When will gingerism go away?

[Anna373]

So im not ginger myself but why are gingers the only demographic which you can openly hate or make fun of and get away with it?

Because the other day At work I heard these women talking about babies and then one said "well what if your baby is ginger" in which she replied "well I wouldnt mind having a daughter who is ginger because they are pretty but ginger men are mingers" which they all laughed.

It seems like ginger men get more abuse or are considered ugly while ginger women are more sexually fetishized

My brother also has a good mate who is ginger but apparently he still gets people shouting names at him and even trying to fight him just because he is ginger.

I've never understood this hate for ginger people, its just a hair color in fact I think it can act like an amplifier and make someone look ever more attractive. Gingers also seem to age pretty well and apprently never go grey

I'm not ginger and I don't get it either, but then I don't understand any form of bullying or hate for a person's appearance, it baffles me.

My son has the most glorious hair. It was very, very red when he was younger, but now as a teen it's got loads of lovely strawberry blond streaks through it and shifts between colours depending on the light. We had nothing but positive comments when he was a young child and had long shiny curls, and he absolutely loved the attention. He would get very cross if anyone described it as 'red' or 'strawberry blond', though, muttering 'I'm ginger' - he most definitely doesn't hate the description!

He had a bit of grief in junior school and wanted to dye it dark brown for a while, but since starting high school he's back to loving it and has risen above the same old comments that are periodically trotted out by the same old 'popular' kid and his mates (literally as well as metaphorically - when he went back to school after lockdown he was about eight inches taller than the ringleader, who has left him alone ever since...). Luckily he's never been really seriously bullied over it, but his best friend's sister, who has the most incredible red hair, was bullied relentlessly for years and went through utter hell as a result. I honestly don't think gingerism will ever go away but schools in particular should take it much more seriously.

I do grumble when trying to spot poor old dark haired DH and DS in a crowd. ‘If only you had red hair I’d be able to spot you’.

I also find this very weird. I grew up outside the UK and gingerism wasn't a thing there. I was desperate for red hair when I was child. I thought it looked so pretty. Still do.
I moved here as an adult, heard people going on about 'gingers' and was quite taken aback by it. It's all very nasty, and frankly makes no sense at all.

I'm ginger, none of my kids have ginger hair but all 3 of my brothers kids do (my brother isn't ginger).

New DGS is looking likely to have inherited my ginger hair - his father is not impressed with this & became visibly & audibly angry at the mere suggestion that baby has/will have ginger hair!

It's just hair I don't get why people have a problem with it & being ginger I haven't gone grey like most of my friends seem to have done & spend a fortune getting it dyed.

I think you've hit the nail on the head there IrisVersicolor

I have red hair and the people who were nasty to me about it as a child (70s/80s) were also racist. I've encountered negative comments about red-hair in the office and from baby-group parents (the lovely 'I don't care what it is as long as it's not ginger' brigade) and I suspect that if they thought others would join in with them they'd be making comments about POC too. The only positive is it's a good way to tell that someone is an arsehole and know to avoid spending any time with them

This thread makes me really sad and quite anxious for my little 7 month old red haired son. His hair is gorgeous but I do worry that he will be bullied because of just a hair colour. I truly hope he's okay but you shouldn't have to worry about your child being bullied when they are still only a baby.

I've never worried about losing my DS in the park or in a crowd - he's always been the tallest, the loudest, and the ginger-est kid in any gathering!

@CloseYourMouthLynn - I think all you can do is instil confidence in your little boy from the start and make sure he knows that most people think his hair's amazing. Sadly, kids will always find something to pick on - the best thing we can do as parents is to give our children the skills and confidence to rise above it, and when they start school, make sure their teachers know that you will not tolerate it being brushed off. I hope he doesn't have a hard time, and I'm very jealous of you because you have all the lovely comments from old ladies to come! :)

It will never go away. There's a subset of useless people that will pick on any group that is in a minority.

I am a red-haired woman. The word "ginger" is still a trigger for me, having been verbally abused and physically bullied at school, and just being out and about growing up into my 30s, just because of my hair colour. The word was and continues to be used as a weapon to deliberately intimidate and humiliate redheads.

When I was pregnant (mum to 2 beautiful red-haired children), I had friends (mmm, I use that word loosely) and strangers (who somehow felt entitled) asking "But what if it comes out ginger?". Dreadful thing to say, on so many levels. And speaks volumes about the ignorance of those people.

Both my kids got verbal abuse at secondary school and it got them down. Needless to say, they really own their redheadedness now and they certainly don't put up with any ignoramus calling out "oi, ginge!"...that is usually met with a fairly choice response from them. Other comments too that are obviously meant to hurt/isolate/intimidate.

The ignorance and entitlement continue in our society. I still, even at my age, get the odd comment that's not coming from a feeling of goodwill...and I always call it out very robustly and loudly. The perpetrators always shrink away back into their shell, as most nasty, self-entitled idiots do.

I hope that schools these days take the bullying of redheads seriously. And when will some (v ignorant) parents/families stop perpetuating this warped behaviour in their kids?

