A Guide to TikTok's WASP Mom

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You’ve seen “WASP mom” jokes on TikTok—but what do they mean?
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No, they’re not the bugs who give birth to stinging insects. WASP is actually short for “white Anglo-Saxon Protestant,” so a WASP mom is technically any mother with that background. However, the term WASP mom was popularized during COVID by Caitlin Reilley, a comedian whose WASP mom character was a hilarious satire of a wealthy mom struggling to cope with quarantine. In this article, we’ll break down the WASP mom phenomenon and more.

Things You Should Know

  • WASP is an acronym from the 1950s that means white, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant. Today, WASP generally refers to someone who’s white, wealthy, and a bit basic.
  • The WASP mom stereotype of the bored, annoying, and invasive mother comes from a series of viral TikToks made by comedian Caitlin Reilley.
  • While WASP mom’s do have a lot of “Karen” tendencies, a Karen refers to any woman with annoying and unrealistic demands.
Section 1 of 4:

What does WASP mom mean?

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  1. On a very literal level, a WASP mom is just a mother who happens to have a WASP background. That means she’s white, Protestant, and has an Anglo-Saxon background. The WASP mom stereotype pokes fun at how wealthy white moms are often a little demanding and annoying. [1]
    • The WASP mom character was popularized on TikTok by comedian Caitlin Reilly. In these videos, she’d make skits about a well-to-do mom who drank too much wine and wasn’t that fond of her kids. [2]
    • You can find a full playlist of the WASP mom skits here .
    • Anglo-Saxon here is just shorthand for someone with a British (or generally “white European”) heritage. The historical Anglo-Saxons haven’t been around for centuries. [3]
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Section 2 of 4:

Is WASP mom an insult?

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  1. While the TikTok videos aren't exactly flattering, they're all in good fun. On a literal level, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong about being white, having a European background, being Protestant, or having kids. There are a lot of stereotypes about WASPs though—especially WASPs from the New England region of the United States. In those contexts, WASP mom can be used pejoratively. [4]
    • John F. Kennedy, Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, and Don Draper and famous examples of WASPs.
    • Northeastern WASPs are stereotypically wealthy, judgmental, and needy. This is the character the WASP mom plays up.
Section 3 of 4:

Is a WASP mom a type of Karen?

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  1. The “Karen” is a popular archetype of a (usually white) woman who is super needy, demanding, and uptight. Caitlin Reilley’s WASP mom character certainly has some Karen-esque tendencies, but Karen is a much broader term. The WASP mom is a riff on a pretty specific type of person—wealthy stay-at-home moms who like their wine a bit too much and find a way to annoy everyone around them. [5]
    • Not all WASP moms are Karens and not all Karens are WASP moms, but there’s a pretty big overlap in that Venn diagram.
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Section 4 of 4:

Examples of WASP Mom TikToks

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  1. In this one , the WASP mom shows up to make sure her son is paying attention, only to immediately ask the teacher for her child to get out of work.
  2. In this iconic clip , a small barking dog outside of the Starbucks drives the WASP mom to speak to the manager. This is probably the most “Karen” WASP mom clip out there, and it’s a good example of the two archetypes overlapping.
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      References

      1. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/15/i-rejected-my-parents-wasp-values-now-i-see-we-need-them-more-than-ever/
      2. ↑ https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2023-05-26/how-comedian-caitlin-reilly-used-tiktok-to-characters-to-break-into-tv
      3. ↑ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/many-myths-term-anglo-saxon-180978169/
      4. ↑ https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93740408
      5. ↑ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-53588201

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