Like A Red-Headed Stepchild

Hello, welcome to A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Megan Marksbury, and I’m so excited to talk to you.

Hi, Megan. Where are you calling from, Megan?

I’m calling from Theo Beach, California.

Cool. Megan, it’s mutual.

Welcome to the show. What can we do for you, Megan?

I have two daughters. One of them is a redhead, and I have a brand new husband.

And he was talking to me the other day and he said, I can’t believe it, Meg.

I have a redheaded stepchild.

And we were kind of laughing about it.

And we’ve kind of talked to my daughter, Margo, about it.

And he said, why don’t you call your word show that you’re always listening to and ask your grant and Martha about redheaded stepchild?

And I said, oh, my gosh, well, this might be just the opportunity I was looking for to talk to my two favorite people.

Wow, I get to call you guys and tell you thank you for having such a great show and maybe find out where this came from.

Maybe it’s from an Irish immigration a long time ago, but where are the stepchildren coming from and what’s the origin of this phrase?

So I just didn’t know.

Were there a lot of widows?

Was it a divorce situation?

What’s going on with the stepchildren back in the day?

And that’s been great.

Why are they hurting children, which they should not do, right?

Why the harsh treatment of these kids?

Does it not be cruel to each other?

Yeah.

And why the redheads?

I love redheads.

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You’re not a redhead yourself?

I am not.

My dad is a redhead.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

So it got passed down through him.

Yeah.

I think that recessive gene might play into it.

Right, Martha?

I think it might because, yeah, a redheaded stepchild is usually the one who’s different, right?

The one who, yeah, traditionally might have questionable parentage, but yeah, it has to do with that recessive gene.

And you’re right that the phrase redheaded stepchild has a history, you know, when you’re talking about either treating someone like a redheaded stepchild or unfortunately beating, which of course we don’t advocate.

But yeah, you’re treating the child like they’re different from the rest of the family.

And that goes back to the late 19th century for sure.

And so the reasons for this, let’s see if we can figure these out.

So there’s the stereotype that a stepchild gets treated worse than a parent’s own children, right?

Yes.

Not in this family.

Not in that family.

Good.

That’s right.

And then red hair is unusual, and it may open someone up to being ridiculed, right?

And as we alluded to, red hair in a child might be a giveaway that someone has been unfaithful as a spouse.

Oh.

Yeah.

Yeah, that’s what I meant.

That’s where the recessive gene comes in because it skips generations.

And so if you don’t understand genetics, you might think that your spouse has been cheating on you or sleeping around if you don’t have red hair and the redheaded baby is born.

But also, Martha, did you know this, that sometimes red-haired people were seen as unlucky?

Oh, sure.

Yeah, you might have avoided them like you avoid a black cat.

Yeah, there were superstitions, yeah.

Martha, you mentioned the late 1800s for this, but there were some other versions of it back then too, right?

Yeah, I’m looking at a newspaper from 1899 that refers to somebody as being as sad as a redheaded cross-eyed stepchild.

You know, it’s that child who’s a little bit different from the rest of the family.

So, yeah, redheaded have dealt with a lot over the years.

They’ve dealt with gingerism, as it’s called, you know, where people just have stereotypes.

I feel like we’re coming out of that a bit, though.

I do feel like my redhead has not been picked on.

It’s been more embraced.

And even the freckles have been embraced as being different and unique.

So I’m hoping that’s all changing.

That’s wonderful.

I think Harry Potter probably had something to do with that.

All the Weasleys, you know.

Right, being part of the Weasley tribe was seen as a strength.

Yeah.

Wow.

Well, thank you so much.

Thank you, Megan.

We really appreciate your call.

Give our best to your family, all right?

Bye-bye.

877-929-9673.

Email words@waywordradio.org.