That colleague made comment about ginger babies

[CheesexCrackers]

To be annoyed about a colleague making comments about ginger hair?

A colleague has recently come back from maternity leave and was talking about her dd.

She said she's so glad she's got brown hair, it would be the worst to have a ginger baby, I would of hated to have a ginger baby it would of been horrible.... she then glanced around the room and noticed my hair and made an awkward face.

I'm pregnant with my first and may well have a red haired baby, which I would personally love.

Is it the pregnancy hormones talking or am I right to be pissed off that she's targeting red hair.... and even red haired babies??

I never understood why ginger hair gets such a rough time in the UK. In my home country ginger hair is worshipped as it's such a beautiful colour.

What an absolute bitch!

Meant to say, very best wishes with your pregnancy!
I'm blonde but have two red-headed daughters and they're gorgeous!

This says so much more about her than about you. She is ridiculous, rude and immature.

My daughter was born bald, went pure blonde, then a lovely red, back to blonde and now seems to be going to a bland light brown like me. I would love her to have a natural vibrant colour.

I also read either on here or somewhere else on line that a mum made her son break up with his girlfriend who was a redhead as she didn't want "ginger" grandkids....he married a blonde and had ginger kids...the ex girlfriend had two blonde kids....

So rude to make comments like that.

My best friend is ginger, and she is the most beautiful person I’ve seen.
she’s striking and when we’re out the attention she gets is insane!

Danes. Had red hair. Irish slavers crossing to Wales and Cornwall, many had red hair. Scots scouring the borders (reivers were from both sides btw), a lot had red hair. That's one origin. Another is sheer stupidity.

I have very curly ginger hair, it’s got darker with age, I hope it doesn’t go brown, just because I like it. I have an unofficial curly ginger club at work (in my head!) and last week, one of my Year 8s was telling me about his hair products. He couldn’t care less that his hair is ginger, nor could the lad in my form, also ginger and curly. The two girls in Year 11 dye theirs darker regularly. When it fades, it looks amazing!

Your colleague’s an arse, I’m appalled at her lack of maturity making that stupid comment.

In Ireland it used to be considered unlucky to be 'first footed' in the New Year by a redhead. A red-haired girl I knew had a hissing noise made at her in a far Eastern country once, either Vietnam or Thailand, I can't remember which! They are just ridiculous superstitions, like those around black cats.

YANBU. I am a redhead. The amount of comments I have had over the years is literally insane. People seem to think that their lighthearted "joke" is funny and unique when in reality we have had it ALL our lives. Silly comments from kids at school, "ginger" "carrot top" to downright bullying "something wrong with you cos of your hair". Carried into adulthood too, I have been shouted at on the bus, overheard comments at the school gates about how they don't want their kids to be ginger. The most recent one that still hurts is when I went out with a friend who dyes her hair a very bright colour, she always gets complimented on it, the first time someone said how nice her hair was she turned round to me and said "no one ever comments on YOUR hair do they, ha ha ha!" She is no longer my friend!

My children are not redheads. Part of me is glad of it because they won't have that to deal with their whole lives. My mum used to tell me that I should have looked at the bullying as being "character building". Sod that. School and life can be brutal enough.

Totally agree with this. It needs stamping out like any form of racism.

Luckily my hair took amazingly and I went platinum blonde from starting out with a few highlights!

I’m so sorry @AddictedToBooks

I also agree that red headed babies get a lot more attention, my red head was my third child and he got so much more attention when I was pushing him round Asda in the trolley or out and about even as a toddler. We went on a family holiday to Portugal when he was about 4 or 5 months old, the local old ladies treated him like a rockstar, they were fascinated by this pale red headed, smiley little boy with the amazing hair and big blue eyes.

I do hope all the people on here who say that they would tackle people who made these offensive comments carry through on this and would actually call people out who voice these ridiculous ideas.

I’m less firey red more mangy fox these days!

lucky enough to have nice green eyes though.

DS is dark but in the summer he gets a dark red tinge through his hair that you see when the sun shines through it.

Oddly I have a small blonde streak in my hair and a couple of jet black hairs in my fringe. Mum was blonde and dad had jet black hair. Weird huh?

I was a ginger baby-I'd be properly pissed off.

What’s that supposed to mean?

Can someone please explain why some people think ginger hair is something to be bullied about? Someone said it is anti-Irish, some others said it is the same in France so cant be. What the heck people think is the issue with ginger hair? Is it a racist thing? Fear of the outsider? Is it because it is rare and therefore different than the norm? Superstition (someone mentioned people hissing at them in Vietnam 😮) ?
It is absolutely beautiful and the most amazing hair colour there is in my opinion and I wish I or my kids had the genes for it...

because some people are a-holes?

It’s one of the last ‘isms’ you can merrily throw around without some dewy eyed social warrior calling you out?

Well there isn't a single reason. The roots of all prejudices are ultimately "other- ness" and red hair is rare. It's estimated that only 1-2% of the world's population has red hair and it is now commonest in the UK and Ireland, despite the gene originating in central Asia. It's virtually unheard of in many countries and must seem very odd to people living in some parts of the world. And people often dislike, even fear things which are unfamiliar.
But the fact that some people living in other countries also view red hair negatively does not negate anti red hair sentiment in this country having at least some of its roots in anti Irish/anti Catholic feelings. It's unlikely that a small child calling a red haired classmate names in say, Liverpool, today is doing so knowingly because of those reasons, but turn the clock back 150 years and things would have been very different. And behaviour gets ingrained. I doubt most people could actually give a real reason why they feel that way. But then there's not a lot of logic in any prejudice is there?

I do hope all the people on here who say that they would tackle people who made these offensive comments carry through on this and would actually call people out who voice these ridiculous ideas.

I will. I already do. I'm left-handed and used to be called names for that, 'cack-handed' being a favourite. As PP said, some people are arseholes and think that whatever nonsense is in their head deserves airing.

I cringe at glorying though, it's just a hair colour. I understand why people do it, it's to offset the nasty comments but at the same time, I think it actually fuels them as something to 'butt against'.

If people would just stop making spiteful comments about anybody's appearance, it would be a very great thing but we can't even do that as adults on MN so what the hell are we teaching our children anyway?

There's also the belief that 'Judas Iscariot had red hair'. As mindboggling as that is, these beliefs did get embedded in religious societies (as ours used to be) and may be passed down. Like that 'black cat -familiar of the devil' thing that I mentioned upthread. Even cat shelters say it's harder to rehome black cats and kittens because people think they're somehow unlucky or have this slightly occult association. Utterly ludicrous but some people are just thick as mince. (And I love black cats and think they're beautiful!)

I understand the historical reasons for not liking red hair (e.g. Danes invading in the 9th and 10th centuries) but not modern dislike. It's weird.

Elizabeth I had red hair, as did Mary Queen of Scot’s and Henry 8th. hmm.

I even stopped buying a kids shampoo when DS was little because it had some stupid story on the back - from memory it was something about going to the moon and people (ridiculously) having orange hair! If they’d said blue hair I could have lived with that - but the fact that orange hair was the most preposterous thing they could come up with really pissed me off.

I cringe at glorying though, it's just a hair colour. I understand why people do it, it's to offset the nasty comments but at the same time, I think it actually fuels them as something to 'butt against'.

I agree, kids are not silly and if they're being teased for their hair colour, simpering and going OTT about how 'beautiful, gorgeous, wonderful it is and how some people are really jealous and disappointed their babies weren't born ginger', can come across as fake.

If people stopped with the shitty comments and the bullying, there'd be no need for it and we could teach our kids that hair colour is just that.