to not understand why people are so negative about red hair

[memoo]

As my DD's hair grows it looks like she is going to be a red head.

She is only 11 months old and already we have had quite a few negative comments the latest being "at least she will be able to dye it when she gets older"

I just don't get it! why is having red hair looked upon as a bad thing? its just a hair colour FFS. And why do so many people think its ok to make jokes about redheads?

If a person makes an derogatory comment about a persons skin colour there is uproar but red heads seem to just be fair game

Red hair is beautiful, everyone who disparages it is simply jealous and/or what jaybird's nephew said!
DS has fab crop of red hair and a smattering of ginger freckles too, he's the most gorgeous boy that ever lived! (bias) We were so looking forward to seeing our dd's flaming red hair- imagine the disappointment when it turned out she had missed out on the ginger gene. She's still lovely to look at of course, and she can always dye her locks later.
RED HAIR RULES!

YANBU! My DS is the only one so far to be blessed with red curls. I don't get the negativity.

Apparently, it's a dying gene and a recessive one: both parents have to carry the recessive gene, so the question of 'who do they get the red hair from' is irrelevant: it has to be both of you.

It appears randomly it seems: my DDs don't have red hair, but am due any day with DC4, so waiting to see if there is another red curly coming our way!

No, it doesn't have to be both of you, actually - according to the main geneticist working in this area (he's at Edinburgh University) the genetics is complicated, but it can come from just one parent, although that is much less likely. Trust me - I've got an Indian mother, an Anglo-Scandinavian father...and red hair.

I've had the odd bit of teasing, and I get VERY angry with people who think 'ginger' = ugly...but I've also met a fair number of people who find red hair irresistibly sexy.

Can attest to the fact that MI is gorgeous, btw.

Never understood the prejudice against red hair - lots of red heads look fab. Far better than that mousy brown you get when people were blond/e as children but go off as adults.

Oh, and like June, don't recall ever hearing any teasing when I was at primary school (late 70s) but it did crop up at seniors. Certainly by that time in the 80s that Simply Red got big 'ginge' had become a taunt.

Clemmet - what a brilliant response. Love it. I am a redhead as is my sister. No redheaded children though (sad). Never got teased for it though as I am scottish and there are loads of redheads in Scotland. Live in England now but never get negative comments but hate the "ginger jokes" on TV. Red hair is gorgeous.

I'm a redhead and when I was a child and a teenager, I saw it as a very negative thing indeed, mainly due to the jibes from my (non-ginger) siblings. I didn't spend too much time agonising over it, but just accepted that red hair and therefore red-haired people were unattractive . This persisted despite adults telling me it wasn't true, until my early twenties! I think the things that help red heads feel unattractive are the things which go with the ginger hair, also perceived by many as unattractive - pale skin, freckles, pale lashes and eyebrows, and quite often all the recessive ailments such as excema (hot do you spell that?) You never see a true ginge in magazines, or held up as being a beauty i.e. someone with all the above physical traits rather than someone merely with fiery, dyed, coppery-type hair.

I do feel it's worse for boys though - there is so much more anti-ginger stuff directed at them, and I can't think of many famous blokes who are regarded as fit, who are ginger. Though I think Damian Lewis is sex on legs and Charles Dance in his youth was pretty hot too. Any other suggestions?

OK, don't all yell at me but when pregnant with DS1 I actually said out loud 'if it comes out a red-head it's going back'.

Shame on me - and OF COURSE he was born a red-head . And I didn't send him back. And I love his hair. He - now aged 10 - doesn't mind it in the least, and manages to rise above the odd unimaginative 'carrot top' comments.

As far as I'm concerned, people who have a problem with ginger hair are in the same bracket as other groups of ignorant people; racists, homphobes and people who think it's some sort of crime against humanity to deprive a child of siblings by having an only child.

Pay no attention to these ignoramuses.

I also think that people should be proud of the word ginger - and proud to be ginger too.

The terms "auburn" and "strawberry blond" should be shunned. They are simply different shades of ginger. The term "ginger" should be reclaimed, using terms like those just alienate ginger people even more as just by using them even ginger people unwittingly perpetuate the ignorance themselves. You'll will often hear people say "he/she isn't ginger, he/she's auburn/strawberry blonde". What's that all about?!! They're just different shades of ginger and so bloody what?!!

Be ginger and be proud.

Oh, almost forgot "red-head" too - I don't like that one either. Again, it's just a term so that you don't have to use the G-word.

It's often employed in marketing - shampoo ads etc. They don't like using the word "ginger" either because they know the negative connotations that are associated withit.

A bit like when I was a kid and eveyone used to tip-toe around saying "coloured people" so that no one referred to them as black people. Pathetic.

You need to stamp this ignorance out and reclaim the word ginger and stick two fingers up to ignorant, superior gingerists. It's the 21st century FFS.

