BATTLE OF GINGER
WINSTON CHURCHILL
REDHEADS get a hard time — and lots of abuse — for having red hair and pale, sensitive skin.
Taunts like carrot-top and gingernut that come with having the MC1R gene are more familiar to some redheads than their own names.
But lots of famous people have red hair, from Ed Sheeran and Jessica Chastain to Gillian Anderson, Mick Hucknall and Alex McLeish.
And this year, the carrot-top army is fighting back.
Soon every mobile phone will have a ginger emoji. And Tobias Anthony, an Aussie ginger, is reclaiming the redhead’s place in the annals with his new book, Ginger Pride – A Redheaded History of the World.
This is a matter of national pride, too. More than one in 10 Scots has red hair, against just two per cent of the world population. That is 650,000 carrot-tops with terrible tempers – according to just one of the myths Tobias bursts – in one place.
So, to help clear the air, here’s his Ginger Pride guide to redhead mythbusting. Are redheads really dying out? Much has been made of the rumour that the ginger community is dwindling. Pseudo-science claims global warming is working against the redhead gene — the mutated MC1R — as redheads can’t cope with the heat.
But there is no data to support this theory. If there are fewer redheads in future it is more likely that the rare gene is losing out in global, multicultural society. Are redheads angrier than the rest of us? There’s no scientific evidence for this.
Even if it can be observed that they are more fiery, we can probably attribute this to cultural and social conditioning.
The Ancient Greeks saw red hair as a badge of courage and honour. The Norse god Thor is also described as being ginger.
Such cultural characterisations have evolved into myths about what all redheads are like, suggesting they are aggressive and violent.
Though science says they are more able to generate adrenaline, there is little to link bad temper to redheads. How do I know if I have the redhead gene? The MC1R gene is recessive, meaning you need two, one from each parent, for the characteristics to show.
Whether you’re a carrier depends on who you are and your family history. Families, it seems, can carry a variant of the gene for generations, but it isn’t until one carrier has children with another carrier that a true redhead is born.
In Scotland, where redheads make up a higher proportion of the population than anywhere else, the YOU would never know Britain’s greatest wartime prime minster was a ginger, based on how he is normally portrayed: old, bloated, balding and grey.
This is the Winston Churchill we all know, and the one Gary Oldman captures in his latest film Darkest Hour.
But, in fact, the young Winston was a dashing redhead.
And rather than being a hothead, his measured actions as Britain’s PM between 1939 and 1945, which saw first the defence of the realm against Nazi Germany and ultimately Hitler’s downfall, were nothing short of heroic.