I've been a victim of prejudice all my life. It's only funny if all parties involved are under a mutual understanding that they're not being serious.

Or if the comedian is really really good and takes the piss out of just about everything to the point that it ceases having any impact.

Seriously not. That show didn't invent ginger humour; it was only reflecting the common perspectives on gingers. Prejudice against redheads has been going on for decades.

No-one has suggested that anti-ginger talk should be made illegal. Just because you can do something doesn't mean it's a good idea, or even an ethical thing to do.

Are we really saying that 'haha your hair is ginger' is unethical?

Ginger here.

I think I am somewhat of a half-breed. I don't have freckles, and my hair has somewhat darkened over the space of a decade. My aul boy was ginger, then by his late 20s, had gone into a dark brown/almost black colour.

I'm never offended or self-conscious when mocked for my hair, because...well, it's just hair. Anyone who gets offended is a cunt who should be removed from existence for not getting a joke. Ridg3 frequently pokes fun at it, while I make fun of his less-than perfect sight.

Any hair colour that isn't black is big in Japan.

In an "exotic animals" sense.

Same basic premise?

No Wings, they're two totally different thing. There's a big difference between mocking someone for their melanin level and.. oh wait; never mind.

EDIT: To be fair there is a difference between ginger and black jokes. Black jokes are not taking the piss out of (with a few exceptions) the actual skin of a black person, but rather the problematic realities of black societies. On the other hand ginger jokes are based one nothingness; no one (who thinks they exist) really believes gingers are without souls.

That said I can still fully understand your dislike of ginger jokes, just as I could understand a blonde taking offence to blonde joke or a lawyer to a lawyer joke.

I've edited this so many times and am still not satisfied with how it's worded.

Also, the premise of this thread is silly.

It may be cruel, but this is kind of how I feel. I don't really have the empathetic capacity to be constantly aware of what may or may not hurt the feelings of those around me. That doesn't mean I toss words like "nigger" and "faggot" around carelessly. In the grand scheme of things, bigotry is everywhere, but certain bigotries simply do not have enough history to give them any weight. "Ginger" should be just as offensive to gingers as "honky" is to white people.

And just to clarify, I have not lived a life free of mockery/bullying. I had my ribs broken in high school by upperclassmen for reasons that make even less sense than hair color.


inb4dipstikkgetsallpreachyaboutequality

Making other people uncomfortable for no good reason other than entertaining your own sick sense of humour is unethical, regardless of the means by which you do it.

No, I meant that in school, people didn't start making fun of redheads until The Catherine Tate Show did a sketch on it.

I did read the thread title right then. Why are we talking about gingers? Seriously..why?

I think the jokes can only be funny to a certain extent. There's those that poke fun, but in good humour, and that's most likely the kind of fun that the person with red hair tends to accept and take with a pinch of salt. However, there are arseholes in the world who will bully and will literally harass people for having red hair. I read a news article recently saying this boy had to be removed from school for being bullied about his hair colour. That kind of thing is disgusting and shouldn't be tolerated. It's the people who take jokes way too far I hate more than those who can't take a joke.

I don't really find controversial joke to be bad per se... I just hate when we have those idiots who take them seriously and then go on thinking that that's something to go by. Like people who take women-jokes seriously and use it as an excuse to be even more sexist. Or people who use these ginger-fads to bully them even more.

Like other people said, if all people know it's a joke, then it's harmless.
That's why I think fads like ginger-jokes are dangerous. Because if it becomes a world-wide thing, more people do it, and more people are affected.

But ginger-jokes have apparently been around for a very long time. I wonder why x_x

After browsing this thread and then thinking a little, I think I know what my stance on this is.

It’s really simple: I don’t make jokes regarding physical appearance (or other sensitive subjects) if I don’t know the audience well.

If the people you are telling a joke to are people that you know, and you know their sensibilities and their taste in humor, you probably know whether or not they would enjoy a joke about, say, ginger hair. You would know if they would be offended or take it seriously.

