
You don’t accomplish that by name calling. You’re no better. |
I don’t think we need a gendered and nonspecific blanket word for someone who is annoying, aggressive, racist, naggy etc etc etc. If someone is being racist it should be called out as racism, if someone is being rude it should be called out as that.
It’s a messy term with no clear definition. |
I don't go around in public calling people anything. ?? |
You don't like Richard/Dick? |
If you don’t understand this definition, you are most likely a Becky. A “Karen” is basically a graduated Becky who’s extremely aware of her privilege and weaponizes it. A Becky convinces herself—and attempts to convince others—that her whiteness doesn’t matter. A Karen doesn’t even bother to fake it. She knows it’s her Big Joker and plays it whenever necessary. Great example is the Central Park woman who called the police on the black birdwatcher last year because he asked her to leash her dog. |
Completely agree |
True! It must suck to be named Karen right now -- and there are a lot of people (usually white probably, given it's a Scandi name I think?) named Karen. It was very popular at one point. |
+1. I think a lot of posters are ignoring that this is a name, that people were given long before it had negative connotations. “Dick” is not really the same because it’s a nickname, so you could start going by Richard or whatever (my grandfather actually did this - he was “Dick” for as long as I can remember, but stopped when I was maybe a teenager). What is a 40 yr old woman supposed to do about her name being Karen? It’s gross and misogynistic and I actually can’t believe any woman would defend the use of this name as a derogatory term. It’s hard enough to be an aging woman, must we make it harder?? |
This is really helpful. And I agree, like anything, it could be said obnoxiously. But as a woman, I DO feel like there's been undue pressure on me to not be "too much" and to make myself small, and not ask too much of others.. If it's really easy for me to come across as "extra" when asking for something for my literally ill child as her mother, because I was about to pay money and waste time and give my kid pain for something that was about to be useless because the woman didn't now how to do her job... I mean, I DO think I asked "nicely" but I wonder about a system in which that is the case. |
The "and nosy and far too involved with other people’s business" part is one thing, but isn't the bolded basically a way that women, regardless of race, have been silenced for years? E.g., a woman is a b&tch/aggressive while a man is assertive? Maybe it's not the term that is the problem. Maybe the problem is that we have a problem as a society with women speaking up. |
PP here -- correcting to say: The "and nosy and far too involved with other people’s business" part is one thing, but isn't the bolded (Karen is, at it’s heart, just the word people use for someone bossy and entitled. Someone authoritarian...) basically a way that women, regardless of race, have been silenced for years? E.g., a woman is a b&tch/aggressive while a man is assertive? A man is commanding and a natural leader, while a woman is entitled and authoritarian? Maybe it's not the term that is the problem. Maybe the problem is that we have a problem as a society with women speaking up. |
The problem is that people then apply it to situations that don't fit it as well as the woman in Central Park (whose name is Amy!). Yes, she was weaponizing white womanhood to try and get a black man in trouble (and therefore put him in danger because of what we all understand about police violence towards black men). But then you have people in this thread saying a Karen is just someone who acts entitle or complains to the manager. So the result is that people equate a white woman complaining to the manager of Starbucks about her coffee order with a woman who is using her whiteness to endanger a black man. And then the sight of a middle aged white woman complaining (or asserting herself) is deemed de facto racist even if she's justified in her complaint, even if no one is in danger. The case of the nurse who got "Karen'ed" because of a video showing her arguing with a young black man over a bike rental is a perfect example. I get not everyone knows about it, but it's a perfect example of the problem with using Karen in this way. It got trumped up as "racist Karen tries to steal Citibike from young black man" but it turns out that it was a way more nuanced situation. She'd actually rented the bike, and he was arguing that it was "his" because he'd rented it earlier. He and his friends verbally abused the nurse, who was 6 months pregnant at the time and getting off a long shift at the hospital (and wanted an e-bike for her commute home). The video that got labeled a "Karen" video actually shows the men forcibly redocking the bike she'd rented and then renting it on their own phone while she was still on it. But an online mob doxed the nurse and she wound up on leave from her job and having to temporarily move because of the incident. So maybe the term is not as useful as you thought. Maybe we should use real words to describe actual behavior, instead of vague epithets. |
+1 agree |
Why attach a common name to this? Because it is an easy way to denigrate middle-aged women who simply don’t matter anymore. Why can’t you see this? |
Well said. How are people are defending using name calling (and a literal name) instead of just labeling behavior as whatever it is? If you want to call Central Park Amy racist, you should! She absolutely is racist and she tried to weaponize the police against a black man trying to look at birds. Why must you call her “Karen”? Use her name, Amy, and call her what she is, racist. |