Season 2 Episode 86 Those Fiery Redheads!

What if everything you thought you knew about redheads was wrong? Get ready to uncover the truth behind fiery locks with us as we tackle the myths, stigmas, and fascinating history of redheads. From the infamous and humorous stereotype that "gingers have no soul" to the darker roots of phrases like "beaten like a redheaded stepchild," we leave no stone unturned. We’ll dig into the rare genetic makeup that sets redheads apart, including their unique ability to produce more vitamin D and their surprising physical traits, such as a higher pain tolerance. 

Prepare to learn captivating facts about redheads that you might not know. We share insights into their genetic rarity, the fascinating combinations of red hair and blue or green eyes, and the cultural significance that has surrounded them throughout history. We also explore the various stigmas and myths—from being perceived as awkward to wild—and celebrate iconic redheads like Elizabeth I and Lucille Ball. This episode is a heartfelt and humorous tribute to the vibrant, rare community of redheads.

Are you ready to take your "spiciness" to the next level?! 

Connect with Julee & Michele on Instagram @spicy_midlife_women and send a DM about what resonated most during this episode so they can encourage you with steps forward in your own life. 

Transcript

Redheads in History

Speaker 1 0:28

Hey everybody. This is Michelle and this is Julie. Welcome to a blonde, a brunette and a mic podcast. What is our podcast all about, you ask?

Speaker 2 0:40

Well, we're 250 something.

Speaker 1 0:42

Women with life experience and oh bloody to say, which is exactly what we're gonna do right now. You know, it's kind of funny. Every time I go to post on our social media and I do our hashtags, of course, the first one I do is hashtag a blonde brunette and a mic, and the first thing that starts popping up is a blonde brunette and a redhead.

Speaker 2 1:07

Where did this redhead thing come from? I don't know, because all I know is gingers have no soul, or at least that's what I.

Speaker 1 1:13

Is that what you've been told, or is that what it that's like?

Speaker 2 1:20

There was, you know, zoe has auburn hair right, so and it's a South Park thing. Yeah, back in the day so probably I don't know, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, something like that South Park had an episode where they had redheads or gingers and and they were it was, you know, obviously a spoof, but they were talking about how gingers had no soul and so they would steal your soul, and so someone I don't remember who called her a ginger and she just lost it. She was like Mom, they're gonna take my soul. I know, you know all this kind of stuff, so that was the first time I'd ever heard that. But I have heard the whole beaten like a redheaded stepchild thing and I don't know where that originated from and I know you were looking into that.

Speaker 1 2:03

That originated from slave masters and you know having sex with a slave, and if the child had red hair that's where that term came from? Yeah, because obviously slavery and the beatings, and so it's really not the best term.

Speaker 2 2:22

that it the way it has you know well, it's just like we were talking about other history of it. Yeah, terminology that's out there, or like throw the baby out with the bathwater, kind of thing we were talking about that. It's like there's these, these things that we say or you hear people say nowadays, and nobody really knows what the origin of them is.

Speaker 1 2:39

Correct, as we're talking about this, I think this needs to be a future episode. Okay, there's so. Yeah, there's so many things like that.

Speaker 2 2:47

There? Yeah, there are quite a few.

Speaker 1 2:48

Yeah, that was one that we talked about.

Speaker 2 2:49

Well, we'll get into an episode obviously. Yeah, that was one that we talked about. Well, we'll get into an episode obviously with that, because I think that would be really kind of interesting to hear, because there are a lot of like I know there's stuff from the plague that you know are like. You know nursery rhymes and things. Now that you're like, oh my God, where you see or hear about that originating from, you're like I'm not having my kids learn that yeah.

Speaker 2 3:12

So obviously people were talking about redheads and fiery redheads fiery, spitfire, devious, devilish, you know, conniving redheads, right, where does that all come from? It's well, that's what we're gonna talk about a little bit, because I think that redheads get a bad rap and you know, in honor of everyone we know out there who has red hair and freckles or red hair or auburn hair or whatever, that they're a ginger. We want to talk about some of this stuff so you can hear there's actually a lot of really cool stuff about redheads because they're very, very rare really in comparison to the larger population out there.

