Gingerism

Redheads, and how they suffer. Photographer Charlotte Rushton has been chronicling the UK’s redheads for a book, Ginger Snaps. Of the 300 she snapped, only two have been spared bullying because of their hair:

“I was on the Tube, pregnant, and I was really humiliated by this drunk yob. He was shouting ‘do the cuffs and the collars match?’ He got right up into my face. You don’t do that to other people.” She believes the phenomenon is long-standing and uniquely British in its most virulent form.

13 thoughts on “Gingerism”

  1. Grossly unfair that gingers should be picked on! There have been some great ginger people who have made a great contribution to society; besides our beloved Barry and my former girlfriend Liz, there’s Ginger Baker for example.

  2. Grossly unfair that anyone should be picked on at all, for whatever reason, in my opinion. Oh, and let the records show that my scalp is and has always been ash blond — it was in fact my growing a beard at the ripe old age of 30 that uncovered a ginger facial hair tendency. The good part of that is, when I travel to Ireland (as I have), people tend to think of me as one of them. On the flipside, Argentinians have a hard time not chuckling in my presence. Regardless: I’m ginger and I’m proud! :)

    Jeepers — that’s entirely too much info, isn’t it?

  3. Barry are you argentinian??? Where do you live? Im an 17 year old zappa fan that comes almost every day to KUR and im amazed if you live in my own country.

  4. Me too, carnelian — must be our Euro/Irish heritage! Never been able to figure out why I had blonde hair as a kid, brown hair as an adult, but still have sprouts of red facial hair? As Fee Waybill of the Tubes once sang: “My Face Is Mutated!” Anyway, give them redheads a break over there in Euroland (don’t you know they make better….)

  5. First off, the “collar matches cuff” remark is not the slam one would presume. It is sexual inuendo, and asked because females have a tendency to ‘redden’ their hair, but not their pubes. Which brings us to the next ‘off’ – the hair of your beard rarely matches exactly the color of the hair of your head… It’s different hair.
    I have dark brown hair (if it was there, ya gotta use some imagination here) – with deep auburn tones – and a red (strawberry blonde, actually) beard (again, if it was there).
    For reasons I don’t fully comprehend, I have always been sexually attracted to redheads… And I often wonder, when I see one, if the collar matches the cuff. I don’t usually verbalize that feeling. A) it would be rude, and B) my wife would punch me.
    Barry, the point I’m making here is that gingerheads get attention because of envy (or lust, if you want to go that route) and they revel in the attention…
    Who’s picking on whom?
    (And Freki, Barry is only half Argentinian – his better half)

  6. Yeah that ‘collar’ comment gets thrown at blond girls as well. Did you know that red hair, like anemia is a sign of incest?

  7. Sofa — you said it! Why is it that red hair on a woman (whether dyed or natural) is a sexual turn-on for most men? A cousin I grew up with was a glorious redhead with a black Irish temperament, and she never lacked for male attention (indeed, she was the hottest girl I ever knew). Was it the carrot-top? I suppose I’ll never know. Yet I suspect that Magdalena from “Just Another Band From L.A.” was a redhead, just like her mother!

  8. thanks for the answer!, althow some are still unanswered but well. On a personal note the first girl ive made out with was a redhead and she said she didnt see it as any disadvantage in any way, nor discriminated by it, she was bothered in a jokeing way by her friends about other things. well the turn on its becouse of they are quite rare especially good looking redheads. I have a friend who is obsesed with them really obsessed ,( i could make a song about that! ) and hasnt been with any, I usualy bother him about that hehe.

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