Why people don't like redheads. Why don't people like redheads? Red hair and blue eyes are rare

People with red hair make up only 2 percent of the world's population. Red-haired people have always attracted a lot of attention. There are myths and legends about them. Many people love them, but some people fear them.

Older than man

Red hair is acquired by inheriting a gene from each parent. It has been established that the age of the gene responsible for red hair, fair skin and freckles is from 50 to 100 thousand years. This means that it is much older than the genes of the species “Homo sapiens”, to which modern humanity belongs.

Dr. Rosalind Harding, who studies genetics and microbiology at the Institute of Molecular Medicine. John Radcliffe, believes that this gene appeared among the Neanderthals who inhabited Europe 200 thousand years ago.

The largest number of red-haired people live in America - about 12 million. People with curly red hair are mostly found in Scotland and Ireland - 13% and 10% of the world's redheads respectively. In general, 40% of the red-haired population of the planet are descendants of the ancient Celts, who were famous for their love of freedom and independence.

Both beckons and frightens

Naturally red hair contains a record amount of pigment, so dyeing natural red hair will be much more difficult than any other. Hair with this pigment is much thicker compared to dark and light hair. If you count the hairs on the head of a red-haired person and compare them with a similar hairstyle, for example, of a blond, it turns out that the first has about ninety thousand hairs, while the second has about one hundred and forty thousand.

In addition, red-haired people turn gray in a special way - first, the hair gradually acquires a lighter shade, and only then becomes gray and silver. According to statistics, red shades are especially popular among young women who decide to dye their hair. This mysterious color seems to have been created to simultaneously attract and repel; in medicine, the term “gingerphobia” is even officially recognized - the fear of red-haired people.

Hypersensitivity

It is believed that red-haired men and women have a brighter temperament, are very passionate and unrestrained. This fact is difficult to prove scientifically, but the increased sensitivity of the skin of red-haired people is known for certain - bruises and abrasions appear faster and take much longer to heal than people with dark and blond hair.

In addition, according to Dr. Edwin Liem from the University of Louisville in Kentucky, “fiery” people require more anesthetic for various surgical procedures, including dental procedures, since the pain threshold in redheads is quite low.

Another thing was also noticed: with red-haired nurses, patients got to their feet much faster. The fair skin of red-haired people is much more susceptible to ultraviolet radiation, which is why they need to pay special attention to sun protection. Scientists at Newcastle University concluded that human skin secretes two types of melanin, which protect a person from dangerous radiation, and in the body of a red-haired person, one of these types is represented in insufficient quantities.

Prejudice

There is a curious mystical background in relation to redheads over the centuries. The ancient Greeks believed that after death, red-haired people were reborn, most often into vampires.

The Egyptians considered handsome red-haired men unlucky and preferred to sacrifice them to Amon Ra in the hope of ending the streak of bad luck that could haunt those around them.

The Spanish medieval Inquisition automatically classified redheads as thieves of hellfire; they were recognized as sorcerers and witches and burned at the stake.

But the Romans, on the contrary, considered red hair a sign of incredible luck and even bought red-haired slaves as a talisman. In Polynesia, red-haired people were also celebrated as special. It was believed that sunny hair was a sign of noble origin and the friendly disposition of divine forces.

In Rus', oddly enough, redheads were rewarded with a huge number of not the most pleasant proverbs and sayings, such as “a redhead and a redhead are a dangerous person” and “don’t drown a bathhouse with a black one, don’t make friends with a redhead.” At the same time, our ancestors had different attitudes towards red-haired people of different origins: “God created the red-haired Zyryan, the devil created the red-haired Tatar.”

Redheads in history

It is interesting that prejudices have not left people in a more developed, modern society. Peter I issued a decree prohibiting red-haired people from holding high-ranking positions in the government and testifying in courts: “... God marks the rogue as soon as possible!”

In the 60s of the 20th century, a solid scientific work by Hans Bernhard Schiff entitled “Redheads” was published in Germany.

In 1983, Californian Stephen Douglas founded the International Union of Redheads. This popular organization has its own magazine, The Redhaired, which tells the story of the lives of famous red-haired personalities and their contribution to the development and prosperity of the world. Famous famous redheads in history include the Viking Eric the Red, Emperor Nero, Galileo Galilei, Christopher Columbus, Cromwell, William the Conqueror, Antonio Vivaldi, Leonardo Da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh, George Washington and many, many others.

