Gingerism
 

Seems gingerism is becoming the new form of racism.On the front page of todays Mirror is the story of a family from Newcastle who have been hounded out of thier homes three times due to haressment,abuse & bullying all because they all have ginger hair.One of the four children has already attempted suicide because of it.The father has contemplated dying the families hair in the hope of stopping it,but quite rightly deciding against altering their appearance.It would be like a coloured man bleaching his skin.We all know gingers get a bit of a raw deal,being the brunt of many a joke & having to keep covered up in the sun etc,but this is no joke;though i would believe the morons responsible for this abuse would find it so.My best mates a ginger & if you gave him any hassle about his appearance he'd wipe the floor with the face of the person responsible.

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I was often called 'Ginger' in my early teens, but it was never said in an unkindly way. I think that ginger boys do get teased about it. Like any teasing - if you show that it hurts, the bully thrives on it and does it more.
My son has fair hair but not ginger, and none of my grandchildren are ginger, but I do have a nephew who is truly a 'carrot head'. I dont know whether he was bullied because of it in his youth.
I suspect that there is more to this story than the family just being ginger

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I suspect you are right Margaret, it does not add up a little more info would be a great help.

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When I was younger my best friend was ginger, my neighbour was ginger, my best friend now is ginger, I have a two other friends at college who are ginger.... I have made jokes about it for years that they're ginger.... it's not offensive.... depends how you take it.... luckily.... all my friends have a laugh about it too.... people just don't seem to have a giggle at themselves.
About that harrassment.... well I agree that there has to be more to the story than just because they're ginger.....
Lea
x

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Bullying of any kind is wrong, but this story did make me thine of the Catherine Tate scetch, which you can watch on this link.:D


Ginger Ail: Redhead Chapmans Forced To Leave Home » Big Brother Celebrity News & Gossip : Anorak

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kids will target anyone who is 'bullyible'. i dont tink its just the red hair

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got it in one. theres more to this than meets the eye,i think.

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Perhaps it's also the very pale, freckly skin? Combine that with the ginger and you have just cause.
















;) :D

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I think its very sad, but I'm sure it cant just be that, children are very cruel and will always find the obvious reason to pick on others whethers it be big ears, specky, spotty etc.

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No, I don't believe it's just because of red hair, either. One of my best friends had really red hair - it was beautiful. My daughter's friend is "strawberry blonde" - it's beautiful. Another of her friends has a daughter with deep auburn hair - it's unusual and beautiful. If people are worth bullying their tormentors will pick up on some characteristic to target.

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Ithink its so silly kids are any one with red hair should not be picked on they are just the same as any other one

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Or for satirical humour, by the looks of it and that's a shame. Perhaps it's an internet thing? :rolleyes:

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When Catherine Tate does the ginger sketches...why isn't that considered bullying in some way? And this will obviously influence people (mostly kids) to actually insult ginger people. Also...she's carrying a trend on... in twenty years time that'll probably still be on telly... influencing the next generation on scum bags.....oh well....
Lea
xXx
PS. Catherine Tate is the most unfunniest female in existance... sorry I had to say it...

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Have to disagree with you I think Catherine Tate is hilarious, dont think her sketch re the gingers would influence bullies either.

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She's not making fun of red haired people, she's naturally red haired herself, she's using satire for comedic affect.

Would you say the Royle Family encourages southerners to bully us northerners, or female vicars face ridicule and bullying, because of the Vicar of Dibley?

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I love the red-hair sketches of Catherine Tate, make me laugh even though a red head myself.

Ok .. now have to liven it up now with Schwarzkopf's Red Violet (whoops don't believe I said that). Want to keep the Auburn hair, as always felt a little different from the mousy and now bleached blonde clones there is about.

Never had nothing but compliments when I was young, love my pale skin and don't mind the freckles .. try to stay out of the sun anyway.

Only one thing I read in a Newspaper article that slightly affected me, is that we 'smell' different ... :confused:

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People have been bullied for hundreds of stupid reasons, long before Ms. Tate came along.

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Whether in type form or in pictorial form, the message was obvious. I find it very difficult to believe that anyone would think that I was being serious in saying that being ginger wasn't enough to attract derision, but adding pale skin and freckles would make that derision justified. It is ridiculous beyond belief!

I also take issue with your comparison to Love Thy Neighbour. The issue isn't that the sitcom promoted racist attitudes in audiences, but that it reinforced existing stereotypes. I think you do audiences an injustice by assuming that they are too stupid to realise that Eddie Booth was the butt of the humour and if you were to watch it again now, you would realise that the majority of the jokes were at Eddie's bigotted expense. Audiences got that, mainly because it was made obvious.
The issue today with Love Thy Neighbour lies more in the negative stereotypes it reinforced. For example, Bill Reynolds is better than white people at limbo dancing in one episode, which in turn reinforces the stereotype that black people are better at physical 'past-times' than 'academic' ones (the primitive man vs the sophisticated being).
The language used in the sitcom is also not acceptable in 21st Century Britain, which is another reason for it not being repeated on TV today.

Using stereotypes in humour is nothing new and I would think that they form the basis of 99.9% of comedy produced today. Just look at Little Britain, a programme based on nothing but stereotypes. On another thread a number of people expressed their support for Basil Fawlty and his encounter wth the Germans, as the most memorable thing on British TV. What's that about?

