Celebrate the Gingers!!!

Gingerism (prejudice/discrimination towards redheads)
Red hair was thought to be a mark of a beastly sexual desire and moral degeneration. A savage red-haired man is portrayed in the fable by Grimm brothers (Der Eisenhans) as the spirit of the forest of iron. Theophilus Presbyter describes how the blood of a red-haired young man is necessary to create gold from copper, in a mixture with the ashes of a basilisk.[47]
Montague Summers, in his translation of the Malleus Maleficarum,[48] notes that red hair and green eyes were thought to be the sign of a witch, a werewolf or a vampire during the Middle Ages;
Those whose hair is red, of a certain peculiar shade, are unmistakably vampires. It is significant that in ancient Egypt, as Manetho tells us, human sacrifices were offered at the grave of Osiris, and the victims were red-haired men who were burned, their ashes being scattered far and wide by winnowing-fans. It is held by some authorities that this was done to fertilize the fields and produce a bounteous harvest, red-hair symbolizing the golden wealth of the corn. But these men were called Typhonians, and were representatives not of Osiris but of his evil rival Typhon, whose hair was red.
In modern-day UK, despite (or because of) being one of the places with the highest populations of redheads, the words "ginger" or "ginga" are sometimes derogatorily used to describe red-headed people, with terms such as "gingerphobia" (fear of redheads)[49] or "gingerism" (prejudice against redheads)[50] used by the media. Redheads are also sometimes referred to disparagingly as "carrot tops" and "carrot heads". "Gingerism" has been compared to racism, although this is widely disputed, and bodies such as the UK Commission for Racial Equality do not monitor cases of discrimination and hate crimes against redheads.[50] A UK woman recently won an award from a tribunal after being sexually harassed and receiving abuse because of her red hair;[51] a family in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, was forced to move twice after being targeted for abuse and hate crime on account of their red hair;[52] and in 2003, a 20 year old was stabbed in the back for "being ginger."[53]
This prejudice has been satirised on a number of TV shows. The British comedian Catherine Tate (herself a redhead) appeared as a red haired character in a running sketch of her series The Catherine Tate Show. The sketch saw fictional character Sandra Kemp, who was forced to seek solace in a refuge for ginger people because they had been ostracised from society.[54] The British comedy Bo' Selecta! (starring redhead, Leigh Francis) featured a spoof documentary which involved a caricature of red-haired "Simply Red" singer Mick Hucknall presenting a show in which celebrities (played by themselves) dyed their hair red for a day and went about daily life being insulted by people. In real life, Hucknall has commented that derogatory references to his red hair are a form of bigotry.[55]
The pejorative use of the word "ginger", and related discrimination, was used to illustrate a point about racism and prejudice in the "Ginger Kids" episode of South Park.
Films and television programmes often portray school bullies as having red hair;[56] for example, Scut Farkus from A Christmas Story or the O'Doyle family in the movie Billy Madison. Also, the bully character "Caruso" in "Everybody Hates Chris" is a redhead. However, children with red hair are often themselves targeted by bullies; "Somebody with ginger hair will stand out from the crowd," says anti-bullying expert Louise Burfitt-Dons. He goes on to say "redheads are most likely be successful in life." [57]



Red Hair festival
Redheadday is the name of a Dutch summer festival that takes place each first weekend of September in the city of Breda, the Netherlands. The two-day festival is a gathering of people with natural red hair, but is also focused on art related to the colour red. Activities during the festival are lectures, workshops and demonstrations. The festival attracts attendance from 20 countries and is free due to sponsorship of the local government.





LET US CELEBRATE THE GINGERS AND THEIR AWESOMENESS!!!