Apparently, women with red hair have an increased risk of endometriosis; experts guess that the gene determining red hair might be located near other genes that make women susceptible to endometriosis. And what are the problems associated with endometriosis? Abnormally difficult or painful menstruation, menstrual disturbances and infertility and of course premenstrual tension leading to "witch-like" symptoms.Special attention is also given to the global prejudice against red heads, including this interesting snippet.
In Corsica, the home of the redheaded Emperor Nero, if you pass a redhead on the street you spit and turn around claims Sylvia Stevez, the founder of Association Francaise des Rousses, a red-headed liberation movement.The article also dips into folklore and the ancient prejudice which has metamorphosed into the gingerism we see today.
Think back, way back to biblical times. Remember Judas, the red haired, red bearded, ultimate betrayer? Or, Mary Magdalene, the redheaded "reformed prostitute"? The ancient evil Egyptian God of chaos and storms, Seth, was another famous red-head. Throughout history and across continents redheads have often been viewed as "others" or witches, not quite human.Final interest can be given to the impact of gingerism in very recent British history.
These past few years have not been good ones for British redheads. First, Frank Dobson, the London mayoral candidate, told a press conference his mother warned him "to steer clear of redheads". Then, an advertisement campaign staged for NPower, a British utility company, implied that redheads were a sorry lot. Redheads were up in arms. So much so that The Advertising Standards Authority made NPower remove their ads. (Ed: actually, the npower ads were not removed.) And then, Neil Kinnock suggested it might be disadvantageous to be a ginga if you wanted to be prime minister. Of course, he lost the election.Read more
Side note: If anyone can obtain more information about Association Francaise des Rousses (in English: French Association of the Red Ones), could you please post your findings in the comments.
8 comments:
Oh come on the article is fabulous. It points out how predujice can spread and be maintained and nobody even realizes it.
This is great. Read the original. You picked out odd paragraphs that is why it is strange. I am proud to be a ginga and I think this paper should be read. It shows interesting pieces of folklore and how bias can spread.
I agree.I think you should read the original. I am also a gingersnap and am proud of it. I enjoyed the article and wish there were more articles around like this for me to read about the old wives tales.Does anyone know of anymore like this?
The original is on a medical website at
www.onmedica.com/newsArticle.aspx?id=5d3b3182-e8a8-4f05-8d0a-4585b0047a69
but they do not have any more articles on red hair.
You're all right - I totally misunderstood the point of this story. I apologise for this.
I will rewrite this article today.
@Anonymous: You may find more wives tales / prejudice origin descriptions on Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/78ggjm
The original is a very fascinating piece of folklore and science. Especially the part about finches with red feathers. I know that my vet has often said that red hair dogs are more highstrung than any other dogs. I will go to Wikipedia to see if I can find more fascinating facts but I always find Wikipedia to be full of inaccurate information and would never rely on it.
Sorry guys I haven't had time to rewrite this article as promised - there's too much red head prejudice to cover in the mean time!
I must be dumb or something but I dopn't understand why you say the article is strange. Please explain to me what is strange. I don't see anything strange about it except your comments. if you are going to run a website about biases then learn to curb your own. Carrot tops like us don't need one of our own kind (and I assume your are a genuine red) makeing silly mistakes.
confusion from just another red head
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