Is the word ginger insulting?

luckat wrote:

You could see the mother flinching. She realised the woman wasn't actually trying to be rude, and said "Ah no, my own hair is a bit gingery." But at first she clearly took it as a rude way of talking about red hair.

I flinched myself. I'd say red-haired, or strawberry blonde, or auburn, depending on the shade. I'd never say ginger unless I was teasing, and I'd only tease if I knew someone well enough that they wouldn't think I was being nasty.

I have never seen somebody with natural red hair, only dyed. That is red as in a red traffic light. The colour of these "redheads" hair is like ginger, you were saying auburn, I cannot see what is insulting about trying to describe a colour accurately, and why ginger is a more offensive term than auburn.

There was a program on BBC3 recently F**k off I'm a ginger. The presenter was ginger and was making that same point, that his hair is certainly not red.

It is like people saying they are not black or white.

I'd only take it as an insult if it was pronounced like "minger". But then again, I don't have red hair.