Thursday, May 13, 2010

Militant Gingers of the World Unite!

The great folks at Build A Sign have teamed up with Militant Ginger; donating some awesome Militant Ginger bumper stickers for loud, proud and totally awesome redheads to bear with pride.


We here at MG - Militant Ginger, Mini Militant, Kitty Copy Editor and Editorial Bear - would be really chuffed if redheads out there would be willing to slap these stickers on their own cars and bear their ginger bouffant with pride.

Getting one is easy - just email me your mailing address and I'll send one out. All I ask in return is that you send us a picture of your sticker proudly in place (and don't worry, we'll blank out your license plate.)

Seriously - we gingers have been the butt of jokes for decades now. Take ownership today, and turn what ignorant people would use as an insult into a mark of pride. Become a Militant Ginger today!

To commemorate Build A Sign's generous donation, I'm going to be returning to my (ginger) roots and running a week's worth of blogs about red hair and gingerism. In the mean time, here are some previous posts about red hair and what it means to be ginger, in England and elsewhere.
  • Being Ginger - "Ginger haired people are the only minority you can still legitimately harass. No civilised person would hassle a black guy just because of the colour of his skin. But those same people, so desperate not to be accused of being 'racist,' would spill my pint in a pub and call me "copper knob.""
  • Prejudice against Gingers - "I must commend the Daily Echo for actually standing up and saying what a generation have been too afraid to - that racism against ginger people (be they scots/irish or nordic) is no better than racism against against anybody else."
  • Ginger is the new Black - Catherine Tate in her most famous sketch.
  • More Ginger Discrimination from Britain - "Tesco has been blasted for selling a Christmas card which pokes fun at ginger kids. The card has left the mother of three red-headed children fuming after she spotted it while shopping."
  • STABBED! For being ginger! - "A 20-year-old man has been stabbed in the back after an argument over his ginger hair."
And from now on, I'm making sure that all the tailgaters in New York know that I'm proud - and unashamed - to have ginger hair.

4 comments:

Neil Cameron (One Salient Oversight) said...

This is the wrong way to do it. Being militantly ginger is going to change nothing. What is needed is more of a consensus method.

For example, stop calling yourselves "Gingers". It is a term of abuse, a pejorative term. You need something more clinical and politically correct (eg "the hair-redded" or "the differently hair coloured"). Alternatively you could go with a term that emphasized humour, such as "Carrot Topped and Proud".

Like all people with disabilities, the hair-redded require advocates to act on their behalf. It is therefore essential for the hair-redded to meet and discuss their needs with able-haired persons who can act for them. Setting up a government equal opportunity board for the hair-redded is an essential step towards a more hair-tolerant society. Examples need to be made of hair-redded who rose up through the ranks, who worked hard and have achieved success like entry into university or even managing a fast food shop (able-haired franchise managers, especially in more politically correct areas of the country, can probably think of one or more hair-redded persons who have risen to such heights).

But the hair-redded themselves need to tone down their aggression. They should not be militantly committed to equal rights but towards more of increasing outcomes and compromising on what they see as a victory. Rather than, say, viciously criticising another hair-redded person for dying their hair black, they should commend that person for their ingenuity. Rather than criticising those who make fun of the hair-redded, there needs to be more circumspect responses, such as:

(name) has said publicly in (newspaper) that gingers are complete idiots. While (name) is entitled to their opinion and we celebrate the freedom we all have in expressing our opinion, we must nevertheless remind (name) that there are many fine examples of so called 'gingers' who have succeeded in life and are not in any way scientifically determined to be 'complete idiots'. The Hair-redded have come a long way from decades past when the combined attitudes of an (understandably) ignorant able-haird society and slackness among the hair-redded culture led inevitably to lower socio-economic and educational standards. We at the NAARHP have worked tirelessly to both reverse such stigma amongst the able-haired and to promote a sense a responsibility amongst hair-redded communities. Moreover we look forward to discussing this issue with (name) in the hope that we can find common ground to work from, to the benefit of all in society.

After all, the hair-redded are not looking for handouts or for revenge, but the opportunity to live their lives to the full, no matter how limited such a life actually is.

Susanne said...

You always make me giggle when you have posts like these. A LOT of people here like red hair. Have you ever wandered down the hair coloring aisle at Walmart or CVS and seen all the shades of red offered?

Cute bumper sticker idea. You should have one

"Honk if you love Gingers!"

:-D

Andy said...

OSO, Bwahahahahaha!

Roland, I am envious. Not of the red hair so much...just hair. Period.

paisley penguin said...

The red in my hair is manufactured (although done for the sake of enhancing the little ginger I do have) but I would proudly sport a Militant Ginger bumper sticker on my Forester.