You wouldn’t tell an insensitive joke to the person sitting next to you on the bus. You might tell an insensitive joke to a close friend, if you and they both know that neither of you would actually take the joke seriously.

I can't believe that there's a thread for the political and ethical stance on 'ginger jokes' but no one has even acknowledged issues like the US repeatedly invading Pakistani air space to kill civilians with drones or the government in Syria destroying their own people because they want democratic elections. Get some fucking perspective people and realise what matters and what doesn't.

Nobody is stopping you from making those threads.

Okay, so shall I spam the forum with a Syria thread? a Pakistan thread? While I'm at it there are plenty, literally hundreds of world issues to choose from, my point being is that how does this work its way to the top of the pile?

Because this is a discussion which started in another unrelated thread and turned out to attract a lot of attention?

This is a fucking internet forum, not a Nato meeting. We discuss things that interest us, not necessarily things that are important.

You want to discuss world issues exclusively? Fine, but fuck off to a world issues forum, don’t complain because some dudes on a video game website are talking about something you deem boring.

Another thing is that important issues are discussed plenty on this forum. but it's not all we care about, and we don't wanna discuss heavy issues all the time. That gets stressful.


But people please, try and keep a civil tone. Don't let this turn into a flame war.

Scrabtrapman, you are being a cunt at the moment. This forum should never be shot down for discussing issues, there's always a place for different topics and views. The ones you have suggested have not been created just yet. If you want to talk about them, make a topic, nobody is stopping you.
Besides, I think this topic can be evolved beyond just ginger people, but the boundaries of jokes in general. I find that more interesting to be honest.

Did I mention I hate the word 'Spaz'?

Because I do.

Eh, can't much help being a cunt, nevertheless, I think the topic does need to go beyond gingers to be worthwhile. When a person 'demeans' a ginger person the extent to which it is possible seems to be calling them ginger, which is more an observation than some sort of witty prejudiced remark. Or someone might say they have no soul...if you're religious that might have a minute amount of impact but the existence of the soul is certainly up for debate in itself.

I think that for the amount of hardship people have been through in the past, calling someone with red hair ginger does not qualify. That being said, an interesting concept is the growth of empathy, people now are (in the majority) more empathetic than they were say 400 years ago, if this empathy keeps on growing, eventually, there might perhaps be a massive decline in the overall level of prejudice. And we're going to have to get on with it and love one another eventually, it's not like we can viably segregate every race, social class, ethnicity, age, disability, religion or sexual orientation. That being said you'd think that in multi-cultural areas we'd eventually get more tolerant of one another naturally but when I worked as a labourer in east London the same old shit cropped up: the blacks didn't like the whites, the Poles and Albanians didn't get on so well with the established English demographic and the English had a thing against the blacks and Muslims. It wasn't rampant but it was there, I mean, I lost half my wages because I got caught up in some racial tensions I had nothing to do with, (a long story.)

The bottom line for me is;
Gingers have never been forced into slavery, made to drink from separate water fountains, called a threat to traditional family values, or been the subject of mass protest by religious proselytizers - at least not by extension of being gingers.

Of course, having red hair used to be a trait associated with jews, and they have been persecuted to that end.

But I simply do not agree that there is enough legitimate prejudice against gingers for "ginger" to be considered a hurtful term. As for the accusation of soullessness, it is so outrageous and baseless that, regardless of hair color, anyone whose feelings are hurt by it need to pay a visit to their dermatologist for a thorough skin-thickening.

I don't consider 'ginger' a hurtful word... it's just a word like any other, and it doesn't really have any nasty history behind it(it is a yummy spice though :3).

If I ever used the word 'ginger', it was never with malice.

But that's not really the beef I have with this whole deal either.

In high school, I used to be bullied sometimes for being a "ginger" and I hated my hair color. I dyed my hairs black until I started accepting and liking being red-head, no more problem now. If you make a ginger joke about yourself before they do, they stop...

