Why the fuck are some English people so nasty about ginger hair?

[QuentininQuarantino]

My beautiful DH is ginger. When we first got together, he was attacked from
behind and had his jaw broken, had a McDonald’s throws at him out of a car window, had a bloke push him into
a pond at university. My own “friends” asked me when I was pregnant what I would do if my baby came out ginger. He tells me heartbreaking stuff about being bullied at school.

We emigrated 10 years ago and people say nothing, or nice things.

We’ve been back in the UK for Xmas for 3 weeks and we’ve already had people (older people) shouting “Oi Ed Sheeran” across the street about four times, one young woman in a pub asking to see his pubes FFS.

Why is it still okay, and common(!) to bully strange men in front of their small children purely based on a psychical characteristic!!??

Well IME 40-50 years ago

I don’t think it’s about where exactly because it’s happened in our redbrick university, the posh London commuter belt towns where our parents live, on an expensive TUI holiday we did recently, Birmingham nightclub. We are mid thirties, it’s people of all ages.

He is just such a lovely, gorgeous man, his colouring is stunning and I hate to see him beaten down about it.

when he was punched in the chin from
behind, never saw the attackers face, he was 18 and couldn’t speak for 3
weeks, and that happened on New Year’s Eve in Weybridge.

Even Prince Harry has made several self deprecating jokes about being ginger, I am surprised that was never picked up or criticised

Yeah it’s fucking weird. Where I’m from in Canada it’s just called red hair. When I moved to the UK, suddenly it’s ginger this, kick a ginger day etc etc. I’d like to believe it’s the older generation that do this. I can’t believe any parent would say that outdated shit in front of their kids or condone it.

Haven’t had bad comments ever, really. My family has only ever been very complimentary.

Seems girls are ok, boys not so much. I’m bright ginger and have noticed 2 of my female students have dyed their hair brown 😢There are 2 ginger boys I teach who don’t give a stuff.

Wow that's awful op. My DH has red hair but luckily hasn't experienced what your DH has.

None of our DC have red hair and as awful as this sounds I was a bit relieved they wouldn't have to face comments.

It's not new. I was at primary school in the 1960s and I remember one red-haired boy being teased for his colouring, though if I remember rightly it was more for his very pale and very freckled skin than it was for his hair.

I confess that it had never occurred to me that there might be a racist element to it.

I’m Australian and 3 of my closest friends are red heads (we don’t call people ‘ginger’ here). I think they all had teasing growing up as many people do but their main issue now is surviving our harsh sunshine with their pale skin!

My DH is English and I was shocked at the extent of the anti ginger comments from many of his friends - all well educated adults! It’s like the worst possible thing in the world is to have ‘a ginger baby’. I don’t understand it at all but it definitely seems to be a very strong prejudice in the UK.

Nichola Roberts of Girls Aloud suffered a lot of this discrimination and bullying. She dyed her hair brown. Now she owns it. Was always stunningly gorgeous. It's a subject dear to my heart and I think it's disgusting to pick on someone's physical appearance. It's a type of racism for sure. The effect on the person is very wounding. 😡

I've never understood. I think its just sheep mentality. I think ginger hair is beautiful and vibrant. Everyone loves a ginger cat so why are humans any different. Id love that hair colour for myself.

The Ginger discrimination is very real and disgusting but racist & anti catholic?? What??

Thats quite a reach.

@MeatWantedToLive

I'm so sorry that all happened to you.

Basic racism and discrimination but appears more acceptable to some idiots under the banner of banter.

People can be horrible. As a PP said, it's deemed somehow 'acceptable' to say horrible things to or about people with ginger hair. I am ginger. When I was born (70s), the milk lady asked my mum to see me. Then said, 'Oh god, if I'd have had a ginger one, I'd have drowned it.' Charming. My poor mum.

I'm Scottish, living in Scotland and have heard and witnessed plenty of ginger bashing from Scots of Scots.

It's not just the English that can be morons.

Blonde women also come in for a lot of denigration too

It’s ridiculous that people with red hair hve to put up with this, I have seen it all my life, just seemed like an excuse to pick someone out as different.
I personally think it beautiful, I would love long red wavy hair, a lot of people seem to love it so I don’t get it why this still happens grrrr

I can't tolerate people who make negative comments.

It's my favourite hair colour and I always had a thing for red haired men before DH came along. In fact, DH passed because he has lots of red hair in his beard if he grows it a bit 😉

It's not funny and it is discrimination when people hate on ginger people. There's no need for it.

I was just about to mention Nicola. The constant bullying she received from Chris Moyles was horrendous back in the day and he should have been sacked. Love how she owned it

A very close friend of mine has beautiful red hair but she works in a VERY male dominated industry in England and so had many years of being bullied for being A) a girl B) Scottish C) “Ginger”.

All credit to her she has worked very hard over the last 25+ years to become one of the top in her field and is now very well respected and not just in the UK

Well I'm English and Protestant and would be delighted to have a red headed baby! The best looking girl in our year in secondary school was a red head - she only ever got compliments. I don't think it's necessarily an English thing, more a low IQ thing I think.

I thought he was so rude about Ginger people in the Netflix show and couldn't believe it wasn't picked up at all.

Then why is it only English/British people who do this? Is it just totally random?

In the US we pay a lot of money to go red, it's seen as especially beautiful. I couldn't believe it when I moved to the UK and heard the ginger insults, it's so stupid.

It's disgusting. My DP is ginger and I so want a baby with ginger hair. I love his hair. People can be so vile. South Park have lots to do with it and that doofus off the Internet making his response videos.

Not really. 10% of Irish people are red heads. The highest number per capita in the world.
It's only 50 years since landlords had
No blacks, no Irish signs in windows.

Short men seem to be fair game as well, I have read some really unpleasant comments about them.

Seems to be elsewhere too