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!!??

@Zwellers

I'm not American though I live there.

It is widely assumed in the US that all red hair is due to Irish ancestry, which is considered a Really Good Thing here.

I agree, its got sectarian roots

I didn't realise it was only the UK. It is not OK regardless.

Australians and NZers do it too, it's a very common joke. They're not British 🤷🏼‍♀️ I'm actually being inclusive to say that it isn't just people in the UK who are morons, you can settle down 😂

@Opine

The vast majority of Irish people are not drunks or prone to fighting in tbe streets either, or blowing up buildings in British cities, or too stupid to work at anything but digging ditches, or dirty, but that never stopped people from agreeing with all of those tropes.

Have a look at the topic of racial and ethnic stereotypes while you're looking up racism. Stereotypes don't necessarily have to be true or based in widespread experience to develop.

There are many examples of Irish people depicted as monkey-like, filthy, wild, and uncivilised in the pages of Punch and other popular publications. All of these depictions are stereotypes and they are racist.

This is how fake news starts 🙄 🤣 Totally agree, it is not ok and is rooted in racism

My son who is now in his 20s is ginger and although he never got bullied (because he would stick up for himself and loved his martial arts) but a few times over the years he has had people randomly start on him. I took him out shopping with me years ago and a group of adult men in a car shouted "ginger c**t" and nearly hit him with a glass bottle. He also got attacked by a group at a club once and apparently this group was walking around looking for ginger people to attack, he has also told me that girls have rejected him for his hair color as well.

But he has also came across people who have loved his hair and when he was younger he would get positive attention from strangers, I've also been approached by child modeling agencies that wanted to use him for photoshoots as well.

I also collected him from a pub on boxing day and as he was getting in the car some drunk man chased him saying "its queens of the stone age!" and wanted a photo with him lol.

But it seems like ginger boys get it far worse than ginger girls, I have a few female friends that are ginger and they only ever got compliments and never once got bullied for it. I really dont know where this ginger hate comes from but gingers seem to be the only demographic that you can openly make fun of

@Bagsundermyeyestoday

The cultures of Australia and NZ are far closer to the culture of Britain than the US , so the anti Irish (which often boils down to anti Catholic) element is not surprising.

Was it inclusive to say I'm a typical American who's clueless about the world? Nah don't think so.

Well done, you've found two former British colonies that share this British prejudice.

It's a British thing, just own it.

It’s awful OP and I really feel for your DH.

Sadly it’s definitely not just the English that do this though.

Jimmy Carr and Alan Carr regularly make ginger joes to massive applause, it does seem to be an English thing.

I'm ginger, my DD is chestnut and I have only once had a negative comment from someone calling me a speccy ginger nut. My ex suffered ginger jokes for his whole life so I do think ginger men/ boys have it harder.

I'm Scottish and have loads of redheads in my family.

Personally I've always loved red hair. What happened to your husband is truly horrible.

I remember there being a really tragic story in the news a few years ago, about an Irish teenage girl in England who killed herself after being bullied relentlessly about her red hair. This kind of bullying can end young lives - it is not just harmless banter.

I believe in England it originally stemmed from anti-Catholic/anti-Celtic sentiment and it's stuck around because it's a kind of socially acceptable prejudice. There's no legislation to combat harassment based on hair colour so some (abhorrent) people feel comfortable targeting "gingers".

I love ginger hair, I think it's beautiful. I was brunette and grew the grey out over lockdown and am really considering dying my hair ginger.

You've just proved my point saying they're the same. They're all actually different countries, you can have a look on a map. By the reasoning America would also be British. Have a good day 😊 😘

I guess most people here are English and we have all experienced this or heard about it happening so we assume it’s something English. But others on here have mentioned it also happens in Scotland, the US and Australia. So, in fact, not purely an English thing. Insisting it is English only is stereotyping the English.

@mathanxiety Yes thanks for that I understand racism & it’s nuances because I’m black.

You are still overlooking the fact that ginger hair is not exclusive to Irish people and in fact MOST do not have it.
We are talking about people who do have it and how they are treated.
Are you saying that anyone who has red hair is presumed to be Irish and that is the real crux of the problem?

@mathanxiety if for example you are Middle Eastern or Black and your red hair is ridiculed it is because people suspect you are Irish?

"Ginger" is a horrible adjective and isnt used elsewhere, its red-head.

I am not saying this prejudice only occurs in England. But the reality is that it's probably more prevalent in England (and similar/aligned cultures like Scotland and Australia) than in other parts of the world that were never under British influence or exposed to British media. I once talked to a man from a Latin American country about this who told me red hair is viewed positively in his culture (including on men) and was surprised by the prejudice that exists against it in the UK.

I'm a redhead, my children are either strawberry blonde, brown or orange ginger.
My son gets bullied at school because he is ginger and very pale, my daughters don't get bullied at all and people always comment about how beautiful my girls hair is and mine, but they don't mention my son who is the deeper orange shade.
I think people do view ginger men and ginger women differently.
I am incredibly pale and have lots of freckles on my face, arms, chest, shoulders and even my knees. I have had comments before jokingly about how I can never get a tan or that I'll be able to dot to dot my freckles.
People don't see hair colourism as discrimination. It's like ginger people are fair game.

Could be jealousy. At Oxford (university) I noticed every second person was ginge. I was a bit annoyed as I didn’t feel special anymore, but at least I did feel part of some sort of master race 👩🏻‍🦰👍

And antisemetic.

Does seem to be an issue in France. The article also links to a news item about a child committing suicide over being bullied about their red hair in France 😔

@Bagsundermyeyestoday the difference being of course that Irish immigrants overcame huge discrimination in the USA to become one of the dominant minority cultures. The same is not true of Australia and NZ. Irish communities have also thrived in both those countries but they were both much more predominantly British in culture until much more recently than the USA. And I do speak from some knowledge on this being auburn haired with many ginger relatives, having spent significant time in the USA with more than one sibling living there and having lived in NZ. In fact it was in NZ where I was told it was obvious I was a ‘Dooley’ (derogatory term in NZ for a catholic, who historically were of mainly Irish descent) due to my hair colour and being told by my (lovely) NZ partner’s mother that her father would be ‘spinning in his grave’ to know his grandson was engaged to an Irish catholic. So maybe shove your patronising smiley emoji 😘

I have red hair (hate being called ginger) born in Glasgow and travelled to Ireland a lot as a child without any issues. That all changed when we moved to England. It's definitely anti Catholic.

I remember reading in Jackie magazine as a teenager that red heads are the most unattractive people. They did a survey to back it up. Nice.

I've lived overseas for 20 years and have had no negative comments to my face. One of the plus sides of having red hair is that at 51 I only have 5% grey hair.