Karen Haircut ( 5 Implications and Significance)
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In this brief guide, we will look at the meaning of Karen Haircut, and everything related to the “Karen” phenomena that seems to have taken over the internet.
What is the Karen Haircut?
A Karen haircut is any haircut that is associated with a specific type of woman, mostly white women, who act entitled and want to do things their way and need the world around them to run a certain way despite the problems it causes to other people.
Before there was a karen haircut, there was Karen, which is essentially a meme that you may know better as the “Can I speak to the manager” meme, which features a woman who has a clearly negative and displeased expression on her face and is dissatisfied with whatever service she has received or whatever is going on with her at the moment.
While karen haircuts and karens have been around for a while, they caught more flak in 2020 as the coronavirus epidemic came around and when riots and protests happened in the United States for Black Lives Matter and various other instances of unrest.
In the context of coronavirus, a certain type of people constantly advocated that masks not be used and that the safety precautions in place for the virus were excessive and restrictive (which they were but to stop the spread), and that they should be rejected if liberty were to be maintained, and in these cases this particular group of women, known as Karens because of their entitled attitudes, often came under scrutiny because of their clearly difficult behavior.
Karen haircuts are only part of the mockery that Karens have received; the reason this group of people is so heavily criticized is because there are far too many instances where they have tried to hurt others by getting them fired or arrested, solely because they deemed it so, without any evidence or actual presence of danger.
An example of why the karen haircut has become so loathed and actively avoided is seen in the instance which happened around the time the Black Lives Matter movement was at its peak, and a woman called the cops on a black person jogging in a public park because she thought it threatened her safety.
The due investigation that happened after this instance revealed that there was absolutely no merit to the call or to the accusation and there was prosecution against the woman for calling the cops on an innocent person unnecessarily.
This, sadly, was not the only instance when a “Karen” called the cops on people unnecessarily, there were many times where cops were called for racially motivated reasons, which is why there was eventually legislation on the matter, which, ironically, was called CAREN, but not for the reason you think.
CAREN stands for Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies, and it was passed in October 2020.
The CAREN act was introduced by San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton, following a June 2020 bill titled AB 1550, which was introduced by California State Assembly member Rob Bonta and which sought to classify fraudulent, racially discriminatory 911 calls as hate crimes, and this bill also opened up the possibility that someone making such a call could be sued for up to $10,000.
What are some Karen Haircuts like?
There isn’t any one Karen Haircut, because while it is a huge movement and group of people that are referred to as Karens, naturally it’s not a planned cult or a group of people who know each other.
The most famous type of Karen Haircut is known as the Gosselin, named for Kate Gosselin, who is an American reality star, and she first came to light in her own show where the cameras followed her somewhat atypical family of 8 children, out of which there were sextuplets and twins. After that show (Jon and Kate plus 8), she also appeared on other shows, like The View and Dancing with the stars.
The reason Gosselin is associated with the Karen haircut is because that typical asymmetrical bob she wears, with the spiky hair on the back and a side swept bangs in front is something that was seen in Karens fairly frequently, and therefore the two seem to have become synonymous with Karens and the “Can I speak to the manager” meme.
Another Karen haircut that is often associated with this type of people is a very sleek and extremely polished asymmetrical bob, which was all the rage some time ago but is now seen predominantly on middle aged women who act extremely entitled and rude.
A possible reason why such rigid or straight hairstyles are associated with this personality type, or why they have come to be known as Karen haircuts may be because it implies the need for control and a need for assertion.
How someone chooses to wear their hair is a pretty big reflection of who they are, and it is possible that people who are overly neat or razor sharp with their hair may be the type of people who need to have a high degree of control in other aspects of life, and as in the case of the karen personality, they may often be people who try to impose control on other people around them.
Another common feature associated with karen haircuts is excessive volume, which has a significant reason behind it too.
It is seen often that karen haircuts feature many layers or coiffed hair or just hair that is very “big”, and this volume is often associated with white women of a certain age because they tend to be at the age where people often start suffering from thinning hair due to hormonal changes or because of other physical reasons, which is why they may resort to extremely voluminous hair.
