STOP calling people "a Karen"

I'd love to know what this poster thinks of Rachel Reeves then.

I am not sure what is hard to understand.

it is not my place to decide how people who are having to deal with a particular type of racism should deal with this. For some the term used in the US is relevant to them here in the UK as they are having to deal with this particular behaviour

I am not sure from your posts if you have to deal with racism, if you are its not up to me to tell you how you should.

I am not going to tell a young black man who has just had to deal with underhand racism that he can not use the term Karen as if offends many middle aged women or advise him on how to

Maybe others feel it is their place to that's down to them

Calling a woman a Karen isn't calling out racism. It doesn't even really have that connotation in this country. It's about insulting women, especially middle aged or older women. Of the examples in this thread where posters have justified using the term Karen, were any of them even about race?

You don't deal with racism by insulting and belittling another minority. That's not dealing with anything it's just putting women down.

Its calling out/recognising a particular type of behaviour its not about using direct racist words

Racism isn't always so direct is it

I do not feel it is my place to tell people who have to deal with racism towards them in many different way how they should deal with it

Great so if a gay man calls me a racial slur, I can call him a homophobic slur? I had no idea I had this get out jail free card! What else am I allowed to do, on the grounds of it being up to me to decide how to deal with racist behaviour directed at me? Can I egg his house? Key his car? Train my dog to bark at his mum?

Or, should racist behaviour and misogynist behaviour be considered equally unacceptable and the one not an excuse for the other?

Sorry can you elaborate what you mean?

And that was Keith Waterhouse.

That's fine

I don't think personally I can tell someone how to deal with racist behaviour directed at them I feel its for them to decide. Its not something I have to deal with

I do not have this issue myself

And no I am aware that at times calling out racist behaviour is not so straight forward (we should all be aware of this) its a way of saying I recognise your behaviour

and as I said before its not for me to decide when someone has been on the receiving end of racist behaviour how they should address this

I can tell you're trying to hold back "Cowardly internet inspired insults".

It's not a slur, grow up.

So because you have not heard it being used in this context

I believe its used as a way of saying I recgonise your racist behaviour

And I trust people can recognise when someone is being racist towards them

I don’t call people ‘a Karen’. It’s just not in my vocabulary. But no, if I was called one I wouldn’t bat an eyelid. As far as insults go it’s a pretty shit one, used to ‘shut women up’? Then don’t be ‘shut up’.

I never understand adults getting worked up about what are essentially just words.

What a ridiculous post. You say people are being called Karen because of their behaviour, straight after describing their behaviour as 'the way middle aged women with bob haircuts behave'. How do these women with bob haircuts behave? Have anthropologists studied this tribe and written papers on their behaviour?

Substitute 'afro haircuts' in your post. Or 'how gay men wearing lycra behave'. I bet you wouldn't have written it then. You can't even see your own prejudice because you're too busy being righteous.

@inadequatepillow ”If you were called a Karen, you should probably be thinking about what you were doing to warrant being called that rather than being offended by the term itself.” Last time I was called a Karen I was telling a young man to keep his out of control animal under control. I was also called a middle aged busybody and a dried up old cunt by the same person at various points. Did I think I had done anything wrong? No, I went and caught his animal (which was loose on the road) before it caused an accident. I thought all of the terms he called me were offensive and designed to be so, but were specifically used to try and shut a woman older than him down. He was embarrassed, you see, and using offensive terms is seen by certain demographics as a possible way to reflect that embarrassment and get the woman to back off. There are many more people calling women Karens to try and shut them up than there are women who need shutting up. The sort of person who uses the term Karen as an insult uses it specifically against women who are older than them, which makes it a misogynistic, ageist slur. You’d be naive to think that it’s only used against people who are doing something wrong.

Yes they should be called out. By naming the behaviour and explaining why they are wrong, NOT by using a name as a lazy slur. Get it?

Would you say that to any other member of a minority who'd been insulted because of being a member of a minority? Yeah didn't think so. 'Progressives' are always the worst misogynists.

I'm quite old now but I know how to use my words - real, proper words in addition to swear words

if someone challenged
me, I'd explain. Funnily enough I've never ever been challenged when taking out both parents and DD who all have BBs

And if you called me a "Karen" I'd adjust my language to one or two syllables as that's the typical level of understanding of those using that term.

That's why fuck off is perfect. You'll understand it, it's not nuanced and it makes the point

Oh so if a gay man calls me a p@ki, it's fine for me to call him a p0*fter then? If someone's being racist towards me I'm allowed to use whatever slurs I want towards them, since it's 2025?

Or is it just women who are fine to be insulted because of their protected characteristics, but any other group it'd be completely out of order?

So it doesn’t bother you - but maybe it bothers women with the actual name Karen to be made fun of because of this stupid stereotype?! (Not my name but I fully get how hurtful this could be).

Fuck me - are women now insulting other women because they have bob haircuts??

Yes it’s this that is the problem - it’s very “get back in the kitchen, silly little woman” vibe and it’s loathsome, lazy and misogynistic.

Much better. What’s your point?