# 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:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/81 "2010-10-15T17:09:57Z")
> [@robert\_andrews](#): > > The anti-redhead sentiment is one of the things that confused me reading Anne of Green Gables - I didn’t understand why Anne wouldn’t like her red hair - to a teen boy in the South in the 90’s, red hair was CUTE! It was cute on Prince Edward Island, too. Remember, **the boy who teases Anne about her hair ends up marrying her**. Evidently he didn’t find it unattractive. Kids make fun of other kids. It doesn’t matter if red hair is attractive or not. It’s just something else you can make fun of. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/82 "2010-10-16T11:10:58Z")
As a kid there was a myth going around that became a self fulfilling prophecy, that ginger haired people were literally “hotheads” and quick to anger or even to become violent. As such they were given more leeway when they had temper tantrums, and accordingly had them more often because of the lack of stigma for their behaviour. This myth seems to have died out. As to the routine teasing of redheads this puzzles me, I haven’t noticed it personally. I have had two redheaded g/fs and one place that I worked at it became incredibly trendy for the women to die their hair a very noticeable shade of red. I think that the teasing on t.v. is teasing for teasings sake, the same teasing would happen if the person was very tall/short/blonde or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/83 "2010-10-16T13:24:49Z")
I always assumed that, as a couple of other people have mentioned, it was a dilution of the old belief that redheads were witches. (And therefore, basically, just another manifestation of the human tendency to assume that different=evil). I also remember reading that redheads were once considered to be particularly bad luck on board ship. I pay good money to be a redhead. ---
**Author:** ![Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/84 "2010-10-16T16:15:25Z")
Don’t know if this helps, but living in the UK most of my life, I’ve very rarely heard girls/women with ginger hair being made fun of (definitely not if they’re very pretty to boot). It’s usually lads, perhaps a little on the portly side, very pale, mountain of freckles on the face. In my experience, it was primarily a schoolyard thing too. Amongst adults, it’s more of a blonde joke thing. Do Americans have a problem with blonde jokes? Got a lot of issues with ‘having a blonde moment’? I’m blonde myself, and it has never bothered me. There’s also a difference between ginger and red in my mind. Charles Kennedy is ginger, Julianne Moore is red. But that may just be a regional/personal circle perception/definition. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/85 "2010-10-17T13:49:48Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > Here’s a question. Surely red hair must be fairly common in the UK, right? How often does it occur? From the venerable wikipedia: > [@](#): > > Redheads constitute approximately 4% of the European population. Scotland has the highest proportion of redheads; 13% of the population has red hair and approximately 40% carries the recessive redhead gene. Ireland has the second highest percentage; as many as 10% of the Irish population has red, auburn, or strawberry blond hair. It is thought that up to 46 percent of the Irish population carries the recessive redhead gene. Red hair reaches frequencies of up to 10 percent in Wales. It doesn’t give its prevalence in the UK as a whole though. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/86 "2010-10-18T13:50:02Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > My own little ginger girl has hair of a [beautiful and unusual shade.](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_vBMG0kK63HI/SHw61DptlmI/AAAAAAAABRY/zX5-cHyiiCY/s640/200605250179.JPG) She is self-conscious about it because _everyone_ comments on it and she doesn’t like that, but she knows that everyone thinks it’s beautiful. Red hair is pretty much universally admired these days in the US/Canada. What a lovely little girl. Is she part Asian? According to author Eleanor Herman red hair was commonly thought to be the product of sex while a woman was menstruating. Women with red hair were therefore thought to be more sexually open and promiscuous. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/87 "2010-10-18T14:22:36Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > What a lovely little girl. Is she part Asian? Oh thank you! Nope, that would be her cousins–she is pure British Isles mutt, with the Irish on top. In the summer I often wish I could dip her in sunscreen like a sheep dip. ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/88 "2010-10-20T01:46:42Z")
I remember in middle school they used to say " red pubes" whatever lol ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/89 "2010-10-31T08:50:06Z")
And the British Labour Deputy Leader is in trouble for referring to a rival politician as a [“ginger rodent”](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-11658228) this week! ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/90 "2010-11-07T10:29:13Z")
GINGER. It’s just a word. Made up of an ‘N’, an ‘I’, a couple of 'G’s an ‘E’ and an ‘R’. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/KVN_0qvuhhw/hqdefault.jpg "Prejudice by Tim Minchin") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVN_0qvuhhw) ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063/91 "2010-11-07T12:07:06Z")
Aren’t the French stereotypically supposed to have reddish-brown hair as well? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-british-people-make-fun-of-people-with-red-ginger-hair/557063.md?page=4)