Speaker 1 3:51

I like how you kind of put that together Rare heads, rare heads or rare redheads.

Speaker 2 3:57

Yeah, so so we'll get like a little bit technical, just so we can start. So their redheads have a copy, two copies, of this particular gene called MC1R gene and that is what and I'm doing this very nutshell, obviously, but that's kind of what constitutes their red hair. It is actually one of the rarest hair colors in the world, which we kind of knew. I mean, you see people with red hair out there and sometimes it's dyed red. That doesn't count, right, it's people that are born that way and you can kind of see that a lot of the time we'll have a lot of freckles or they'll have like porcelain skin, very, very porcelain, white skin, you know, in a lot of ways, and it has to do with their melanin production and all this other technical stuff. That is the reason why, for example, that they burn more or burn easily, you know, because they're more vulnerable to the sun and they don't really tan. They more burn, rare, in terms of it being one to 2% of the overall population.

Speaker 2 4:56

And there's so many things in history that are stereotypes or stigmas about redheads, and so I was thinking about this we talked about the ginger has no soul thing. That's probably more in modern day times, but if you're going back in history, like you were just talking about, during slavery and the terminology about redheaded stepchild, where that came from. Even going further back in history, in like ancient Egyptian times, it was believed that redheads were like related to God. They were like associated with God-like things because a lot of the pharaohs had red hair. They were like associated with godlike things because a lot of the pharaohs had red hair, animals that had red fur or red hair. They were also looked at the same way as being more kind of royalty or chosen.

Speaker 1 5:42

I was going to say so. Were they kind of worshipped in a way? Yeah, but they were feared.

Speaker 2 5:46

Oh okay, so that's the difference there is that it was kind of they feared or loathed, you know people didn't like them and I think a lot of it's just that they were different. You know, they just look different. They didn't have blonde hair, they didn't have brown hair, they had red hair, you know, which was kind of more of an abnormal thing to see. Also, in you know, like in Christian Europe, like way back in the day, it was something that signified a person might be a witch.

Speaker 1 6:11

Witchcraft.

Speaker 2 6:14

Witchcraft, yeah, associated with that. Yeah, so people that were there were actually people that were out witch hunting and they they would see people with red hair and they would immediately associate them with being a witch or being the devil. They called it a marker, you know, of of this particular. This trait actually was something that made them evil, made them a witch. They'd get burned at the stake. You know that kind of crazy stuff.

Speaker 1 6:37

Wow.

Speaker 2 6:38

So, but I think the redheads in general hail from the where area, aren't they like irish, irish and, um, I think, scottish, scottish and irish. Yeah, you see a larger percentage of the population, something like 13 percent of the population in ireland in particular is redheaded, and then in scotland it was something like 11 percent, so you know.

Fascinating Facts About Redheads

Speaker 2 7:02

I wonder where prince harry's red hair comes yeah, I mean it's, it's well, it's so random it is random. But you know, the other thing too is it could be, it could. It's a obviously a almost a submissive. It's a recessive gene yeah so it could be dormant, and you know many different generations I mean prince harry and the.

Speaker 2 7:21

The royal family has been known to marry within the you know the family with I don't I don't know if it's first cousins back, back, back then, not now, but some of those the gene pool is tight. Let's just say the gene pool was kind of tight. So if there were red, I'm sure there were other redheads around. I think I had talked here about one of the princesses or one of the queens, I think, so I'll get back to that in a minute, but anyway, so we wanted to give you guys a few little facts about redheads. There's a Reader's Digest source that we're quoting on some of these and just kind of putting out some of these crazy things that you might or might not know, which I found to be very enlightening.