According to psychologists, most redheads have to experience a lot of psychological pressure since childhood (what is worth just “redhead, redhead, freckled, killed grandfather with a shovel!”). This gives them patience, unwavering decisions, independence, stubbornness and the ability to defend their own opinions.

A red-haired person always stands out in a crowd, he attracts attention and attracts glances. Therefore, it is not without reason that red-haired women have been assigned the role of fatal beauties and “red-haired beasts,” marked by the amazing sunny beauty that Rubens and Titian tried to convey in their canvases.

I fucking hate these natural red, red-copper-fiery walking torches!

Damn, they are red everywhere, everywhere in general, you can imagine the red hair on their arms - they have it! And they also have red hair on their legs, hello to epilators, real red hair on their legs, Indian Squaw-Red-Legs, I fucking hate it!

What's going on in their pubic area - it's a complete star, you spread your legs - and there's some kind of fucking fire! Well, if he shaves a little - the fire is so smoldering, the coals are ripe, it’s time to skewer! Fucking brazier! Everything is fucking red!! And it’s even scary to insert a penis into this decay, the temperature there is off the charts, redheads are hot and wet, like a cold beaver. They are the wettest of all. They have enough lubricant for a regiment of young hussars! Hot and wet! I fucking hate flu beavers!

Redheads have thin and velvety skin. You say, what's wrong with that? Yes, because she is also freckled! Did you think that red-haired-freckled is only about boys in the cartoon?! HA! Redheads are always freckled! They have freckles, damn it! Red freckles, damn! Some on the nose, some all over the face, and some on the tits, damn! Can you imagine freckled tits, damn!? It’s as if someone unsuccessfully sneezed red snot on them! I hate, I hate red snot on the velvety thin skin of my tits, fuck!

Redheads don't have nipples. Well, that is, they are there, but to find it, you need to lick in the intended area of the nipple and if you hit it successfully, you will see the pimples out of the blue. You ask me why is this? Yes, because, fuck, their nipples are almost the same color as the skin of their tits, and if there are also freckles, and in the twilight by candlelight - everything, star, is cooler than sniper camouflage, there are stupidly no nipples!! I hate tits without nipples, damn it, and fucking freckled ones too!!! And then, a little later, the boobs become flabby! The skin is thin, stretches, the tits sag and dry out before anyone else, damn it! Flabby freckled tits without nipples, fuck, I hate, fuck!!

Redheads are clumsy. I don't know how this has anything to do with hair color, but all redheads have some kind of crooked legs, which is why they constantly stumble when walking. No, they are not crooked, well, maybe slightly bent, but the clubfoot effect is permanent, damn it. Bear, red, freckled, clubfooted, clubfooted, fuck!! I fucking hate clumsy walking torches! I fucking hate bears!!!

Redheads are passionate. Again, you say, what's wrong with that? But this is just some kind of insatiable star, they are ready to give themselves to all possible places, and in any position. They have some kind of lowered pain threshold and increased sensitivity, damn it. Their entire freckled skin is a continuous erogenous zone and you don’t have to work hard to get a redhead, these are not fucking blondes. And for a redhead to cum, you don’t have to work a damn thing either, these aren’t blondes. There is a feeling that they come at all, regardless of whether they have a dick inside them, damn it. Some kind of insatiably lustful fire-in-the-hole, fuck, I hate insatiability, fuck, I hate redheads, fuck!!!

I hate, I hate, I hate redheads, fuck, damn, they are my Achilles heel, my weak point, my weakness, I hate my weakness and redheads, fuck, I hate, I hate, I hate, fuck!!!

All peoples at all times considered redheads to be marked with a special seal of fate. They are still a strange, disturbing mystery for us today. Nonsense. Some special people. We often secretly envy them, but let us always be frank and instinctively fear them. The invisible wave of hidden aggressiveness emanating from redheads involuntarily forces you to be on your guard with them. And it’s not for nothing that these guys are unpredictable.

They can be as friendly, intelligent and witty as you like, but you always feel a barely restrained, truly nuclear temperament. They themselves consider themselves special, not to say chosen, and are not without arrogance, and they are unlikely to forgive criticism of themselves!

The color of hair, eyes and skin, according to experts, in a certain way characterize the activity of the human nervous system. It is known that in fair-haired and light-eyed people it is more vulnerable. And let’s not even talk about redheads! Medical experts say that these people are physically more vulnerable than dark-haired people, and are more susceptible to the most common diseases of civilization, especially rheumatism, allergies, and skin cancer. Children of the sun, they suffer from it because of their milky white skin. Most often they have a second blood group and do not tolerate pain well. Experienced doctors are well aware that if anesthesia is necessary, those with fiery hair require 20 percent more pain medication than all other patients.

