This is one of the sillier stories going around, I’ll be the first to admit that. Nonetheless, it does point to the contradictions in our lives as men and women grapple with something as ordinary as a hair cut.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), the story goes, visited an upscale Washington, D.C. hair salon and paid a pretty penny for a hair cut and lowlights. Lowlights, for the uninformed, are “partial or spot hair coloring in which just a few sections of hair are dyed.” She’s young so I’m assuming she isn’t covering gray, just perking up her regular hair color. It’s the hair coloring process that beefs up the final bill.
Alex Swoyer wrote a piece published in The Washington Times documenting AOC’s visit.
The New York Democrat ventured into Last Tangle Salon on 19th Street Northwest last month and shelled out $80 for a haircut and $180 for lowlights, according to sources familiar with the salon.
A 20% tip would have added $52 to the bill.
Swoyer went at the story from the point of view that socialists – especially politicians – are hypocrites. Socialists demand legislation that aggressively taxes the fruits of our labor yet they live quite well in their own lives. For example, the two most prominent Socialists in Washington, D.C. are Bernie Sanders and his disciple, AOC. Bernie, as we all know now, owns three houses, including a beach house. Swoyer’s piece was a legitimate criticism.
AOC is a twenty-nine years old single woman living in Washington, D.C., a city that is listed as number 5 out of the 10 most expensive cities in America in which to live. Her home city, New York City, is number one on the list so she is used to a high cost of living. Frankly, she may well think she got a good deal in that salon, depending on what she pays in NYC.
The problem with the piece arose when a liberal female writer tweeted about the article. She began with: “this would obvs never be a story about a man”
1) this would obvs never be a story about a man
2) this is not an expensive haircut/color for a public figure who is frequently on TV
3) if her hair was raggedy, that would be the lead story instead
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) October 10, 2019
Valenti went at it from the sexist angle – a woman is criticized for her hair care. What Valenti must have missed in the last 30 years, though, is that men, too, have come under fire for hair cuts that seem crazy expensive. Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Mitt Romney were all faulted for spending a lot on their hair. Rick Perry received notice for his preference of $25.00 hair cuts. And so on.
Nevertheless, AOC is in the public spotlight. People will talk whether she spends $25.00 or $600.00. I find it much more acceptable to question the exorbitant prices paid by the men, though, to be honest because there is so much less work involved. As a rule, women have longer hair (AOC has long hair) and the whole coloring thing takes time and requires a skilled hair stylist. It’s no secret – women pay more.
I’m fiscally conservative. I live for a bargain. That isn’t usually possible when it comes to a visit to a hair salon. I’m sure someone recommended this place to AOC and she went. She probably doesn’t have a lot of time to be searching out the best deal. And, as I noted above, it probably isn’t particularly expensive for the area. She is a single, childless professional woman. She makes a salary of $174,000 a year. She can afford a splurge on her hair. At the most, she might go to the salon once a month, but I doubt it is that frequent. Most women go 6 to 8 weeks to keep up with hair color.
Could she do it all cheaper and live a more modest lifestyle? Yes, of course. She lives in an upscale area. The point is she is free to make her own choices. If we were living in her socialist nirvana, her choices would be severely curtailed. That’s the point the liberal virtue-signaling writer missed.
AOC doesn’t have to color her own hair at home like lots of women do because she can afford to visit a hair salon that can remain in business due in part to tax policies. Thanks, President Trump. That business owner’s taxes would be higher if AOC had her way. The cost of living in a large city like D.C. is higher than a less populated place in another part of the country. This is a time when I will stick up for excercising her freedom of choice in hair care. Now, if she starts having her hair done in a plane on a tarmac like Bill Clinton once famously did, all bets are off.
Yes, AOC has responded. It’s an apples and oranges kind of response, but her response nonetheless.
Won’t you look at that: Mike Pence used *taxpayer funds* – not personal ones – to spend several thousand haircuts’ worth of public money on a visit to Trump golf courses.
I wonder if Republicans care about corruption as much as they care about a woman’s cut & color. https://t.co/xBze4obZhv
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 10, 2019
The post AOC got an expensive haircut, let the Twitter outrage begin appeared first on Hot Air.
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