# Why do British people make fun of people with red "ginger" hair? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 13, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063 "2010-10-13T23:48:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/41 "2010-10-14T13:43:05Z")
“Beaten like a redheaded stepchild” is just one formation of “beaten like [a thing that doesn’t belong to you]” also seen in “beaten like a rented mule.” I’ve never noticed any anti-redhead-ism growing up (I have red hair). More traumatizing was being associated with that saccharine play “Annie” which was on Broadway when I was a little redheaded girl. UGH! I would say blondes are the more-insulted hair color in the US, with the insults revolving around their alleged stupidity. I’m pretty sure “South Park” kids picked up their anti-ginger sentiment from Terrence & Phillip, who, as we all know are Canadian. The term “ginger” was only common among Anglophiles before then. ---
**Author:** ![blush\_RedTail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@blush\_RedTail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blush_RedTail)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/42 "2010-10-14T15:06:32Z")
i’m a redhead (in the US). Was bright orange when young and it has darkened as i age, but is still red. i came from a family of redheads - my brother & sisters and both parents had it so i never knew red hair was unusual until i was older. i remember asking my sister if she liked having red hair - and she told me she loved it as she liked being different. From that moment on, i was proud of it. i’d really recommend to any of you that have a child/grand child with redhair to instill the same pride in it (especially if they are the only one in the family with it.) They should never feel shame for ‘being different’. And as a result, i’ve always taken the teasing and attention as fun. i like being different. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/43 "2010-10-14T15:27:34Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > As far as the proverbial red-headed stepchild goes, I always understood that the reason he got beaten was that he was a very visible reminder that there had been another man at some point–presumably the source of the red hair. Like this for instance - [Conspiracy Planet - The Alternative News & History Network](http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=41) . ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/44 "2010-10-14T15:35:57Z")
It’s only really for boys, not girls, and it varies from banter between mates to actual nastiness, with most of it being banter. You know the way boys will trade insults for fun? Sometimes they might use ginger as an insult for that, but it doesn’t have any more real meaning than Your Mum jokes. However, I did work at one school where a redheaded boy was teased constantly for his hair colour - and I mean he couldn’t do anything, say anything, go anywhere without people calling names after him. Kids refused to sit with the ginger. He’d open his mouth to say something and be drowned out by shouts of ‘ginger.’ There was nothing at all else unusual about him, except that he was also the only white kid in the class, so to me it smacked strongly of racism. None of the teachers (I was a student teacher) took it seriously, because usually it is just friendly teasing, but in his case it wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/45 "2010-10-14T16:07:04Z")
> [@robert\_andrews](#): > > > [@dangermom](#): > > > > Red hair used to be considered ugly, on this side of the pond as well. Remember Anne Shirley’s agonies over her red hair? > > Which makes me suspect that if it was ethnic prejudice, at least in L. M. Montgomery’s mind, it was anti-Irish rather than anti-Scottish, since that region of Canada is like 90% Scottish. Hm, Anne was Presbyterian…anyway AFAIK it wasn’t just eastern Canada, it was everywhere; red hair was just considered to be ugly. ---
**Author:** ![koufax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@koufax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koufax)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/46 "2010-10-14T16:07:34Z")
My brown haired brother would constantly say to me “red on the head like the tip of a dog’s dick” He has mellowed over the years, thank god. A few years ago I was in an office and the receptionist was a VERY hot young red headed woman. I asked her if all her brothers and sisters had red hair and she replied sarcastically. “no, they all have blonde hair. I’m the lucky one, at least that is what my mother would always tell me.” Another attractive young woman told me she hated it because she stood out and always seemed to always get the blame at school from teachers. I am pretty weird to begin with so I would probably be fucked up with dark hair and a great tan, but having bright orange hair (it is now dark in my old age) fucked me up as a kid. Catholic school didn’t help. I was in the Army for three years and in one of the classes this asshole instructor kept calling me “pinky” which embarrassed the hell out of me. I switched high schools in my senior year to get away from these two “friends” who fucked with me constantly about it. When my wife was pregnant (unplanned) , I would worry constantly about having a red headed kid. She has blond hair and it was a great relief. I am almost ashamed to admit that. The good news is I had a girlfriend who was very attractive (and very insecure) and I was telling her how fucked up it was to grow up with red hair and she looked at me and said " I LIKE red hair." I was shocked, to be honest. And recently I had a young woman working for me who had a red haired boyfriend and she was telling me how much she liked it. Like I said , mine is dark now and she didn’t believe me when I said I had hair the same color when I was his age. So people do fuck with “gingies”, but they fuck with short people, very tall people, overweight people and etc etc etc etc etc etc But damn, this brought back some bad memories. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/47 "2010-10-14T16:20:15Z")
