orange power
A red-haired family claims to have been driven from their Newcastle home because of abuse. Why is the harassment of redheads dismissed as just harmless fun?
Here’s a joke. “What’s the difference between a terrorist and a redhead?”
Here’s the punchline. “You can negotiate with a terrorist.”
BBC News
Really? I knew the Irish and the British weren’t exactly best friends forever, but this seems bizarre. Also, there’s apparently an entire mythology surrounding redheads that I was unaware of. The first commenter writes:
Redheads are feared because they are believed in folklore to be the devil’s children and have red hair because they were conceived during their mother’s menstruation.A welsh proverb says “os bydd goch, fe fydd gythreulig” or “if he’s redhaired then he is of the devil”. Yesterday’s superstition has become today’s teasing.
L, Wales
My favorite though, is the BBC sidebar with relevant facts about redheads:
[There is] Disagreement over redheads’ reputed higher pain tolerance.
Oh, yeah, it’s why we have absolutely no objection to being beaten, it tickles.
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Posted by Red Scott @ 10:27 am
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alol — I picked up on this article when it was originally published, too, and sent it to my now-hubster, who has ginger in his beard. “Ginger” is a bad word in London — an insult — and I remember when I henna-d my hair while living there, my friend, the captain of the Rugby team, noticed and said, “oh, yes! that’s very nice — not gingery at all. A lovely auburn.” In a very approving tone, as if he’d feared the result would be otherwise o_O
Comment by Tasha — November 12, 2007 @ 3:06 pm