Do you find the term/meme 'Karen' an insult?

Yes.

I think that the in the weird translation from the USA to the UK it's become incredibly classist (what a surprise).

Think about it, "Karens" in the meme shop in Asda or Tesco, never in Waitrose or M&S. They have low maintenance haircuts, which are clearly meant to signal working class. They have houses with inspirational words on the walls, not in shades of Farrow and Ball.

The memes may as well say "Karen's getting above her station again" because that's exactly what they're meant to portray - a woman who needs stamping back down in place.

I saw a Karen insult the other day. The poster was annoyed that her mum had denied her access to normal painkillers growing up (and wanted her to use herbal remedies) and was therefore a 'Karen'. I found this so random. The woman in question could have done the opposite and still be called a Karen. To a Brit, it seems like an insult to describe any older woman who's assertive and needs to shut the hell up and get back into the kitchen. Horrible.

Actually even if the meme was started by the baristas and the cashiers, it's been amplified by the media executives, account managers and digital marketers.
The people who shout loudest about retail Karens are the equally entitled people behind them in the queue.

The Karen/Susan/insert Gen X name meme started as an offshoot from the "can I speak to the manager" haircut meme.

Women like that can be bloody awful but cashiers and waitresses don't get walked to their car or go home in pairs or call the police because of Karens. It's always terrifying men who stalk them on social media, wait around outside their workplace, stare at their name badge and use their name inappropriately (I disapprove of name badges!) or just shout at, threaten or rob.
No memes for them though.

You know what sticks with you after a long shift working with the public? Not some annoying entitled woman. Being terrified sticks with you. Being hurt sticks with you. Being sexually harassed sticks with you.
No memes for that though.

Tbh it's just another excuse to laugh at women. Take the heat out of any woman's anger, righteous or otherwise, by laughing at her. You don't dare laugh at angry men so let's laugh double-hard at the women. What are they going to do about it anyway? Ask bewildered questions about the scathing nature of memes?

Even if every American Karen was obnoxious and racist I still find it hard to believe those women are customer-facing staff's biggest issue. British Karens aren't even being accused of racism, just embarrassing mumsyness.

@DaydreamingDay Stacey S gets a lot of abuse online about her appearance and parenting choices. They are mostly women so she has nicknamed them "the susans".

I'm not a fan of hers, just remember reading an interview with her. Doesn't excuse it but does explain a bit I think.

I saw Stacey Solomon tweeting about 'Susan' and called her out on it. Had thought better of her until now.

I don't find it insulting, but I do find it tiresome and another example of how something that has a meaning in the US has been adopted by the Anglosphere as a put down of people whose only resemblance to the original target is their race and sex.

For amusement, I like to wonder what dismissive memes today's 0-15 year olds will come up with for today's 20 & 30-somethings. Remember, it was the Baby Boomers who warned each other not to trust anyone over 30, so we've seen this story before...

I think it's sexist, ageist and classist and feel sorry for women I know who are called Karen. Most of them are lovely, and I think these memes are really awful.

www.theguardian.com/fashion/2020/apr/13/the-karen-meme-is-everywhere-and-it-has-become-mired-in-sexism?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3THkuKxRZv7yvyjIQI0pCw_HHuKopo2IjpZfVi64xvS9TeFMfoFTSKvOU#Echobox=1586795991

I see 'Karen' & actually 'Carol' too on lots of cat memes.
Usually with the cat threatening to kill them for being dressed in some hideous knitted outfit.
I actually know 3 Karens & 2 Carols as friends & colleagues & they're nice normal women!

More that Karen has more of a likelihood to talk down and be dismissive to people of different ethnicities (non whites). Thats a trait that usually manifests itself in older people.
Even if we were to set aside this neantherthal view of older people, why is there no male equivalent?

I don't think it's really intended as a reflection on the name, other than it's associated with a particular demographic.

But that kind of demographic typing is often not very transferable. It's interesting that in the US it seems related to being particularly dismissive of minority women. Here in Canada a Karen would be white but I don't think it would have that particular association.

@rufflecrow, my dd whose name is very 2003 has friends called julie, karen and susan. Altho susan is chinese. These are 17 year old girls! But there are all the usual isabellas and amelias too

I do as it's my name (49) and I wouldn't dream of acting the way any of these memes say I do!

yes you're right the race angle doesnt translate in the same way at all stillathing

in the UK its very much a stereotype about middle aged lower middle class women who fret and fuss what men/young women think are stupid things like crappy service or being patronised.

the endless stuff on social media about the "karens" buyng all the loo roll and hand santiser was a classic example. in nearly all the photos i saw it was couples or men with loaded up trolleys but it's 'Karen' who gets the blame.

I keep seeing things men have done being spoken about and things like: a man behaved like a Karen, he was a right Karen, this Karen dude, a man was being a Karen etc.

It’s basically the new runs like a girl/throws like a girl/screams like a girl/cries like a girl but for grown ups.

Guess it depends on how many people are waiting behind you in the queue really.

The only Karens I'm aware of are a girl I went to school with who'd now be 39 (so not that old) and Karen from Outnumbered who was and is quite young a character. Maybe it's an american thing to see it as an 'older' name? Some things don't translate.

So it's not acceptable to escalate a complaint in a shop. How very pro capitalist that is - shut up silly woman just hand over your money and keep consuming.

I don't think this is fair. I'm as anti-capitalist as anyone, but I've also worked as a supermarket as a cashier, and there is absolutely a type of customer who is looking to take advantage and doesn't really care how the workers are treated, and the usual thing is they insist on a sale that doesn't apply, or coupons that don't apply, or your've rung something up incorrectly, and then insist that you bring in the manager.

We didn't have the idea of a "Karen" then but we all recognised the behaviour and that it seemed to be attached to a certain demographic and dislikes these customers, and it wasn't because we didn't want to give good service. My grandmother used to sometimes talk about a similar kind of customer from when she worked in a shop before I was born, they would do things like return curtains years after buying them, complaining they had faded.

I imagine the reason this was associated with women is mainly that women do so much more purchasing than men. I did notice there was a male type that was also inclined to complain in a similar way, interestingly, at least to me, they weren't typically from the same demographic as the women.

The first I heard about the race angle was the Hadley Freeman article which explains that USA's notion of Karen does not directly translate to the UK (Karen is a posher name there).

When I've seen it used in the UK it's almost always had a classist undertone. Kind of the right wing misogynist's version of "terf".

I think its maybe an anti boomer thing as much as anything. When I read the OP, I saw the word misogyny..... and maybe there is an element of that in it.
But theres more to it than just that.

The race angle legitimises the misogyny. As soon as you argue that the "Karen" meme is all about white women being officious, and in particular, officious to black people, it means that white women are fair game: you can unleash all your pent-up hatred of women in the guise of being anti-racist. It's the same impulse by which accusing women of the crime of "transphobia" allows men to use terminology like witches, bitches, cunts, fascists, Terfs etc.

White men, of course, are utterly saintly beings who are never racist enough to merit a meme.

Im not 100% sure its about being fuckable. More that Karen has more of a likelihood to talk down and be dismissive to people of different ethnicities (non whites). Thats a trait that usually manifests itself in older people.

Is Nigel an equivalent to Karen? Can you substitute “Cunt” for Nigel in any of the current online Nigel memes and get the exact same tone and meaning; like you do if you substitute it for “Karen” in the latest Karen memes?

isnt it just Flosime?

shut up and sit down middled aged women - just fuck off back to looking after your kids/husband/house/elderly parents and in laws whilst probably working at the same time. dont you dare be pissed off about the fact that now you're no longer considered fuckable and therefore no longer count as a woman that needs listening too