Why do people fear the ginger, meaning those with red hair? I've heard references to ginger kids or people in a derogatory manner. And I decided to get to the bottom of it. So I did a little "research," which mainly involved reading wikipedia. Also, as a side, I came across this weird site called The Ginger People that sold ginger, and its mascot is a person made of ginger root with a platter of ginger pieces. It would be cute if it wasn't so freaky. But I digress ("per usual," as Tina would say).
The first time I heard of this phenomenon was on South Park. You can watch the full episode called Ginger Kids here. For a class presentation, Cartman delivers a speech spewing hate and prejudice against ginger kids who he describes as pale-faced with red hair and freckles. He says they have no soul and could not survive in the sunlight--like vampires. This speech causes everyone in school to hate the ginger kids. To teach Cartman a lesson, his friends turn him into a ginger kid over night, using skin bleach, hair dye and fake freckle tattoos. Cartman wakes up to find that he has turned into a ginger. Cartman goes to school and is a victim of the prejudice he started. In response to this, Cartman establishes the Ginger Separatist Movement to help the ginger kids. Then he quickly turns Hitler-like calling the ginger the "chosen race." Cartman is cute as a ginger kid...until he turns evil, of course.So where did this idea come from? Throughout history, red hair was the mark of a savage or signified evil. Red hair and green eyes were thought to be the sign of a witch, werewolf or vampire during the Middle Ages. Recently, the dislike of the ginger is more discrimination than superstition. There is speculation that the dislike of red hair may derive from the historical English sentiment that people of Irish or Celtic background, with a greater prevalence of red hair, were inferior. Fast forward to today, and you have the South Park episode.
So it appears that the present day misunderstanding of the ginger may have roots in history! Or we can just blame South Park. Haha! In any event, leave the poor ginger alone...and don't look directly at them. Just kidding!
6 comments:
Velly interlesting. I think red hair on girls is nice like the old Lindsey Lohan. Seth Green is pretty cute with red hair too.
And also, Julia Roberts. Although I don't think she is a natural red head.
i don't know about evil...but i can tell you that i have a little red head (although not bright red) who can be quite feisty! and i've seen some pretty bratty ones before too...especially little boys.
Hi, Kim!! You have a ginger kid! Haha! According to Cartman, she is a daywalker because she can withstand sunlight. Just a lil' tidbit.
Red hair is the rarest hair type.. i actually think they're going to be extinct soon. So whenever I see a redhead, i automatically think it's bottled :oP
I worked at a boarding school. It was basically a private owned school regulated by the state. It accepted all sorts of kids, ranging from the orphaned to the mentally disabled. Fro 1984 - 1988, we had 5 ginger kids and teens. The craziest one we probably ever had was a kid with spiky flame red hair named J.H. Charlie Manson must have been EXACTLY like this kid. He was hyperactive, wild, idiotic, ADHD and completely uncontrollable. He was a wild lose cannon, had an explosive temper and just loved to antagonize people. He was raised by his grandparents, but they and his aunts uncles were completely unable to control him. His father was killed when he was only 2, his mother abandoned him at age 3. He was raised by his grandparents since then. Finally they sent him to our boarding school in the hopes that maybe WE could do something with him. NOPE. He ended up being sent to a psychiatric ward. He's probably a wild homeless guy on the streets today. Then there was a pale-faced maroon haired boy with black freckles named Doug. Doug had tourette syndrome. Or at least he THOUGHT he had tourette syndrome. He was totally into video games, reptiles, rats and making smart-ass comments to staff. He was a good looking kid, though. Way too thin due to an unbelievably fast metabolism, but other than than, he was the kind of young man the girls could have liked. But he had absolutely ZERO interest in girls. Just video games, being weird, walking around with his hand on his privates, and acting a lot like Jack Torrance when he was in one of his "bad modes." He would then hunt other kids in the woods with sharp objects. Today, he is probably one of those "cross-dressers" ( he never did have any interest in girls, so it's pretty obvious )who gets downright SCARY when wielding knives! Then there was J.E.F. We called him "snowblower" because of his last name. He had a head covered with wavy dark maroon hair and had standard ginger freckles. He was 6'3" in height. He had a head filled with bad wiring. He was unable to concnetrate and would stare at people like Dr. Emmett Brown from "Back 2 The Future." In his past life, he may have been a circus juggler, because he was extremely good at it. Maybe he was just autistic. I dunno. But he had to be kept on strong medications, or he would become explosive and irritable. Then there was a retarded boy named W.S. He came from a family that was like a backwoods dirt poor version of the Adams Family. He had straight classic copper color hair and lots of freckles. He was a serious hell-raiser who would also glare at people while yelling at them. He would have probably been one of those ornery gun-toting dudes, had it not been for his retardation. Then, there was Edward. Edward was one of those babies that was abandoned at birth. He was never adopted due to being very big and homely. As he got older, he grew to be almost 7 feet tall. He was a big bully and hung out with the tough juvenile delinquents in the school. He was obsessed with keeping his curly Tobasco-sauce-hair dyed black. Out of all of them, Eddie was the only one to go out and get a degree. He is a physician and part-time counselor today. Out of ALL of them, he is the ONLY one who's life had a positive outcome. I hate to be prejudice against gingers, but I even have 2 in my OWN family. The girl ( my maroon haired freckled cousin Brenda ) has always been hyperactive and tweaky. She can be so nice one minute and yet so mean 3 seconds later. My other cousin, Neil, is one of those people that never had a lick of common sense. His character is dark and shady. He cannot be trusted. I'm sorry, folks, but, well..
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