Speaker 1 8:01

Shout out to the redheads. I know right. I mean because, truly, because it's such a small part of the population, these kinds of things are recognizable because they're stand out when you do see them. So it's pretty interesting. And when you see natural redheads.

Speaker 2 8:18

I know I used to be a redhead. Yeah, Like you can tell if someone's a natural redhead for the most part. This is going to be just so random off the chart, but there's this one HGTV show that I love and the girl is from I don't know somewhere in the Midwest. Anyway, she is so stunning and she has the milky white skin, long red hair and she's got the freckles. She's just gorgeous. She's just beautiful. And I've seen a few redheads out there like that, where they're just so striking and a lot of it has to do with you.

Speaker 2 8:50

Notice them, you know, because their hair is they. They're leaning into their hair.

Speaker 1 8:55

They're not trying to get rid of it.

Speaker 2 8:57

You know like when again, zoe, when she was younger, she could not stand the fact that she had that auburn redded hair. Oh my god, she got teased about it, which is kind of crazy, because I thought it was beautiful. I mean, I was like girl, people pay good money for that color yeah you know, but she dyed her hair black when she was a teenager. She hated it. I'm like of all colors, you know, I mean let's just do a nice neutral black yeah, nice, neutral flat black, but that's not going to stand out, yeah, so anyway.

Speaker 2 9:28

So let's talk just a little bit about some of these back to these redheaded facts.

Speaker 1 9:32

Yeah, for example, non redheaded people can have a redheaded child.

Speaker 2 9:39

Yeah.

Speaker 1 9:39

Well, that's going back to that recessive gene right. Yeah, so non redheads can have redheaded children, just like you did.

Speaker 2 9:47

Yep, I had a redheaded child. Well, she wasn't like a redhead red. She wasn't like a red head per se, not like you know, red.

Speaker 1 9:55

She was more auburn.

Speaker 2 9:56

Yeah, but if you go back in my family history, my great grandma, victoria, she was from Ireland and she had she had red hair. So I'm that could very well be where it came from is what I'm thinking. But you know, then it didn't show itself until you got, you know, a couple generations, three generations ahead, or something yeah so red hair and blue eyes is the rarest combination out there really for people. Yeah, yeah, you don't really see that very often, but when you do see it, boy, oh boy it's it's gorgeous yeah.

Speaker 1 10:25

So are the green green eyes with red hair. Yeah, Beautiful.

Speaker 2 10:28

I just like green eyes in general, but that's a side note. That's a side note. We kind of all know this, I would think. But obviously redheads have more of a risk, or a higher risk, of skin cancer and actually gynecological cancers.

Speaker 1 10:44

And again, I'm not going to get. Yeah, I'm not going to get into all the like details of this, because it starts getting into medical genes that we don't know shit about Exactly.

Speaker 2 10:54

I'm not even gonna pretend to know about. I'm just going to tell you that they're prone. There's a higher propensity towards there had been this review done in 2017. The PLOS review, where some of these items have surfaced from just FYI.

Speaker 1 11:09

Okay, they might age faster.

Speaker 2 11:12

Yeah, redheads, and that's probably to do with their skin. Yeah, that makes sense. Their skin is more delicate, for sure. This one, I thought, was kind of interesting, because I would never have really known this otherwise, except to say that redheads are known and this has to do with their genetic makeup for having a higher pain threshold or a higher pain tolerance. So when they have like there's anesthesia and things like that, they actually need more anesthesia to stay under. They don't stay. Maybe their body goes through it faster, or something as well.

Speaker 1 11:45

So I mean, if they have a high pain threshold, who needs that anesthesia anyway?

Speaker 2 11:51

Well they don't, and well they don't stay under anesthesia as long. Yeah, you know. So this is has to do with I won't get all technical, but this has to do with the melanocytes released in their bodies that can block these pain receptors.

Speaker 1 12:06

Interesting yeah.

Speaker 2 12:07

Redheads produce more vitamin D.

