Threatened with extinction

[AndSmithMustScore]

The red-head "gene". Everyone has the gene, so as long as people have the gene, variants will continue to exist. For red-heads to vanish, non-red-heads would need to lose the gene too.

Sorry for talking sense in this thread though.

Well we better start crossing all them asians and africans to produce more redhead kids then.

 

[AndSmithMustScore]

Just joking

But it is a bigoted view of black people.

Except that's not accepted, yet the stereotype for the redhead is openly accepted.

 

[BomberGal]

I thought only about 4% had the gene, 1% are readheads.

Everyone has the gene. People don't have different genes. Unless there is something really wrong, and the egg or sperm that produced a child had a genetic deletion (nasty and unlikely to go unnoticed), then all humans have the very same genes.

What you have a different variants. Redheads have a variant of a gene that produces red hair, non-redheads have a variant that does not allow red hair and allows other pigments to be produced (from other genes).

Well we better start crossing all them asians and africans to produce more redhead kids then.

They still have the same genes.

They either don't have the redhead variant or have variants of other genes which suppress any "redhead activity" (which would be my guess).

It's like albino black people...

I will go out on a limb (not really) and suggest that more than one gene is involved in redheadedness and it's not anywhere near as simple as a "recessive redhead gene being lost OMG".

 

[dmc333]

I always found this good for a laugh.

Just don't stay too long in the sun, Mick.

 

[skilts]

It seems that more and more, the female of our species (I'm being inclusive here) are attempting to falsely give the impression that they are of the red-haired variety. Why anyone would want to do such a thing is beyond my ken, but there you go. I suppose the female aspect is explanation enough. It is uncommon for men to do the same, almost to the point of it never happening. FFS, Aker became a blond with a black goatee to avoid the stigma attendant thereto.

Anyway, all of that is merely a preface to my life-long quest to establish the genuineness of redness of hair, specifically in those of the female persuasion. To assist in this project, is anyone able to suggest a method by which one might achieve the degree of certainty required?

Edit: Don't suggest contemplation of eyebrows. I've tried that and it would appear that the deviousness/deceptiveness of the female of the species extends that far north.

 

[AndSmithMustScore]

They still have the same genes.

They either don't have the redhead variant or have variants of other genes which suppress any "redhead activity" (which would be my guess).

It's like albino black people...

I will go out on a limb (not really) and suggest that more than one gene is involved in redheadedness and it's not anywhere near as simple as a "recessive redhead gene being lost OMG".

Red hair appears in people with two copies of a recessive gene on chromosome 16 which causes a change in the MC1R protein. It is associated with fair skin color, freckles, and sensitivity to ultraviolet light, as the mutated MC1R protein is found in the skin and eyes instead of the darker melanin

Going by that not everyone would have the same capabilities to produce a readhead would they?

 

[BomberGal]

One thing to point out in the OP which disproves the very person spouting those numbers is "With only 2% of the world redheaded and only 4% carriers of the gene their numbers are dwindling."

These numbers do not imply simple genetics at all and suggest to me that either a) there's some magic source of redheads entering the population, or b) it is not simple genetics with just one gene being involved.

 

[skipper kelly]

Why anyone would want to do such a thing is beyond my ken

Arent you a bit old to be talking to your dolls.

 

[MightyFighting]

Anyway, all of that is merely a preface to my life-long quest to establish the genuineness of redness of hair, specifically in those of the female persuasion. To assist in this project, is anyone able to suggest a method by which one might achieve the degree of certainty required?

Sodium pentathol.

 

[AndSmithMustScore]

Anyway, all of that is merely a preface to my life-long quest to establish the genuineness of redness of hair, specifically in those of the female persuasion. To assist in this project, is anyone able to suggest a method by which one might achieve the degree of certainty required?

Their eyebrows of course.

If that fails go to Scotland, 4 in 10 women there are redheads so the chances are far higher that if you pull a readhead she'll be genuine.

But for sheer volume of redheads America is your best bet it has more than anyone in the world.

 

[BomberGal]

Going by that not everyone would have the same capabilities to produce a readhead would they?

Have you ever done genetics? Do you have any grasp on it at all? Did you pay attention to my post?

EVERYONE has this gene.

NOT everyone has the variant to produce red-headed children. What is required is the recessive red-headed variant. Some people have the variant and can produce red-headed children, most people do not have this variant. They are all variants of THE SAME GENE, Mcr1. And of course it depends on genetic environment, which may well explain why black people don't produce red-haired kids.

And technically yes, any sperm or egg could happen to mutate at that gene and produce the red-headed variant of the gene...these kind of things happen for many genes at constant rates. Hence how things are maintained at stable frequencies in the population.

