Gingerism Options

[Mata]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6725653.stm

Having dated people of all hair colours (including various unnatural shades) not to mention a variety of skin tones, I find this rather odd. Weirdly though, it's very common in British culture. Have any of you done this, been victim of this, or seen it? How did you feel about it?

I've never felt it was on a par with racism, or the other big 'ism's, because there hasn't been such vindictiveness associated with it, but it has always struck me as odd that it seems to be vaguely socially acceptable to pick on people because of their hair colour. It was never really around me when I was growing up, and I've only really seen it in the last decade, so it strikes me as very odd. Perhaps I just didn't notice it?

[gothictheysay]

No, it is very weird. The closest thing to that here would probably be blonde jokes and stereotypes, but I've never seen it really bad (or stabbing-people-in-the-back-bad). Strange. Scary.

[Pixelgoth]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6725653.stm

Having dated people of all hair colours (including various unnatural shades) not to mention a variety of skin tones, I find this rather odd. Weirdly though, it's very common in British culture. Have any of you done this, been victim of this, or seen it? How did you feel about it?

I've never felt it was on a par with racism, or the other big 'ism's, because there hasn't been such vindictiveness associated with it, but it has always struck me as odd that it seems to be vaguely socially acceptable to pick on people because of their hair colour. It was never really around me when I was growing up, and I've only really seen it in the last decade, so it strikes me as very odd. Perhaps I just didn't notice it?

I've never known anyone to be out and out picked on for their hair colour. There are jokes made about it but I'm not sure why. Catherine Tate made a joke out of it for her show but I guess that's because she is ginger and probably has suffered some sort of jibes.

Personally, I dyed my hair ginger for many many years and never suffered any 'bad press'. I get more bad press for being a blonde and from Essex

Perhaps there was more to this and the paper just saw an interesting angle??

[pgrmdave]

I've never seen red hair be cause for bullying, but it does make mention that it doesn't happen in the US.

[Calantyr]

Ginger hair is fairly uncommon, and everyone likes harassing someone. Be they goths, fat, have bracer's, freckles, etc. It's just playground mentality. Pick on the outsider and feel better about yourself.

The world would be a much nicer place if we all just accepted our new ginger overlords.

[Daria]

I don't like ginger freckled children. They actually make my skin crawl.


I would never let them know that I don't like them, nor would I make comments/ jokes about them. I. Just. Don't. Like. Them.

And I have no idea why.

Edit- I have no problem with adults with ginger hair and freckles. Just kids.

[Witless]

Seems a bit odd to me too. I find it odd quite how much men that choose to wear wigs get mocked too. In my personal opinion they're look better if they just went without the wig, but I don't think they look any more or less funny than women with hair loss wearing wigs from my opinion.

Tis odd how people so easily jump on a band wagon of thought that can sometimes actually go against practicality and sense that they otherwise would have considered if not for the influence of others. Ah well, being open minded to other people's thoughts has to backfire sometimes I guess.

[Forever Unknown]

Maybe you didn't notice is! "Gingerism" isn't something new. I had a ginger friend back in school and she got harassed for it as well. That is, until the kids grew up and realised that red hair was actually gorgeous.

As Dave quite rightly is, it's a playground mentality. And it basically stems from children being complete sh*ts, and that is more the case now than it was ten years ago. I'm sure there are families out there who have had the same amount of harassment directed at them due to another factor rather than hair colour.

[michael1384]

I have been a huge victim of this. It's just racism. Yep. I said it. Racism. Because thats what it is. An the jokes arn't even that funny. They are increadibly repetative.
e.g.

"Ginger pubes"

Me: "Well arn't you witty!"

Well I can only wait. It's a dominant gene and there will be more soon. People don't make fun of majoritys.

I just think it's racism. Whenever somebody makes a joke I wonder what would happen if the people they were joking about were asian or were disabled.

[Moosh]

I just think it's racism. Whenever somebody makes a joke I wonder what would happen if the people they were joking about were asian or were disabled.

Absolutely nothing. This is playground humour, and it's the same if you're ginger, black, asian, fat, small, disabled, foreign or have an unusual name. If you're in a minority at school, you're going to get picked on. I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying that nothing happens to gingers that doesn't happen to other people who don't fit the norm for their area.

[Snugglebum the D...]

I'm naturally, well, I would say auburn. When I was a kid - it was known as ginger and I was bullied relentlesly. Is it racism, I don't know. I do know that it made me very anxious about everything about me.

Now - I dye my hair bright red; it complements me; I have very pale skin and I freckle in a fetching manner when the sun makes an appearance.

You grow out of the bullying and, to date, every one of the people who referred to me as a 'ginger minger' has since wanted to be my mate/sleep with me. Gingers always redeem themselves.

[Phyllis]

I have been a huge victim of this. It's just racism. Yep. I said it. Racism. Because thats what it is. An the jokes arn't even that funny. They are increadibly repetative.

Racism? Uh, I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one. I can relate to being frustrated with hearing the same jokes over and over and over. I'm an American living in England. Nearly everyone has the same things to say about the way I speak, or how many guns I obviously must have, and it just gets very boring.

But I'm not being discriminated against. Like other people have said, it's playground bullying. I really don't think it's on the same level as racism. That doesn't mean that I think it isn't damaging...I'm sure it is, especially if the person is already insecure about his/her appearance. But hurt feelings do not equal racism. For example, I have a hard time believing that if a blonde girl brought you home her prejudiced father would yell at her for dating a ginger guy.

It doesn't make the teasing right, but comparing it to racism really doesn't put you in a very favorable light, to be honest.

[mooooooooooopo]

It's the difference between teasing you for something and denying you important opportunities or refusing services because of it. It's a whole different order of magnitude.