Another thing has been noticed: men with red-haired nurses recover faster.

But let’s return to the golden hair... The mass of hair is approximately the same for all of us: for men 20 grams, for women 300. But the quantity... “The hairs on your head are all numbered,” says the Gospel (Matthew 10.30). This calculation has actually been made. And not only by God, but also by scientists, although somewhat later. It turned out that redheads have less hair on their heads (80 thousand) than brunettes (100 thousand) or blondes (120 thousand). But they are one and a half times thicker and have a lot of shades: straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish setters, etc. Redheads owe all this to the hereditary protein rhodokeratin. Their content is much higher.

In a word, they are different. It is no coincidence that at all times they were credited with all the vices in the world and blamed for all the troubles. The ancient Egyptians sacrificed them to the god Amon Ra to ensure a good harvest. It was believed that red-haired people personified the golden spirit of grain and ripe bread. Medieval Europe experienced superstitious fear of them. And the red-haired woman rarely avoided the epithet “witch.” In Old German, the word rot (red) had a second important meaning: hypocritical, sinful, treacherous. The French consider them either very good or very bad, treacherous people. Of all Napoleon's marshals, it was the fire-headed Marshal Michel Ney who became the Prince of Moscow. Several US presidents, starting with the first George Washington, Auguste Rodin, Antonio Vivaldi, Titian, Mark Twain, Sarah Bernhardt, Nicole Kidman, Bill Gates... No, redheads are clearly not lost in the labyrinth of history. But where did they come from?

It is known that Homo sapiens comes from Africa. And in light of this, the origin of redheads remained a painful mystery for researchers. Until just recently they finally established that copper hair color was genetically inherited by humans from... Neanderthals.

Scientists from the Oxford Institute of Molecular Medicine who discovered this warn with purely British humor: it is completely wrong to perceive all redheads as Neanderthals in the literal sense of the word, because among them there are also very decent people.

British biologists have found that the age of the gene responsible for “golden” hair color, lighter skin and freckles is from 50 to 100 thousand years.

This means that it is much older than the subspecies homo sapiens, which, until recently, was believed to have appeared in Africa only 40 thousand years ago. Neanderthals, Oxford scientists believe, were taller than Homo sapiens, with a more developed torso and all of them had red hair. Over time, both subspecies mixed, but the strong gene for red hair remained.

Today you can meet redheads anywhere (of course, in Africa, Asia or Latin America they are exotic), but most of all in Australia and the USA. And this is not surprising: they are all descendants of the ancient Celts (Scots, Irish, Gauls). Almost half of the people with these roots, even those with less pronounced fiery hair color, are genetically predisposed to this, that is, reddish and freckled.

From time immemorial, red hair color was considered a sign of fighting spirit and fearlessness. The Celts, who once inhabited Gaul, the territory of present-day France, Belgium and Northern Italy, had a reputation as excellent warriors and more than once confirmed this by crushing all the peoples of ancient Europe. Only the mighty Roman Empire managed to push them out to the British Isles. It was the Romans who called the Celts Gauls, and the Latin word “gallus” means nothing more than “rooster”. We're talking, of course, about pugnacity. The cocky French, for example, are still nicknamed “Gallic roosters” to this day, and caricaturists usually depict France itself in the form of this arrogant bird.

In Scotland and Ireland, red-haired men are especially respected as direct descendants of the brave Celts. Perhaps it is precisely because of their courage that the Irish have always formed the backbone of the American police force. There are no such statistics on how many redheads there are, but it is known that in America there are more than 12 million owners of copper hair. They even have their own organization, the Union of Red Haired People, and their own magazine, “The Redhaired,” which advocate for their rights, which, according to the publication, are clearly being violated. Since there are disproportionately few red-haired citizens, they are, as usual, presented in the eyes of society in a negative light. They are mocked at in films, literature, television, and advertising. They are ridiculed on the stage. What color are the clowns in the circus?!

The magazine even dedicated one of its issues to the moral superiority of redheads over those with hair of a different color. As evidence, there is an extensive list of outstanding historical figures and geniuses ranked among the golden-headed caste. Another compelling argument: in American prisons, less than 1 percent of prisoners have red hair.

Neanderthals went extinct 28 thousand years ago. Their last traces were noted in southern Spain and southwestern France. But, as we see, there are plenty of their red descendants left. When meeting them, remember: redheads have special genes!