Speaker 1 12:09

That means they're always happy, does it? They must be happy Because they produce vitamin D, because they get their vitamin D. From the sunshine I mean we get you know people.

Speaker 2 12:18

You always hear the vitamin D deficiency because you know, Seattle is so gray and there's not enough sunshine so you go out to get your vitamin D from the sun. I know.

Speaker 1 12:27

So if they're naturally producing that shit, they must be pretty fucking happy yeah because they can't go in the sun.

Speaker 2 12:32

So it's like their body saying OK we're going to make up for it. They have to make up for it, exactly.

Speaker 1 12:38

And they're so pale, it's like they're they to be.

Speaker 2 12:41

I mean, they're going to have amazing skin when they're older because they don't have this well, in theory, the sun damage that we all have, I mean the baby oil and the olive oil.

Speaker 1 12:51

You know, when we were teenagers, you know it's probably why they are apt to age faster. Right, because of the delicate skin and, yes, the exposure, so I'm sure have to be much more careful.

Speaker 2 13:04

Yeah, also, we already talked about this a little bit, but the redheads are perceived as really temperamental. Fiery redhead, yeah, fiery redheads, and also in the bedroom, yeah. So you know, kind of a lady in the streets but a freak in the bed, kind of a thing I know.

Speaker 1 13:20

Lady, yeah Lady on the street, but a freak in the sheets. Freak in the sheets yeah, that's what they said. They like have more sex yeah, some guys, some guys love redheads.

Speaker 2 13:29

Probably for that reason, because they're hoping that that stereotype is accurate. I don't know. I think redheads, brunettes, blondes, blondes and brunettes.

Speaker 1 13:37

Yeah, and redheads, I think, yeah, there's.

Speaker 2 13:40

I think we all have our moments right. Yes, we do.

Speaker 1 13:43

Michelle, do you have your moments, I have my moments.

Speaker 2 13:45

Her vixen moments. Oh yes, we're not going to get into those, though, because it would just take up way too much time.

Speaker 1 13:53

So more fertility issues.

Speaker 2 13:55

Yeah, and for that reason there's nothing really that kind of speaks to this. But this particular study I'd mentioned before had basically gleaned from all of the information that they had pulled together that they had more fertility issues and again this goes back to some genetic makeup stuff that we're not going to talk about and then for that reason perhaps they've started having kids, maybe younger than the other hair colors in the population. So I don't know why, but they have a lot, a lot of sex though so they, they're practicing, you know practice makes perfect, like we were saying maybe I need to find myself a redhead I well, there you go.

Speaker 1 14:31

Yeah, I, I know we're talking about it as women, so I'm just thinking about those feisty redheaded women in the bed.

Speaker 2 14:38

But you know yeah, men too, what do you think that? That a person who has red hair has red pubes? I'm asking if you think that, why are you laughing? It's a legitimate question. Should we ask someone? Probably they probably do.

Speaker 1 14:56

Well, I don't know.

Speaker 2 14:57

Okay, it's not really a yes and no answer. I did do the research. Oh, I was going to just ask Siri. No, we're not asking Siri. It can be a variety of colors. It can just be brown, it can be gray. I suppose it can be red. It doesn't have to. Your pubic hair does not have to match your hair color?

Speaker 2 15:16

No, it does not, and I'm not going to ask you if your pubes are blonde. I'm not going to even ask you because you know I don't want to know, okay. Or if you even have any, I don't know. So here's some of the other myths. So fiery and dangerous, or Can?

Speaker 1 15:35

it wait. Can we just go back to the pubes? I just remember that my girlfriend when I was very young, when her pubic hair first started coming in, I just remember we were in her bathroom and she was burning it off because it was red she didn't want it. No, she just didn't want it. Sorry, it has nothing to do with the red. She's burning it, but she was burning it off because she didn't want it to grow.

Speaker 2 15:56

Do you mean like with?

