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National Kiss A Ginger Day

This morning I woke up to Facebook telling me it was National Kiss A Ginger Day. This day has apparently been created to stop ginger people being bullied and abused by society and instead to show Ginger people some love. By inviting people to kiss a ginger.

Now, as a redhead, and one that was bullied relentlessly throughout my teenage years, how am I meant to feel about this day?

I could feel proud that us ginger people have our very own day. A day where we can be talked about, shared across social media and sent tweets and text messages giving us metaphorical kisses.

But International Kiss A Ginger Day doesn’t make me feel proud, not in the slightest. It makes me feel sad that this is what society has become. Everything has to have a day and someone, somewhere thinks that the years of abuse people like me suffered can all be fixed with giving us our own day – so one day a year ginger kids can be kissed instead of verbally abused in the playground.

International Kiss A Ginger Day makes me quite angry too. We don’t have a international day for brunettes or blondes do we? So why segregate ginger people even more by having an International Kiss A Ginger Day?

International Kiss A Ginger Day is nothing more than a celebration of the ridicule that ginger people have had for years from the kind of people that still shout “Oi, ginge!’ at me out of car windows and think it’s acceptable to create Christmas cards that say “Santa loves all kids, even ginger ones”.

I can almost hear people reading this post, telling me to get a grip, to just laugh it off and not to waste energy on it. That it’s just one of these days people make, that it’s meant to be a joke. But it isn’t funny really is it?

I am sure getting called names in the street should be funny, getting water tipped over my head during lunch break at school should have been funny and my Head of Year telling me just to get used to it should have also been funny shouldn’t it?

Society keeps segregating ginger people, making them into a whole sub group and treating them as something different to everyone else, something of ridicule. Whilst this is happening ginger children will still get bullied because other children only know what society and their parents teach them – and sadly the people that create these days, and these Christmas cards, are someone’s parents.

We wouldn’t be allowed to have a International Kiss A Muslim Day, International Kiss A Disabled Person Day or International Kiss a Lesbian day. So why is it ok to have an International Kiss A Ginger Day? It isn’t and I for one will not be kissing any gingers – apart from my daughter, who I hope doesn’t have to grow up in such a small minded society.

National Kiss A Ginger Day

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24 Comments

  1. Yes, I agree, it’s just discrimination under another name even if it’s trying to be a positive thing, why single out a particular sector of society just because of their hair colour. Shocking behaviour if you ask me!

  2. Totally agree with this, I’m a redhead and again teased throughout school (mostly in the younger years) and even now you still get the odd comment as a grown up! You’d think society would slowly grow out of segregating people by colour of hair and anything for that matter but I don’t see it happening anytime soon.

  3. I completely agree. It is so patronising and unecessary. And wouldn’t be tolerated if another group was the focus. Aside from the important fact it is discriminatory…it is another of these awful days which the calender is saturated with that give retailers a chance to capitalise on in some way.. My brother is a redhead. There were lots of jokes when our girls were born about how lucky we were they missed the ‘ginger gene’ running down my side of the family. Why is this deemed acceptable?! Xxx

  4. Mamma of two red headed wild things here – I hear you! Makes my blood boil to think that my beauts will ever face ridicule over the colour of their hair.

  5. I would love to have your hair colour, looks fab! Your daughter is so beautiful and sweet. I agree with you, there shouldn’t be a Kiss a ginger day or Kiss a anything-other-than-the-majority day.

  6. I totally agree with your post, my brother and cousin both have ginger hair. My brother embraced it although he was always singled out at school for it while my cousin shaved his hair all off. I think its a true shame that people treat red heads this way its a beautiful colour, we do live in such a small minded society xx

