Karen is my Name

@PembsPaul. People who are racist will suggest you are a Karen if you support antifa or BLM in my experience. It’s the racist way of shutting you up, if you’re a woman.

Not in my experience. From the videos I’ve seen on YouTube and similar, of these incidents, it’s the so-called ‘Karens’ who are the racists and the slur is being used to call them out. The word ‘racist’ also seems to be used liberally by BLM to silence anyone who expresses a different point of view, and thus shut down the debate. I don’t hold with using Karen as a put down but then I also don’t hold with the terms ‘white supremacist’ or ‘white privilege’ - whilst I understand the sentiment they are meant to express, I think they’re divisive, which is counterproductive to say the least.

Lemongrove I had no idea the karen thing had been around for long in the UK. I only heard if it recently.

AgnesEve

Lemongrove
How did your family member’s previous school respond to the work place bullying?
I can only imagine that there are many woman called Karen working in schools. I wonder if this is a widespread issue? Is this an issue in other places of work too?

Hopeless, that’s how. The Headmistress was a weak character who hardly came out from behind her desk and seemed to be scared of some staff members and terrified of teenage boys!
In the end it was easier for her to find another teaching post and change her name.She’s happy now and wishes she had done it earlier.

I am not implying grans are stupid, just the rest

This is just giving oxygen to a(nother) ridiculous ‘ thing’ for us to take up, from America.
As a Karen who doesn’t use social media other than GN, I had never heard of it before reading the post, but now I have, as have many more. Perhaps the stupid ones will take it up and pass it on. I hope the majority just ignore as this deserves.

From what I have seen, people use it to describe anyone they disagree with these days. Saw a thread on Twitter recently where mostly grown men were accusing each other of being ‘Karens’ based on whether they agreed with wearing face masks on public transport or not.
Ridiculous really that a Danish form of Katherine and the name of a ethnic group in Myanmar is used as an insult in mostly English speaking counties.

“People who are racist will suggest you are a Karen if you support antifa or BLM in my experience.” Really ? That’s not my understanding at all. I must have it all wrong then,

Lemongrove
How did your family member’s previous school respond to the work place bullying?
I can only imagine that there are many woman called Karen working in schools. I wonder if this is a widespread issue? Is this an issue in other places of work too?

The only Karen I can think of is the writer Karen Blixen and she doesn’t fit any of those stereotypes.

Pammie1…
“Antifa and BLM in my opinion are movements which have been hijacked by the left and are being used as puppets for another agenda.”

No, no, no… these movements have not been hijacked by the left at all. The far right, such as nazis (and arguably our uk govt), are fascist. Antifa means anti fascist. BLM is left wing because it opposes far right racism, in a very, very close match, I think, to opposition of the derogatory and nasty use of Karen.
People who are racist will suggest you are a Karen if you support antifa or BLM in my experience. It’s the racist way of shutting you up, if you’re a woman. I’m not sure what they would call me!

At least posters are now aware of it, even if some choose to be rather dismissive.

FannyCornforth

Perhaps it’s time for this thread to dwindle away?
It really has taken a turn for the worse
(Please don’t bother having a pop at me for ‘monitoring’ etc)

I certainly will.

Ok Fanny, I get the drift…

I started this thread to give an account of why I felt it necessary to change my name. I asked if anyone else had done so and sadly they had.

I also wanted to give some information to show what is happening and to this end I think I achieved my goal.

I did my best.

Can you imagine the outcry if anyone exhibiting confident outspoken views and was black and a woman was called an Oprah? And reviled and laughed at.
( having just read upthread I see GillT has already put this idea out there using ‘Leroy’.)

Has nobody taken on board what I said about a family member, late 40’s a teacher, who couldn’t stand anymore mocking from both some members of staff and some teenagers who were remorseless with this bullying Karen meme because it was her name.She managed to change to another school and changed her name at the same time.She won’t be the only one by a long chalk.It’s pernicious nonsense and gets to people when others take it to extremes.

Barmeyoldbat
And I’m pretty sure there must be a lot more.

Perhaps it’s time for this thread to dwindle away?
It really has taken a turn for the worse
(Please don’t bother having a pop at me for ‘monitoring’ etc)

Sara, add my two Karen’s to your who either don’t know or aren’t bothered with their name

Oriel
I still feel you are in the minority of Karen’s, obviously my three Karen’s are a very small sample, but they are honestly not bothered, they know it’s out there, but just aren’t particularly interested.

Zoejory

Oriel

Hi River,

Yes, I see your point regarding George Floyd. I was responding to Maw's post where she used it to illustrate that worse things are happening in the world and of course there are.

I left this thread when you started talking about Antifa and BLM.

Sorry. Any sympathy I had has disappeared.

I posted topics which were brought up by other posters. In any case, what’s the problem with my having an opinion?

Anyway, to get back on topic…

I didn’t start this thread to get sympathy. I hope to alert people to the fact that there is a very destructive meme which is causing a lot of distress to women in much of the English speaking world.

Regardless of the meme, I think Karen is a nice name. I would not change it if it was me, especially as so many people on here haven’t heard of being used as a slur or even if they had, would not associate it with a real life person called Karen. I would feel encouraged by that. It does have misogynistic overtones and it is telling that there is no real male equivalent that has gained such notoriety- sadly still women’s behaviour is always scrutinised and more than mens.

OnwardandUpward

Assuming we are all white and middle aged is a bit..... what is the word I am looking for???

ironic is the word you are looking for

Assuming we are all white and middle aged is a bit..... what is the word I am looking for???

Hellogirl1

I can`t believe this thread is still going!

It has become a thread for middle aged white women to bully and criticise the opinions of other middle aged white women! Oh the irony.

I can`t believe this thread is still going!