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Original poster

"Ginger boys are just ugly"

390 replies

CrumpetHead · 30/10/2015 22:17

Just wanted to rant Angry

Had 32wk consultant appointment today, sat in tiny waiting room with about 15 other people all crammed in and there's two women sat opposite DP and I chatting to each other, conversation goes something like "have you ever thought that your baby could be ginger" "oh god no don't say that, I wouldn't mind so much if it was a girl but ginger boys are just ugly, yuk"

DP was sat next to me and could hear the whole thing, he is ginger and so is our 14 month old DS. How rude can you get?!
DP wears a cap constantly when he's out because he got teased in school about it.

What difference does it make what colour hair you have? It's just a colour the same as brown, blonde, black are colours! Thinking about it now it's really making my blood boil and if I could turn back time I wish I'd have said something to them instead of staying quiet because I didn't want to cause an argument.
Idiots Sad

OP posts:
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13
bertsdinner · 31/10/2015 15:41

My sister's a ginger, its an absolutely beautiful, unusual bronzey shade and is loosely curly. It turns heads in the street and gets much admiration. I'm very envious of it.
She did get a bit of mild teasing at school because of it.
My own hair is chestnut-ish, I love red hair and wish it was redder.

HorseyCool · 31/10/2015 16:17

I fancy ginger men. I nearly tripped over at waterloo station on Thursday as I was distracted by a hot ginger man in Uniform. I properly blushed!

Sorry not helpful but anyone who comments negatively about Ginger men are dicks.

I am a brunette btw

CombineBananaFister · 31/10/2015 16:36

My Ds has got red hair - his nickname is 'ginger ninja', apparently it's cool in his 6yr old peer group Wink

CombineBananaFister · 31/10/2015 16:39

oh, posted too soon. When he was a baby an older lady did peer in the pram and announce what a beautiful baby he was but what a shame he was going to grow up ginger - people are twunts, ignore because they aren't worth it

3littlebadgers · 31/10/2015 16:41

Didn't read the whole thread just wanted to say I saw a little boy today on his scooter with the brightest red hair I have ever seen. It, and he were breathtakingly beautiful.

LarrytheCucumber · 31/10/2015 16:50

My DGS has ginger curly hair. He's 6. He is lovely.

steppemum · 31/10/2015 16:57

Fwiw around half my family has red/ginger hair and no one has ever been teased about it. I don't think it is 'a thing' for kids these days like it used to be.

sorry, not true, ds is 12, he has white skin and bright orange hair. He was teased a lot at primary school, to the extent that he really thought he was ugly and hated his hair.

Auburn is one thing, white skin and carrot is not good, sorry!

that is a bloody offensive comment Happfeet and you should be ashamed.

ds is a very good looking young man, with white skin and bright orange hair. But you know what? Even if he wasn't since when was it ok to say Oh yeah sorry, your child is ugly??

I think it is probably worse for boys than for girls, but honestly ginger abuse is rife and people think it is funny.
If you hear it and laugh, look at yourself, ignorance is never attractive.

AgentCooper · 31/10/2015 16:57

Ginger hair is beautiful. On males and females. It just seems to be in Britain that people take the piss - I work with lots of students from the Middle East and they think ginger hair (we're in Scotland) is the most gorgeous thing they've ever seen. One Saudi lady who was pregnant at the time said she was praying for her baby to have beautiful Scottish red hair.

Michael Fassbender is a sexy ass ginger. Prince Harry, though I'm a staunch republican, I still definitely would.

Gabilan · 31/10/2015 17:00

"I would like to thank this thread for introducing me to Max Martini."

And for giving me an excuse to google Michael Fassbender because it must have been at least a week since I last did that

Some years ago on HIGNIFY Reginald D Hunter was mocking the English for their inept attempts to mimic Americans. He pointed out we can't even do racism properly, we just don't like gingers.

IMO he has it about right. You can't group gingers into one race. They're too diverse and turn up in too many different populations. There's no history of enslavement, or trying to prove they're less evolved or that they're a slightly different species. There are no scientific attempts to prove gingers are less intelligent. I'm pretty sure we don't get stopped by the police more frequently let alone shot by them with impunity.

