Ginger mocking/abuse is it covered by any law

[havingamadmoment]

I have red hair as do 3 of my 5 children. I was never bullied as a child but in the last few years especially since dc got hair(!) increasingly we are getting well abuse for it.

Just in the last few months numerous men (and its always men for some reason) have concede ex themselves with the colour of my pubic hair, one going so far as to lean out of the car window to shout this obviously important question to me and my 8 year old dd.

I have had a bottle thrown at me from the top of a bus while some twatty teenage boys rhymes random words with ginge and a man has told me that his wife would have killed herself if she had had a ginger baby.

I mean WTF I am 30 this hasn't been an issue for most of my life until the last 2 years or so - what's going on.

Seriously thinking of starting to make a fuss about it . It's not a joke anymore, I don't mind the people who say things like "won't lose them in a crowd" about my dds but the abuse that turns violent or sexual in tone is too much.

If I report it will it be taken seriously? Most people in real life seem to say that we just need to put up with it - do we?

My DD aged 3 has the most gorgeous auburn hair that naturally falls in perfect ringlets. In sunshine it looks bright red. I get stopped in the street all the time by people saying how lovely her hair is. We get positive comments every day.

Her paternal grandfather has made constant horrible comments about it from day one and never stops. There's no red hair in the last 3 generations of either family so its not from experience of bullying, it's just cos he's an idiot! I have said to him that she'll probably be bullied about it at school and asked him if he'll be proud when his granddaughter remembers that the bullying started with him.

Her hair is truly fabulous though! Nothing wrong with red hair!

Red hair is relatively rare less than 1% world wide but highest incidence is in scotland where it is 10%; 2-3% in UK as a whole

certainly know teasing /bullying etc happenned in England not aware of it when I lived in Northern scotland where it was quite common

really sorry for OP but if anyone throws things it is physical assault and if thye really bother you over a period of time it is harassment, other comments maybe verbal sexual abuse, so though no specific crime in insulting people with ginger hair when specifics happen there are laws to protect you

The way a lot of people seem to think it's okay to harrass redheads simply because of their hair colour really annoys me.

I just don't get why people think this is acceptable behaviour. Or why they think it's funny. It's not.

I don't like any red hair especially not the carroty orange type, but I would never dream of teasing anyone for it.

I wonder if this happens just because it isn't obvious discrimination? If someone chucks a bottle at you,or spits at you, that's assault, plain and simple. But I don't thin that there is anything the police etc. can do about the general nasty comments, there is no law abput discriminating against ginger people or fat people for that matter. I bet the people who do this would t contemplate making racist comments (replace ginger with black, for example). Was at a football match recently where one of the players was being barracked for being ginger ("ginger hair and stinks of piss" was the precise chant). That was pretty .

SueDoku - you beat me to it. Truly, that is the only response. And by the way - yum, and thanks!

I think it counts as antisocial behaviour and verbal abuse. You could possibly take a photo with your phone or even record them , maybe pretend to be texting but hold it up iykwim.

And then report

As a fellow-redhead, I can sympathise totally with the OP. . Yes, i get a lot of people complimeting me on my hair, but it doesn't make up for the teasing and harrassment I have had al my life because of it. I hate being a redhead, although don't hate the hair colour itself.

I prayed that none of my children would be redheaded, because I didn't want them to go through the teasing/ harassment/ comments- I've been followed home by a bunch of girls shouting insults because of my hair, have had the "ginger minge" comments, have politely smiled at the anti-ginger "jokes"- I didn't want that for my kids, life is hard enough. Thankfully none of my 3 are redheads. So sad I feel like that, because red hair can be stunning, but to me it felt like a physical handicap

I have natural red hair and I also love red headed men - thats why I call myself Mrsdavidcaruso (Horatio Caine CSI Miami) in homage to the sexiest man on the planet

I really can't see why this type of abuse isn't racism, with the red hair gene being Celtic. It would be interesting to see if someone could be prosecuted under racism/hate crime legislation. It could be a public order offence surely.

