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Mary Thurman
Dr. Nagel
Composition 2
20 November 2017
Feel the Flames:
The Hatred of Redheads
What do you call a red-haired baker? A gingerbread man. My boyfriend told me this
joke, after which I punched him in the arm. I don’t like being called a ginger much less having to
suffer a ginger joke. But people make fun of redheads, or “gingers” depending on where in the
world you are, all the time. Sometimes it’s a seemingly harmless ginger joke. But sometimes it
becomes a cultural phenomenon. There is a lot of history and bad blood all across the world
when it comes to people with those scarlet tresses. The global occurrence known as redhead
stigmas occurs all the time, and has for centuries. People today need to pay more attention to
redhead stigma and realize they are more than just ginger jokes.
The article entitled “Redheads: Myths, Legends, and Famous Red Hair”, written by
Christoph Reilly, a writer for Owlcation, sheds some light on the ancient history surrounding
how redheads are perceived. His article entails many interesting facts. Scotland has the highest
percentage of redheads on earth, and it is believed the Scottish are descended from the infamous
and violent Celts because of the high population of redheads. In ancient Egypt, people with red
hair were believed to be associated with Set, the god of evil and chaos. However, many of the
greatest pharaohs to rule Egypt are believed to have had red hair, such as Ramesses II and even
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Cleopatra. On the opposite side, Egyptians also believed red to be an unlucky color and would
set fire to young red-haired women so as not to taint the village with bad luck. While Egyptians
were burning some redheads and making rulers of others, Greece had their own opinions as well.
Greeks thought redheads would become vampires after they died. The renowned philosopher
Aristotle was quoted to have said that redheads were emotionally unstable. Greece’s counterpart,
the Romans paid great money to have red-haired slaves due to the thoughts that they were violent
and unstable. Other cultures, with monotheistic beliefs, developed religious reasons for why one
was born with red hair. People in the Middle Ages related red with the Devil and thought a red-
haired child was conceived during a menstruation cycle. In the time of the Spanish Inquisition a
person with red hair was perceived as haven stolen the fires from hell and was promptly burned
as a witch.
Riley’s article provides a few examples of cultural beliefs of today. He states that
Russians believe red hair to mean one has an awful temper and is mentally crazy. Contrary to
that, Russia is called the “Land of the Reds” because of an ancient red-haired ruler. In the United
Kingdom, redhead stigmas are so bad people have been forced to move away because of it.
Terms such as gingerphobia and gingerism have even stemmed from the abuse redheads get. He
reports an incident where a young woman was stabbed only because she had red hair. Another
article relates more modern superstitions surrounding redheads. In Corsica, anyone who walks by
a redhead must spit and turn around. The French tend to believe there is nothing worse than
having red hair. Even nature doesn’t like redheads, as bees tend to sting redheads more
(Lynskey, 2006). Lynskey’s, a writer and editor, article also shares more religious portrayals of
redheads. She explains how sin is connected to red hair by stating both St. Paul’s Cathedral and
the Sistine Chapel picture Eve as either blonde or brunette before eating the forbidden fruit, but
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after she eats the fruit she is shown to have developed red hair. Lilith, who was Adam’s first wife
and the mother of demons, also is reported to have had red hair.
Today, red-haired men and women get treated in a wide variety of ways. At a young age
redhead boys and girls are all treated badly, being bullied and made fun of, but as they grow
older, different opinions pop up surrounding the two genders. “Women can be seen as fiery and
hot tempered so don’t make them mad, or they can be seen as spit fires in bed and every men
must have a redhead before he dies or he has not lived” (Riley, 2012). While women can be
perceived in a highly sexual way, men are almost never seen that way. “It can be seen in the
media how America views red-haired men, as most often when a pasty, uncoordinated, and
unappealing character is needed for a part in a commercial, movie, or TV show it is almost
always a red-haired boy” (Anderson, 2017). On the other side of this, the media always depicts
