A Penny for Your Thoughts

Thursday! Thursday! Thursday!

 Red! Red! Red!

Welcome back, once again, to the weekly blog post for Head Full of Red. Last week we got a little bit serious as I discussed the widely known “Kick a Ginger Day”. I mostly covered bits and pieces of articles that anyone curious enough to seek them out could find, in order to give a basic idea of how the whole phenomena is affecting society.

Today, you will get an insider to a personal story based on an experience had by yours truly.

Enjoy!

Cloudy With a Chance of Copper 

It was a chilly autumn day; one of the last of the season before the frost took over for good. The sun was hiding behind a gloom of overcast and a light breeze blew through the few rusty-coloured leaves that clung desperately to the otherwise bare branches of nearby trees.

It was long past the end of the school day, but my sister and I both had some kind of event to attend later that evening, so we stuck around. To kill time, we decided to face the cold and venture downtown to visit some of the independently owned shops. We especially liked the little antique store – or at least I did. It was my favourite! You never knew what kind of surprise you were going to find in there! We left the school and began our journey down the street, unaware of the trouble that lay ahead.

Me and Sissy

It wasn’t until we had reached the main strip that we realized we were being followed. We probably wouldn’t have noticed if it weren’t for the fact that they were being extremely vocal:

“Eeeww, Gingers! *Barf noise*” yelled one of the three offenders.

 We ignored them. They persisted.

 “Hey Gingers! Get on your knees and suck our balls!” came from another of the three, who made the motion of grotesquely grabbing at his junk.

At this point they were really contradicting themselves, because logically, if we were so repulsive to them, they wouldn’t have wanted us anywhere near them.

Had I been in the right mind frame at the time, I may have been able to call them out on their flawed logic. Instead, I resorted (though I’m not proud of it) to my wonderful vocabulary list of profanity. It really didn’t do me much good, seeing as I had allowed them to bring me down to their level.

My sister and I kept walking, hoping that they would get bored and go somewhere else. The temperature had dropped since the beginning of our adventure, so we decided to take refuge inside a nearby Tim Horton’s.

 Safe at last! – Or so we thought….

Not long after having seated ourselves, I heard the “ting-ting” of copper banging off of chairs and tables. I guess insults weren’t enough for these boys; they had to throw pennies at us too!

I thought for sure someone would say something, but no one else seemed to notice what was going on.

Eventually the boys left, realizing that we weren’t going to come out.

What made them do that? What made them think that it would be a good idea to degrade and abuse us? I may never know…

Video 

To keep things interesting, I took a crack at making a video to go along with this story. Though this video makes light of the situation, I would just like to remind everyone that this is not a joke.

If you enjoyed the part at the end of me playing guitar, feel free to visit my other YouTube Channel!

Once again, a big thank you to all of you for stopping by! If you have a minute, you are welcome to leave a comment; I’d love to know how you all are doing!

Next Week

I have no idea what next week’s blog is going to consist of, so tune in for a surprise! If you have any ideas, don’t hesitate to share!

Have a great weekend every one!

Also, shout out to my room mate Adriana! It’s her birthday today!

– Michelle

Kick A Ginger Day

It’s Thursday! And you know what that means! Of course you do, because you are reading this blog!

The last couple of posts on Head Full of Red have been fairly light-hearted and up-beat, with a hint of sarcasm and a whole lot of silly! This week, I would like to tone it down and talk about something more serious. This something is a problem that involves bullying and Redheads, and a joke that was taken way too far.

From the Beginning 

It is to my understanding that the idea for the so-called “Kick a Ginger Day” began as a result of a South Park episode in which people with red hair were made fun of. As one who has never actually seen said episode, I can’t really comment on the content. What I can say is that, just because you see something on television does not mean you can turn it into a reality and then blame the producers for your inappropriate behavior. Take responsibility for your actions! Stop using a scapegoat! Since when has it ever been okay to kick someone??

Period. 

To some, it’s all just a big joke. For those on the receiving end, it’s a daily struggle.

You’ve Gone Too Far 

13-year-old, Aaron Mishkin. Kick-a-ginger-day victim

In 2008, a Facebook group was made by a boy from Vancouver, Canada, called “Kick-a-ginger-day” which inspired a number of students in the area to seek out peers with red hair and kick them in the shins. The victims went home with bruises and were afraid to come to class.

Click here for link

It hasn’t gone away.

Apparently the official day is November 20th?

In 2013, reports of redheaded students being singled out and attacked by fellow students are still being made.

Click here for link

 

 

I also came across this little gem:

“What are three things a ginger doesn’t have?? A soul,friends,and parents who are proud.”
– Death to Gingers

“what’s got red hair and ugliest being on earth?”
– Death to Gingers

And if that didn’t offend you, there’s plenty more where that came from :

Click here to visit “Death to Gingers“

I can’t even express how much this disgusts me…

Excuses 

The one thing that every person who allegedly insulted or attacked someone with red hair says:

IT WAS JUST A JOKE.

 Was it really?

It’s one thing to have fun with your friends and banter back and forth where no one’s feelings are being compromised. If you’ve been following Head Full of Red, you know that I deal with such teasing from friends on a regular basis when they refer to me as a ginger. It is an entirely different thing, however, to target someone based on their physical differences and abuse them for it. This is a hate crime. It is repulsive. It needs to stop.

If you have so much energy to put towards negativity and harm, think of all the wonderful things you could do for the world if you would only use that energy to be a decent human being, instead of acting like a good-for-nothing low-life who only brings shame to humanity.