I am a deep dark auburn but have been a bottle blonde for years. I used to get compliments all the time about my natural colour and even now when I go to a hair salon I get compliments about my natural colour. Because my hair is very dark auburn I have never suffered any sort of bullying because in winter my hair tends to really darken. However, I do like being blonde, but it is like a sin to colour your hair if a red head/auburn etc. "why do you dye your hair?" Probably the same reason you dye your brown hair!?

My mother has black hair and my father light brown. My children have dark hair. My sister has a lighter red shade, her MIL was really wicked to her when she was pregnant and said she hoped her grandson wasn't born with red hair!! He is three now with blond hair.

I think English people are ginger-ist because of a residual anti-Irish racism in this country. No-one in Scotland or Ireland (or the US) seems to think that red hair is a problem, because it's more common in these places (and Americans love the Irish!). I'm strawberry blonde due to my Celtic connections and it's a gorgeous hair colour, even if I do say so myself :) although I haven't passed on my titian locks to DS, who is dark like his dad.

I was bullied mercilessly at primary school as I was the only ginger. Now I'm the grandad :) people say I'm strawberry blonde and I often get positive comments on my hair colour. I would say, don't let ginger bullying go unchecked. It was in my case and the fall out effects me today, even though no one has mentioned my hair colour for years.

I think English people are ginger-ist because of a residual anti-Irish racism in this country

I don't think it's anything to do with anti Celtic racism. Red hair isn't really an Irish trait anyway, Irish colouring tends to be dark hair and blue eyes with pale skin.

And I don't think it's just an English thing at all. I've had verbal abuse in the street from Australians about my gingerness on more than one occasion.

It's probably more that red hair makes people look different and perhaps humans are hard wired to reject physical difference. After all, it's often tough to be the only child in a school who's an ethnic minority. People who are disfigured or obviously disabled are often bullied and excluded.

I'm not suggesting that anti ginger abuse is anything like as serious or damaging as the treatment that many disfigured people have to go through btw! Just saying that I think that many people are instantly repelled by any physical trait that's different to the norm.

I understand what you're saying about people being picked on because they stand out Sherbet.

However, that doesn't explain why, when we visit countries where red hair is truly rare - we have never faced any negative comments.

In fact, quite the opposite, people come up to stroke the DC's hair and say how lovely the colour is.

Yoko there's plenty of negative ginger comments in Ireland.

There was a "gingerist" comment to Bianca in the short Eastenders I saw was on during Comic Relief. It probably is the sort of thing the thugs would have said in the situation but it made me cringe because anything like that just highlights the hari colour to others who are watching, and it can be hard enough for some, as OP has experienced.

I think its disgusting one of my three dc has strawberry blonde hair and I definetly think you should report it. I dont get it personally blonde hair is attractive because its rare but red hair is ridiculed when its even rarer

YANBU to think the abuse is on the rise. I'm very dark but a lot of my family and my DH are red. I'll admit to thanking my lucky stars that my little boy was born with dark hair, so he wouldn't face the casual prejudice and abuse aimed at red heads. It's the last relatively socially wide spread prejudice.

I really didn't think that 'racial abuse' could cover obnoxious comments about ginger hair. .

Please correct me if i am wrong.

INeverSaidThat, I think you may be wrong actually. One theory is, it's a hangover from anti-semitism.

blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100197324/why-is-gingerism-so-common-in-britain/

All I know is I have an 11 year old who has had bottles thrown at him, and has been spat at in the street (he does have a disability which makes him look different, so it could be partly to do with that, or his red hair), and he is BEGGING me to dye his hair.

Starlady that is terrible, your poor son.

I think it is racial abuse - if you substituted red or ginger for black and it was about skin colour it would not be acceptable - I really cannot see how one is worse that the other, both are utterly appalling.