Speaker 1 15:57

a lighter. Yeah, yeah, wow, yep, she was doing that shit. I was like what are you doing? I wonder if her mom called her breasts dirty. Pillows too, I don't know. You know that movie, carrie? No, oh yes.

Exploring Redhead Stigmas and Myths

Speaker 2 16:09

Her boobs were called dirty pillows. I digressed, yeah, you yeah, I mean, usually people will, you know, use a razor, or they will sugar, or they will just just I mean we were like 12. Yeah, they probably don't even know, no, or it's a big fat bush and if it's red or if it's brown, you know, they'll figure it out when they yeah, they'll figure it out when they start figuring it out. Oh my goodness or we tell them as parents, because we want them to be well quaffed right?

Speaker 2 16:37

yeah, I would like my god, my sons, to present themselves well again that we were young mormon children. We didn't talk about any of that stuff yeah, we didn't talk about that stuff either, so, but you're not sure why there was even a lighter in this girl's house, but probably because she's smoking cigarettes out of the window probably yeah, that'd be my guess.

Speaker 2 16:56

So, going back to stigmas, myths, stigmas. So we talked about firing dangerous, right, yeah, but also think about it clownish and weak, because you see, you know goofy kids that have like they're awkward, they feel awkward, they probably stand out, think about kids when you're a little carrot top. Yeah, carrot top isn't, uh, one of the famous ones? Yeah isn't it comedian and and he's had really bad work done on his face.

Speaker 1 17:18

I know we're not going to go there, no.

Speaker 2 17:20

I mean he was better off before, but whatever, Geek in public, wild in the bedroom. We talked about being wild in the bedroom.

Speaker 1 17:26

That is on this list more than a few times. I think someone's trying to tell us something. Lots of sex freak in the bedroom.

Speaker 2 17:37

Perhaps there's going to be a lot of people out there looking for the next redhead.

Speaker 1 17:42

I do like the ginger. What is it called? I do like the ginger name that is given to redheads. I don't know why.

Speaker 2 17:51

So you know that the name ginger had appeared from you know, gilligan's Island.

Speaker 1 17:56

Is that where that came from? Yeah, like being a ginger she was. I did not know, yeah, and 1964. I love ginger. Well, she was on Gilligan's Island, tina Louise.

Speaker 2 18:05

Yes, that's where it started, but she was ginger on Gilligan's.

Speaker 1 18:08

Island yeah.

Speaker 2 18:09

Yeah, so she. She was a very, very sexy redhead.

Speaker 1 18:13

Oh yeah, she was like a Marilyn Monroe redhead version stuck on Gilligan's Island.

Speaker 2 18:18

Well, and she played a persona of being really stupid.

Speaker 1 18:21

Well, yeah, she was like a Hollywood movie, star Right and, yes, kind of an airhead.

Speaker 2 18:26

Isn't it amazing let's just talk about that for a minute. Gilligan's Island. Everybody always looked clean.

Speaker 1 18:31

Well they had. They were on a night. They get in the water every day, Well, and they had different clothes. They were supposed to only go on a three-hour tour why did they have all this stuff with them?

Speaker 2 18:44

they were pretty all I remember, ginger and well she had a few dresses.

Speaker 1 18:45

Yeah, she had a big sparkling dress. So there were, uh, mr and mrs howell yeah, marianne professor marianne, gilligan, skipper and ginger correct seven of them.

Speaker 2 18:53

Look at that yeah, on a three-hour tour. Okayress Um redheaded stepchild. The tiny ship was tossed Not for the courage of the fearless crew, the minnow would be lost and ginger would be at the bottom of the ocean and we wouldn't have that name. Um, so we talked about stepchildren, we talked about souls, we, we talked about pubic hair. It depends on your melanin production.

Speaker 1 19:20

And I know we've talked a lot about pale, fair, white skinned ginger redheads. Wow, I cannot talk. You're still stuck on pubes plenty, plenty, plenty of other. You know people that have red hair as well. So you see that in a lot of mixed children black white races actually like so many different.

