June 13, 2007

Better dead than red? - gingerism threatens carrot-tops. (Yes, carrot tops are green, but try telling non-reds that.)

Redheads are said to be sexier, bad-tempered*, evil, have higher ** pain thresholds, have lower pain thresholds. Some famous redheads. Alas, we may soon be extinct. *Red heads were thought to be intelligent by 79 per cent of the men, although 45 per cent described them as neurotic. Some 64 per cent of respondents agreed with the stereotype that the red head seemed temperamental and fiery. **"our study shows women with red hair respond better to the pain-killing drug we tested than anyone else -- including men."Ah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-haha! *snick* Hoo-boy!

  • you're all just jealous haterzzzzz! sexier, bad-tempered, evil
  • What do you call a Redhead with an attitude? Normal Caused by mutated MC1R gene Guess that says it all. disclaimer: many many RH in family
  • *bows at the undisputable red-hotness of redheads everywhere, and specially of that present*
  • We are the the chosen of God; let the drab-haired hate, so long as they fear.
  • es el Queso, I was just going to go watch that episode. Glad we think alike.
  • Some of us even choose to go red: hair & clip
  • Ah, but will you be getting the full-body henna freckling treatment, gomi?
  • I came pre-made with freckles. Dad was a real red head.
  • Also, let me echo Lara's sentiment that orange kitties are the bestest.
  • Red hair is exotic, gorgeous, intriguing and lovely. Seriously. And not common enought to be, well, common. In the U.S. blondes are often targets (probably just a backlash to the "blondes have more fun" ad concept); but I'd never before thought that redheads would be picked on. Most curious. Intriguing post. P.S. Orange kitties ARE the bestest (I have two).
  • Being a kid with red hair (and skin the colour of frozen chicken) can be misery - you are constantly reminded of your Otherness. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous haircolour, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by dyeing end them?
  • I remember a Kids in the Hall sketch where Scott Thompson's Queen Elizabeth tried to drown a little red-haired girl because she thought red hair was a sign of witchcraft.
  • Well I do, that is did, have red hair. Anyhow, there's a whole lot less of it than there used to be, grumble.
  • I also thought "OMGWTFBBQ?" when I read this last week, but upon further reflection I suppose it's just a latent form of bigotry against Scots and/or Irish by the highly enlightened populace of Ye Olde Englande. I grew up in Maine, and there is a local prejudice against people of French Canadian heritage that runs a mile wide in the non-French majority. Just calling someone a "Frenchman" is a significant insult, and people use "French" as a general pejorative -- "That is SO French..." -- to mean stupid, backwards, or otherwise objectionable. I don't know that anyone ever got run out of town for being French, however.
  • Oh, you pilose buffoons think you're so special just because you have hair. Alopecians can snap too, you hirsute flax-tops.
  • Quid, I have always wondered - do you think of yourself as hairless or hairfree?
  • I have always wondered what the connection between ginger and red hair is supposed to be. Isn't ginger pale yellowish white? Is it a reference to 'spiciness', of temper or sexuality, perhaps?
  • I've known many redheads and never heard of them being bullied over it. More often complimented. But maybe they suffer in silence.
  • I was reading an interview the other day with Simply Red's Mick Hucknall, who was complaining about the anti-redhead prejudice in British Society. The journalist pointed out to him that "ginger" is an anagram of "nigger". As you would imagine, I thoroughly approve of any argumentum ad anagram.
  • ... you goddam glump end.
  • the quidnunc kid = did the nun quick
  • That about sums up my first impression of him in person.
  • Actually, there was a redhead boy that I went to elementary school with, I remember him being quite the target. By Junior high he had mastered class clown so I don't recall any problems then. Girls though, even if they have a tough time early on, need only bide their time before they become Hottest Women of All... (Very little makes me de-lurk. Redheads, yum.)
  • "The Unserpants Monster" is an anagram for "Northeastern Stump End." But you don't see me complaining.
  • My first crush was a redhead. Kindergarten. Stuck her hands in my pants. More delurking!
  • Definitive proof that MCT is really Charlie Brown!
  • *was given the ghey by a redhead (who ended up with my str8ness...* *now convinced that Quidnunc = Ernest Blofeld*
  • come to think of it my first crush was a redhead too. Vernon. he was SO CUTE!!! (kindergarten)
  • Riding down Imperial Highway Big nasty redhead by my side... Been there, done that, it was good. Just a precaution to you all NOT to start getting into anagrams. They will hurt you. -end well
  • Fishtick : The use of the term ginger for redheads may come from the fact that fresh ginger turns a reddish color when pickled in a salty vinegar. Think of the thin slices of ginger you get with sushi. Admitted, they are not bright red, but at least more reddish that the fresh or dried variety. Just to put in my five cents worth: Redheaded women are GORGEOUS! My first school crush, Vivi, had long,long red curls all the way down her back, and I was completely and utterly sold the moment I saw her! The affair lasted all of the first grade, after which she left me for a boy with a bicycle! She broke my heart!
  • *hands greybeard a commiseratory beer, weeps*
  • Man, I always was attracted to redheads. Mrs. Fimbulvetr #1 was one. Yeppo. Cured that. I still find them attractive, but I am deathly afraid of 'em now.
  • Greybeard - I had thought that all sushi ginger was dyed! I see that I was mistaken. It is also apparent, however, that British lorry drivers have red/pink colourblindness. I found a pickled ginger recipe - woot.
  • I lost my virginity to a redhead :) She was, like our dearest Gorgon, indeed sexy, bad-tempered and evil. Crazy, too. And oh, how I loved that woman.
