The Karen meme silences White women

[Anonymous]

I was SILENCED at the Smoothie King! Now the world will not hear my voice!

[Anonymous]

Yes, even if I see egregious behavior, I will NOT be calling it out. Example, a woman putting her hands all over the rolls in one of those bins at the grocery store you use tongs for. NOPE. Not buying the bread, and not calling out the lady either. Yall can just suck on the man handled bread.

[Anonymous]

We need to siren rather than talk. We are used to talking all the time. We should shut up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need to siren rather than talk. We are used to talking all the time. We should shut up.

*listen

[Anonymous]

A PP again. I would also like to say that sometimes I see videos posted on TikTok where there is a woman politely complaining or expressing a concern to a worker. Inevitably the comments become "What? This isn't a Karen" or "What happened before? We need to see her side of it."

I feel comfortable that the many of people understand nuanced social interactions and multi-faceted situations. I actually think the Karen memes have been helpful in calling out people (usually white, often women) who use the police as their own personal social problem solving service. I honestly don't mind pausing and thinking "Wait, am I being a karen?" before I complain about something (I have never needed to call the police).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am the OP, not a troll. And an example of when I might have spoken in the past but did not recently. I ordered curbside pick up from a local smoothie shop a few weeks ago, before we were in phase 1 opening, the restaurant was advertising curbside Pick-up. I ordered my smoothie online, however, When I drove to the shop to pick it up there are a line of people inside the store to order and a line waiting (Inside as well) at the counter to pick up their smoothies. A year ago if this happened, pre-Karen meme, I would have said something along the lines of aren’t we supposed to be doing curbside? Why is everybody in the store? This time I just walked away.

That shop is a small business, no? They’re just trying to stay in business. You would’ve been a douche for outing them.

Not necessarily a small business, it id part of a chain

The workers were at risk being in a small enclosed environment with 10 people in line and four more people waiting to pick up their smoothies. The shop should’ve cared for the worker’s health. They were two woman working at the counter that day. The shop lost my business. Probably forever and I can tell you my family were very frequent customers. And I know others who experienced the same and they also stopped buying there due to safety concerns due to COVID. My speaking up may have helped the shop as they could have changed course and complied with curbside pickup and kept their regulars

I’m the PP you responded to. I frankly shouldn’t even have brought up small business vs chain, since a lot of chains operate as franchises, so you’re really screwing over someone who is running the shop as sort of an independent contractor.

I cut people some slack. For a place to lose my business, it has to do A LOT more than what you outlined.

- A 33yo white woman

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A PP again. I would also like to say that sometimes I see videos posted on TikTok where there is a woman politely complaining or expressing a concern to a worker. Inevitably the comments become "What? This isn't a Karen" or "What happened before? We need to see her side of it."

I feel comfortable that the many of people understand nuanced social interactions and multi-faceted situations. I actually think the Karen memes have been helpful in calling out people (usually white, often women) who use the police as their own personal social problem solving service. I honestly don't mind pausing and thinking "Wait, am I being a karen?" before I complain about something (I have never needed to call the police).

This. 50 year old rich white lady here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a white middle aged woman. Due to the Karen meme I feel like I lost my voice. When there is an injustice, I will hesitate to speak up. Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly a subset of entitled middle aged white women, however, there are other non entitled white women as well who now feel silenced after fighting to find our voice.

No. I do t feel this way. And frankly, the Karen references are overused at this point. So almost meaningless. And if someone wants to “Karen” me for something well-intentioned, that’s on them.

[Anonymous]

I think OP is being dramatic. That being said, Karen is definitely a sexist meme. It’s telling that there is no male equivalent even though that behavior is just as common or worse with men (see: Bethesda biker)

[Anonymous]

^^ and also the man in Georgia who called the police on Fedex workers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean to be fair, all women’s voices have been silenced in a lot of ways for a very long time, the Karen meme didn’t start it.

+1

Yes, but it is misogynistic, and the intent is definitely to silence women's voices. Imagine if a man asked the smoothie place why they're not doing curbside pickup during covid. I see men say stuff like this all the time, and they are taken seriously. If a woman asks the same question, it's "STFU, Karen." If your knee jerk reaction is to call a woman a "Karen" then you are part of the problem, not her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think OP is being dramatic. That being said, Karen is definitely a sexist meme. It’s telling that there is no male equivalent even though that behavior is just as common or worse with men (see: Bethesda biker)

How about, "Stop being a Trump!" Trump = racist, narcissistic asshole who stomps his feet if he doesn't get what he wants immediately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am the OP, not a troll. And an example of when I might have spoken in the past but did not recently. I ordered curbside pick up from a local smoothie shop a few weeks ago, before we were in phase 1 opening, the restaurant was advertising curbside Pick-up. I ordered my smoothie online, however, When I drove to the shop to pick it up there are a line of people inside the store to order and a line waiting (Inside as well) at the counter to pick up their smoothies. A year ago if this happened, pre-Karen meme, I would have said something along the lines of aren’t we supposed to be doing curbside? Why is everybody in the store? This time I just walked away.

First of all, that's a passive aggressive way of phrasing it. If your gripe was that you did not want to enter the store, you could have called and told them you were there for your pick up and waiting curbside. Maybe they would have brought it to you, maybe you would have had to cancel your order.

If your gripe is that the business was not following the rule, you could have called and politely expressed your concerns to the manager. It could have been an overwhelmed teenager who felt awkward about standing up to the growing crowd inside and perhaps your call would have moved them to ask everyone to form a line outside and come in one at a time. Or maybe they were a desperate business owner not following the rules. Or maybe they just didn't care. You could try to "report" it because public health is important, but in my town they basically told people "Please don't call us if you see someone breaking the rules. We are not sending officers for that."

Finally, what you witnessed and experienced was not an "injustice." It was perhaps inconvenient. It was perhaps frustrating. And, maybe, if you spend a lot of time thinking and advocating for public health, it was concerning. But it was not an injustice.

I am a 50 y/o white woman and I find the Karen memes funny as hell. If you are feeling silenced by them, perhaps some self reflection is in order.

+100.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was SILENCED at the Smoothie King! Now the world will not hear my voice!

I know, right? People are out here dying and she's upset that people didn't follow the proper curbside procedures at the Smoothie King.

[Anonymous]

Just make your own smoothies at home and save yourself some grief.

You don't have to take ownership of the Karen thing.