In the End 

Well that may have been a little harsh, but I think it was necessary.

No one deserves to be bullied or attacked.

Despite all the negativity I covered in this post, you may be happy to know that there are a lot of good things going on in the world in support of the fight against violence towards redheads.

I will leave you with a few:

Ginger Pride Walk!

Hug a Ginger Day!

    Kick a Ginger Day: END IT NOW!

Next Week

Thanks for reading! Coming up next will be a personal story of my experience with Kick a Ginger Day. Stay tuned!

Here’s a video from Bon Iver, an American folk band, whose music is simply lovely.

Click to watch!

And I couldn’t help but to add this one as well, because the piano is beautiful:

Click here to watch!

 

Gingers Have No Soul!

Happy Halloween everyone! I realize that today is not Thursday, and is consequentially also not Halloween, but welcome back none-the-less to Head Full of Red!

Last week I talked about my Pet Peeve of being referred to as a ginger. Remember how I mentioned having smart-alecky friends who use it to get a rise out of me? I wasn’t kidding! I was sitting at the kitchen table with my roommate, and not two seconds after having read through my post, she blurted it out at me! All in good fun of course, but it lead to a conversation that I think was well worth having. I explained to her, along with some of my other roommates who had joined us, that it’s not the word itself that bothers me, but the things that have become associated with it, that make me uncomfortable. Today, I will explore the notion of:

The Soul (or lack-there-of)

I’m not entirely sure what the obsession is all about, but for some reason people are happily convinced that members of the Redhead community do not possess a soul. What in the world is up with that! I imagine it probably has something to do with a reference to an episode of South Park, which is where many of the ginger jokes come from, but really… can we get over it already? Your joke doesn’t even make sense! Here’s why:

Oh, the Irony!

If we consult our handy-dandy Oxford English Dictionary, the number one definition of the soul is the “spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal”. So, for all those people who frequently associate Redheads with a lack of soul-possession, I ask you, are we not human? Perhaps you would like to argue so, in which case I ask, what are we then exactly?

Maybe, because we are claimed to not have a soul of our own, we seek out the souls of others and are a form of Grim Reaper! My sister, who is also a Redhead, likes to say that she has a freckle for every soul she’s taken. If I were you, I wouldn’t want to get too close to her. She’s practically a freckle on legs! But I digress, on to my argument of the nonsensical.

If we look back to last week’s post about the word ginger, there is a fourth definition that is associated with it that I didn’t mention, which refers to said word as a “quality of energy or spiritedness”. I don’t know about you, but that sounds an awful lot like a soul to me. So in essence, when you use the phrase “gingers have no soul”, what you’re really saying is “souls have no soul”, which is absurd. Maybe that’s a stretch, but it makes me feel better to know that, at least in my mind, your insult is invalid. So there! Take that you fools!

Next Week

Well we’ve had our fun in these last couple posts, so next week I’m going to switch things up and get a little bit serious. No need to be alarmed! I promise I’ll try not to scare you away! In the mean time, enjoy a fun and upbeat song by a fellow Redhead, one of my faves, Ed Sheeran! Have a great weekend!

– Michelle

Click here for an audio version!

Live Version Below:

Pet Peeve!

Hello and good day to one and all on this fine Thursday the 24^th! Since most of you haven’t a clue who I am, I thought I’d use this first blog post to tell you a little bit about myself. I came into the world on June 10^th, 1992, blue and cone-headed, which was wonderfully covered in peach fuzz. I had my first hair cut when I was two, and have been trying to grow it out ever since. In other words, I looked like a boy for the better part of my life. I know this because I once held a door open for an old man, and he replied with a, “Thank you young man!” – I was like, pardon..? In any case, I have since grown into a more feminine version of myself, thank goodness!

To get back to the focus of this blog, I would like to address a pet peeve of mine regarding a word that is too commonly used to refer to Redheads. You have all heard it before, and are probably guilty of using it on a daily basis. So here it is…. I absolutely despise with a passion to the point of almost hating the term; GINGER. I used to cringe every time I heard it, and inwardly glared at the perpetrator who dared utter such profanity! By definition of the Oxford English Dictionary (which I will be consulting regularly in this blog), the term ginger refers namely to a “hot, fragrant spice made from the rhizome of a plant”, secondly, “a SE Asian plant”, and thirdly, “a light reddish-yellow or orange-brown colour… usually derogatory [to] a red-haired or ginger-haired person”. May I just take a moment to highlight the word derogatory? Go ahead and call me out on my delicate disposition, maybe I’m just being sensitive, but for me the term ginger carries a tone of disrespect. And let’s be honest, Redhead sounds nicer anyways!

The problem with being open and telling people about the things you aren’t fond of is that they often use it against you to get a reaction out of you. For instance, have you ever told someone you were sensitive to tickles and asked them not to tickle you? And what did they do? Certainly not refrain from tickling you, that’s for sure, at least not in my experience. So if you follow my drift, I have some smart aleck friends who find it humorous to harass me with that unholy word! But I exaggerate, they say it with love in their eyes. Or is that a challenge….

So there, I have had my rant! In all honesty, I’ve gotten so used to hearing the word ginger that it hardly fazes me anymore. That is not to say I enjoy hearing it or prefer to be referred to as such, on the contrary, but hey, people are going to say what they’re going to say, right?

Tune in to future blog posts for some insightful stories that brought me to my opposition of the word! Posts will be every Thursday!

Do you have a Pet Peeve? Post it in the comments!

Have a great day!

– Michelle