Brown haired white kids never in photos

[StevieChicks]

Just that really.
Seen the new school prospectus. Beautiful blond children everywhere, front cover and throughout, a few mixed race children, fewer black and Asian students (because racism) but without a doubt the least photographed children are kids like mine. Children with naturally brown, mousey or dark brown hair.
It's not the same as racism and I would not for a second think that this trivial matter is in any way similar to other discourses around representation. And maybe I have a chip on my shoulder from the eighties when I was never a Disney princess and had to be the evil witch. It doesn't feel like much has changed.
My son's hair is thick and dark brown/ black. He has very pale skin. I just don't see this as the desired aesthetic. The world still goes mad for blonde children.

The school I went to in the 90s had lots of white and Asian kids but only three black kids, reflecting the local demographic at that time. The black girl in my year was asked to be in practically every photo in the school prospectus. It was very cringey (of the photographer) and I can still hear the girl in question taking the mick about it now

I know this is not the point of your thread but both Snow white and Belle are brunette white disney princesses, so you could have been one of them as a child instead of an evil witch.

My mousey-haired white kids both made it into their prospectus on the basis that the member of admin staff could remember that we'd signed the photo release form

I’ve got dark brown hair and very pale skin and can’t say I’ve ever felt like this or noticed

Same at my primary school! They also only ever chose an older blond haired child to play the Angel Gabriel. Not that I’m bitter, honestly 😆😆

My DS is an adult now but he was often used for school photos online. Hes got dark curly hair, very dark brown eyes and olive skin.

Interesting thread. I have a blonde blue eyed daughter, no idea how with my Mediterranean dark colouring, but she gets SUCH a fuss about her hair and eyes everywhere she goes. However as an artist who has worked in photography, I don’t think the designer will be thinking about this, he or she will be just trying to find images that show the classroom/activities to the best advantage as well as the children, they will also be limited in which parents gave permission narrowing the choice further.

I love brunettes with fair skin, I married one!

This is not my experience.

I know an academy in Doncaster where their website only shows white, blonde boys and girls. No other race or hair colour but they had black, Asian and brown/black- haired white kids in the school. On one page, the only black kid in a group of students (probably a class group) is behind a blonde-haired child. You can barely see him.

The school was contacted about this years ago but they didn't respond. It would have been great for them to show that they have some diversity in their school - at least to encourage more people who may not know other ethnicities are there and welcome - but it seems they're sending a message through their website. Some other subtle racist incidents have gone on there by those in authority, so it tracks.

I have dark brown hair and am pale, my son also has dark hair and I’ve never noticed this. Just checked the website of the two local schools and both of them have lots of photos of brown haired white children.

@Allmyfavouritepeople

As a blonde it seems like we are the last hair colour it's acceptable to openly dislike.

As someone with lots of redheads in the family, you must be joking right?!

The endless jokes and the 'come on, it's only a joke' attitude towards people with ginger hair is truly alive and kicking.

I'm not saying nobody else gets it either but if you think mocking or bullying of ginger people has stopped then you must not know any!

To be fair I don't so I can only speak from my experience. My point was that it's widely considered unacceptable to ask if ginger people have souls (example from pp) but it is acceptable to say 'I'm having a blonde moment" even in a work environment. Some people might still say the former but it's not as embedded as the latter (IMO).

The discourse that followed on from man Vs bear was really interesting. Examples I saw said that in a work environment a white man would be preferable to a white woman and a blonde woman would be the worst of all.

Just went on my child’s school website, on the homepage there are 5 photos which include 6 children with brown hair and pale skin. There are no other photos. I think this is something you are sensitive about, don’t make your children feel this way. I have brown hair and pale skin (unless been on holiday and I have a tan) and I never felt this way as a child.

There are plenty of brown haired white kids modelling for all the major retailers.

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I personally wouldn't want my kids' photos in the school prospectus, though. As a teacher I've seen kids' photos used on the back of a school minibus, blown up to several times larger than lifesized and the kids were really embarrassed. So I don't tick the box that lets schools use my children's photos for advertising. I don't want them on social media etc.

I've also worked in boarding schools with predominantly Chinese boarders and this is really played down in the prospectus, because the schools don't want to advertise the fact that boarders are 90% Chinese. So they use the one white boarder in all the pictures. Pretty toxic.

No one is nasty about blonde babies though. I was on the receiving end of a group of mums at a baby group talking about how worried they were that their babies would be ginger. Both me and my then weeks-old son have red hair and we were sitting right there. People are openly cruel and discriminatory towards redheads in a way they just aren't towards blondes although I do see that the "blondes are stupid" discourse is tiresome and should also be got rid of.

Tell that to my friend, whose blonde baby was referred to as Boris! 😨