I was born in Britain and lived through most of the 1950s, '60s, '70s and '80’s there. (Yeah, I’m old, what about it?) The word ginger (as an adjective) was certainly in common use to describe redheads then, but I do not remember ever noticing or hearing about redheads suffering from prejudice or teasing any more than anybody else might. I now live in the USA, but I still make some efforts to keep up with what is going in British culture. Via the internet, I listen to quite a lot of BBC radio and sometimes look at online British newspapers and magazines, and, just in the last few years I have definitely started hearing a lot of jokes, often quite mean, and other prejudicial remarks about “gingers,” and stories about them being picked on. Frankly, I have found it rather disturbing, with much nastier undertones than blonde jokes (I am neither a blond nor a redhead myself). I cannot say that none of this ever happened before, but it seems to have grown enormously quite recently. I doubt very much whether it has anything to do with anti-Irish prejudice. Although that certainly exists, I know of no other signs or reasons why it should have markedly increased recently. My guess is that this one of one of those “memes,” silly fads (such as catchphrases) that seem to catch on for no particular reason, probably started by a joke in some comedy TV show or comic stand-up act. As I do not actually live in Britain, I can’t say exactly who may have started it. Perhaps someone who still lives there might know. I can only hope that it dies out as quickly as it seems to have arisen. It is possible, even, that it actually started with the “joke” in _South Park_, which given the unpredictability of fads, might have somehow caught on in Britain even though it did not (or not nearly so much) in America. However, as it seems to be so much more of a British phenomenon, it seems more likely that it started with some British joker, and that _South Park_ was just picking up the trend from there. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/48 "2010-10-14T16:33:29Z")
Interesting that The Doctor actually wants to be Ginger ("still not Ginger) but even though he usually has a British accent, technically he’s an alien. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/49 "2010-10-14T16:49:23Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > It is possible, even, that it actually started with the “joke” in _South Park_, which given the unpredictability of fads, might have somehow caught on in Britain even though it did not (or not nearly so much) in America. However, as it seems to be so much more of a British phenomenon, it seems more likely that it started with some British joker, and that _South Park_ was just picking up the trend from there. No, it definitely goes back further than that. I was at school in the 1980s and the ginger kids came in for plenty of stick. “Duracell” was the standard nickname in those days. ([Duracells,](http://nmproducts.net/images/Duracell_Batteries_set.jpg) for anyone not familiar with them.) ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/50 "2010-10-14T18:01:58Z")
Ginger is an anagram of nigger. I think that makes it clear what’s going on over there. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/51 "2010-10-14T18:34:57Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > I guess you have never heard of blonde jokes? They don’t feel pain either. Seriously, I was surprised by the South Park episode. I had no clue there was a whole ginger thing going on. Red heads have always been hot commodities in my neck of the woods. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/52 "2010-10-14T18:41:53Z")
I’ve always had a preference for red-headed women. 🙂 Red-headed women are hot! ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/53 "2010-10-14T18:49:29Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > What’s up with all the ginger jokes? I’ve seen this countless times, and honestly, I don’t recall ever seeing or hearing someone from the US make fun of someone for being a redhead. It depends on where you are in the US. Being a little redhead in New England is rougher than it is in a lot of places. My little brother and I, both redheads like our mom, were bullied mercilessly, as were our classmates with red hair, until middle school. Boys and girls, got teased, not just boys as some people in this thread are saying about other places. Boys did have it worse, though, because they were more likely to hit too - probably why fully 1/2th of my brother’s karate class was redheads (bear in mind that even here we’re only 4% of the population…) It was a lot of fun to get grief over being a redhead every goddamn day for six years, [let me tell you](http://threateningloveletters.blogspot.com/2009/07/musings-of-redhead.html). My mother theorizes that little kids get teased over their hair here because it’s leftover anti-Irish sentement, which I guess makes sense since there are redheads who grew up out west, where there are typically fewer Irish folks, who claim they were never teased. ---