  • Monkeyfilter: I lost my virginity to a sexy, bad-tempered, evil crazie
  • *digs out old MoFi blog photo to put next to gomi's and Medusa's*
  • I lost my virginity to a carrot. It's a pretty long story, but it explains why I have to wear an adult diaper and why I despise vegetarians.
  • Vegetables are meant to be *good* for your bowel.
  • My first kiss was from a redhead. Took me years to get over him.
  • I have purple and pink carrots in my fridge. Didn't know such things existed.
  • I just carefully inventoried my life, and it seems that I have never come in bodily contact with a redhead. I'm kind of a ginger-tactile-virgin.
  • Born white head, red by school age, then white again in late teens. Zapped with both blonde and red-head jokes too. Being red-head by 'nature' - any attention's positive attention and good for a laugh. Can't be bothered much with b.s. Prefer straight out. Life too short to mess about with taradiddle. Bored by superficial clap-trap. Supposed to be red-headish, innit? Can be diplomatic, but not too often. Keep forgetting. Definite high pain thresh-hold. Need higher doses of anaesthetic to knock me out, and double when having teeth messed with. Don't know about being sexier (what's that anyway?). Mostly just easy going, joke a lot other than if I see cruelty. Have faced down a dastard twice me size and 'took him down'. (Hit him with a chair. Really enjoyed that too! heh) Never met a red-head who wasn't slightly 'eccentric' and-or had a t'riffic sensa humour. Read somewhere that all red-heads have ADD or ADHD. Wonder about that one? Takes me ages to acquire sun-tan, but do eventually after a lot of burning and cursing. Daughter has dark hair and eyes but has skin like inside of lemon rind. Can't tan at all. Also has freckles. She's bloody-minded as well as stubborn as a scrub camel. Only time i don't mind shopping is when she's with me. Get some excellent service from any young bloke anywhere. So far, she doesn't seem to notice that much, or maybe just takes it for granted. :) Maybe a red-head gene disguised in brown package? Can't say i ever noticed that happening much in the days when i had the equipment tho'.
  • Indeed.
  • BasilDrak?
  • Heh ... my first thought too.
  • Middleclasstool: Thanks for the beer - wipes foam off beard! Fishtick: Some of the brighter varieties of storebought sushi ginger is undoubtably dyed with the leaves of the beefsteak plant (jap. Shiso), but that is mostly the sickly sweet ginger which in my oppinion is utterly unsuitable to accompany sushi. I make my own by pickling very thin slices of fresh ginger in lemon juice with a pinch of salt, resulting in a fresh, tart taste that I acquired while training martial arts in Japan. Try it for yourself - you will never go back to that nasty sweet stuff again.
  • Out of 22 total comments, 180, that has to be the bestest! Lurkers, delurk!
  • I have purple and pink carrots in my fridge. Don't make me go all Cliff Clavin about the relative novelty of orange carrots.
  • Maybe this is the place to confess my hetero girl-crush on Gunsmoke's Miss Kitty.
  • Monkeyfilter:Try it for yourself - you will never go back to that nasty sweet stuff again
  • What's a BasilDrak? i missed that one in the years of red-head jokes. Damn, all my carrots are orange. i missed out there too Middleclasstool. soddit!
  • I just don't get the "redhead persecution" thing. Everywhere I've ever lived, being red-haired (at least for a female) is a Thing to Be Desired. If you have red hair you're "special". And why do so many women dye their hair red, if it's such a stigma? Or are we talking just males here?
  • please do not stir the BasilDrak pot. Just forget you ever heard the term...
  • I just don't get the "redhead persecution" thing. I was just talking about it from a kid perspective. Kids can be mean no matter what, but being noticeably different than the rest of the kids makes you vulnerable. "Hey, carrottop!" "Look, it's Pippi Longstocking!" "Oh my GOD - have you ever tried to count all those freckles?" "look at her blush - she's turning as red as her hair", etc. Having it constantly brought home that you are strange, different, weird can be hard to live with. It wasn't a Thing To Be Desired, it was a Thing To Be Mocked. No wonder redheads are sometimes thought to have fiery tempers! By the time I got to high school, I didn't mind so much being RH positive, but for parts of elementary school I was quite unhappy because of the hair.
  • If there was no such thing as adult redhead persecution where would the phrase "I'm gonna beat you like a red-headed step-child" come from?
  • I think it comes from males. Males with red hair are thought to be strange and awkward. Females with red hair are "sassy", "fiery" and special. And yes, red-haired children may be mocked, but no more so than any other children. People will always find defining features. For my straight, bowl-cut dark brown hair it was "you look like a china doll" from the adults. Don't forget "Wow, your teeth are crooked" and "four eyes" from the kids. I don't think red-headed children have a monopoly on being noticeably different, and in my childhood years, I never saw one picked on any more than any other kid. I, for one, tend to read the "Red heads are singled out" as yet another version of "look at how special I am--even my childhood mocking was different than everyone else's". Of course they were singled out. So was everyone else. Just for different things.
  • I mock your derision of my taunting!
  • On a related note, why are there so many red-headed toddlers, and why do they lose it when they age? I want red hair, but can't bring myself to go beyond highlights, being a straight male in a very conservative company.
  • wigs for the weekend, NE?
  • Where the heck is that link, dammit!! *scrabbles around in the little linky box where the old linkys are stored AH HA!! There it is, at the top of the freakin' page! We knew they were going extinct. Neanderthals just beat the rest of you redheads to it! Shesh, is Queso redhead? He sure acts like it
  • just a fan, GramMa, although I do occasionally get a red hair in my beard...
  • I just dyed my hair really, really brown. Eat that, red-haired freaks!
  • Need photos. Before and after.