Meghan McCain’s Hair Is a Hypocritical Mess

Meghan McCain is a name and person many of us wish we never had to interact with, but as a co-host of the daytime talk show The View and a white woman who has followed in her people’s long tradition of building a career off their rich and powerful parents, we are subject to her deeply held assertion that her opinions Must. Be. Heard. And she’s been given ample platforms on which to share her beliefs.

This week, McCain, who identifies as progressive Republican with a dash of liberal when it comes to select social issues, drew ire from critics when she discussed her concerns with pushing for greater Asian American and Pacific Islander representation within President Joe Biden’s cabinet. “We’ve only had one Asian American host co-host this show,” McCain said, referring to Lisa Ling, who was a host on The View from 1999-2002. “So does that mean that one of us should be leaving because there’s not enough representation? Is identity politics more important than the qualifications for the job?” Luckily, co-host Sunny Hostin was there to speak for everyone who raised an eyebrow at McCain’s casually racist assumption, saying, “It’s about the fact that they are many qualified women and minority candidates that never get the opportunity because of the advancement of generally white male mediocrity, because of things like legacy.” Considering how often McCain brings up her father, the late senator John McCain, it was a satisfying rebuttal.

This conversation was hard enough to stomach, but that it’s coming after a year of heightened hate crimes against Asians, how often she’s made racist comments about the Black Lives Matter movement, and the frequency of her loud, offensive opinions and white girl tears, it was too much. That it also came as she was rocking a hairstyle that appropriates styles created and/or popularized by Black and Asian women is a flavor of ironic and hypocritical that’s too bitter to swallow.

As Maiysha Kai writes in The Root, “Only a woman with a trust fund, a largely inherited claim to political legitimacy and the audacity to regularly (and poorly) attempt ‘carefree Black girl’ cosplay would have the equal audacity to question whether marginalized groups deserve access to even a portion of the privileges she’s enjoyed all her narrow-minded life.” The entire blog is :chef’s kiss: so please read.

It truly is infuriating and baffling to see her rip off the hairstyles of anime characters and those sported by TLC in the “No Scrubs” video while arguing against greater diversity and inclusion in the government and beyond. It makes her look more like the cyborg overload of Planet Seasonless or a Republican girl brunching with her besties McKaylinn, Ashleighne, and Rayleigh while complaining about protestors marching by.

While many have blamed McCain’s hairstylist and makeup artist for putting her on camera looking like a Chico’s mannequin who just called her mom a bitch for the first time, McCain has seemingly thrived on the attention while also missing the point with regards to who she is ripping off with her hair experimentations. 

“It's covid and I just had a baby, let a bitch live!” she tweeted in February, adding a gif of Christina Aguilera from the “Lady Marmalade” video and missing how Aguilera built her “bad girl” image appropriating Black style and culture.

Explaining this to McCain would only lead a stomach ulcer. Still, whoever is styling her hair is doing a fantastic job. They’re just doing it on one of the sorority sisters at Oppression University under what I assume is her strict guidance. Let’s not blame them when we don’t know if they begged to just give her the old conservative girl blowout, and are just trying to pay their rent.