I've been spat on, kicked, punched, had things thrown at me, been heckled endlessly but not, as far as I know, been turned down for a job for being ginger. And I think likening gingerism to racism obscures one important issue. People of colour can be seen as the enemy without and asked to "go back to where you came from". Redheads are the enemy within. You can both have brown hair but produce a ginger child. I think part of the fear comes from this. Partly it probably has its origin in anti-Celtic feeling. But IMO and IME it's about people being small-minded, prejudiced and thick. It has similar roots to racism but it isn't the same.

steppemum · 31/10/2015 17:07

I agree with you gabilan on a societal level.

But for a child at school, to be teased for the colour of their skin or the colour of their hair doesn't feel very different.

For ds , things have got a lot better at secondary. He has a close friend who is just as gingery as he is.
But, sadly, I think it is to do with the intake of the school. His primary is in a very mixed area, with a lot of kids from a rough area. There is a lot of racism there too.
His secondary is selective with mostly middle class liberal parents. He doesn't get teased there.
I hate to put it that way, but it is our experience.

AgentCooper · 31/10/2015 17:10

This book by his than Jacky Colliss Harvey is an interesting read on red hair, history, geography, fetishism and discrimination.

AgentCooper · 31/10/2015 17:11

Sorry 'his than' should be 'historian'!

Arabidopsis · 31/10/2015 17:12

My mum is still not over the disappointment of not getting a ginger child ( my youngest brother is 33!)

My mum, maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather were all red heads so she thought she had pretty good odds. It's not surfaced in the next generation either.

Varya · 31/10/2015 17:12

Wrong and hurtful.

Gabilan · 31/10/2015 17:13

"for a child at school, to be teased for the colour of their skin or the colour of their hair doesn't feel very different."

I don't know, steppemum. I've only experienced being bullied for being ginger. I wonder if it is different though. It's shitty, in that both lower your self esteem. However, as a red head, there was just me being bullied for being ginger. My mum is also ginger but she went to a grammar school in the 1950s and just didn't get the same kind of treatment that I got at a bog-standard and rather nasty comp. So what I went through was isolating and I didn't feel people really understood it.

But racism is different in that what's being questioned is your racial identity. Whilst both are horrific things to go through, I'm not sure that the effects on a child are the same. I've experienced anti-English sentiment whilst in Scotland and it was quite a shock to the system and felt different from being bullied for my hair colour.

OneFlewOverTheDodosNest · 31/10/2015 17:15

I love ginger hair - on boys & girls. I think it's probably something to do with wanting to be/marry a Weasley... Grin

MitzyLeFrouf · 31/10/2015 17:17

This map gives an interesting overview of where the gingers are mainly to be found. Celtic countries and a big blob in Russia. Russian Jews I presume?

"Ginger boys are just ugly"
steppemum · 31/10/2015 17:19

I see your point gabilan, and having experienced neither, I guess I am not qualified to comment.

My ds often said (at primary) that if he called child x a paki, he would be sent ot head and an official record made of it, but when he is called ginger nut every day, the other child is just told to stop. (he was quite an aware year 6 with ambitions to be a lawyer!)

I hasten to add that he wouldn't ever call a child a paki, he was describing the unfairness of the policy.

LeaveMyWingsBehindMe · 31/10/2015 17:30

I watched Happy Valley for the first time the other week and I thought James Norton was far too handsome to play such a horrible character!

LucasIsMyMuse · 31/10/2015 17:32

Haven't read all the responses so apologies if this has been said but have you seen Michael Fassbender???

Tell them they don't know what they are talking about!!

Gabilan · 31/10/2015 17:33

I agree, steppemum. It's frustrating as a child. All you know is that you're getting hatred directed at you and if it were directed at other people, it would probably be stopped. But I'm just not sure that that means anti-ginger sentiment is experienced in the same way as racism.

Brioche201 · 31/10/2015 17:33

If you think ginger is ugly-fair enough.We all have different tastes.But why oh why do you have to publicly give voice to that thought.Do some people have no filter between mind and mouth?

MitzyLeFrouf · 31/10/2015 17:34

I wouldn't classify Fassbender as a redhead. Someone mentioned Tom Hiddleston upthread, he's definitely not a redhead.

LucasIsMyMuse · 31/10/2015 17:35

And DS2s best friend has very bright ginger hair and he's a dude!

LucasIsMyMuse · 31/10/2015 17:36

Really Mitzy? How about here?

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