Atlantico: A simple Google search for “redheads” is enough to demonstrate that prejudice exists. Why are redheads still the targets of ridicule and prejudice?

Valerie Andre: This is a fairly simple phenomenon, which, moreover, has practically not changed over time. This ancient prejudice has taken such deep roots in our collective consciousness that we no longer even think about its nature. Each of us has more than once heard jokes and caustic remarks about redheads, read about them in books or seen them on TV. All this forms a certain habit.

Prejudice against redheads has existed for many centuries and goes back to Antiquity. For example, redheads were often considered aggressive, cruel and prone to fits of anger... But if a person constantly hears such ridicule addressed to him, he adopts a sacrificial behavior in order to protect himself in advance.

This situation gives rise to a very common dynamic: a minority evokes in the majority around it an extremely ambiguous feeling of attraction or rejection. In the case of redheads, the negative context usually comes first.

The color red represents just one biological feature of a certain group of people that stands out for a number of special traits. We are talking about differences in the content of a pigment substance called melanin, which determines the color of a person’s hair. This hair color is characteristic of the 3% of the population without red-haired ancestors. That is, if we consider the situation as a whole, we are dealing with a kind of “anomaly”.

At the same time, we also have a certain attraction to redheads. In recent years, red-haired women have attracted great attention, and therefore a whole series of hair dyes, special shampoos, etc. are being produced. Moreover, sometimes this is due to prejudices, such as, for example, the sensuality of red-haired women. That is, the situation is very, very ambiguous.

— Do we have discrimination against redheads or just prejudice?

“We can actually talk about the existence of a certain discrimination against redheads or even racism, because it concerns similar mental processes. The only difference from racism is that there is no red-haired nationality or ethnic group that has such a characteristic.

As a result, all this does is make prejudices more persistent and make many people not pay much attention to them, so that ridicule of redheads is still considered politically correct. However, if all the ridicule of redheads were directed at one ethnic group, then it would definitely be a case of racism. And such statements are punishable by law. But, of course, not when it comes to redheads, because they are not a separate ethnic group.

— What could such a widespread ridicule of redheads lead to?

“The consequences are very, very serious, because redheads suffer from this one by one.” This suffering is all the greater because the rise of social media has given impetus to the trend. The network promotes speech that would not normally pass self-censorship, making ridicule of redheads commonplace.

A whole series of actions against redheads have emerged on social networks. And one of them ended badly: in 2008, “International Kick Redheads Day” in Canada caused several incidents that were investigated by the police. In France, in February 2013, one schoolboy even hanged himself because bullying because of his hair color became truly unbearable. That is, the problem is completely real. Of course, it would be absurd to equate hatred of redheads with anti-Semitism or other forms of racism, but it is still real discrimination and can create conditions for radical behavior.

— In such conditions, an artificial formation of a certain community is observed among redheads. This desire to belong to a group is inextricably linked to a sense of otherness: if you feel like you are in the minority, you try to get closer to those who are similar to you.

Increased media attention (compared to previous years) to discrimination against redheads also contributes to their unification and solidarity, which is a simple reaction to the behavior of groups of “redheads” that has emerged in recent years.

— How have redheads become victims of prejudice and attacks throughout history? What do we really know?

“Redheads have been the victims of all sorts of prejudices and punishments throughout history, but it hasn’t happened nearly as often as we think.” Red-haired women were indeed considered witches in the 16th century, but if you look at the descriptions compiled by the inquisitors during the witch hunts, you will not see the red color as a distinguishing physical feature. We are rather dealing with a certain idea that was developed later, but does not exactly correspond to the realities of those times. However, there are many red-haired witches in books and in various images.

Likewise, the idea that Judas was red-haired became widespread in the collective imagination. Until the 1920s, the expression “red as Judas” was often found in the works of such famous writers as Emile Zola and Honore de Balzac. Moreover, in the Gospel there is not a word about the color of Judas’s hair. Therefore, the basis for this idea was the idea formed in society. It is difficult to say whether the redheads suffered from Judas' bad reputation among Christians.

In addition, in 19th-century literature, prostitutes are often depicted as having red hair. This is a very common moment in the works of Emile Zola and Guy de Maupassant, although we do not have the slightest evidence of such a fact. Mary Magdalene is also often described as a red-haired woman, although there is not the slightest hint of this in the biblical texts.

Whether this character is real or not, red-haired or not... That's not the point. The problem lies in the idea that is formed in society in the form of a myth or misconception and takes deeper roots over time.

Valérie André, lecturer in literary history at the Free University of Brussels