A Karen - Time to Stop

I agree, I think it should be stopped. Hopefully it will be when people realise it’s really misogynistic.

One of my closest and oldest friends who I have known for nearly forty years is named Karin, and I know a few others.

A line needs to be drawn under this misogynistic slur.

Hear, hear!
Those who know me will know why!
I have got over it (mostly) but I always found it hurtful especially thinking of my dear parents who chose the name to be different, a touch of homage to the German side of the family, but mostly to be unique.
I realise names have a different resonance in the US, perhaps comparable to our reference to “Hyacinth” which does no favours to anybody whose name that actually is.
PS I AM an older lady who is not afraid g stand up for myself, so perhaps I should be flattered! 🤣🤣🤣

I thought a Karen was an Essex girl!

Some of the best women I know are called Karen!

Yes agree, it's lazy and by extension meaningless, where's the Ken equivalent?. In fact entitled people come in all ages. Other threads I've read over on MN relate to those managing young people in the workforce and their observations as to objections by a younger demographic as to why they don't wish to undertake certain tasks that a previous generation may not have questioned. That's not to malign everyone from that age group, but just to say it's something that has cropped up.

I have two friends calked Karen. And yes it is insulting. Stereotyping like this is lazy and ignorant, as well as misogynistic.

grandMattie

I thought a Karen was an Essex girl!

I thought Karen was supposed to mean someone who is a bit of a wallflower.

Name calling is not nice.

Yes, it's used , usually by men, although I see some women armchair know it all use it too as a derogatory word. Usually because they don't fall in with the status quo. Well I know a Karen, and she will certainly speak her mind, good for her.

I think the male versions are referred to as ‘gammons’.

The name Karen seems to be used for older women who are not intimidated especially by men.
Any Karens should feel proud of the name as misogynistic men
are scared of you.
Well done Karen(s)

I too thought a Karen was supposed to be a very feisty Essex girl ….

I don’t know where this nonsense originated from but it ought to stop.
It is forever (to my mind anyway) a very modern 60s sort of name along with Sharon. There was a Karen and a Sharon in my primary school and they were definitely not wallflowers.
It is just lazy misogyny. And I’m rather partial to gammon.

There is such a thing as a Karen
hairstyle, a sort of bob thing.
Anyway, my DH cut my hair,
he's normally quiet good at it
but the last trim was a very short, quiet a severe incarnation!
Anyway, my dear daughter in law arrived & I heard her mutter
"Umm a bit Karen" under her breath.
Now when she delights me with her
joyous presence, I mutter/hiss the word "Karen" under my breath, barely audibly & she sort of jumps around when she hears it.
That will teach her 🤗

Your OP is not at all accurate. It absolutely is not used to describe an “older woman not afraid to stand up for herself”. Your appropriation of the term is part of the problem.

This was/is an urban American slang term born from incidents that went viral online of white American women harassing people of colour doing basic every day things in the US. It was used to describe the sense of entitlement that the “Karens” had in telling people off, for no good reason. One of the biggest incidents that set it off was a white woman in North Carolina harassing her black neighbour because the black woman couldn’t possibly be a resident in such an upscale apartment complex . You are attempting to re-write history with your description and it’s not helping your cause.

Naturally because the internet has made the world smaller, and urban American slang is habitually appropriated, it has morphed into whatever it is now.

I don’t condone its use at all, but don’t “whitewash” the origins. Much like the “woke”, the appropriation is cringeworthy. I’m more annoyed at how hard British people are trying to sound American. These instances highlight why everything doesn’t translate well across cultures. The ignorance of the social intricacies across the pond make it plain weird to people in the UK to adopt these terms.

In full agreement that we need to cut it all out!!

@BlessedArt, it may well have started this way in the USA, but, as you know, language evolves over time and the British meaning of it is exactly as l said. I agree with you that l don’t like the increasing Americanisation of the language in the UK, but l think we have to acknowledge things as they are. Each country has its own trials with regards to this. As we know, the French have been fighting against the increasing Anglicisation of their language with limited success. A Frenchman told me that the word gauche, which, of course, means left, has gone back to France with the English meaning of shy and awkward as well.

kittylester

Some of the best women I know are called Karen!

Hear hear!

I know a few Karens, one is a dear relative and all are lovely people.

Some mysogynists are still using it in a abusive way on the local Facebok page but show their ignorance in doing so.

BlessedArt Language and it's interpretation changes all the time. Thank you for the explanation about the original use of the name Karen which sounds disgusting but it is used differently now.
When I was young "gay" meant happy and cheerful but now it is used to describe homosexuals. Just an example of how the meanings of words change over the years.

Sorry ladies, but I do not agree that we get to re-write and redefine that which does not belong to us. It’s arrogant. This isn’t a case of language evolution. It’s a case of appropriation and it’s not okay.

Musicgirl

@BlessedArt, it may well have started this way in the USA, but, as you know, language evolves over time and the British meaning of it is exactly as l said. I agree with you that l don’t like the increasing Americanisation of the language in the UK, but l think we have to acknowledge things as they are. Each country has its own trials with regards to this. As we know, the French have been fighting against the increasing Anglicisation of their language with limited success. A Frenchman told me that the word gauche, which, of course, means left, has gone back to France with the English meaning of shy and awkward as well.

Possibly gauche (meaning left) was used for people who were awkward and clumsy as using your left hand if you're right-handed could result in clumsiness. Rather like saying someone has 'two left feet'.

Gauche to me will always mean Rive Gauche - Left Bank, a perfume I used many years ago 🙂

We are not talking decades here. We are talking about a slang term far from our own experiences coined from the past couple of years that we’ve decided to look silly adopting. It’s almost like masquerading in their culture simply because it was “trendy”, all the while pushing ageist misogyny here.

I remember that incident BlessedArt and I agree about that racist horrible woman in America.

There are numerous clips on tiktok/YouTube with these white women behaving quite shockingly.

One guy was bird watching in a park and asked a dog walker to leash her dog. Perfectly reasonable request, the parks required dogs on leads.

So this woman gets all worked up and phones the police. Lying through her teeth that she was in danger from this man. She wasn't. She lost her job and her dog was taken off her.

But there's so many incidents. I don't think we are truly aware of what goes on. Some family being ordered out of an outdoor pool because the Karens couldn't believe a black family would live there. Awful stuff . Children at a birthday party, neighbours saw a black child at this party and called the police. Who then arrived to knock down said child.

So we need to know why this came into being. And maybe be more like a couple of Karens I know. Just ignore it.

@ Rula don't tell me you actually BELIEVE these fabricated , badly scripted and usually worse acted Tik-tok vids?
Oh dear.
They are clickbait, designed to gain maximum hits and totally made up.
You need to put your common sense hat on and think again