonald and many other clowns dates to this period. The comic characters in Roman comedy wore big red wigs. It was the equivalent of 19th century minstrel shows, with white performers in black face. It's very possible that this prejudice has persisted down through the centuries to this very day. Winston Churchill was a red head, and got a lot of negative attention because of it.
Personally, I think red hair is utterly and completely cool. Red heads should be proud of their copper colored tresses!

 

[BegintheBeguine]

No, it's not made up.

Of course, I am proud. I was blessed with a beautiful face and figure and thick flaming hair and always got a lot of attention, good or bad. Thanks to everyone on this thread who comiserated, was appalled by the reports, or was sympathetic. Colorism stinks. To all who weren't ever attacked or ill-treated, I'm glad, that's the way it should be. I rather like being called Ginger by a cute British guy, but Tampon-head by a jerk American of any stripe isn't quite as fun. Or 'all people with red hair should be drowned at birth'. I've lost count of how many times I've heard that. Is there some eejit manual they all have to read?

 

[thebadmamajama]

Even the positive side of being treated like a novelty item can get annoying at times.

I agree with this. A lot of people want to "own" you or think you a toy because you have red hair. Baffles me.

On a different note, I am extremely critical of my physical characteristics (okay, what woman isn't) but if there's one thing that I love, flaunt, and am sickly narcississtically proud of, it's being a redhead. I never imagined it to be something negative or worthy of ostracizing someone. The world is crazy, I guess. I think it's something so intensely individual and beautiful and worthy of joy...not the other way around. This will pass. It's one of those fads that gets attention for its weirdness. Go on being proud of the hair, kids.

 

[ohairas]

Beautiful family doghouse!
Nikki

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Any kid that looks different at school will get teased by a certain mentality.

Read: Low.

If it's not because they have red hair, it's because they wear glasses, are short, are tall, have big boobs, are fat, thin..... whatever.

Starting with having red hair:
1: Yes - Being called "Redneck" by lowlife by gang members in high school grew old the first time I heard it.
2: Yes - If you wear glasses, you've heard them all, too.
3: Yes - Although I'm 5'8".
4: No - See above.
5: N/A.
6: Not really - I was thin as a kid, but I'm a tad overweight now.
7: No - I wasn't thin to the point of being rediculed.

The odd thing about me, though, is that for many years I never liked redheaded women. My reasoning: I didn't want to marry someone who looked like she could be my sister. But one gal changed my mind on redheaded women: Khrystyne Haje. She played Simone Foster, the student poet on the TV show, Head of the Class. I basically didn't see the rest of the show. (She also has my favorite eye color, green! Warning! Man Swooning! )


Lee
____________________________

“Don’t think I’m not incoherent.” – Harold Ross

 

[Miss Sis]

I will say, Yes, it is that bad in England. People here do comment all the time on redheads in a derogatory manner and I can't believe how rude that is!

I have dark blonde hair with a hint of red in it, no way you could call me a 'redhead' but one of my old boyfriends used to say, 'Well, you are nearly a redhead....' as if this made any difference and he was rude all the time about any redheads he saw. Thankfully he went by the by some time ago. Even the other day my work colleagues were joking about it when I said it isn't funny, it's mean, they all just said yeah, but is IS funny. ?????

When I was 16 and still in New Zealand I dyed my hair a really deep auburn. I liked it and never had anything but positive comments. There people might say Carrot Top to a redhead but not in a rude way. Here it would be said with the intention to hurt someone's feelings.

 

[BeBopBaby]

While in Egypt, my mother in law was offered 200 camel for her hand in marriage by an Egyptian man because of her red hair.

Speaking of Egypt, scientists have found mummies with red hair and have found paintings of people with red hair and blue eyes in ancient Egyptian temples. Who would have guessed that there were red-heads in Northern Africa then?

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

Oh yes, being a ginger is a reason for being ridiculed when I was at school. In fact there was no one I pitied more at a young age than the overweight, short-sighted ginger kid who was picked on mercilessly. Ginger was often pronounced to rhyme with "singer" for some reason, and it was used as an insult. I used to thank my lucky stars that my ginger Dad didn't pass on his genes to me, my hair is naturally auburn.

Like Edward said, bullying is rife in a lot of schools, and anything is used as an excuse, being tall, thin, fat, short, glasses, no boobs, big boobs, dead parent, the list is endless! And in the UK there are so very many people who still do like to make fun of people even when grown up.

 

[Edward]

Of course, I am proud. I was blessed with a beautiful face and figure and thick flaming hair and always got a lot of attention, good or bad. Thanks to everyone on this thread who comiserated, was appalled by the reports, or was sympathetic. Colorism stinks. To all who weren't ever attacked or ill-treated, I'm glad, that's the way it should be. I rather like being called Ginger by a cute British guy, but Tampon-head by a jerk American of any stripe isn't quite as fun. Or 'all people with red hair should be drowned at birth'. I've lost count of how many times I've heard that. Is there some eejit manual they all have to read?

I heard of a ginger guy that went to a fancy dress (costume) party dressed all in black once. He said he was a Duracell battery - I thought that one was genius.