**Author:** ![koufax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@koufax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koufax)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/54 "2010-10-14T18:55:57Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > Ginger is an anagram of nigger. I think that makes it clear what’s going on over there. I hope you were kidding, because as a red head, (see above) I was never discriminated against when looking for a job or an apartment or profiled when I was driving around. ---
**Author:** ![falcotron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3ab097/32.png) [@falcotron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/falcotron)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/55 "2010-10-14T19:02:49Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > Interesting that The Doctor actually wants to be Ginger ("still not Ginger) but even though he usually has a British accent, technically he’s an alien. Yes, but he’s a British alien. In the novels, he’s even defended that description of himself. And there are lots of jokes about it (“Even when you pick up an American girl, she’s saying ‘lift’ within two weeks”, “My dear Doctor, Kamelion is the only non-human in the galaxy who’s more British than the two of us–but then it’s easier to keep a stiff upper lip when…”). The TV series hasn’t brought it up as often, but “Lots of planets have a North” was almost enough on its own. Anyway, the other interesting thing about the “still not ginger” line is that the Moff intentionally wrote that to combat anti-ginger prejudice, but enough people misunderstood it (thinking he was _relieved_ not to be ginger) that the BBC was swamped with angry letters of protest. Which was a nice reminder that sometimes, Brits are just as dumb as us Americans. (Well, unless you count Peri as an American, in which case we still win for dumb.) ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/56 "2010-10-14T19:16:18Z")
> [@Mertyn86](#): > > Missed the editing window, looks like there is at least one case of a ginger hate crime:eek: One cannot dismiss the possibility that these people are wingnuts. ---
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/57 "2010-10-14T20:41:44Z")
> [@Mertyn86](#): > > Oh I live just outside London, cockney is hardly used anymore, and I’m pretty sure no one would ever use the term ginger as slang for gay. This is most definitely not true. I know many people from many places and backgrounds and of various ages who use ginger to mean gay, and have heard it used by random punters on buses etc in several parts of the UK. Anyway. I can’t recall any case of bullying or even prolonged teasing relating to red hair in the ten years that I’ve been teaching. I personally have seldom had any remark made about my hair (which is a sort of Welsh gold colour) that wasn’t complimentary. In fact nowadays (since it grew out of being basically orange) strangers actually come up to me to pay me compliments. I don’t think it’s quite such a huge problem as the Americans seem to think. All my other comments on red-headedness have been made in previous, similar, threads. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/58 "2010-10-14T20:47:37Z")
> [@Teacake](#): > > > [@Mertyn86](#): > > > > Oh I live just outside London, cockney is hardly used anymore, and I’m pretty sure no one would ever use the term ginger as slang for gay. > > This is most definitely not true. I know many people from many places and backgrounds and of various ages who use ginger to mean gay, and have heard it used by random punters on buses etc in several parts of the UK. I have heard the term used this way occasionally on some UK TV show I was watching (don’t remember what), usually it’s just used to refer to someone with red hair, but > [@Colophon](#): > > (BTW when used as a term of abuse, “ginger” is pronounced to rhyme with “singer”, and with a hard initial G. I have no idea why.) this, I have \*never \*heard. Every single time I’ve heard the term on a UK show or movie, it’s been with 2 soft G’s. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/59 "2010-10-14T20:48:56Z")
Britain has a robust sense of humour (unlike America, it would appear). If you show yourself to be sensitive to a particular criticism, you merely attract an additional stream of it (especially in the army). ---
**Author:** ![fortytwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f9ae1b/32.png) [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/60 "2010-10-14T21:14:05Z")
> [@koufax](#): > > > [@BlankSlate](#): > > > > Ginger is an anagram of nigger. I think that makes it clear what’s going on over there. > > I hope you were kidding, because as a red head, (see above) I was never discriminated against when looking for a job or an apartment or profiled when I was driving around. You’re far too polite. It’s the biggest load of bollocks I’ve ever read in GQ. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063.md?page=4)