I have a 1 year old son, baby Joel, who has red hair.
My family on my Dad's side are Irish Catholic, and although me and my wife are both brown-haired, Joel has curly red locks. This is a picture of the handsome rogue himself, walking around pretending his blanket is a superhero cape:
Since having a ginger baby, I have started noticing the way ginger males (and some females) are depicted in kids media. They are always annoying little gits covered in freckles, or baddies. Why is that? Maybe I'm over-reacting, but there aren't any male ginger goodies that I can think of... Walt Disney and Pixar, those towers of righteousness, may have finally introduced a black Disney Princess (the princess and the frog), but surely its enough worrying about my one-year-old getting picked on at school without worrying about him being categorized and stereotyped by two of the leading children's media companies. I remember the way people ripped on ginger kids at school, for just no reason whatsoever: it was equivalent to racism; persecuting someone because a part of them was a certain colour; skin or hair, it still boils down to the same principle.
I find it annoying enough that the baddies in Hollywood movies are historically always British thanks to the Revolutionary War (Shere Kahn in the jungle book, everyone on the death star + the evil emperor in Star Wars etc etc etc), but find the caricature of redheads just inexplicable. Female redheads do alright (Wilma Flintstone, Lois Griffin, blah blah blah) but male redheads are just always being subtley (or not so subtley) ridiculed. Leave my one-year-old alone.
In the middle ages, and in Shakespeare, Judas Iscariot is described as having red hair. Also, in the middle ages, having red hair was indication that you might be a witch, werewolf, or vampire. A UK woman recently won an award from a tribunal after being sexually harassed and receiving abuse because of her red hair; a family in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, was forced to move twice after being targeted for abuse and hate crime on account of their red hair; and in 2003, a 20 year old was stabbed in the back for "being ginger". In May 2009, a British schoolboy committed suicide after being bullied for having red hair.
(For more info, see the wikipedia article here)
Prejudice against redheads or gingers is just veiled racism, which on some subtle levels is perpetuated by the media, and needs to be addressed. Fight the power, baby.
My family on my Dad's side are Irish Catholic, and although me and my wife are both brown-haired, Joel has curly red locks. This is a picture of the handsome rogue himself, walking around pretending his blanket is a superhero cape:
Since having a ginger baby, I have started noticing the way ginger males (and some females) are depicted in kids media. They are always annoying little gits covered in freckles, or baddies. Why is that? Maybe I'm over-reacting, but there aren't any male ginger goodies that I can think of... Walt Disney and Pixar, those towers of righteousness, may have finally introduced a black Disney Princess (the princess and the frog), but surely its enough worrying about my one-year-old getting picked on at school without worrying about him being categorized and stereotyped by two of the leading children's media companies. I remember the way people ripped on ginger kids at school, for just no reason whatsoever: it was equivalent to racism; persecuting someone because a part of them was a certain colour; skin or hair, it still boils down to the same principle.
This is Titan, the baddie from 'Megamind', the kids animated movie.
This is Syndrome, the baddie from 'The Incredibles', the kids animated movie.
This is Darla, the only human baddie in 'Finding Nemo', the kids animated movie.
In the middle ages, and in Shakespeare, Judas Iscariot is described as having red hair. Also, in the middle ages, having red hair was indication that you might be a witch, werewolf, or vampire. A UK woman recently won an award from a tribunal after being sexually harassed and receiving abuse because of her red hair; a family in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, was forced to move twice after being targeted for abuse and hate crime on account of their red hair; and in 2003, a 20 year old was stabbed in the back for "being ginger". In May 2009, a British schoolboy committed suicide after being bullied for having red hair.
(For more info, see the wikipedia article here)
Prejudice against redheads or gingers is just veiled racism, which on some subtle levels is perpetuated by the media, and needs to be addressed. Fight the power, baby.
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