Stereotypes: Don't Touch Me!

by Melinda
(California)

I am 34 years old and have had soft curly red hair all my life. Because of this adults have ALWAYS touched my hair and my family always told me to "be nice." It had gotten so bad that when I became 18 I became rude and do not like people to touch me at ALL. So if I'm ill tempered it's because I had 18 years of " be nice" built up.

Also while traveling from California to Nebraska my family stopped at a store in a small town, and there was a little girl who hid behind her mother and was truly frightened of my presence. I later found out that as a redhead it was assumed that I was a "child or part of" the devil. The devil is depicted as red in color therefore I must be some part of. The rest of the trip with my family teasing me was "delightful"...