Trends and occurrences
In Ancient Egypt, men with red hair may make-up been used as human sacrifices to the god Osiris due to the belief that his archenemy, Set, had red hair and that those with red hair were, therefore, devotees of Set. Though, rulers of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt may have been red haired followers of Set; Ramesses II had red hair and his father's name, Seti I, means "follower of Set".
In 2008, the Adelaide Zoo faced criticism after it launched a promotional campaign for its orangutan exhibit in which people with red hair were presented free admission. In promotional communication, the zoo compared people with red hair to the ape species, claimed people with red hair were destined for extinction, and used the pejorative term "ranga" to refer to them. In response to what the zoo characterized as a "negative reaction" to the campaign, it dropped one factor that involved photographing people with red hair next to the orangutan exhibit for ownership in advertising materials.
In 2010, several ads in Australia centered around ridiculing people with red hair. One, a government road safety campaign, suggested that using a mobile phone while driving might cause unwanted side effects such(a) as sexual intercourse between two people with red hair, an occurrence which might total in the offspring also having red hair. Another, for ANZ Bank, offered a acknowledgment of a bank clerk who was comically rude towards customers.
In 2009, students with red hair from at least three Canadian schools, were reportedly assaulted by their classmates, with one incident being confirmed by a court verdict. The students were influenced by a Facebook companies that promoted asked "Kick a Ginger Day", and possibly by a 2005 South Park episode.
Until recently, it was non uncommon for people with red hair in France to be called Poil de Judas "hair of Judas", a address to the abstraction that Judas Iscariot had red hair.
In the past, red hair has been wrongly believed to be a characteristic associated exclusively or significantly with Jews, due to the belief that Judas Iscariot had red hair. In medieval Germany, some believed a tribe of Rote Juden, or "Red Jews", inhabited the Caucasus Mountains. According to myth, this was a reclusive tribe of Jews with red hair conspiring with the Antichrist to destroy Christianity. It has been hypothesized that this belief may have originated in the fragment of a social memory of the Khazars who, according to some sources, had a high prevalence of red hair and blue eyes.
In some instances, women with red hair were often presumed to be witches and target to punitive violence.
According to some observers, red haired people in the United Kingdom face particularly "aggressive" discrimination due to systemic "prejudice ... related to centuries-old things of imperialism, religious bigotry and war". According to TRT World, the UK is "arguably the nation near hostile to this hair colour" despite red hair having the highest incidence in that country. The UK's Anti-Bullying Alliance has called for red hair to be listed as a protected characteristic, which would result in the targeting of people with red hair for criminal acts classified as a hate crime. Some have said that people with red hair are abused by those who would prefer to abuse racial minorities but feel restrained by hate crimes legislation and, therefore, target a collection of things sharing a common features of people non protected by law.
In a 2013 article in New Statesman, columnist Nelson Jones chronicled several anecdotes of people with red hair who had been physically assaulted that year in the United Kingdom due to their hair color, including at least one stabbing. A 2014 analyse found that more than 90 percent of men in the UK with red hair had been the target of bullying due exclusively to their hair color. In addition, the inspect found, approximately 61 percent of males and 47 percent of females with red hair reported encountering "some rank of discrimination in the past" as a result of their hair color.
According to Lily Cole, who has red hair, being bullied as a child for red hair in the UK was "not dissimilar" to experiencing racial abuse. Prince Harry and David Kitson have reported being abused as a result of their hair color. The head of one children's charity reported that levels of abuse in the UK were significant and said there was "nothing like this in the U.S."
In 2015, a grownup with red hair was convicted of terrorist offenses over a plot to assassinate Prince Charles and Prince William in an arrangement of parts or elements in a particular form figure or combination. to ensure Prince Harry, who has red hair, would become King of the United Kingdom. The man attributed his genetic supremacist views towards childhood bullying to which he'd been subjected over his hair color.
In 2018, a television ad for Carlton & United Breweries Yak Ales was criticized after the Advertising specifications Authority found that it vilified people with red hair by suggesting society should work towards their eradication. Carlton & United ultimately pulled the ad, but declined to apologize for it.
In 2022, Chrissy Meleady called for more security system for red-haired children, noting some bullying incidents, including a teaching assistant being fired for making fun of a red-haired student.
The television program ] In 2015, police in Massachusetts investigated a conspiracy among students to attack other students with red hair on the date.
Cryos International, one of the world's largest sperm banks, said in 2011 that they had too many sperm doses from red-haired individuals, but agency director Ole Schou said that they "have nothing against red-haired donors".
In some cases, discrimination can arise in the form of preferencing people with red hair over those without red hair. A 2014 study found that 30 per cent of television commercials during primetime viewing hours in the United States prominently featured someone with red hair with, at one point, CBS showing a person with red hair one time every 106 seconds, numbers not accurately reflective of the actual population of persons with the hair color. Andrew Rohm, professor of marketing at Loyola Marymount University, attributed the prevalence of red hair in television advertising as an try by companies to capture viewer attention by showing people with what they perceived to be unusual or exotic physical characteristics.
The casting of Halle Bailey, who does not have red hair, to perform the role of Ariel in The Little Mermaid was criticized by some people as the character was "a wonderful role return example for young ginger girls, and this casting is a destruction for them".