causing offense?

Only time will tell if our " ginger biscuits " will have to change their name if some bright spark comes along on the defensive.

Yes, and before we know it we won't be able to say blackboard, or celebrate Christmas?

Ridiculous. A ginger biscuit is a biscuit flavoured with ginger, and there is no reason why anyone would change the name. Mocking those who want to be more considerate of others is unkind and usually based on ignorance.

I feel a bit sorry for Fennel. I agree with the consensus that she shouldn't have made a personal comment; but she only asked whether she was really in the wrong. We can only learn by experience, and it is clear that Fennel genuinely wanted to know why her comment was ill-received.

If people who ask about this sort of thing are lambasted over and over, it won't encourage anyone else to try to open their minds, will it?

I have never understood why people have a problem with ginger hair. It all boils down to ignorance and intolerance of difference I suppose. Saying 'ginger nut' belongs way back in the un-pc past though, because of the connotations of 'nut'. My m-i-l used to say that if her son had been born ginger, she would have dyed his hair! This was back in the 60s. I think we have moved on since then and there are enough celebrities championing their ginger locks. At the sec school where I work, no child seems offended if their hair colour is called 'ginger'. I think saying someone's hair is 'mousey' however, is really insulting.

Our daughter had ginger hair when she was a baby. It was gorgeous.

Think you answered your own question there by saying you were called names. Off course it’s offensive.

I think that today everyone would consider gingernut to be offensive. It is not normal to make comments about people's personal appearance unless it is a compliment. My mother became increasingly non PC as she got older and it was embarassing though I now realize it was indicative of the start of dementia.

I am so hankering after ginger biscuits now.

Good thing the child wasn’t actually a girl- that would have added “insult to injury”. One has to be careful and never make assumptions !!

What ever next, we won't be able to say Custard Cream for fear of upsetting people who have custard coloured hair. I suppose Jammy Dodger is against those who are not nimble enough to dodge about.
Don't start me on Rich Tea, that's clearly poking fun at the upper classes. Digestive, people with additional dietary conditions.

Hang on I will contact the PC Brigade HQ and report back.

joke

Could someone explained thecprejudice about red hair which I had never heard of growing up in Scotland? How far back does this go?
My grandson aged 20 has fantastic, wavy, copper coloured hair ( probably from Russian blood) and the right measurements for modelling. He has done quite a lot in his gap year and was told that the Japanese are crazy for redheads.

I thought "ginger nut" in the context of a person referred to pubic hairs not head hair! So would be at someone saying that to a child!

Or maybe she wasnt in the mood for small talk

I have never understood why people have a problem with ginger

Because they is still predjudice about towards people with celtic origins (scotland/Ireland celts) and the two are associated.

I am a redhead and boys used to sing
" Gingernut fell in the cutt and frightened all the fishes,
A fish jumped up and swallowed her up
And that was the end of ginger nut. "

( A cutt is a canal)

I hated it . It was so taunting. Yes, I would find it offensive. I would never say that .

When I was 18 months my hair was egg yolk yellow and my grandmother was horrified at the thought that she might have a grandchild with ginger hair (I would say she loved my totally and I her).

On the other hand, I always wanted truly bright red hair and envied beyond belief a girl at school with truly copper coloured hair.

I have decided that when my hair finally goes white (if ever) I am going to have it dyed a blazing flame red to achieve my hcildhood ambition.

cant believe someone would say the word ginger in front of a small child too.

When my gorgeous, now grown up son, was a baby, he had lovely golden hair, once in a shop I heard young girls say, ' I would not walk about with that baby without covering its head or better still, dying it' I was terrible upset , ran out of shop crying. Another time when my husband was out with him, two eldery ladies were overheard saying . Uh, look at that !!!
He is now a fine outstanding man whom we are very proud of.

I had bright red hair and as a child, complete strangers would often address me as ‘Carrot top’ which I found a bit upsetting.
Fortunately, as I grew older, it did mellow to a quite nice golden blonde colour. Being pointed at and sometimes laughed at because of my hair colour has made be aware of other people’s feelings especially in terms of appearance....a little thought and kindness goes a long way.

I was a ginger. So was my son.
I just don’t get why ginger is considered an insult but that appears to be the case.

I often cuddle my dgc and call him my wee ginger nut.

I remember at senior school the boys asking ,,,,, Ginger, would you snap !!

Well jennyveg good for you and your husband you’re obviously very thick skinned people but not everyone is, as for your husband being called specky short arse and it ‘did him no harm’ what absolute balony do you really really truly see nothing wrong in that and aren’t you glad times have changed
Would you really and truly consider it’s ok for a child to have words like that thrown at them throughout childhood

(Holds hands up in disbelief)

2 of my 3 brothers are ginger and used to get the rhyme "gingernut you're barmy, go and join the army" chanted at them! I thought it was unkind then.

I had a lovely Italian lady as a patient many years ago and bumped into her outside of work with her son, who had gorgeous dark red hair. Iasked her who he took after (she had dark hair) and her reply makes me chuckle even now - "In England you say the milkman, in Italy we say the plumber!"

BlueBelle well it's a good job that my husband & I are according to "very thick skinned people" after the comments that have just made with regard to my post, actually I am not at all "thick skinned" in fact I would describe myself as quite sensitive, I just think that these days people take far too much notice of what others say and are far too quick to look for and take offence, I am certainly not glad that times have changed, and as my husband said the comments did him no harm, hold up your hands in disbelief again, some people actually survived a childhood where they were subject to comments about their appearance

I always wanted red hair as a child because my best friend when was 10 had carrot-coloured hair - we used to imagine that she was Queen Elizabeth and she would strut about majestically. Since I am half French, a quarter English and a quarter Scots, I naturally played her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, whose mix of nationalities is the same. And what was even better for my friend, she got to kill me before afternoon lessons started. I got to be a tragic, martyred heroine, which was fun, too. So when my husband and I applied to adopt each of our sons, we were both very surprised to be asked, in the same breath as the questions about whether we would be prepared to consider a child with a parent who was a drug addict or a criminal, or a child with ‘coloured’ blood [the agency’s words - it was a long time ago and I know no agency would use those words now], whether it mattered to us if the child had ginger hair. We said that none of these characteristics would put us off, and indeed, to be honest, I rather hoped one that at least of the children we were offered might have red hair. As it happened, neither did, so it wasn’t until over two decades later that I realised that children ere routinely teased or bullied for having ginger hair - auburn hair doesn’t seem to elicit the same ridicule. Mind you, my friend really hated being called ‘Carrot-top’, and We both agreed that it was silly anyway because carrot-tops are green and wilted, not carrot-coloured.

My aunt, let’s call her Ava, has always been called Ginger by friends, she’s 84 now and still known as Ginger - most people now don’t know her real name.
The odd thing was that she’s always been blonde - she got the nickname ‘ginger’ because her maiden name was Ava Redhead.
I think ginger-nut might offend as we are a more fragile society now and easily offended by everything - I once commented how pretty a little girl if about 3 was, she really was very lively, and her grandma told me off as they were trying to raise her not to be vain.
Best say nothing to anyone nowadays.

I don't think we are fragile. Thank the Lord we have woken up, otherwise Speccy 4 eyes, Mongol, Pakki, Gingernut and so on would be acceptable.

We've become such a P C country now. It's probably wrong to say good morning to someone in case they're having a bad morning !!!

Yes I think ginger nut is an unfortunate comment. My lovely 11 year old grandson has auburn hair and we prefer it when people don’t comment at all. To us he is just the same as everyone else and we don’t comment on other people, it’s downright rude.,