  7. I’m torn on this. A big part of me 100% agrees with everything you’ve said. Another part of me wants to celebrate being a ginger. Not that I feel I need a day, and yes, it is totally patronising, but I feel that we should be celebrated. We talk about gingers having a fiery personality, we have less hair on our heads than anyone else, by quite a large amount, we have a less layer of skin than others. We’re naturally more delicate nature wise i.e, burn easier in the sun. We are a minority when you look across the world. My best friend is a striking model-like blonde. I walk down the street with her in London and people stare at her because they think she’s a model, but when we were on holiday in Egypt together people didn’t look at her twice, it was me that felt like a celebrity, people literally were fighting over wanting to carry my bags. There’s been so many times people were mean to me for being a redhead, but people also were mean to be for being a good singer, or for being confident, it’s because red hair stands out. I’ve been alsorts of colours over the years because I wanted to experiment like most other young adults, but now when people look at old pictures and tell me how much I suited dark hair, I would never dye it again because I want to celebrate being a red head. I’m pleased I stand out and I want our children to know that red hair is beautiful and nothing to be ashamed of, although none of them have red hair (I’m the odd one in my family for generations). Not meaning to sound like I disagree with you because I’m not sure I do, but I don’t see the world changing anytime soon so I’d rather all the beautiful redheads in the world were made to feel special. Preferably everyday but if especially today, I don’t know, I guess if it makes the little school boy who’s been feeling rubbish feel happy then I might be fine with it. I think your post and viewpoint is completely valid, and also right, I just don’t have the same strong reaction. It sucked being picked on for having red hair, but it also shaped me into who I am today. Someone who learned not to care what others think or perceive of them (well, most of the time????) Xxx

  8. What a bloody ridiculous ‘day’ some brown or blonde haired idiot has created! It is offensive, short-sighted and out rightly ridiculous! I love your beautiful red hair and your gorgeous pickles. Bullies will always find a reason to bully unfortunately….usually to make them feel better about their own insecurities….but this ridiculous ‘day’ it just made up by some small minded fool! ????

  9. My little boy is so proud of his ginger hair – he calls it his “special red hair” – my sister is a redhead and was bullied for it at school. I want Ben to know that his hair is awesome.
    x

  10. I completely agree with you Donna. At first I thought this was a joke! My daughter has beautiful red hair but has already started saying she wishes it was blonde. I tell her every day how beautiful she and yes I would say this regardless of her hair colour. My nephew also has red hair and he completely embraces it. I think you should be proud to have red hair but you don’t need to be singled out because of it. I will be kissing a ginger today but I will be every day xx

  11. As a wife to a very handsome red haired man and mum to a beautiful red haired girl I don’t need any excuses or reasons to kiss them! My husband got teased a lot when he was young and lots of people still call him ‘ginge’ but we have had nothing but compliments for Ava (so far) but I really worry about when she gets older, as kids can be so brutal. But yes the idea of this day is really quite strange! Xx

  12. Firstly I LOVE red hair. It’s so beautiful. I did think when I saw you post this on fb that what a ridiculous day. It is super patronising and daft. As a teacher I think that taking the P out of people for their hair seems to be a thing of the past and the new generations aren’t so bothered. More about eyebrows and lipsticks now. I think your kiddos will be fine. As long as their brows are ‘en fleek’ xxx

  13. I actually thought this was a joke at first. As a brunette I wasn’t sure what I thought but then I replaced “ginger” with “disabled” and realised I would be cross and find it quite offensive actually. x

  14. You are raising a lot of points I hadn’t really thought about before. My other half was very ginger when he was younger, nowadays, his hair is brown but his beard is BRIGHT red… he gets a lot of stick from people saying he dyes his hair etc etc and just gets sick of all the general “banter” that’s meant to be light hearted. Having said that, he didn’t complain when I gave him a big old kiss anyway. Love what you’ve written though and it’s something that people definitely need to read! Ray xx

  15. It’s ridiculous, what will they think of next though? They have ‘random’ days for everything. I can completely understand why you feel this way Donna- like you said they wouldn’t have a kiss a fat person day etc. It’s just a silly thing and just generally not very nice if you are on the receiving end of it. x

  16. I think your hair and LP’s is totally amazing, everytime I see a photo of LP I think how beautiful her hair is. I totally agree with you, why keep throwing out these random ‘days’ you should be proud of your red hair every day, not just one day because someone tells you to xx

  17. I love ginger hair, I think it’s beautiful. I actually do not understand society’s ridiculous negative perception of it. But, do you know what – you have a right to fell angry and upset about it. I read your bullying post and it made me so sad for what you went through. Be proud of your lovely hair and I hope that your beautiful A will never experience what you did lovely xxx

    1. Thanks for reading Laura. I really hope so too – and I really hope society, at least where children are concerned, has moved on from where it was in my own childhood x

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