Just skimmed back over the thread so far and noticed that in some cases ginger hair has been linked to satan.

It comes as no surprise to me to learn that one form of ignorance (religion) has spawned another form - gingerism.

I'm a redhead and hated it when growing up after getting picked. Now I wouldn't change a thing, I totally love it (and if I do say so myself it looks great!). I'm currently pregnant and desperately want a redhead baby alas it is a recessive gene and DH's family don't have red in their family.

I don't understand why it is deemed ok to still comment negatively on redheads when it is such a no-no for other physical traits. Only 1% to 2% of the worlds population has red hair which I think makes us truly unique.

xx

Genevieve, I think that a ginger/auburn/red-headed/strawberry blonde person should be allowed to describe their hair how they please :) Besides there are subtle differences between the shades of gingerness. Nowadays I could accurately be described as strawberry blonde as I have highlights from the sun, whereas Julia Roberts is auburn and Chris Evans is a full on ginge (or used to be)

I agree that this is probably an English anti-Celtic thing, but sadly it has seeped into Irish culture too, which seems particularly silly and self-hating.

I'm American and have lots of red in my family, but living in Ireland for the past ten years. When i first arrived here I had no idea that being a redhead could be seen as a bad thing. My first close friendship here never recovered from the fact that in the course of trying to console a gorgeous auburn friend from Dublin who had been disappointed by some boy, I said "of course other guys fancy you, how could they not with your red hair and brown eyes?". She started crying, told me I was cruel and horrible, and never quite believed me that I was not being sarcastic or insulting her by saying that her hair was "red".

My Irish DH is strawberry blond (with the emphasis firmly on "strawberry") but my MIL gets genuinely offended if anyone calls him red or ginger or foxy, no matter if they mean it as a compliment. When he was little she used to make him sit out in the sun to try to bleach his hair blonder! :(

Our baby daughter has very little hair yet, but what she does have looks red to me, and I would be thrilled if it stayed that way. Though whatever shade it ends up being will be the most beautiful shade in the world. :)

YANBU - My DD has beautiful strawberry blond hair - I am a natural blond and my husband has gorgeous dark red hair (yum!) and I was hoping that she would be more red than blond - so much more exotic and interesting!

I am far more concerned that my DD is going to be teased for being 6'11 as she is very tall and I was tormented all the way through school for being tall.

Sad people pick on what ever they think they can make fun of, tall, short, fat, thin etc It just makes them unoriginal and stoooopid.

Red hair and brown eyes has got to be the most attractive thing ever.

That's what I think Allbie! Try telling my Dub friend that!

I can't believe that this type of bullying still goes on. I would love to have red or auburn hair! Everyone seems obsessed with bleaching their hair blonde, but if I didn't have extremely dark brown hair, I tell you what, I would be going red. All you redheads are really lucky and lovely, well thats my opinion anyway.

ps. how hot is Damian Lewis, thats a prime example of a fit male redhead!

my 21 mth ds has very bright red hair and people are always commenting on his hair colour and the fact he has very tight curly hair. All my dh's family want him to have it cut but mainly feel the need to say my dd's had srawberry blonde hair like their dad but ds is red or ginger like my dad.

I love it and would never want him to change it.

I always call him my little ginger whinger

OK maybe the wrong terminology, I don't know. But it would be hard to deny that there is a cultural history of prejudice against the Irish, for example, and red hair is a trait that seems to be strongly associated with Ireland. I think that's the point that others were making, and I think it seems a pretty plausible (and sort of obvious) explanation for a bizarre prejudice that most other cultures don't seem to share.

Cloudydays - It's interesting what you say about it being an English anti-Celtic thing.

I had always assumed it was linked to anti-Irish feelings. I took a lot of abuse at school in London in the 70's as I had a very Irish name and bright red hair. It was a time when it was very common to hear racist comments - not helped by the IRA's bombing campaigns in England.

It's a shame to hear that prejudice is happening in Ireland now.

I hated having red hair as a child because of all the comments I got but I learned to love it as I grew older. I'm starting to go grey now and I feel so sad that I will lose my lovely red hair - as others have said, you can never dye your hair this colour and have it look natural.

We are ALL redheads ! Myself (albeit slightly enhanced by the bottle nowadays), DH and both DS. You'd better put your sunglasses on when we walk down the street coz we are BRIGHT

Seriously though, I love red hair and love the positive comments on this thread.

I think that there's actually a lot less people that dislike the hair colour than it seems. Some parents will hear of children being bullied for their hair colour and then "hope" their own children don't have red hair. Not because they don't like the colour but because they don't want them to be bullied.

But they shouldn't worry - red hair is fab and if you don't believe me - take a look at how many red headed children get used in adverts on television. Agencies love them