![]() ![]() ![]() A similar obsession with red hair as a marker of difference appeared in early expressions of anti-Semitism. Red hair was a first step to what would later become the professional clown’s red nose. ![]() As early as Aristophanes, the Thracians were being mocked for their red hair, and on stage it appeared in the form of wigs worn by slaves who were viewed as comically lazy and inept. So-called “gingerism” has become one of the last socially acceptable forms of prejudice.Īs Jacky Colliss Harvey points out in this bright and breezy cultural history, such discrimination runs like a scarlet thread through civilisation. I would do a ginger.” Presumably the audience’s reaction would have been rather different if she had replaced “ginger” with “Jew”. Ginger Nuts.Įven attempts to encourage acceptance can carry a faint whiff of condescension, as Taylor Swift demonstrated in 2012 when she told TV interviewer Alan Carr: “I like people with red hair. ![]() Enter any school playground or workplace, and the insults quickly start to flow. (“What do you call 10 blondes standing ear to ear? A wind tunnel.”) If there are comparatively few jokes about redheads, that is probably because people rarely feel the need to hide their hostility behind a smile. Some years ago, there was a vogue for “dumb blonde” jokes, which played on the popular suspicion that people with blonde hair were far more likely to be vain or vacuous than their mousy friends. ![]()
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