 

[BomberGal]

Anyway, all of that is merely a preface to my life-long quest to establish the genuineness of redness of hair, specifically in those of the female persuasion. To assist in this project, is anyone able to suggest a method by which one might achieve the degree of certainty required?

I will sequence the DNA for you at 1000 bucks a pop

 

[AndSmithMustScore]

Have you ever done genetics? Do you have any grasp on it at all? Did you pay attention to my post?

EVERYONE has this gene.

NOT everyone has the variant to produce red-headed children. What is required is the recessive red-headed variant. Some people have the variant and can produce red-headed children, most people do not have this variant. They are all variants of THE SAME GENE, Mcr1.

And technically yes, any sperm or egg could happen to mutate at that gene and produce the red-headed variant of the gene...these kind of things happen for many genes at constant rates. Hence how things are maintained at stable frequencies in the population.

I don't give a rats arse who's got it.

It's about who will actually produce a child with that physical trait.

And those numbers are declining because in times past most redheads would have been of communities where it was extremly common.

But with human movements these days the likelihood of two people with this specific GENE VARIANT actually producing offspring is becomming far less common.

Thus the incidence of a redhead appearing will be declining because of that.

 

[- PC -]

Skilt, ASMS is correct. You have pubes on your head called eyebrows.

I prefer titian haired ladies, not carrot tops

 

[evo]

I will sequence the DNA for you at 1000 bucks a pop

I think he had more traditional methods in mind.

 

[BomberGal]

I think he had more traditional methods in mind.

You don't say...

I'm just trying to make myself some money.

 

[BomberGal]

I don't give a rats arse who's got it.

It's about who will actually produce a child with that physical trait.

And those numbers are declining because in times past most redheads would have been of communities where it was extremly common.

But with human movements these days the likelihood of two people with this specific GENE VARIANT actually producing offspring is becomming far less common.

Thus the incidence of a redhead appearing will be declining because of that.

Yes, and what I'm telling you is, as long as people still carry the gene, it will be possible for the variant to be continually introduced into the population via new mutations.

 

[MightyFighting]

You don't say...

I'm just trying to make myself some money.

I would have thought the "traditional" method could also be profitable. Just ask Kevin Rudd.

 

[jumpinjimmy]

But it is a bigoted view of black people.

Except that's not accepted, yet the stereotype for the redhead is openly accepted.

Redhead and Irish, you must have copped heaps. My relatives came from Clare and were dark featured. It may have had something to do with the Spanish Alliance in the 1600's And.... I knew that you weren't seriously deriding blacks.
Also, I remember seeing an excerpt of 'Catalyst' where they stated that blondes have only a few generations before they become extinct as well!
From an anthropological point of view there is a theory that variants from our dark-skinned African forebears were revered and encouraged to interbreed hence the variant populations we have today in Scandanavia for instance.

 

[AndSmithMustScore]

Redhead and Irish, you must have copped heaps. My relatives came from Clare and were dark featured. It may have had something to do with the Spanish Alliance in the 1600's And.... I knew that you weren't seriously deriding blacks.
Also, I remember seeing an excerpt of 'Catalyst' where they stated that blondes have only a few generations before they become extinct as well!
From an anthropological point of view there is a theory that variants from our dark-skinned African forebears were revered and encouraged to interbreed hence the variant populations we have today in Scandanavia for instance.

I'm not a readhead.

My mother's mother's family were from Clare they were all dark haired and blue eyed.

That's what Celts actually look like, jet black hair and blue eyes.

It was her father that had the red hair and he was from Derry.

Having said that iv'e 4 red headed uncles.

Yet they have only had one redheaded child between them all and that's out of about 20+ kids.

 

[Richo83]

The saying is actually i'd rather be dead than red.

Which is one of the points, if someone said i'd rather be dead than black they'd be called a racist.

Redheads are a physical trait of certain races, just as skin colour is the traint of certain races.

Yeah yeah, I got nothing against red-heads, my mother is one. But if the red-head gene is bred out, then like many human traits, it will fall the way of Darwinian evolution.

I have never EVER seen an attractive red-head. EVER.

 

[jumpinjimmy]

Yeah yeah, I got nothing against red-heads, my mother is one. But if the red-head gene is bred out, then like many human traits, it will fall the way of Darwinian evolution.

I have never EVER seen an attractive red-head. EVER.

Nicole Kidman?

 

[jumpinjimmy]

I have never EVER seen an attractive red-head. EVER.

Alicia Witt?

 

[- PC -]

Sarah Ferguson

 

[rugmop]

A woman with whom I played hide-the-sausage for about nine months, who was one of the most classically beautiful people I've ever met, in a physical sense, was a red head. She also turned out to be as mad as a March hare, but that's another story.