 

[Edward]

Like Edward said, bullying is rife in a lot of schools, and anything is used as an excuse, being tall, thin, fat, short, glasses, no boobs, big boobs, dead parent, the list is endless! And in the UK there are so very many people who still do like to make fun of people even when grown up.

Alas, the very worst offenders are the ones that can never take a joke at their own expense.... My beloved and much missed (dead two years on the 5th August, she'd have been 88 now) paternal grandmother always used to say when I got teased at school: "If anyone says something about you, it's because there's something wrong with them, not you." It took me years to twig fully to what that meant, but she wasn't wrong.

I hope she saw Russia in the end.

2: Yes - If you wear glasses, you've heard them all, too.

I was reasonably lucky - there were a lot of kids wore glasses in my year, so it wasn't that big a deal.... but then I did have the advantage that I always enjoyed my glasses as a kid. Weird, I know, but I liked that I wore them back then, so I guess it didn't really give them any ammunition (nowadays I hate being dependent on them, but that's another matter). I've heard all the regular jibes, though. TBH, I was always slightly disappointed if they couldn't come up with something better than "four eyes." The devil in me has at times turned round and stared someone down for the like of that with a look of cold contempt and said "Is that really the best you can do? Four eyes?" It's not always advisible though. Usually it's only kids of fifteen, but if there's a whole crowd of them, I often think the better course is to hold off!

 

[$ally]

While in Egypt, my mother in law was offered 200 camel for her hand in marriage by an Egyptian man because of her red hair. Speaking of Egypt, scientists have found mummies with red hair and have found paintings of people with red hair and blue eyes in ancient Egyptian temples. Who would have guessed that there were red-heads in Northern Africa then?

Henna was used to make the hair look more red.
I discussed this topic over dinner last night. When I mentioned the idea Edward posted, my date commented that redheaded boys are portrayed as school yard bullies in American media: commercials, movies and TV shows.
DHerman is on to something. The first thing the Romans would do to conquer another culture was to claim the people were savage barbarians, then attempt to destroy any proof of the opposite. This is a tactic of all battling empires through out history. It's a way of suppressing a threat.
You know, redheads in USA feel uncomfortable complaining about a little discrimination. I doubt any have had a grandparent lynched for their hair color (well maybe in NYC). It's a small problem by comparison to the other unspeakable hate crimes committed here a couple hundred years ago. I'll never understand that kind of stupidity.

 

[Samsa]

This thread has been pretty eye-opening. It doesn't surprise me that kids tease kids who have red hair (kids tease everyone, it seems), but discrimination against adults for having read hair? That boggles my mind.

I for one have always thought the red haired, freckled woman to be wonderfully exotic and beautiful.

 

[BeBopBaby]

Henna was used to make the hair look more red.

Not necessarily. While many Egyptians henna-ed their hair, scientists can tell from examining hair samples if they were dyed or not. The mummy of Ramses II was determined to be a natural redhead. Scientists microscopically examined the roots of the hairs in the head of his mummy and found natural red pigments. The shafts of his hair were also oval shaped which means his hair would have been wavy as well.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Well, no, no one was lynched but I don't like to keep quiet about any kind of discrimination for something someone was born with. To not get a job because of my natural hair color? To be thrown down stairs , to be set on fire? That wasn't someone's ancestor, that was me. Darn tootin' I'm mad.

 

[Diamondback]

Darn tootin' I'm mad.

And with good reason, Ms. Ashley. Someone tried to "light me up", it'd be "light at the end of the tunnel" time for them--that's attempted murder they perped!

 

[$ally]

Well, no, no one was lynched but I don't like to keep quiet about any kind of discrimination for something someone was born with. To not get a job because of my natural hair color? To be thrown down stairs , to be set on fire? That wasn't someone's ancestor, that was me. Darn tootin' I'm mad.

I'm certainly not making light of that criminal behavior! I've never been persecuted about my coloring, so I can't even imagine how horrible that must have been. Why would anyone do that?

 

[Kishtu]

No me neither. Given that I'm nearly six foot tall and of stereotypical-redhead temper I've always been given a wide berth by bullies. though....

I LOVE my hair!... if anyone mocked my lovely red hair I think I'd just be looking at them like "erm, people pay a lot of money for this to come out of a bottle, I get it for nothing, who's laughing?"

The only thing that I do dislike about red hair is not having any eyebrows. I've had some comments passed on that before now.... but as my mum always told me, it's the height of ignorance to pass comment on a stranger's personal appearance, so that says more about them than me!

 

[BegintheBeguine]

I'm certainly not making light of that criminal behavior! I've never been persecuted about my coloring, so I can't even imagine how horrible that must have been. Why would anyone do that?

It did rather come out that I thought you were making light of it, but I didn't mean it that way. Well no it's not nearly as serious as getting lynched, of course it's not, is what I meant but...sorry to be misunderstood. As to why people did it, they needed a weaker target apparently and instead of attacking their attackers and discriminators they picked me. Or in some cases they were ignorant. "If anyone says something about you, it's because there's something wrong with them, not you." Wise words, Edward. It's true I usually didn't mind having red hair. We were taught to turn the other cheek, other people's feelings, wants and needs are more important than our own and blah blah blah but still it made me mad. It's some of those 'news show' hosts smirking in the clip that really got me.