"Stop being a Karen"

Read up on who a Karen is, an american woman who uses her 4 centuries long white privilege in america to inflict harm on non white people, before taking offence at a character that has nothing to do with you.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/27/karen-race-white-women-black-americans-racism

You're the ignoramus. This slur is used in this country to shut down middle aged women giving opinions on any subject. If someone calls me a sexist slur I have every right to take offence.

Yes it is horrible.
It’s such a childish insult, putting down all the women called Karen out there.

A bitch is a female dog. Women aren't dogs so shouldn't take offence. I get where you're going with this.

Is this still going on?

Yes we are still behaving like Karen.

100%. Yours is the first good post on this thread.

Unfortunately there are an astonishing amount of ignoramuses in the world, and this thread is flooded with them.

The "Karen" is a white american woman who uses and abuses her white privilege, offen instigating racial violence. The term Karen is merely the latest in a long line of monikers that African people in america have labelled such individuals. The moniker has since been misappropriated (an idiot in the OP's first post), but if you are not a white american woman who uses her white privilege at the expense of others, YOU ARE NOT A KAREN, so cease taking offence over something that has nothing to do with you.

The Karen is in literature (Scarlett O Hara), in film (the white woman in Birth of a Nation who runs screaming from "the big bad black man"... a 1917 film that inspired the second era Ku Klux Klan). She is an exceptionally dangerous individual who uses her white status to inflict harm on non white people.

14 year old Emmett Till was murdered after being confronted by a Karen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmmettTill

Well said.

Can we have a word that describes abusive men??

The objection is that a woman’s name is being used in association with despicable behaviour.

Calling out racism is right. Using a middle aged woman’s name to do so is lazy, sexist and ageist.

Depressing and true.

In a week when a boy has stamped on an elderly man's neck and killed him in a racial attack, a man has set light to his olympian ex and killed her, a French rape case has been in the news where a man has been drugging his wife so multiple men can rape her, the misogynists are still trying to justify why women deserve to be called names as they are worse than men.

Nothing at all, it's common slang for a body part. Like dick.

I wouldn't pay too much attention to a poster who claims that her driving instructor has "never really worked". That post is just a mish-mash of assumptions, prejudices and downright nastiness about a woman who doesn't appear to have done anything wrong (but might possibly be a little lacking in self-awareness).

Because Karen is a woman’s name.

And in any case, “bitch” is a terrible term too.

Nothing. That was the poster's point.

Because "fanny" the slang word =/= Fanny the name.

Just like "dick" the slang word =/= Dick the name.

Everyone knows this, which is why it is obvious that the various people making comparisons between "dick" (NB: not capitalised) and "Karen" are not doing do in good faith.

Why is that behaviour associated with my best friend’s name though? Why is her name used to put down women who are simply asserting themselves?

Personally, I prefer 'bitch' to 'Karen' as an insult. 'Bitch' feels more honest, somehow. It sounds crude and people are more likely to react negatively to hearing it. 'Karen' has become socially acceptable among too many people, so there's much less of a risk to using it, compared to 'bitch'.

My main reason for hating the term is that it's a name still commonly in use, but I also don't care for the fact that it was originally aimed at a specific race. (I'm not certain whether this has changed or not.) Would it be deemed acceptable to use a name primarily associated with any other race as an insult? I doubt it.

I don't honestly care about the origin of the term; I would just prefer it to go away.

Oh god, what's wrong with the word fanny?

Because misogynists believe women are inferior to men and deserve all the multiple names they've been called throughout history. It's as simple as that.

Can't say I struggle with vaginas being called fannies. Nobody thinks fannying about means behaving like women named Fanny (a nickname for Frances).

The many many Dicks of the world will be fine.

It’s exactly the same 🤣 just because you use a word incorrectly or to not mean what everyone else thinks it means, has no bearing on an argument! If I said to you, I use the word ‘slag’ as a non offensive term but only use it to address women, I’m sure you’d see my point

The poster is illustrating the fact that you could pick any word, that would generally be deemed offensive, and say that you personally use it in an inoffensive or different way. It doesn’t mean that the word isn’t generally offensive.

I asked a young man to move to the smoking area the other week when he lit up in a no smoking area, I was polite as I assumed he hadn't realised, he called me a Karen and said it was only a fag not weed or anything. I don't for a second think he would have called a man a dick for asking. It isn't comparable because half the people on this thread assume if someone is called a Karen then they are obnoxious so not worth listening to. It effectively shuts women out and silences them. Dick does not have the same effect.

Women are rude, men are forthright. Women are bossy, men are born leaders, women are sluts, men are ladykillers (thats not an insult).

You are wrong to say it’s ’just slang’, it is not, it is generally used as a misogynistic and ageist insult.

Not it’s not because you’re just picking an example that no relevance suit your need to disagree with me. Anyhow, much as I love a circular argument neither of us is getting anywhere.