A cat named Fanta Pants

LUCKY little Fanta Pants is one effervescent cat. Despite having an amputated left hind leg and tail, this redhead can run around like the best of them.

Source: Herald Sun

Gordon Ramsay to Mario Batali: Fanta Pants

Gordon Ramsay has been referring to Mario Batali as Fanta Pants since a feud erupted between the pair in the summer of 2007. The feud seems to have been caused by comments Batali made about Ramsay's food, describing it as dull and outdated, and claiming Gordon had no understanding of the importance of ingredients.

In retaliation, Ramsay refers to Mario Batali as Fanta Pants, an insult which Batali doesn't quite understand.

"Now he goes about town calling me Fanta Pants." What? Because you sometimes wear orange shorts? "I suppose."

Source: The Guardian

Excellent overview of global redhead prejudice

From Sydney Morning Herald:

"Some months ago the sports pages and in fact all media reported on the incident of Andrew Symonds being called a 'monkey' by an opposing player," Leseley began. "Today, Kerry O'Keefe saw fit to call all redheads 'rangas' (orang-utans)." Why was one ape-ish label OK, and the other not, she asked, and ended with a plea. "I need to know that somewhere, someone may hear and agree."

I hear you, Leseley Willmott. I, too, am borderline ginger, and was quite dangerously so as a child. Ours is an affliction many with high levels of the pigment pheomelanin have endured throughout history. There is some evidence that the ancient Egyptians buried us alive. The ancient Greeks thought our humours - phlegm, yellow bile, black bile and blood - unbalanced.

In Britain, where the persecution of such people is virtually a national pastime, the BBC reported in 2003 that a 20-year-old man had been stabbed three times in the back outside a wine bar in West Yorkshire after comments were made about his ginger hair.

As recently as last year, the Beeb reported that a family had been forced to move home twice because of their children's orangeness.

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Fanta pants added to the Macquarie Dictionary

This is a follow up to our previous article "Fanta pants" in the running for Macquarie Dictionary's 2008 word of the year.

It seems the use of the phrase "Fanta pants" reached an all time high in 2008, enough for it to be added to the Macquarie online dictionary. The popularity of the "crude nickname for redheads" is part of an overall global rise in prejudice against ginger haired people.

Macquarie is still accepting votes for the 2008 word of the year. You can find Fanta pants in the Colloquial section.

// (say 'fantuh pants)
noun Originally British Colloquial a person whose hair is naturally red. [from the orange-coloured soft drink Fanta + pants, with reference to pubic hair as the indicator of hair colour]

"Fanta pants" in the running for Macquarie Dictionary's 2008 word of the year

From Herald Sun:

REDHEADS are in for a tough time if "fanta pants" wins Macquarie Dictionary's 2008 word of the year.

Macquarie defines it as a colloquial term for a natural redhead: "From the orange-coloured soft drink + pants, with reference to pubic hair as indicator of hair colour."

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Noel Gallagher vs Mick Hucknall with a tinge of gingerism

This open note from Noel Gallagher was apparently addressed to Mick Hucknall as a direct response to Oasis-targeted insults by Mick.

You still going? Wow.

The last time I heard of you, Fanta-pants, you were getting slung out of Knebworth for being s*** and fat.

What you have to say about Manchester and its righteous natives is irrelevant as you are from Warrington.

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Rangas see red over insulting nickname

From Brisbane Times:

Sticks and stones may break bones but names like 'Pom' and 'Ranga' can be just as injurious, according to some on the receiving end of the common taunts.

In fact, so strongly do some British and ginger-haired Australians feel, they have petitioned to have the terms removed from the Macquarie Dictionary.

[...]

As for redheads, Ms Butler said Australians terms like 'Ranga' - popularised by the ABC comedy series Summer Height's High - were far less malicious than some used in places like northern England, where attacks against "Gingerism" had led to actual violence.

The practice has also spread across the Atlantic, with a Canadian group created on social networking site Facebook declaring National Kick a Ginger Day in late November which attracted more than 5000 members.

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