I used to be picked on horribly for my big nose. You know what? I just had to live with it. People are dicks, it's the way of the world.

In my mind that means one of two thing. Either his parents were hyper-sensitive and took him out of school straight away instead of trying to deal with it or - and I think this option is far more likely - the kid was generally being bullied and being called ginger was only one aspect of it. As in, he'd still have been bullied if he'd had brown hair, they'd just have picked on him for some other reason. So the media are focussing on only one aspect of a far more troubling story.

That's news to me. I did know that King David and Jesus supposedly had red hair though.

I have a theory about that. Given that no-one uses the words 'Spastic' or 'Retard' to refer to mentally handicapped people any more, their only true dictionary definition these days is as a slang term for someone who has acted stupidly. Thus, people should stop complaining about them being used in that sense.

That would work if I wasn't known as the spastic head boy for years of my life.

Actually now skychase mentions it I can think of quite a few red-heads at school who died their hair because they were teased for it. It probably wasn't too tormenting, but it obviously made them feel uncomfortable nonetheless.

What? Red hair is a recessive trait usually found amongst Celtic peoples, how it came to be associated with Jews (who originate from Palestine) I don't understand.

"In European culture, prior to the 20th century, red hair was often seen as a stereotypically Jewish trait: during the Spanish Inquisition, all those with red hair were identified as Jewish.[16] In Italy, red hair was associated with Italian Jews, and Judas was traditionally depicted as red-haired in Italian and Spanish art.[17] Writers from Shakespeare to Dickens would identify Jewish characters by giving them red hair.[18] The stereotype that red hair is Jewish remains in parts of Eastern Europe and Russia.[19]"

From Wikipedia.

For years there was this disparaging word being thrown about my school. "Ginger". Pronounced with a hard "g" at the start to rhyme with "ringer". It took me years to realise that this had anything to do with the word "ginger" with two soft "g"s, even though it was only ever applied to red-haired students (it only ever conjured in my mind the similar sounding insult "minger").

But there was no doubt that it was cruel. The point is the intent, not the word itself. The intent is clear from the tone, social situation and accompanying jeers. It's not the word itself that has the effect, it is the outright statement that you are rejected by your fellow students for nothing more than the genetically-determined colour of your hair, and that they are gleefully pointing out this fact and reinforcing the imposed social status.

It doesn't matter what the word is. It could be "Jabberwocky" for all it matters, but no bully is going to come up with that, they're going to focus on the particular trait that they deem makes one a worthy target. There is nothing inherently offensive about the word "mucus," but that did not make it hurt any less when I was reminded of they name my classmates had given me.

You know what I have to call you from now on then, don't you?

But

I always thought you were dirt blonde and Wil had brown hair, I've even met Wil.

I'm so confused.

They didn't call me "ginger". I witnessed it.

It's funny, I've always considered my own hair to be brown, but it's frequently described as variants of blonde by others. The sun certainly bleaches it that colour.

Oh, I wasn't suggesting that it was in any way polite or even socially acceptable to use those words. Just that the words should not be considered taboo because of their previous (and now redacted) definition. Even within the world of my theory, they're still insults.

I fucking HATE that term. The last person to call me a Spaz got a kick in the shins.

People may or may not know that I have a speech impediment (Stammer) My speech slipped one day and this guy called me a spaz. It wasn't nice at all, it's really offensive. :fuzsad:.

I get called a retard a lot...I call people retarded a lot, because there isn't an inherent relation to a disability as such any more, rather it's just a way of saying, 'mate, you're fucking stupid.' At the end of the day, if you're worried you're going to be offended, sit inside your house all day and roll yourself up in bubble wrap. Or you could take it on the chin and learn to laugh at yourself like most people do.

Hell at the very least anyone generally being a dick to you will get bored and fuck off.

I disagree. I always considered it an abbreviated way of saying "What you just said/did was so stupid only someone with a mental disability would have said/done it; You must be mentally disabled."