On Glenalmond Road some pupils from our local secondary school were passing by also on their way home. They were younger pupils - probably from Y7 or Y8. There were three boys and two girls. One of the girls had red hair - not bright ginger but a colour that contained some honey and copper tinges too. I suppose that some might refer to her hair colour as "strawberry blonde".
There was some playful after-school banter going on between the kids. Then one of the boys called ahead to the strawberry blonde girl that was she was ginger-haired. "Ginge!" he called and "Ginger!" The girl yelled back that she was most definitely "not ginger". On the surface at least, she took the taunting in her stride. I imagine that it was not the first time that she had had to deal with gingerist banter.
Back in 2009, I blogged about another example of gingerism. It concerned Christmas cards being sold in "Tesco" supermarkets that bore the very unfunny legend, "Santa loves all kids. Even GINGER ones" followed by a picture of a little boy with red hair sitting on Santa's knee. Go here.
In that blogpost I alluded to my past observations of the treatment that ginger-haired schoolchildren frequently have to suffer in secondary schools. Why should they have to tough it out?
Around 10% of people in both Ireland and Scotland have red hair. The figure is much lower in other European countries, including England. Teasing red haired people is simply not nice and shows a kind of dismissal or disrespect that is invariably very hurtful. In that sense, gingerism belongs in the same bag as sexism, racism and disablism and I mean this most sincerely.
Historically, many people with red hair have even lost their first names - replaced by the label - "Ginger". This does not happen to folks with brown or black hair.
Take the superstar drummer of the progressive rock band Cream for example. Everybody knew him as Ginger Baker but how many were aware that his real name was Peter - yes - Peter Baker? He wasn't "Ginger" at all. The unimaginative nickname was foisted upon him and it became inescapable though he did not choose it and he did not like it.
So my Christmas message to the world is STOP GINGERISM! Treating other people as your equals includes refusing to mock or perhaps even mention the natural colour of someone else's hair.
I love red hair, whether true "ginger", auburn, or strawberry blonde. It's my understanding that the trait must be on both sides for it to pass down. One of my daughters has auburn hair and the kind of skin that is covered in thousands of freckles. Oddly enough, in her small elementary school class (less than 25 students) there were two other girls with red hair. One was blue-eyed, one was green-eyed, and my daughter has hazel eyes. Being in a minority makes her feel special (in a good way).
ReplyDeleteWell I am pleased to hear that Kelly.
DeleteI have never understood gingerism; I've always found red hair extremely attractive (pant... pant... pant). I haven't really encountered much on this side of the pond, even in primary school, but that might just be circumstance. Thomas Jefferson was ginger and, apparently, was not pleased with it.
ReplyDeleteWhy was he not pleased with it? Until you mentioned it, I had no idea that he was a redhead... but as usual you are right!
DeleteI am proud to be a freckled Ginger. I put up with all sorts of rubbish when I was a kid. A girl once asked me how I could sleep at night with such bright ginger hair, didn't it wake me up? And now my hair is more golden than ginger.... it's my version of grey. Yes I am proud to be a minority. But my 2 sons and all four of my grandies show no trace of ginger.... they were all white-blond towheads.
ReplyDeleteSo you know about gingerism from personal experience. Rubbish you should never have had to tolerate when you were just a child.
DeleteBTW Ginger Baker stepped on my foot once at a concert.
ReplyDeleteWas it deliberate?
DeleteI always wonder why red-headed kids get teased so. Kay has got red hair and got dreadfully bullied at university.
ReplyDeleteIt must have been jealousy as she is a stunningly beautiful young woman.
DeleteIt is so very sad that even in a higher place of learning there can be such casual cruelty.
DeleteThe Daily Record (Scotland) had a story some years ago about a family
ReplyDeleteof red heads who were forced to leave their home because of bullying.
Michel Tournier thought people with red hair belonged to a separate race
who were envied and persecuted across Europe.
The National Galleries of Scotland published a pocket book of photos,
*The Little Book of Gingers* by Kieran Dodds that can be seen online.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti sought models with red hair for his pre-Raphaelite idylls.
The models painted by Titian so impressed the women of Venice that they coloured their hair red using vegetable dyes.
I have wonderful memories of a young woman, Charlotte, who possessed what I
can only describe as solar hair, cut in a bob like Scott Fitzgerald's Berenice.
We had a week together in Rome. I wish I had married her.
I might have three red haired daughters.
Sorry things did not work out with Charlotte Jack. It sounds as though you have thought of her often.
DeleteRed hair is beautiful and very unusual here. John's younger daughter and both her daughters have red hair. Her husband also has reddish hair.
ReplyDeleteVariety is the spice of life.
DeleteThere are many old myths attached to red hair. A woman younger than myself, once told me that red haired people have no souls. What? It truly boggles the mind. Personally, I love red hair and would love to have red hair.
ReplyDeleteWhat? On your head?
