Redheads

I saw this story on ABC.com today .... I thought it was interesting, but I am guessing that now people will start calling me "ginger."

Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman and Marcia Cross all have one thing in
common. Besides being successful actresses, the three ladies are all redheads.
Some call them carrot-tops, copper-colored or believe stereotypes about
feisty personalities. But in at least one country, being a redhead isn't so
easy.
The British Isles feature more redheads than anywhere else on earth.
But some people who have the genetic trait said they feel discriminated against.
"It's horrible," one woman said. "I mean, I love redheads. But people are
quite anti-them."
In England, the flame-haired are called "ginger" or
"ginge."
Photographer Charlotte Rushton said people often yell at her in the
street and she often feels like part of a minority.
"The nail that sticks
out gets hammered down," Rushton said.
The nation that gave the world Ginger
Spice, the Duchess of York and Lily Cole may be ginger-phobic. And it is not a
joke.
One British family of redheads, the Chapmans, told the British media
it was driven from its home by abuse including anti-redhead grafitti, vandalism
and physical assaults.
Even Prince Harry has said he was bullied at school
because of his hair. Apparently, his army buddies called him the ginger bullet
magnet and his girlfriend calls him the big ginger.
"Somebody with ginger
hair will stand out from the crowd." said Louise Burfitt-Dons of the group Act
Against Bullying.
Waitress Sarah Primmer just sued her boss for sexist and
"ginger" abuse and won $35,000 compensation.
"When you get older, you don't
expect people to say things about the color. It's not nice," she said.
Even
TV comedian Catherine Tate highlights such absurdity with a fictional refuge for
abused gingers on "The Catherine Tate Show."
"We have all sorts of gingers
here: Gingers in denial, confused gingers even militant gingers," she joked on
her show.
Rushton said when redheads see one another, there often is a sense
of camaraderie.
"Redheads walk along the street and we nod or wink or smile
at each other," she said.
Rushton has photographed red heads for an as-yet
unpublished book, "Ginger Nuts: A Celebration of Carrot Tops."
"It's a
glorious color," she said. "It's amazing. Nature produced this color."