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The Karen meme silences White women
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Anonymous
And yet the people on this thread are prime examples of people choosing to expand that definition just so that they can demean white women. Disgusting. Its only a matter of time before an Asian woman gets called that here. |
Anonymous
Nah. Using it for a higher cause. It was supposed to get under your skin and it did. If you can't tell the difference between this and hypocrisy, you need to go back to school. Serious question: how many posts have you made on this thread? |
Anonymous
+100. Also, still waiting for pp to give an example of how Karen is used in "the news." |
Anonymous
I can’t stop laughing. You are literally picking and choosing definitions and using Donnie the way Karen is being used. What exactly are you fighting against? Do you even know anymore? |
Anonymous
#justiceforkarens don'tchaknow! |
Anonymous
Is that what you are telling yourself? Ma’am you are a hypocrite. Own it. You replaced Donnie with Karen. You are livid you cannot control people. That’s very much clear. |
Anonymous
This is an anonymous forum. Who cares what anonymous people think about you. If you care that much, time to leave. No one even knows what color you are on here. Please provide an example of some assertive woman getting called a Karen in public. Provide that video. |
Anonymous
It’s used on social media extensively to demean women who wanted salons to open up. While I am not getting my hair cut anytime soon, I think that’s a wide range in use not limited to calling the police on black people, for example. |
Anonymous
Do you think demanding salons be open during a pandemic, where people are dying, is an example of assertive women? |
Anonymous
+100. Also, women who post on social media and drink wine. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Karen |
Anonymous
I think it’s an example of people using to label any woman doing something they don’t like. |
Anonymous
Yep |
Anonymous
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I posted link to the article and suggest every woman read it. This is a powerful excerpt:
“If you’re female, and like Bindel you make the error of suggesting the Karen thing is transparent sexism, then you’ll meet those men in your mentions — deeply aggrieved by the suggestion that you, a Karen, should presume to tell them how to speak. It’s impossible to unpick the origins of the Karen meme from the morass of the internet, but if it really were a cherished piece of racial justice rhetoric, it seems likely we’d be having a wider conversation about how these angry white men have culturally appropriated it. The fact that we’re not doing that suggests how flimsy the defence is. When Karen is used to belittle women, and especially when it’s being used to belittle women for showing solidarity with other women (as in a tweet calling the MP Jess Phillips “Shadow Karen Minister”, which went viral after she was appointed shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding), this is precisely in line with its accepted usage. It’s a finger trap insult, where struggling against it only makes it grip tighter. When its defenders say that there’s no reason to worry about it so long as you’re not a Karen, what they’re really doing is proffering an individual exit from the abuse — so long as you agree that some women deserve it, maybe you can qualify for a pass.” It hurts us all when we use it or accept it. I can say that NONE of my black female friends have used it on social media. Another friend (she is black e mixed race kids) told me she corrects her kids when they use it because she doesn’t want to raise self-haters or misogynists. Online in my FB feed, the breakdown of people using it is nearly 90 percent male and white. Not 10 mins ago, a fairly thoughtful (make) friend posted something about what defunding the police really means and not 4 minutes later one of his white male friends said “does this mean “Karen” can’t dial 911 when her takeout order is wrong?” Do a simple search of your own FB feed, or search the search field of FB. The first hit I got in the general search was a Karen group run by a guy whose feed is otherwise peppered with pro-Trump, anti-protestor memes- including some truly offensive, provocative posts about “mowing down protestors.” Women who have objected to this on social media are quickly ratio’d - not by POC but by white men who are shocked — shocked! — at the woman’s insensitivity and they may call her a racist - but a quick check on their profile shows you what you’re dealing with. These are men’s rights fools, Trumpers, Bernie Bro’s and, most insidiously, your neighbor down the street or from the pool who hates his lady boss and needs and outlet for it and is tired of women he thinks are interrupting him when they just keep talking over his attempt to interrupt HIM and is tired of being told he is mansplaining when he’s just trying to point out something the woman may benefit from. (Btw, I don’t use that term either). The Karen term seems to have originated on Reddit with a guy hate blogging his divorce. Whether st some point it became part of the linguistic tools that POC use to describe a very specific experience of a white woman verbally abusing or harassing POC in service roles. I’m not going to rage at this or pretend it’s the equivalent of a racial slur, but it absolutely is the equivalent of calling women broads or chicks or bitches or dikes. The blog very smart brothas goes here - a bunch of men feeling free to use gender slurs.. and where anyone, including his black readers, objects the others say “hi Karen” or look, it’s Karen’s little sister Becky. But still, at least there IS a racial validation there. Otherwise this seems to be mainly used by white men, and then also by some whites women to either out “woke” one another or to diss other women or out of a sense that they can signal themselves as an ally by becoming fluent. I have one friend, white mom, who posts endlessly about being an ally and throws the term Karen around but this family has parties and Large gatherings frequently and I have literally never seen a black family at their house. But she’s using the term too. Why?! I loved the excerpt of the essay above. It IS a finger trap insult. If you object they say just don’t be a Karen, Karen. Well there are plenty of racially or gender or other loaded terms we could say that about where it would be wrong. So is calling someone “karen”. It’s wrong. If you are a POC and feel the value to you outweights the harm to allies, who can certainly take it, I’m not here to say stop. But if you’re white, male or female, and you use this, you’re either being misogynistic or trying to signal you’re “not one of those” same as when I was in high school I used to say “I think women should have jobs and all that but I wouldn’t call myself a feminist” - distancing from the shunned so you don’t get hit too? Showing yourself to be better than the others? Culturally appropriating something that came from bitter white men and/or POC whose use isn’t the same as yours? |
Anonymous
| ^^^ DP. The pp who’s been on here 24/7 insisting on his right to call women Karens is a white conservative male. Totally fits. |
Anonymous
I’m with you, friend. |