There is yet another psychological reason behind why the Karen haircut is so often full of volume and consists of layers and coiffs, and that may be that these personality types are often very histrionic or narcissistic, or plain attention-seeking, which means that vanity is a big factor with them.
When a vain person starts suffering from thinning hair or other hair related problems, they may often overcompensate by blowing them up too far (much like blowing things out of proportion for the attention or out of entitlement), and that leads to a characteristic look that comes to be known as the Karen haircut.
Of course, this does not mean that we ostracize or immediately criticize someone with a coiff or volume in their hair or layers and different colors, that is something someone with a “karen” personality would do, we need to remember that the haircut does not make the Karen, it is the other way around.
Also, there are male karen haircuts too, which are also asymmetric and have bangs, so make sure to stay away from those if you are a man who does not want to be seen with a karen haircut.
Karen Haircut: Is it Sexist?
There have been many allegations by various groups that calling someone a Karen is sexist and that it is excessively discriminatory and offensive to women in general.
Hadley Freeman argued at one point that the use of the name Karen and the Can I speak to your manager meme may have started out to hold this type of individual accountable but has since stopped being something that describes typical behavior and basically become a means of “telling women to shut up”.
Another person who has argued against the Karen meme is Jennifer W., who wrote in the New York Times during the coronavirus epidemic, where she said the meme had succeeded in silencing her, saying she had had to balance her desire to complain about a nearby man coughing into the open air, hawking and spitting on the sidewalk, with her fear of being called a Karen.
This is an aspect to the whole Karen situation that needs to be considered before going ahead and calling someone you don’t like Karen, because that is how factions of the public are silenced and ostracized.
Conclusion
In this brief guide, we looked at the meaning of Karen Haircut, and everything related to the “Karen” phenomena that seems to have taken over the internet.
Karen haircuts are only one aspect of this significant thing that is found everywhere on the internet these days, and the Karen personality is something that has been in the news and social media headlines more and more with the rise in protests and outrage over things.
The Karen personality is known for their outraging and entitled attitude more than they are known for the Karen haircut, but sadly for all the non-karens who like that haircut, it has now gotten irrevocably attached to someone that likes to create a ruckus over just about anything they don’t agree with.
If you have any questions or comments about the Karen haircut, please feel free to reach out to us at any time.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Karen Haircut
What is the Karen haircut called?
The Karen haircut is called The Gosselin, which is a type of haircut that is classified as an asymmetric pixie or bob, with long bangs in the front and spiky layers that stuck straight up in the back.
The Karen haircut is also known as the “can I speak to the manager” cut, which comes from the mme about entitled people, mostly suburban women who want to speak to the manager for just about anything when they are not happy with the service they are receiving at a business fo any type.
What does a Karen mean?
Karen is a pejorative or insulting term for someone who believes that they are entitled to the best or somethnig beyond what they are currently receiving and who constantly demands to receive what is appropriate or necessary in a given situation.
The word Karen came from memes, as all viral things do in the current society, and this meme depicted a white woman who wanted to speak to the manager for just about everything they deemed wrong, and who uses her privilege to demand her own way at the expense of others.
What is a mom bob?
Mom bob is a type of hairstyle that is usually in the form of hair that is longer-in-back, and slightly–shorter-in-front bob that should read sleek but is inescapably frumpy.
In many cases the mom bob is something that comes about because women can often lose hair after pregnancy, which may be caused by hormonal conditions caused by the pregnancy. The popular sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live also did a sketch about the mom bob where a pregnant woman is told that she is not a mom till she gets the haircut, and when she does she instantly starts to see things in a mom like fashion.
What is a ducktail haircut?
The ducktail haircut refers to a popular hairstyle that was trendy during the 1950s and it is also called the duck’s tail, duck’s ass, duck’s arse or simply D.A., and in some causes people may just know it as slicked back hair.
The ducktail haircut is a type of hairstyle that is pomaded, or greased, combed back around the sides, and parted centrally down the back of the head.
Citations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_(pejorative)#Legislation
https://www.itsrosy.com/Haircuts+To+Avoid+So+You+Don’t+Look+Like+A+’Karen’
https://www.insider.com/karen-meme-origin-the-history-of-calling-women-karen-white-2020-5
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