to be annoyed that "gingerism" remains a socially acceptable prejudice?

[greengecko]

Why is it that people who wouldn't dare to utter a racist or sexist remark don't hold back when it comes to insulting people on the basis of their genetically determined hair colour? My 2 month old DS was born with beautiful red hair. Comments from friends and family include:

MIL (at hospital on day of birth of her first grandchild): he can't possibly be a Miller (DP's family name) with hair that colour .
MIL (2 months later): Oh, look at all that ginger hair. He's going to get a lot of stick.
Sister (when asked, on meeting her nephew for first time, what she thought of him): well, he's very ginger.
BIL: Oh well, it will probably go darker as he gets older. If not he can always claim he's strawberry blonde.
Friend: Oh well, you can always dye it.

And the list goes on. AIBU to be pissed off at these comments from my otherwise tolerant and liberal family and friends? It's starting to get to me and I'm now worried that DS is going to be in for a horrible time of it when it comes to school etc. Just hope he's tough-skinned enough for it all to wash over him.

I gave birth to a beautiful redheaded daughter 6 days ago (pic on profile) and I could not be happier!

YANBU

I love red hair and was most disappointed with DS2 and DD when they 'blonded up' after a couple of months. We have rd all the way through my family and hoped ite would come out again. I am pale and freckly and have reddish hints but am not really a proper ginger
It used to drive me nuts when one of my mates called me Ginger (as a friendly teasing thing) as I would have to love to be but am not.

Argh! I hate it too!!!!!! My DD is ginger and I love it...

Thankfully we live in Italy where ginger is rather "exotic" so we get positive attention - but when I lived in the UK I used to give people the look of death after an inappropriate remark.

Why why why????

there seems to be more ginger children about or is it my imagination. When ds2 was born he was the only ginger I knew. Then dd2 came along 8 years later but it was still uncommon, now they are everywhere.
Ds2 says he has never ever encountered any gingerist comments (he's 14), only comments about the length of his hair (bum length). If anything, he makes ginger jokes.

yanbu.....i adore ginger hair..

quite a lot of ginger haired children at dc schools, never heard any negative comments tbh.

ds2 says only look at this if you have a robust sense of humour. He thinks its hilarious

YANBU, though it seems to be an English thing. Until I moved here I had no idea that having red hair could be perceived as being "wrong". It's ridiculous. Red hair is gorgeous, and such a nice change from brown, blonde and black.

I just read (minus the sweary bits) that article to my girls. They were most interested in the bit which said they might come back as vampires after they died

I tried to bring people's attention to another gingist advert on here (unsuccessfully), the tango bus shelter ones. 'too much tango makes your hair turn ginger...yes those ones too'. Quite irritating from my DDs POV.

The weird thing is, our village seems to be composed almost entirely of ginger children. Was particularly struck at an interschool choir thingy -- on trooped the school choir, with maybe three black-haired kids, two white-blondes, a token mousy brown and the rest all shades of ginger.

Pity it clashes so evilly with the chosen uniform colour. Never pick a purple school uniform if half your intake are descended from Vikings.

Unfortunately, I have no sense of humour when it comes to 'gingerisms'. Largely due to the fact that growing up (and now as an adult) it is common to take the piss out of the colour of your pubes. In school that happened a lot, and now as an adult, I find even more people do it. Growing up was hugely embarassing, sex ed was 'fun' and programs like Kevin and Perry just made things worse.

Also the fact that after these lovely words are shouted at you, most people with ginger hair colour up, resulting in more abuse taunts.

All 3 of my DCs are varying degrees of red/ginger. I despair for them. I have had to tell my parents not to keep commenting on the colour of their hair (nice comments mind) as when I was growing up, I found it horrible to be singled out all the time, even nicely. Although, I grew up the only 'red' in our family, (blonde mum and dark haired dad.)

Oh yes, the 'smack a ginger day' recently advertised on a facebook group was also fun. not.

how did poeple know what colour your pubes were?
Maybe its regional but like I said, ds2 and dd2 have never ever encountered any negative attitudes towards their hair.

DD's developing red hair (she's 19 weeks), and when i first started to notice it (she was born with lots of black hair), I'd point it out to people, and they'd look through her hair and comment along the lines of:
"No, I can't see any ginger, i think it's alright, she'll be alright"
WTF....it was as if I'd spotted ringworm, or three sixes on her scalp.
I love gingers....poor DP (a ginner) is gutted, as he can't get over the years of abuse he suffered, but he's resigned to it now.

Yep. The pubes thing.

From my teenage years:

-Ginge, ginge show us your minge
-Do the collar and cuffs match
-Have you got ginger pubes?

All shouted by complete strangers.

Wankers.

Lordy, I have a terrible thing for men of the ginger variety. Ron Weasley, flutter flutter sigh.

My DS is ginger and I am very happy about that as he's the only red-headed one in the family and he stands out in a sea of dark-haired relations.

I am still shocked by some people's attitudes though, I often get asked in I was disappointed he has red hair and my SIL once bought him a red t-shirt then apologised as she'd fogotten it would 'clash with his hair'.

I also got the "what if it's ginger" when I was pregnant with ds and "at least he's not ginger" when he was born.

I mean really, do people think that's funny or original or something you'd like to hear, or even something you wouldn't mind hearing?

People are really weird. And a lot of them are not nearly as witty as they think.

Totally bizarre.

I know a woman who is ginger and has a ginger kid and spends half her life denying that he's ginger - 'he's strawberry blonde, he's dark blonde, he's not a redhead' etc. I find it really sad.

My DD has a ginger tinge to her hair and I love it. I just ignore freakos who comment on it.

One of the main problems I had, was it was called red/carrot hair when I was growing up, not ginger. So getting to school and being called Ginge (which handily rhymes with minge) was humiliating. Even now the word makes me cringe. I am now 'acclimatising' (sp?) DCs to the word ginger rather than red so that they don't react as much.

Smack a ginger day huh? Well that probably explains the wanker who punched DTD2 in the face then. If i'd have seen him i'd have knocked the c off his fing bike

People are funny about it aren't they, one of my friends plonks her baby in the strong sun so her hair will go blonde and not ginger.

Red hair is gorgeous imo.

God, if your own mother thinks your hair colour is objectionable what hope do you have

Really Gozilla??!! It was in March or April btw. I think facebook took the group down,

Yes really, but this was earlier on this month so unless they have regrouped somewhere else it was unrelated and just some pig who decided to pick on her.

Poor thing.