Gingerism and its discontents

At school and watching films on telly as a primary-aged child, I got the impression that beautiful or handsome humans were either black haired or blonde women whereas people like me who were some variety of red-headed were not. I also got 'reverse' skin-colour racism: being picked on because I didn't tan and only had freckles. So I don't need convincing that there is something in 'gingerism'.  I'm not saying it's as bad or systematic as racism or sexism, but it does really exist and we shouldn't let it pass without challenge.
As the article says:

the whole gingerism thing is a stealth form of acceptable racism that goes on in boardrooms, in authors' minds.

But I don't entirely go with the choice of example up next:

Look at Harry Potter – the redheads are the poor, weak family, the buffoons. If Harry Potter had been ginger, that would have been a different story.

It's true that Rowling has rightly picked up the way that a ginger family would quite likely be the object of derisive and dismissive comments. But it's worth noting the heroic and sympathetic qualities of that family. Rowling has the underdogs turn out to be among the celebration-worthy: their compassion, self-sacrifice are key to the plot. They are heroes in the story. The main hero even ends up marrying one of them.

Would it have been a different story if HP had been ginger. Not sure it would: one more thing for him to be harassed for and a further reason for him to identify with his best friends the Weasleys. They may be buffoons in the eyes of the self-important muggle-haters, but in terms of authorial and readerly respect, quite the reverse. Harry Potter is no gingerist text. It witnesses to gingerism but it critiques it too.

Damian Lewis and the case of the missing redheads | Art and design | The Guardian: