Fedora Shaming

About

Fedora Shaming refers to the practice of mocking people who wear the fedora felt hat as a fashion accessory. Since its return to popularity as a vintage fashion trend in the late 2000s, several single topic blogs deriding photos of people wearing the hat have been created on the microblogging site Tumblr.

Origin

Urban Dictionary^[4] user Donottouchthis submitted an entry for “fedora” on January 26th, 2008, which identified those who wore the hat as a “loser who is desperately seeking for a style to call their own.” As of October 8th, 2012, the definition has received 109 up votes and 119 down votes.

The Hat

The hat was named after the play Fédora written by the French author Victorien Sardou. In the play, the character Princess Fédora Romanoff (played by Sarah Bernhardt) wore the signature felt hat, which subsequently became a popular women’s fashion accessory. By the turn of the century, the hat had evolved into a predominately male fashion item closely associated with prohibition-era gangsters in the 1920s..

Spread

On February 17th, 2009, the men’s lifestyle blog Details^[7] published an article titled “Cool or Tool?: The Fedora,” which urged readers to carefully consider incorporating a fedora into their outfits. On July 20th, Urban Dictionary^[5] user Ricky Torro submitted an entry for the word “fedorka,” defining the term as a pejorative for a person attempting to be hip or trendy by wearing the fashion accessory. On March 5th, 2010, Facepunch Forums^[9] member Parakon submitted a thread titled “People who wear fedoras and other such hats,” remarking that wearing a fedora seemed to be a pretentious ploy to appear interesting to others. On March 24th, the North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club Forums^[10] member CoiloverKid submitted a thread titled “Fedora Lounge! aka Stop Wearing Fedoras K,” who mocked several photographs of young men wearing fedoras (shown below).

On April 14th, 2011, a Facebook^[1] page titled “Take that Fedora off, you look like a tool” was created, followed by the creation of the “Stop Wearing Fedoras”^[6] page two weeks later. On April 27th, the Tumblr^[11] blog “Lonely Nerds in Fedoras” was created, featuring photographs of young men and women wearing the felt hat. On March 21st, Redditor MrBradd submitted a post to the /r/pics^[2] subreddit titled “The Truth Hurts,” which featured a What You Think You Look Like image featuring the 1940s actor Humphrey Bogart wearing a suit and fedora juxtaposed with a photograph of a young man wearing the hat with a pull over sweater (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post received over 9,300 up votes and 1,300 comments.

On March 29th, 2012, the single topic blog “Forever Alone Fedoras” was launched on Tumblr,^[12] followed by the creation of the “You Shouldn’t Wear That Fedora” Tumblr^[13] blog on April 17th. On May 22nd, the viral content site BuzzFeed^[8] published a post titled “Fedoras and the Internet: A Torrid Love Affair,” which featured several fedora-related images including a flowchart mocking the hat (shown below).

On July 24th, the Tumblr^[14] blog “Fedoras of OKC” was launched, featuring profile pictures of men wearing fedoras on the dating website OKCupid. On October 2nd, the Internet news blog BoingBoing^[3] published an article titled “Why the Fedora Grosses Out Geekdom,” which identified men who wear fedoras as “forever alone” males desperately trying to escape the “friend zone”.

Notable Examples

Neckbeards

Fedora fashion has become also associated with the so-called Neckbeard stereotype, a pejorative term referring to unattractive, overweight and often misogynistic Internet users who wear a style of facial hair in which a majority of the growth is present on the chin and neck.

Search Interest

External References