Kandinsky
I’ve never heard this name used as an insult.
Is it used by younger women?
Here is an article written in 2020... I think it gives a very articulate account of what is meant by the term 'Karen'. It is used very frequently as you can see on the Karen is my Name website. I hope this explains things...
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This is the article
Are you a Karen? If, like me, you’re a middle-aged, white woman with blonde-bobbed hair, then it is highly likely you are. And if, when things don’t go your way, you loudly demand to speak with the manager, then you are definitely a Karen. But a far more important question, at least according to the BBC, is: "How can white women not be Karens?"
Believe me, no woman wants to be a Karen. Karen is 2020’s go-to insult. It denotes a woman (and it is always a woman!) who is ignorant, bossy, insensitive, vulgar and uncouth.
Karen is more likely to be spotted in a supermarket or cheering on her son’s football team than at a Black Lives Matter demonstration or a Pride rally. She is not only racist and bigoted but, worse still, refuses to acknowledge her privilege.
The BBC is never slow to jump on a passing politically correct bandwagon, especially one that satiates its appetite for a youth audience. The combination of social media, cutting edge memes and woke ideas sets producers’ heads spinning with delight.
At least, nothing else can explain the BBC Sounds podcast No Country For Young Women. In the latest episode, presenter Sadia Azmat interrogates racism. So, naturally, she invites two white women, Charlotte Riley and Amelia Dimoldenberg, to reflect on their privileges.
In a much Tweeted extract that has since been removed, Azmat demands to know: "How can white women not be Karens?"
Rather than recoiling at the gross generalisation and the contemptuous nature of the insult, Riley and Dimoldenberg relish the opportunity to answer.
"Educate yourself! Read some books!" Dimoldenberg orders; with a pause between each word, because clearly Karens are thick as well as racist. Other helpful suggestions include: "be less loud" and "just shut up."
"Yeah, get out of the way basically," laughs Riley, before going on to explain: "I think a lot of the time when women are Karens it is because they are completely unwilling to accept that their whiteness is a privilege and, you know, instead they want to be treated in a special way because they are women."
So now it is clear: all white women are racist but only a superior few have special insight into their sins. The rest of us are vile Karens. Yet the sneering tone and curled-lip disgust of those crying "Karen!" reveals prejudice far more insidious than that demonstrated by any middle-aged mum.
Imagine, just for a moment, the outrage if a stereotypical name was chosen to caricature any other group. Listeners would, rightly, be horrified at the racist implications. But white women are, it seems, fair game. The fact they have no control over their skin colour is irrelevant; it is a mark of original sin and must be atoned for.
Karen name-calling is not just racist; it is also sexist. Women have long suffered from derogatory labels. If you’re considered too loud, ambitious, attractive, or bossy there will be a special insult just for you. Not that long ago, trendy young feminists challenged this linguistic sexism. But now misogyny is mainstream. When it comes to white women, insult away!
Those who finger-point and cry "Karen!" demonstrate, above all else, an ugly, elitist, class prejudice. The women singled-out and instructed to educate themselves are mostly working class or lower middle class. They are mocked for being uppity yet lacking the sophistication and correct ideas of their younger, more woke, better educated, sisters. These condescending overgrown teenagers assume that because they have read a book by Robin DiAngelo or Reni Eddo Lodge, because they can pepper their speech with words like "intersectional" and "microaggression", they are superior to everyone else.
Karens are ridiculed for being loud but no one shouts more loudly than a Karen-finder. Karens are shamed for complaining but no one complains more forcefully than an activist with a Twitter account. Karens are accused of prejudice by those who will draw upon any sexist, racist and elitist stereotype in order to signal their own virtue.
In the name of progress it is now acceptable to insult old people: "Ok Boomer!" White people: "Gammon!" And now women: "Karen!" Elitism, racism and sexism are all back only this time they are woke.
Joanna Williams is director of the Freedom, Democracy and Victimhood Project at the think tank, Civitas