I'm ginger naturally though it has faded to a very light shade in my 30s from quite orangey when I was a child.

People were mean to me at school and even if I said well Nicole Kidman has ginger hair they would laugh and tell me that I couldn't compare myself to her. I hope that with the likes of Ed Sheeran ginger is seen as more positive, especially amongst boys.

I am very pale with blue eyes and very light eyelashes and eyebrows. I've been tinting these for almost 20 years and I'd never go back or as a poster above said, I feel like my features would disappear. I find it impossible to get any kind of tan that isn't lobster red and that occurs within 5 minutes of sun exposure.

Maybe a year ago I walked into a pub for dinner with my husband and baby in her pram, maybe 6pm and a man in his 40s who was drinking with friends turned to me and shouted "ginger!!" at me and his friends laughed. My husband had some very choice words for him then but we walked out because I felt so embarrassed. I'd only gone for a nice meal out.

I hope that people will learn to be kinder to each other. I have a number of friends that when pregnant have said as a "joke" that they'd push the baby back in if it came out ginger, or something to that effect.

I used to hate it when friends or relatives would say to me, "well you're not ginger, you're strawberry blonde" because I always felt that strawberry blonde was just a ginger's denial!!

I just saw this on twitter and thought of this thread,

Free Cinema tickets for Redheads On Monday 18 & Tuesday 19 July

www.showcasecinemas.co.uk/events/free-tickets-for-redheads-at-showcase-cinemas

My daughter is 12 and she often talks about her friends having boyfriends. I asked, have you got one? She replied with, "God Mum, Ginger gene" and threw her arms up in the air.

Prior to secondary school, she'd get so many lovely comments about her curly ginger hair.

My dh has red hair. He didn't have any negative comments until teenage years. The worst period was actually late teens/early 20's. He was punched in the face when he was about 23 just because off his hair colour. I've also been with him when he got abuse hurled at him by someone driving past in a car! I was actually relieved when my 3 children were born with brown hair because I would have hated seeing them be bullied for such a trivial thing as hair colour. My dh is glad he has red hair as he does a lot of networking and it does seem to help people remember him!

I assumed it was only an older generation thing as dd15 has never had any issues and doesn't think anyone else with red hair in her South London comp experiences ginger bullying. Boy or girl. Maybe it's area dependent. I hope dd never moves anywhere where she gets abuse!

It’s because it’s ‘different’ Anything different is suspicious. Gingers are a minority so it’s fair game to have a go apparently. Red hair is beautiful. My mum is ginger and hated it all her life. Now in old age she has faded to a beige blonde and now misses her red hair! It’s gorgeous, take no notice of silly bastards

This exactly. It’s anti-Irish racism.

Interestingly, at Oxford there were SO many red haired people, I felt positively common.

This exactly. It’s anti-Irish racism.

I thought it was anti-Irish and possibly older lingering anti scots discrimination.

I like red hair in all shades and there was a chance our kids could have it but no all dark brown. In FIL family the red heads do stay red a long while and also go white not red in my DMum family it was strawberry blond that went more sandy brown with age then mix of grey/white.

I agree. There are some gorgeous rugged red haired men, I find that red or strawberry blond colouring very attractive.

When I was 17 I looked round and realised half of my friendship group were red heads. Then I married a sandy haired gentleman, so.

I wouldn’t consider it racism, plenty of white British people have red hair, I never knew people didn’t like the word ginger though. I think it’s a reaction to a recessive allele which causes a primitive response.

Anti Scottish/Irish?

I read an article this week from an American paper. It was about a cinema chain on the U.K. offering free tickets to red haired folk on Tuesday/weds to keep out of the sun.

The newspaper consistently referred to ‘redheads’ but some of the comments (from brits) used the G-word. Don’t they say that in America? I’ve not heard of this bull over there (but they do love a Celt over there).

I’ve always had a thing about redheads, been out with 2 before I met my husband. I definitely have a type.

I hated my red hair and then got asked to be a model because I had red hair. I made a tidy sum in my twenties from modelling off the back of being ginger, and realised what a waste of time all that insecurity had been.

There are cultures that hate red heads, however, or fetishise us, as the OP says. I mark the English GCSE and have seen horrible stuff written … seems ok to kids to describe it as a sign of the devil and, with the text Lord of the Flies, there are clearly teachers who actively teach that red hair is the sign of the devil - I have read whole classes of essays that all have this phrase in it (not said in the book, by the way).

No idea really. It clearly is a vibrant hair colour that absolutely IS attractive. I did have a little giggle to myself when my daughter came out of her Irish dancing class with a random “there seems to be a LOT of ginger girls in my Irish dancing class”.

Oh no shit Sherlock, Irish connections. My mums a red head with very pale skin. I inherited the skin tone but not the hair colour.

Most natural red heads I know spent their youth colouring their hair but then embraced the ginger in their 30s onwards and I don’t blame them one little bit. It’s nice to have some colour in the hair isn’t it? Beats my dark blonde.