[Forever Unknown]

^ Absolutely to both the above points. Taking it as far as comparing it to 'racism' is Political Correctness gone a bit mental.

[Phyllis]

Well I can only wait. It's a dominant gene and there will be more soon. People don't make fun of majoritys.

I didn't see this part of your post the first time. moop mentioned it to me yesterday, when we were talking about how many people on my mom's side of the family have red hair.

I hate to break it to you, but the whole country is not going to turn ginger. Red hair is the rarest hair color, and it's probably going to stay that way because it is a recessive trait. Both parents need to have the mutated gene that causes red hair in order to have a redheaded child. Note: this does not necessarily mean that either of them has to have red hair themselves. This also doesn't mean that two parents who carry the gene will have any redheaded children. Also -- only 4% of the population of the world carry the gene.

This site explains a bit more about the genetics behind red hair.

[Pixelgoth]

Well I can only wait. It's a dominant gene and there will be more soon. People don't make fun of majoritys.

I didn't see this part of your post the first time. moop mentioned it to me yesterday, when we were talking about how many people on my mom's side of the family have red hair.

I hate to break it to you, but the whole country is not going to turn ginger. Red hair is the rarest hair color, and it's probably going to stay that way because it is a recessive trait. Both parents need to have the mutated gene that causes red hair in order to have a redheaded child. Note: this does not necessarily mean that either of them has to have red hair themselves. This also doesn't mean that two parents who carry the gene will have any redheaded children. Also -- only 4% of the population of the world carry the gene.

This site explains a bit more about the genetics behind red hair.

Personally, all this talk about red/auburn hair is just making me wanna dye mine that colour I got teased at school when I did it the first time but only because I'd done such an awful job of it

It's not racism, it's silly school playground bullying. Some people (the mature ones) grow out of it and some don't. We should pity those people that feel it necessary to ridicule people because of their hair colour as a. they obviously have nothing better to do with their lives and b. they can't think up anything more insulting. It's just plain sad and pathetic!

[Pixelgoth]

[message deleted by Mata

I can smell something....er...it's spam!

[Radaga]

I find this amusing, simply because ginger here in brazil is a HUGE "hot" issue.

Ginger girls are disputed almost physically by 99% of all man I know.

[elphaba2]

^ For some reason, that seems incredibly surprising to me--I'd always thought of Brazil as a place where "exotic" women of any variety were thought of as incredibly hot. Then again, I could be misinterpreting your comment--you do mean "dispute" as in the men don't like redheads, right?

Here, red hair is thought of either neutrally or positively in white girls, depending probably on the cuteness of the freckles that go along with it. One thing I noticed is that red hair is actually a really popular dye shade for hispanic and black girls, ranging from kind of maroonish purple to henna-colored, which is interesting. No idea why, though.

[Wytukaze]

Just to address those who think 'gingerism' isn't also an American thing, I submit for your attention the famous "Ginger Kids" episode of South Park. Here's a bad-quality YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCN2yRB0-8Q

I know a South Park episode by itself isn't evidence, but I'm just sayin', it is present, and a quick google would find plenty of all-American instances.

On a linguistics note, I find the new use of the -ism suffix interesting. To me, 'gingerism' means 'tendency for being ginger', and that's actually what I thought it was before remembering the news article and then reading the thread. A lot of people, however, have taken the examples of 'racism' and 'sexism' and extended it to, with a meaning of 'being against X' or something similar, 'fattism' or 'fatism' ('being against fate'?) (http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=fattism and http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=fatism) and so on, when what I would expect would be 'weightism' (which has less ghits). This isn't me complaining, I'm just noting to a largely uncaring audience something I observed. Carry on.

[Radaga]

^ For some reason, that seems incredibly surprising to me--I'd always thought of Brazil as a place where "exotic" women of any variety were thought of as incredibly hot. Then again, I could be misinterpreting your comment--you do mean "dispute" as in the men don't like redheads, right?

They DO like. Disputed as in fought for.

And Red hair here is exotic, by the way. As natural norse blondes and crystal-blue eyes.

[Snugglebum the D...]

As natural norse blondes

Wouldn't that involve some sort of 'spot check'?

Brazilian: Are you a Natural Norse Blonde, madam?
Possibly Natural Norse Blonde: Of course!
Brazilian: Please come with me...

[Felander]

At first glance, I thought this thread was about the terrible affliction of actually being ginger.

[Forever Unknown]

Yes. Because 'ginger' is in no way similar to 'n-er', 'cause 'n-er' spawns from years of oppression and violence and ginger is a hair colour.

[Phyllis]

To be honest I thing the word ginger is as bad as the dreaded "n" word.

I'm sorry, but what? That is ridiculous.

As I said before, when you cannot separate being teased from racism it doesn't paint you in a very positive light. People do not burn crosses on the lawns of the redheaded. There are not centuries of violence and oppression associated with having red hair.

Stupid jokes that you've heard a million times are not racism. You may not like the jokes, and you don't have to. I really get tired of people mocking my accent, for instance (seriously, I'm not going to change it on purpose, and that "herb" joke was ONLY funny coming from Eddie Izzard). That stuff will get an eyeroll from me every time, because I promise you I have heard it all*. But the people who make those cliched jokes are not being racist in ANY way. They're just being lame. HUGE difference.

Your rights are not being infringed upon. No one is denying you any opportunities just because you're ginger. And, to be honest, I think that even more people will take the piss if you keep up the attitude of comparing teasing to racism! I don't mean to be harsh in this post, but you seriously aren't doing yourself any favors with this approach.

*I will, however, laugh at clever and original jokes on the subject of my accent. I just haven't heard any yet.