Ridiculous comments about red hair

"Gingers have no souls"? That's a new one on me. Whereabouts does this come from, please?

I have red hair (though it's going white now sob it was bright orange in my teens). Grew up in the East Midlands of England, currently living in the North East of England. In both places there were enough other redheads for me not to feel like some kind of exotic creature. There were some rude remarks but I didn't care about them.

(My viola teacher once commented "I don't think I've ever taught three redheads on the trot before..." Only one of the others was my sister )

Interestingly, the three Irish people I've known the most have all been dark-haired. (Two NI Protestants, one Dublin Catholic)

My daughter gets called an orangutan and a ginger cunt daily. She is 12. Yes, of course I raised her to be proud of her red hair, to take no notice of idiots, but she hates herself, calls herself ugly and constantly sends me links for blonde hair dye. It breaks my heart that those little shits can make her feel like that, they have no idea.

Youngest son is a red head. I only heard one person say anything negative, and it was an old woman who asked if he got bullied because of his hair. He never did. And I never allowed him to be called ginger, it was always red head.

He’s in his 20’s now and his hair is halfway down his back and he has a full red beard too.

It's bad to be nasty to anyone of any age but your DS is still a baby. That makes it even worse in my book.

I follow this girl on Instagram and she is absolutely beautiful with stunning red/auburn hair and blue? Green? eyes. Here. All her posts are gorgeous! There's another girl I'll try and find.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CojsM-0KPDv/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

But essentially I can't understand and have never understood the teasing about Red hair. It is the most gorgeous hair colour in my opinion.

Until the last few comments of this thread, I never saw teasing of red hair as actual historic prejudice against Celtic origin minorities. That is interesting.

The anti red headed comments in the uk are something to behold.

Luckily for him that he is going to grow up in a better world than these people who are making comments, children are being taught differently to how we was growing up.

Sorry that happened to you OP!

My 9 month old son has red hair which was a bit of a surprise - everyone on both sides of the family have brown hair so that's what we were expecting. The only ginger we can find is my husband's great grandfather and no Irish or Scottish connection as far as records go back. He was initially born with dark brown hair but it all fell out and came back red.

I was initially a bit worried as all the boys I remember from school who were ginger got bullied and I didn't want this to happen. However I've had so many nice compliments from mainly strangers but also friends and family that I feel really positively about it now and wouldn't change it.

If someone said something nasty I would definitely call them out on it but thankfully this hasn't happened yet.

I know exactly what you mean. I'm sick of being told I'm too sensitive.

For you

It's also based in Antisemitism. Judas, for example, is portrayed with red hair - it's also seen frequently in Ashkenazi heritage.

Or are we not allowed to consider that anymore?

it was though.

Could hardly believe what I'm reading. I wish I knew how people could be so ignorant.

I have red hair and have experienced my fair share of bullying about it, especially when younger. Grown men shouting at me about the colour of my pubes when I was 13, random strangers shouting nasty comments in the street, the old "gingers have no souls" " it could be worse, I could be ginger". I can't see how we are just meant to shrug it off. It's horrible

Me too

The only kernel of truth is that she was a nasty kid who bullied red haired kids as a child.

the response to that would be. “And you think that’s true becuase you used to bully red haired kids, I assume ”.

Ah I see, I wasn't quick enough. Thanks.

*@Iwasafool
*
I suppose the big difference is that lots of people who wouldn't comment on skin colour as they know it is wrong feel free to comment on ginger hair.

There! Got in one!

That exactly what I've been trying to say.

To those of you who have dc with ginger hair that haven't had negative comments, I'm so glad to hear that they don't get the same experience as me and others.

What posters are trying to get across I think is that 99.9% of the population is well aware that discrimination on the basis of skin colour or bullying a mixed race child is very wrong and completely unacceptable.

Making comments about red headed children is perfectly OK for many people though.

Oh gosh @Iwasafool , I have a feeling if I stopped dying my hair red, maybe I am gunmetal grey too - but I can't tell cos my roots could also be the mouse I was born with. Red suits me (I use henna) because my skin colour and eyes are the same as my dad's. But my sisters (blonde) began going whitish grey from their 30s.

I’m 42 and still have flaming red hair. People have commented constantly throughout my life. 99% has been positive and I was never bullied for it, in fact it attracted a lot of suitors. Lots of other redheads in my school got bullied for it and I do think the fact that I love my hair was part of the reason. My parents thought it was wonderful and as a result it never occurred to me that it wasn’t. Hopefully you can do the same for your child OP.

Bullying because of physical features of any kind is not OK, but it isn’t the same as racism. People with red hair haven’t been systematically abused or ostracised as a group.

My youngest is a redhead and had all this bollocks. People are twats sometimes.