I am a natural redhead. I also have blue eyes. That gives me the rarest hair and eye colour combo in the world. My hair colour puts me in a group that makes up around 1-2% of the world's population (which is the same as the number of trans people btw).
People with red hair are constantly either fetishised or discriminated against just for a simple hair colour that is beyond our control. We have faced prejudice for this minor quality throughout history. We have been accused of witchcraft, turning into vampires, having "bad character" and were killed en masse for it. Conversely we were sometimes thought to bring luck and so made popular slaves and fetched a higher price. There have been many perceptions and practices that segregate us from others. People always have a different view of us. We are seen as otherworldly. We are dehumanised. All we are trying to do is exist.
Even now there is still discrimination against us. We are still stereotyped and bullied and objectified. Sure we may not be burned or drowned anymore, but we still take a lot of shit because people can't just view us as fellow human beings and treat us normally. I've personally faced constant ridicule and harassment throughout my school years for it. People who have never even known me felt compelled or justified to call me names on the street. I've had people follow me home and pick up gravel from driveways just to throw at me. These experiences started to make me despise the word "ginger" because that's what I constantly heard. It still triggers a reaction in me to this day. People have laughed at me and tripped me up and done all sorts just because of a damn hair colour. I started to despise my hair to the point I wanted to shave it all off or dye it to hide it. It took me years to finally embrace myself and find pride and love in myself.
I've even heard negative opinions in casual conversation. A lot of the girls in my school constantly liked to dye their hair. If it started to change colour in a way they didn't anticipate or want, they'd hope it wouldn't turn ginger with disgust or worry in their tone because god forbid right? That's such a horrible thing to be subject to. We're so unsightly that the possibility of looking like one of us is the worst outcome. Who would want to associate with us? We are hated just because we are different.
We can't even catch a break on the more positive side of the spectrum because we're then seen as exotic or divine. People have a fetish for us and seek us out because that's the one characteristic they care about to get them off. We're just a sex object. We can never be seen as anything past our hair. I'm so tired of it.
And why do people feel so comfortable in this behaviour? Why has it become so normalised? Why does it seem that no one's talking about it? I guess because we're such a small group, or perhaps it's also to do with the fact we're white and so we can take it right? We're the oppressors and you can't be racist or whatever against white people as some seem to stupidly believe. Maybe it's because we're not being routinely hunted down anymore. Whatever it is I'm just frustrated that no one seems to care. It's just looked over. It feels like this cycle is just going to continue and make our day to day lives miserable.