Zach Weigt, a freshman biology major, has only eaten sunscreen once.
hayden crosby | rawr With three very different stigmas of hair color Jayden Suttlemyre the blond, Marla Francis with the red curls, and Ariel Terry the brunette combine and conquer.
“I did it once just because I wanted to try it. It didn’t taste that great at first, but the aftertaste was good,” Weigt said.
Despite this glaring indicator, Weigt is not a “ginger.” Weigt tans in the summer and has dark eyebrows.
“(Real) gingers have no eyebrows,” Weigt said.
Whether you’re blonde, brunette or a red-headed and freckled “ginger,” all hair colors come with a string of stereotypes. Just try telling a blonde girl a blonde joke and you’ll see this can be true.
While the incorrect notion of the “ginger” as soulless and subhuman has only recently come into notoriety from shows like “South Park,” discrimination against redheads dates back to the Middle Ages when red hair reportedly signified a hot temper, an out of control libido and a moral compass that pointed due south.
In the Malleus Maleficarum, a 13th century guide to identifying witchcraft, red hair meant that someone was most probably a witch, a vampire, or a werewolf. However, it isn’t all bad. Medieval texts by Theophilus Presbyter claim the blood of a red haired young man was a necessary ingredient in the creation of gold from copper. The other active ingredient — ashes of a basilisk.
These strange beliefs persist into the 20th century. Those deemed “ginger” are often subject to teasing, abuse and ostracization. For example, in 2008 a 14-year-old boy started the Facebook group “Kick a ginger,” which was deemed inappropriate and won him a visit from the Canadian Mounted Police.
A family in England reported having to move twice due to harassment about their fiery locks. On a more lighthearted note, BBC news reported supermarket chain Tesco was asked to remove a Christmas card reading, “Santa loves all kids. Even ginger ones.”
Redheads, while they are the most exclusive, aren’t the only ones getting the short end of the stick. Probably the second-most made fun of hair minority is the blonde population. Blondes are thought to be flighty, unintelligent and overly promiscuous. There is even a genre of humor, the “dumb blonde” joke, dedicated to belittling the intellect of toeheads. The “dumb blonde” originated in the early 1800s as a result of Rosalie Duthe, a companion of French noblemen. Lore says she took inordinately long pauses prior to speaking, creating the belief that she was dumb (as in mute.) The rest is history.
Sadie Grossbaum, a freshman and biochemistry major, said stereotypes are there, but they don’t stick. “My intelligence is questioned, but people get over it. (But) with blonde, 19-year-old college students, it’s a combination of things, not just hair,” Grossbaum said.
Both guys and girls are subject to stereotyping, said Grossbaum, but “it’s more subconscious with guys.”
Grossbaum said she used to sport a mohawk in a variety of bright colors.
“I was bored,” Grossbaum said. “Your hair is the only [part of your body] you can change and then go, ‘never mind.'”
Her distinctive haircut got plenty of attention and Grossbaum’s demeanor garnered even more surprise.
“I like to be nice to people when I am ordering food and whatnot,” Grossbaum said. “It would surprise people. They would think I would not be very nice. It was a pleasant surprise, that I was a normal person with strange hair.”
Hot pink is the color of choice for freshman history major Camilla van Natter.
“In college, I kind of noticed I was slipping into being more normal, bland–which isn’t really me, I like to spice things up a bit,” she said.
To shake things up, van Natter bleached her hair platinum blonde and then applied a demi-permanent dye in bubble gum pink. She chose pink because it was a color she hadn’t tried yet.
“I wanted to do something fun.” Van Natter said. “I have had white hair, purple hair, red hair, blonde hair. Some people, to remind themselves that they’re alive, go out to concerts, get piercings–I dye my hair.”
Van Natter said that while people do not seem to be intimidated by her, “I get a lot of double takes, people are like ‘I love your hair!’ I have gotten some weird looks. I figured since I am so short statured, and unique and glorious and all kinds of things–I’m never going to fit in (and) I’m always going to get funny looks. I like being a head turner.”
Nicole Lichtenberg can be reached at [email protected]