Lip Service: Ginger Nuts

It's absolutely no secret that I am an obnoxiously proud ginger, though that was not always the case. I dyed my hair all through my teenage years to get away from my true colors, as it were. However, in the recent past, from last October, I would say, there has been a wave of "pro ginger" publicity in the media, and I feel it started with the beautiful Angela Scanlons amazing documentary, Oi Ginger! 

Angela herself is a beautiful blogger and telly presenter, with the most amazing deep red locks, and her documentary was a fantastic look at the bullying, prejudice and ignorance there is surrounding the ginge. However, in my search to find the documentary in order to re-watch it, I came across a clip from The Saturday Night Show (above), wherein Brendan O'Conner mentions there being a hierarchy within the ginger culture... I have no idea why anyone would think that, to be perfectly honest. We're all ginger, and we've all been bullied. So, on we go, to look at the science and the misery... 

The Ginger Gene; The MC1R gene, is a form of Melanin with a mutation on the one of the chromosomes. This mutation has two different triggers which are responsible for the darker ginge and slightly sallower skin, which Angela has, and the lighter more flame-like red coupled with pasty, glow-in-the-dark levels of pale which I think I possess. Yeah! Science! What I'm trying to say, is that we all carry the MC1R gene, Gingers just carry a mutation, and that mutation is the same in all gingers, just presenting itself differently dependent on the individual. Therefore, there is no hierarchy, Brendan! 

ginger

A human, characterized by pale skin, freckles and bright red hair. "Gingers" are generally considered to be inferior to their more melanin-rich brethren, and thus deservingly discriminated against. Gingers are thought to have no souls. The condition, "gingervitis" is genetic and incurable. 

          The quote above is taken from Urban Dictionary.


As a kid, I was bullied quite badly for my ginger tresses and it was awful. "The roof is on fire" was a common slur during primary school, and the older I got, the worse and more vulgar the bullies got too... I was backed into corners and called such unintelligent and highly un-funny ditties as "ginger pubes" and "carrot top". The abuse did peeter out when I got past the Junior Cert, I continued to dye my noodle just to be safe, and dyed it for 2 years after I finished school. I'm not the only one who took this kind of flack, and I can prove this by sharing the Independent.ie article I was featured in, along with 4 other beautiful red-head ladies, who all have different shades of the ginge. 

We have all experienced bullying, prejudice and probably all have been afraid of people as a direct result of our hair color. We've all heard the jokes, the puns, we've seen memes on Facebook and Pinterest. 

For me, part of what helps me to be strong in the face of bigotry against the Ginge is looking at the amount of amazing, successful gingers there are in the public eye. Rupert Grint, all Potterheads favoite ginger, the Phelps twins, who played Fred and George, Christina Hendricks from Mad Men, Ed Sheeran, Tim Minchin, and my personal favorite, Karen Gillan. 

Source: Cheezburger

What I'm here to say is, screw the haters. Laugh with the people who try to belittle you. They wont continue if they don't get a reaction. Bullies want a reaction, a specific one. They want you to feel bad so they can feel good. Their power is in your pain. If you reclaim that power by laughing along with them so they don't get that powerful feeling, you will be left in peace pretty quickly. I laugh along with people when they try to make fun of my hair color, because they have no power over my self esteem anymore. Many of my friends make ginger jokes, much like "woman" jokes and I laugh because they're now funny to me.

Now, what I do want to say is there will be times you cant laugh it off. There will be times you are deeply hurt, but they won't be half as frequent if you can learn to laugh with them. 

After all, if you don't laugh, you'l cry. 

Drop me a comment, 

Let me know what you thought! 

Amy

xxx

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Red Hair is Unique, So Am I!

“It’s not about how others look at me, it’s about how I look at myself” - Neil Patrick Harris (Beastly)

When you read this, can you honestly agree?

I doubt there are many people out there can legitimately say they have always believed this. How many people do you know, that can say, with their hand on their heart that they are unaffected by the words of others? Is there anyone in the world who doesn't care about whats said about them? If there is, I would like to shake their hand. But I really don't think such a person exists, sadly. Everybody worries about the opinions of others, up to a certain point. That's just how it goes...

Then...

Most of us know how it feels to be belittled in some way, and usually, it's for nothing at all. People will judge you based on how you look, before you even open your mouth to introduce yourself. When we're sent off to school, at the age of 4, or 5, it starts. I have had the unfortunate experience of being bullied from Senior Infants, right up to the Junior Cert because of my hair. My hair!! It made me want to do anything to fit in. I briefly had blonde highlights as a teenager, wore make-up, tried to dress trendily. It didn't really suit me, if I'm honest... I didn't, and still don't suit that kind of thing.

When I got to 5th year, I decided to do things my way. I dyed my hair darker, almost maroon. It was awful, but it made me feel more like I blended in with my peers. To anyone on the outside, it must have been a drastic change, but to me, it felt necessary. Having been bullied for my red hair, it seemed like the right thing at the time. I wasn't doing it for others, it was all for me, and I continued to dye my hair, as well as dress the way I wanted to, for years to come.

I've noticed lately, a change in the way I see myself, as well as a change in the way I do things. What once was panicked, desperate attempts to blend in, has now become a calmer, more calculated desire to stand out. Thanks to a few of my favourite people, (and if they read this, they'll know exactly who they are) I grew out the dyed, damaged hair, and I embraced my Redhead status. In the past, when someone said "GINGER!!" I couldn't stand it. It upset me and made me angry. I did not want to be the ginger kid everyone used as the butt of some dusty, decrepit and frankly, backwards joke. Nowadays, though, its a different story.

Being a redhead is something I relish. Did you know, that 2% of the words population (at most) has natural red hair? That makes me unique, to some degree, and I wouldn't ever let the words of some stranger, someone who doesn't matter a damn to me make me feel small because of it. Ireland has the 2nd most intense concentration of gingers (yes, I know there's a joke in there somewhere!) in the world, with 10% (about 420,000) of us being lucky enough to say we're redheads!

When others made negative, bullying comments about my hair, I used to think they were right. I believed them. I thought, "You know what? They're the majority, maybe they speak the truth...", but I was so wrong. I saw myself as ugly because of my hair, because I was being told every day that red-heads were somehow lower than every other hair colour.

Now!! :D

I suppose it didn't help that somebody who claimed to love me told me, one day after I mentioned vaguely thinking of going back to my roots, "Having red hair wouldn't suit you, and I don't think you would be attractive if you decided to dye it back to your natural colour...". Stupid me, I listened. Eventually I decided to stick to my guns... I grew out the roots a few inches (which was awful but the ends justified the means) and headed for the chop. This time, I knew the change was drastic! 6 years after I started to cover up my uniqueness, I unveiled my newly short, red hair to my peers, and the response was wonderful. I can laugh along with the jokes now, because they don't hurt me.

How others see you, as much as we say it doesn't affect us, shapes us in ways we might not understand at the time... You might have believed the people who put you down at the time, but when you get away from those people, you'll gradually realise how wrong they were. In the end, when you believe in your heart and mind that you don't need to hide who you are, then you've done it. Personally, I went from hating my hair, to loving it more than ever! Its a part of who I am, it makes me unique.



How others look at you is unimportant. How you look at yourself matters more than anything.

Le Grá,
Amy,
xoxo