Even Anne of Green Gables suffered under unfair stereotypes. Redheads have been the target of Even Anne of Green Gables suffered under unfair stereotyping. Redheads have been the target of derogatory jokes and ridiculous generalizations for generations, in both literature and real life.
I remember a particularly infuriating occasion in which a boy stuck his head out of the bus window as I was walking home, screaming, “You don’t have a soul!”
Every time I get angry, my feelings are invalidated and I am written off as an “angry redhead.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m angry, but my current demeanor has nothing to do with my “carrot top,” but rather the way I’m treated in modern culture.
According to a survey conducted by the University College Cork, based on 1,742 red-heads scattered across 20 countries, 60 percent of males and 47.3 percent of females said that they had experienced some form of discrimination as a result of their hair color.
Many times, redheads are subject to cruel jokes that do not only attack them, but their identities as well.
Slapstick humor targeting women and minorities is looked down upon. Redheads are one of the remaining groups of people that suffer from socially accepted stereotypes.
In 2010, three middle-school boys were detained in California for ganging up on a red-headed boy on what they deemed “National Kick a Ginger Day,” created as a result of the show South Park. The police began an investigation after a concerned nurse alerted the principal as she treated the boy for bruises and bloody injuries, according to the LA Times.
After multiple episodes criticizing redheads, South Park has only contributed to society’s demeaning attitude, even inspiring its fans to violently attack other people.
Disturbingly, the only reason these boys attacked another student was for the color of his hair. Race, gender, age and sexual orientation are all factors for which people have faced discrimination and persecution. Hair-based discrimination, although not as serious as other forms, still deserves attention and consideration.
YouTuber Michael Kittrel rose to YouTube fame after posting a video entitled “GINGERS DO HAVE SOULS!!” The video depicted Kittrell ranting about the way that South Park made fun of redheads, suggesting they were soulless. With 37 million views, Kittrell’s justified anger became trivialized and ignored, and he became known as the “angry ginger kid.” He ended up using it as a marketing strategy, appealing to the very stereotypes that angered him to begin with by releasing his own single, “Gingerbread.”
However, Kittrell touches upon many valid points, saying: “Gingers, why do gingers get put down so much? What’s so different about us besides our hair color?”
Actually, there’s a lot of things that make redheads different. We compose o four percent of the population, according to BBC, and our hair comes with all kinds of fascinating biological differences: we have the ability to produce our own vitamin D and are more sensitive to thermal pain, according to the Huffington Post.
However, it is the way that people react to a simple genetic mutation that speaks of a culture that is unaccepting and stifling.
It doesn’t matter if it is intended as a joke; something sinister lies underneath. Bullies do not need further ammunition, and no group of people deserves humiliation based on a fundamental component of who they are. The world has a habit of stomping out the light of anything different, redheads included.