DeleteI agree that it's a stupid prejudice. I don't think it's as pronounced or as deep-rooted here in Canada, at least judging from my time spent growing up. We used to play the game "Knock On Ginger" all the time but no one had any clue why it was called that, lol. I was middle-aged before I knew that "ginger" was a derogatory term for red-headed people. In the Canadian children's classic "Anne of Green Gables," Anne with her auburn hair gets called "Carrots" by Gilbert Blythe and she breaks her school slate over his head for it. Always a favourite scene among fangirls!
ReplyDeleteAnne walloping the school bully. I had forgotten that !
Delete*Jane Urquhart on LM Montgomery, Clip from Extraordinary Canadians.*
YouTube. Jane U is one of my favourite novelists.
Becky Sharp of Vanity Fair is remembered as having red hair.
Her hair is described as *sandy* and her eyes green.
Becky Sharp is a wonderful character!
DeleteI think it's the fact that there are so few gingers, or redheads, in the world, that they became the butt of jokes and a target, and that's just plain stupid.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind nasty gingerism being targeted on your current president - but no one else.
DeleteWell, his color , like everything about him, is fake.
DeleteLet's expand this a bit and stop all harassment of people with differences.
ReplyDeleteI would vote for that with all my heart Red.
DeleteOkay, gray fox.
ReplyDeleteMmm... I am just starting to go grey.
DeleteMy siblings and I were gingers. Here in Canada we had a popular kiddies tv program called Dennis the Menace. That being our surname, we got all the taunts.
ReplyDeleteChildren have to be tougher than adults might think as other children can be cruel experts when it comes to picking on differences.
DeleteI agree, hair colour should not be a reason for teasing or mockery, just as skin colour isn't a reason. In my teens, 20s and 30s I had a "red" shine in my hair, completely natural though I wasn't a ginger and had been born blonde which darkened after puberty. My older son had the same hair, though he was born dark and in his nid teens the red disappeared, but my younger son, who is blonde has a ginger beard if he doesn't shave.
ReplyDeleteDigging away at ginger-haired kids can be as subtle as it is relentless.
DeleteI was teased at Elementary School because I was the only girl in my class wearing specs. Oma (Granny) and Brillenschlange were the most common names, and I really really hated that - I needed specs in order to see properly, not because I wanted them.
ReplyDeleteKids that were overweight were teased. The only boy in our class whose parents were divorced was teased. Children who spoke a different dialect were teased. Anything that was even slightly uncommon was picked on. Somehow, though, there never seemed to be any serious consequences. Unthinkable today, when bullying is taken much more seriously.
Many times as a teacher I intervened when children who wore glasses were teased - or even worse had their glasses snatched from them.
DeleteMy brother began life as a redhead but it faded to a very dull colour by his teen years. The only mistreatment he received about it was from our father, who called him 'Bloodnut'. I didn't escape though, as I was called 'Pinhead'. I quite like red haired men.
ReplyDeleteYes - but you like men with any colour hair or no hair at all.
DeleteSuch a weird British thing.
ReplyDeleteNot just British by any means. Gingerism occurs around the world Lynn Marie. See:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_against_people_with_red_hair#:~:text=Discrimination%20against%20people%20with%20red,people%20with%20naturally%20red%20hair.
DeleteHumans always amaze me (and not in a good way) when they treat others who are different disparagingly. The world would be a boring place if we all looked alike, in my humble opinion.
ReplyDeleteAgree 100% Michael.
DeleteOne of my grandfather's was know in his younger years as Red. My memories of him are of little and very greying hair.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he did not mind but it seems odd to name someone after their unusual hair colour. I was never called Brown!
DeleteAs I read this I was thinking, "Is this serious?" I don't believe that in the US redheads have that stigma. One of my children is quite red-headed and it was always viewed (and not just by me) as a pretty cool thing. i have two red-headed brothers also.
ReplyDeleteSo weird.
In the USA, "Kick A Ginger Day" was probably inspired by an episode of "South Park". In 2015, police in Massachusetts investigated a conspiracy among students who attacked other students with red hair on the day. Gingerism is not a uniquely British phenomenon.
DeleteI have a red-headed grandson, who married a red-headed girl and they have two red-headed daughters. I think they all look great.
ReplyDeleteOne of my first real girlfriends was a red-head called Pamela.
DeleteI love a ginge, also my godsons are both copper topped.
ReplyDeleteI must have missed the memo about "ginger" being derogatory. Maybe less so in Oz. f NZ: Janet Frame? Not to doubt your observations.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago I read that ginger hair was becoming rare and might even disappear. Ever since, I have noticed gingers everywhere - some rich and red, others golden, yet others strawberry blonde. Beautiful colours. I expected at least one of my children to be a redhead, as Barry is a redhead - or was, when he had hair - but only one verged on red and she has since bleached it blonde.
ReplyDeleteAustralian here and it is more ribbing then full blown bullying that I can see these days - humans are funny critters, aren't they? I have a workmate who is ginger, and I always wade in to support her - hey, I paid for the privilege for years!
ReplyDelete