We are bombarded with stereotypes on a daily basis and I find it very difficult to believe that you, Willow, could not detect the satire in my original post. Perhaps we now live in an age where hyper-sensitivity has undermined the basis of satire and replaced it with a sanitised simulacrum where people are afraid to laugh, for fear of how they will perceived by others?
As I said before, it's a shame.

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Fair enough,but are any of them ginger:rolleyes:

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:D You are actually illustrating my point!

You are not reading my words in the same way you would hear them if I was saying them. If you were then you wouldn't have said all of that. Stereotyping of bigots is just as bad as stereotyping races. Like the idea that all Welshmen can sing. It's silly and of course people should know that it's silly. But silly should not automatically be offensive. When people do "Irish" humour I can choose to be offended or I can choose to be amused - the amusement comes on two levels, one at the joke itself and on a deeper level at the idea of the nonsensical stereotyping.

Do you see what I'm saying yet?


OK, I give up.

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Note to willow:

We only just get Tin Monkey's humour in stanley forum...that took a while :p

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Stereotyping is a natural, human response. We can never hope to know everyone we come across everyday, so by grouping them together it helps us to make sense of the world. The vast majority of people know that stereotypes aren't accurate depictions of whoever, but that doesn't stop them from being useful in many cases.

I actually agree that internet messageboards are prone to misunderstandings, as there is nothing but words on a screen to help us to understand how the message is being transmitted. However, things like 'winky smilies' do give us a clue when something is said in jest and I assumed (wrongly it would seem) that people would understand that.

Let's just agree that I'm right and leave it at that. ;) <--- winky smilie

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That's why I had to move on here :D ;)

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You make it sound like I'm saying it's ALL of Catherine Tate's fault for the bullies... that's just silly.... I just mentioned it because she got mentioned in a previous post. And she makes fun of herself.... big deal... I do that all the time....
I've only watched a couple of the episodes.... didn't draw me in... maybe I should give it one more go....
Lea
xXx

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Ahhhh... now that's a different matter altogether. How audiences decode meaning in texts is a complex debate and much depends on the hegemonic nature of the media itself.
Anyway, I thought we'd agreed that I was right?? :p

Seems our discussion is a little unpopular with some. I've already had a couple of negative karma comments left. :D

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Not with me, it isn't! Two of the "big beasts" (metaphorically speaking) of Accyweb lock horns...fascinating stuff!

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Do you know if you get a book of different shades of colours as in a pantone book for mixing paint or inks there is not a pantone ginger.There's every other colour under the sun but no ginger.Is this a form of discrimination.It's not under red or ......it's just not there.

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I'd stop debating Willow.

Just give the Monkey a good spanking instead.

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why is ginger hair so frowned upon or looked down on?

i mean i can understand if was cuz ginger rhymes with minger... but thats a recent thing - the whole anti-ginger thing is age-old and i cant seem to find out why

ginger girls are hot in bed. the end.

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Now Mani thats quite offensive are you saying that brunettes and blondes aren't:D

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You'r right there Wynonie, can't get enough of this great crack.:D;)

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And wonder how he came to this conclusion in the first place .. :rolleyes:

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Is there something your not telling us Katex?:D

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Eeew hek Grego ! No .. just shows how text can be misinterpreted (proving points above).. :eek:

Just sorta' meant, like, ahem, .. how many had Mani 'trialed' to make such an assumption .. hope that explains it. :o

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Read heads were around before blondes (who will be extinct in 200 years according to scientists) and dark haired people. Besides red headed blue eyed people are the original inhabitants in the British Isles until the was the start of our imigration problems.

Was red when younger and had red stuble which is now greying faster than GW Bush changes his mind. :(

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An explanation would be a great help mani, personally iv'e never noticed with the lights out:D.

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Its a variation and proberly was in the past in Ireland red hair blue eyes in this neck of the woods. Personally hair colour shouldnt matter its the person themselves that count.

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Sure it was the lights out and not you with a blindfold on? :p

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Haha, moving house because your ginger, that is terrible, so what if some people have a go at ya for it ? I am ginger(though I tan easily and never burn :) ) and heavy sarcasm along with fake gratitude ususually shuts up any comments.

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The only refuge for this family is to move to Easterhouse, just outside Glasgow.

99.9% of residents there are ginger. There is safety in numbers.:D

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I wouldnt send any poor soul to Easterhouse just because of hair colour.

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GorillaMask.net: South Park: Cartman's 'Ginger Kids' Speech

[Warning - contains some strong language and ginger related humour] ;)

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Brilliant that T M, karma your way.

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Oh good, I could just eat a curry...... oh, hang on...... ;)

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You're quite right Willow. At least in this area of the country many kids and adults are dying their hair red. Plus my wife is a redhead so i tend to like it anyhow.

Brian

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Golbert Blythe was teasing Anne about the colour of her hair, in that North American classic, Anne of Green Gables, which was written in 1908.

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[quote=garinda;431962]Golbert Blythe/quote]

Gilbert Blythe*

Oh I do wish we had the edit button back.

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I hadn't even noticed that :D

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I always thought South Park was Canadian for some reason :rolleyes:

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That was hilarious Tin Monkey, the last one in the slide show said it all, the most amusing thing for me was the teachers attitude to the barracker.:D

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Brief Thread break

Willow, you've never heard or seen or heard of Anne Of Green Gables? It's been made into a very delightful movie series. My ladies watch it over and over.

Actually, really not a thread break because the Red Hair issue is oft an issue!

Brian

Oh, never saw South Park and rather it wasn't from this country!

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