Speaker 2 19:45

And why wouldn't you? I mean, it's like if you've got people that have that recessive gene, it could be in anybody. I suppose in their lineage there's a lot of famous redheads actually out there. Oh, going back to the pubic hair, the other thing that the other nickname was fire crotch.

Speaker 1 20:02

That would tell me that. I've heard people ask that question.

Speaker 2 20:04

I'm like motherfucker, don't ask that, that's rude, because they're going to pull their pants down and show you I am in a mood, clearly, anyway, famous redheads.

Speaker 1 20:14

That's my friend burning her pubes.

Speaker 2 20:15

I don't know, maybe you're the one creating these problems, little Miss Blondie. Anyway. So Jessica Rabbit, she's a cartoon, but still.

Speaker 1 20:26

Oh, famous redheads yeah.

Speaker 2 20:27

Yeah, oh, okay. This is what I was saying about the lineage Elizabeth I, so 1588,. She had red hair, red hair, whoa.

Speaker 1 20:36

Real red hair. Whoa Real red hair? Yeah, I've seen that portrayed in films.

Speaker 2 20:39

Yeah, yeah, maybe that's where Harry got, it Could be. Yeah, that's going back a few centuries, but hey, there's probably other ones in there too. Anne, margaret and Raquel Welch, those were little hotties from the 60s?

Speaker 1 20:53

They sure were.

Speaker 2 20:54

Yeah, prince Harry, but you know who the most famous one is?

Speaker 1 20:57

I love Lucy. That's right, lucille.

Speaker 2 20:59

Ball. She's awesome. Yeah, she's pretty awesome. But it's interesting, all these people we're talking about, or a lot of them, they're from like back in the 60s, except Axl Rose. He's not from the 60s, he's more from like the 90s, I would suppose. Gun pose, guns and Roses oh yeah, yeah, axl Rose. So anyway, this is just snippets on redheads, you guys, because there are a lot of them out there and I think it's important that we understand that they do have souls.

Speaker 1 21:27

Oh, they do have souls, they do yes. Top takeaways would be they have more sex.

Speaker 2 21:32

They have souls. They're wild. They could be wild potentially, but nobody's going to know until it comes down to it. So hence the seeking out of the redheads.

Speaker 1 21:42

And if you have a redhead in your life and you can coincide any of this information with the way they look or act, we would love to hear about it.

Speaker 2 21:53

Yeah, and they're not witches. Nope, they're not witches. There's none of that bullshit going on. Anyway, on that note, Michelle, I think it's time that we say well.

Speaker 1 22:04

I think it's time we say goodbye, and on that note, because neither one of us can talk anymore.

Speaker 2 22:09

You guys. We are completely, 100%, sober, absolutely. Yes, I had a peel today on my face, oh yeah, yeah, she's got a red face.

Speaker 1 22:18

Talk about red heads.

Speaker 2 22:19

Well, it's kind of red. I don't have any makeup or anything on, but it's. You know, it's been one of those days where I feel like I have like a mask or something on my face because my skin's really tight but it's going to look really amazing in a couple of days.

Speaker 1 22:31

I have no doubt, yeah.

Speaker 2 22:32

Just doing that little maintenance thing there.

Speaker 1 22:35

We just, you know, this blonde and this brunette just had to, you know, dive in a little deeper on one of our competitors. So the topic was the redheads. Yep, much love to you all.

Speaker 2 22:48

Much love to everyone out there, especially the redheads. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 22:54

Okay, michelle, are we on the socials? Yes, we're on the socials TikTok, facebook, instagram and you will find our episodes on YouTube. You can download and listen to any of them on your favorite platform that you listen to podcasts on. So we are out there a blonde brunette and a mic.

Speaker 2 23:10

Yep, and if you have any feedback or any ideas for topics, we would love to hear from you as well. So, on that note, have a wonderful, wonderful rest of your day and we will see you next week. Till next time, bye, everybody.