Originally published at: Small Dutch town invaded by gingers - Boing Boing
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This ceaseless fixation on superficial physical traits, though…
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The city of Tilburg might want a word too
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Hmmm, TIL. Interesting comparison, I may have to steal this one.
Intersex People by Country 2024 (worldpopulationreview.com)
The impact of this disunity is both immediately evident and far-reaching. For example, the best-known estimate of the prevalence of intersex individuals is 1.7% of the total population, drawn from a 2000 study by a team of researchers that included Brown University sexologist Anne Fausto-Sterling. However, Sterling’s study used a very broad definition of intersexuality, which has been criticized by other experts. In a response in the Journal of Sex Research, psychologist Leonard Sax offered a narrower definition of intersexuality, which resulted in an estimated concentration of 0.018% of the population—nearly 100 times less common than Fausto-Sterling’s estimate.
Red hair , also known as ginger hair , is a human hair color found in 2–6% of people of Northern or Northwestern European ancestry and lesser frequency in other populations. It is most common in individuals homozygous for a recessive allele on chromosome 16 that produces an altered version of the MC1R protein.[1]
It’s complicated, not entirely false, but pretty questionable. I think I will not be using that after all.
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I have… a total of 4 red heads in my family… my mom, two cousins on her side, and one cousin on my dad’s side (from my generation)…
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Came here for this…
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Specifically, Fausto-Sterling’s definition is essentially any case where a person has a penis but not XY chromosomes (such as XXY amab people with Kleinfelter syndrome) or a vagina but not XX chromosomes (such as single X / partial X afab people with Turner syndrome, or XY afab people with androgen insensitivity).
So, while it’s not reasonable to say that redheads and intersex people occur with about the same frequency globally as most people define intersex, it is reasonable to say that the statement “all men have XY chromosomes and all women have XX chromosomes” is about as wrong as saying “redheads don’t exist” even if you wrongly think trans people don’t exist.
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I know at least one person who is both. They are a lovely and rare flower, indeed, no matter how you define either term!
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I did not know this:
In a certain genetic background in mice it has been reported that animals lacking MC1R had increased tolerance to capsaicin acting through the TRPV1 receptor and decreased response to chemically induced inflammatory pain.
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Check for bank robbers!
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Just looking to post this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPQGKOrLu-Q
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At first sight, I thought the story would be about ginger cats. Invading a town! That would have been interesting. Anyway, back to the subject of gingers.
Ginger Ginger.
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Kidding!
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There’s a nice side effect of that tolerance. I have almost no worry about ring of fire.
The increased tolerance / ineffectiveness of pain killers is not so good though.
I hit the genetic lottery. Redhead, AB+, left handed.
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Ha, I thought you were going to post https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeMvUlxXyz8 [1], although this video is more about Sri Lanka than… you know.
[1] TW: violence
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A massive swarm of redheads descended upon the unsuspecting village of Tilburg. The reason for the season was the annual Tilburg Redhead Days Festival.
Insofar as it apparently happens every year, you would think they wouldn’t have been so “unsuspecting”.
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Overheard in Tilburg: “I see red people.”
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Once is chance, twice is coincidence, three times is a pattern.
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Here in the U.S., people with red/ginger hair aren’t (usually) stigmatized for their hair color. In fact, my redhead son grew up having almost every woman who encountered him exclaim, “Ooh! I love that hair!” or “I wish I had hair like that!” The men would all look at me sideways and make some comment about the milkman. (Y’see, I have dark brown, almost black hair; my wife is a natural blonde, so it’s a hilarious infidelity joke at my expense).
I’m too lazy to look it up, but I’ve always been puzzled by the half-joking – maybe a little more than half serious? – enmity toward gingers in the UK. Anyone have an answer why that’s such a thing across the pond? Age-old anti-Celtic sentiment maybe?
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