Washington Post recently did an op ed piece showing various Beach Scenes (click here.) The following one generated several comments by readers who related similar stories of seagulls swiping foodstuffs from unsuspecting beach goers:
This comment from Buzzby made me wonder how he/she pronounces it – Buzz-be or Buzz-by?
However, the beach scene that caught my eye and caused me some churn was the following one:
I wasn’t the only one to pick up on the PC-ness of it as did someone named Georgie Tirebiter. (You think that perhaps that is a fake name?)
However, that wasn’t my main observation about this scene. My PC-related issue/objection had to do with the young boy being depicted as being a red head. (OK, technically his hair resembles orange more than red, but you get the drift – it is not blonde, brown nor black as approximately 98% of U.S. population is.) The fact that it is the ginger who is depicted with the dumpy sand castle, while the blonde has the big, bad ass castle, just shows that blondes really have come a long way I guess.
Recognize that I am being a little picky here. Yet, as the father of 4 red heads, I have always been a tad overly sensitive about about how red heads are often portrayed. For instance, if you watch any T-V show or movie that has a red head in it, invariably they will be portrayed as either being a whack job or a vixen. (David Caruso maybe not, but even his CSI Miami Horatio character was still portrayed as being a little offbeat and cheesy in his own way (click here for samples and note that the Who’s “Yeah” never gets old!)
You know the general stereotype of red heads: Irish, short tempered, impulsive, a little on the wild side, promiscuous etc.. Guess we now need to add to the red head stereotype list – lousy sand castle builders.
And don’t even get me started on the expression “red headed step child.”
And speaking of getting started, I will leave you with an early video featuring lead singer of Simply Red Mick Hucknall: