There's a reason why Katy Perry spewed backstage at the BRITS and is now bedridden with flu to the point of possibly postponing the start of her UK tour (which is penned in for this coming Sunday). KARMA!
What has she done wrong, apart from turning up to the BRITS in a befuddling get up (it looks like Hello Kitty had a litter of disembodied runts on a basque), squeeze her bits into dangerously constrictive pants or generally sing about sh*te? She's feeding the seedling of "gingerism" stateside. Yep, it's that time of year again when I rant about being a redhead, getting stick about it since birth, and how it has substantially contributed to my bitterness. Later in life, it became clear that I only had unimaginative insults shouted at me in Ireland and England - it was a very different story in other corners of the globe. In Spain and Italy, there was enrapt staring. In France, complete indifference. In America, absolute adulation *tosses tumbling locks*.
Now, there's been a shift stateside. Perry posted the following on her blog a few weeks back and it's left an uneasy grumbling within - where can a redhead go for some respite if this "gingerism" goes global?!: "HAHAHA. My parents approved the most redick (ridiculous) family fotos (sic) and sent them into CBS without thinking about it or asking what I thought about it. You can imagine as I am sitting there watching the tv, hands over face... mortified. Thank you mom and dad... at the old age of 24 you continue to succeed in making my face red. I would have sent in more of my pageant photos of course... but... what fun would that be? (So) I wanna team all my fans with a photo of my HOT GINGE sister, Angela. Wow. look at that tender mess. We're sorry all the gingers are going extinct. We salute you for you braveness of being a ginge. She's gonna kill me when she wakes up and finds the spreading of the ginge foto (sic) all over the www (internet)..."
Being a redhead (I refuse to use the term ginger as it's wholly inaccurate. Ginger is beige, with a pink hue when pickled. I do turn pink when pickled but no part of me is beige) does require a level of bravery, only because mindless muppets keep highlighting it as some sort of inadequacy. Did you know the careers of Amy Adams and Debra Messing didn't take off until they dyed their hair red? If gingerism spreads, who knows what acting talent we might be denied in future?!
Since Perry's blog, some sites have followed suit, one of which referred to Paris Hilton as "America's red-headed stepchild." Being compared to the SimpHilton is one step TOO far. Usually such comments make no impact, you get used to these things... perhaps this one has struck a nerve because A), I loathe Katy Perry, and B) because my sister has had a beautiful little red-headed boy. He's getting christened this weekend. Every time I look at his innocent little face, it's upsetting to know the amount of ignorant caterwauling he'll have to endure for a lifetime. Or at least until he goes bald.