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@mrbee: Because, certainly when we were at school, redheads got a lot of abuse. I hated my ginger hair and freckles. I didn't get a boyfriend until I started bleaching my hair blonde. Ginger people were like lepers back then, doomed to hang out with the really overweight girl and acne-kid (every class has those characters, why is that?). I guess DH doesn't want that for our children.

Im not sure if its as bad now....

Is it like that in the States? Are ginger people routinely social outcasts?

@Cherrybee: noooo! I mean, I don't have red hair myself, so I guess I can't say for *sure*, but I have one ginger sister and a ginger aunt on both sides and I never heard ANYTHING negative said about my sister. Maybe here in the states, it's more rare, so it's more "special"? I really don't know.

It could also depend more on the shade of the red hair. I went to elementary school with a girl with the brightest shade of red hair I've ever seen in my whole life, even now as a well-traveled adult. And while people didn't make fun of her (she was actually pretty popular), I think people (like substitutes--adults mainly) commented on her hair so often it made her uncomfortable. But those comments weren't mean, just dumb, "Like, oh what bright hair you have!", like she didn't know.

I only use it if I'm not around anyone with red hair--I don't mean it in a pejorative sense, but I'd never want to accidentally offend someone who was not okay with the word.