Ginger Abuse

[Nowhere Man]

So I'd seen something about this before, "Ginger Abuse" -picking on someone because they have red hair, and just assumed it was some stupid internet joke that I've missed. Whatever, if that's what people want to have fun with who am I to say anything?

But turns out this is a real thing? (!)

People are really getting picked on because they have red-hair, picked on to the point of it almost being like red-haired people are a whole other race or something?

Why?

I don't get it, red-haired men I've never had a great motivation one way of the other on but red-haired women are almost universally hot or are otherwise no more motivational to any emotion.

But are kids these days so looking for a group to pick on (blacks it's been out of vogue to pick on for over a generation, women for even longer, gay people are getting more and more mixed into the fold every year) that they picked people with freaking red-hair to tease?

I don't know how old you are or where you grew up(i'm assuming under a rock or on the moon), but as long as i've lived, redheads have always been picked on. I say this a real live 31 year old red headed step-child. The trend where red heads started to become hot is recent in my mind. This started with Lindsy Lohan, I can't realy think of anyone before that. When I was growing up both the guys and girls got picked on and freckles were practically evil. Kids made fun of retards, redheads, gays, rednecks, nerds, short people, you name it.

 

[Amaris]

So I'd seen something about this before, "Ginger Abuse" -picking on someone because they have red hair, and just assumed it was some stupid internet joke that I've missed. Whatever, if that's what people want to have fun with who am I to say anything?

But turns out this is a real thing? (!)

People are really getting picked on because they have red-hair, picked on to the point of it almost being like red-haired people are a whole other race or something?

Why?

I don't get it, red-haired men I've never had a great motivation one way of the other on but red-haired women are almost universally hot or are otherwise no more motivational to any emotion.

But are kids these days so looking for a group to pick on (blacks it's been out of vogue to pick on for over a generation, women for even longer, gay people are getting more and more mixed into the fold every year) that they picked people with freaking red-hair to tease?

I don't know how old you are or where you grew up(i'm assuming under a rock or on the moon), but as long as i've lived, redheads have always been picked on. I say this a real live 31 year old red headed step-child. The trend where red heads started to become hot is recent in my mind. This started with Lindsy Lohan, I can't realy think of anyone before that. When I was growing up both the guys and girls got picked on and freckles were practically evil. Kids made fun of retards, redheads, gays, rednecks, nerds, short people, you name it.

Well, if it helps, I'm 31 years old and have always loved redheads. In fact, when I was very young, I had a crush on a redhead. I also had a friend named Scooter who was a redhead, great kid, good friend, bad at skateboarding.

 

[Spot's Meow]

Maybe it's more of a regional thing because I can't say I've really encountered actual redhead abuse. I can think of a million things kids made fun of each other for, but having red hair or freckles just wasn't one of them. But I'm sure that in other areas the bullying may have been quite real.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I got crap for having freckles when I was a kid, but then kids are assholes.

 

[Myasishchev]

I really wonder if there's a differential in prejudice between male and female redheads.

The idea being that redheads tend to have lighter skin, which studies have suggested is generally sexually preferred for women but not for men.

Reminds me, I need to start trying to tan.

 

[scotpens]

. . . When I was growing up both the guys and girls got picked on and freckles were practically evil. Kids made fun of retards, redheads, gays, rednecks, nerds, short people, you name it.

Don't want no short people round here!

(Except Kylie Minogue and Avril Lavigne.)

When I was a kid, I knew three brothers who all had red hair, freckles and glasses. They looked like The Farkel Family on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. But they never got picked on for having red hair and freckles. They got picked on for being geeks.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I think geek picking rates higher than red hair picking.

It's a progression.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I knew a bunch of red-headed kids growing up and none of them were ever picked on. This "Ginger abuse" thing is something I've only heard of recently.

 

[Nowhere Man]

I think it's time for an awareness program. We need a video of red heads getting picked on, that Sarah M.(I can't spell her last name) song. Some ribbons, some bracelets and Bono. Stat!

 

[pookha]

i never heard of it until southpark.

sometimes kids got teased if they had excessive freckes.. but not red hair..
some red haired actresses..
http://www.raising-redheads.com/famous-actresses-5.html

 

[Kirk's_Tights]

Fact: When Laura Prepon dyed her red hair blond, That 70's Show lost 1/3rd of its viewership

She looked AWFUL as a blond. Her red hair looked so good on her, I have no idea why she would even want to go blond. Friggin everyone is blond and it's such a boring colour (no offence to blonds).

Dark and red hair ftw.

 

[Trekker4747]

I don't know how old you are or where you grew up(i'm assuming under a rock or on the moon),

Sooo... Was this called for?

I've seen "some" stigma applied to redheads the old, "red-heads are trouble makers" trope in gradeschool 25 years ago but from various things I've seen/heard now it seems like it's far more than a "picking on kids" thing and there's a degree or two of weight and hate behind it beyond just typical children picking on one another.

FWIW, I'm 32 and grew-up in, and live in, the mid-west.

Laura Prepron looked 100 times better as a redhead than she did as a blond.