New to Twitter, feel sick RE 'Karen' meme

[AllWashedOut]

How have we sunk so low? Since when did women start bashing other women so vilely?

I started on Twitter for career reasons (what a joke) and the people in the industry are full-on woke. I want to cry. Karen as a cruel stereotype?

White person (typified as a woman called Karen), who demands priority at all times, a “can I speak to your supervisor” person. Would claim to be being victimised. We’d once have called such a person “a bit of of a twat” but in these BLM days more an entitled whinger on FB

MessyBess you don't see an issue with a group of white British people using that term to laugh at a woman from an Asian background?

Shit up Karen doesn't sound like something you'd want to Google [grin[

SaskiaRembrandt You’re not wrong, now that would make me feel sick lol

On your other point though, I don’t know about any of that so I won’t comment but it’s disgusting that it has been turned into such a sexist thing. It started out as something funny and now it’s tainted, can’t have anything these days.

I don't like the Karen thing (mainly because my mum is named Karen) but it hardly makes me feel sick.

Be Kind died the day it started - nobody is trying to be kind.

MessyBess yes, incels use Chad in that way (and Staceys for women). But Chad is also being used as the equivalent of a Karen.

If you're interested in the American cultural marker, you can find an interesting scholarly explanation of it here, in an interview with Apryl Williams, a professor at the University of Michigan and a fellow at Harvard: www.fatherly.com/love-money/male-version-of-karen-meme/

As you can see, yes, it is about sexism, but Prof. Williams argues that it's largely about the ways in which sexism a) historically promoted the ideal of womanhood as needing to be protected, and specifically white womanhood as needing to be protected from Black people and b) conditions women to ask for help from managers, police, and other authority figures rather than taking things into their own hands. As she mentions, we have twitter memes about women calling the police on a BBQ, but we have news stories about men murdering Ahmaud Arbery.

This may have morphed into something different in the UK, but it's a really specific commentary on intersectional struggles and violence in the States.

So, no, it was not constructed to be a way of punishing women who seek equity in the workplace or say no to unreasonable demands from co-workers--it's actually a nuanced depiction of gender and race dynamics in US history and how they play out in privilege today.

It's fine not to like the meme. It's entirely fine to hate its misapplication as a means of shutting down women's agency. But you should understand the context first.

And entitled is not the same as self assured. In the same way that speaking up for yourself is different from being aggressive or rude.

@GoldenOmber

Have you never worked in retail or customer services? Most people working in those sectors have stories about their encounters with Karens.

I have, and tbh men were just as likely to be angry and unreasonable as women. It’s very weird there isn’t a ‘Karen’ equivalent name for men, I wonder what the reason could possibly be?

There is.

It's 'That Prick on Table 7 that wants a free meal and is currently snapping his fingers at the waiting staff'.

At least the women doing such things as complaining that my company issued, knee length skirt was so short, it was displaying my 'stockings' as I 'leant over in front of her husband' (Note, I wasn't wearing stockings and I wouldn't have had to reach over anything if they'd have let me clear the table as they had demanded - with a click of the fingers, naturally) has been given a name.

a Karen is typically a white middle aged woman with a certain hair style that complains and talks down to staff

It's a way of silencing the voices of middle-aged women. We are not allowed to speak because men no longer want to have sex with us. It's been picked up by some younger women who aren't intelligent enough to realise they one day, they too will be silenced.

The fact it is being used in the above example to describe Priti Patel shows that it has moved beyond being an insult merely for white women who are racist.

You're really overreacting! Do you scream at The Sistine Chapel too?

This thread is hilarious 😂
Imagine being that offended by a meme that been around years 😂😂😂

Imagine being that offended by a meme that been around years

What a foolish comment. Some insults have been around for centuries - including many that are too taboo even to quote. The age of an insult has nothing to do with the level of offence it can cause.

If I said that someone (male or female) was like a Jeremy Kyle guest you'd know what I mean. I think I'm that case it's used equally male/female.

There's quite a few British shows based on laughing at stereotypes like Little Britain, Catherine Tate and Harry Enfield. Have you ever found those funny?

Jesus, if you think Karen is bad, try being called a bitch or a cunt or a racial slur like 'nigger' or 'Paki'. There are far worse things on Twitter and as others have said, a Karen is a white woman (so Priti Patel doesn't quality really, she's Asian) who uses her whiteness to get black people arrested and/or treats retail/service workers like crap and throws her weight around. It originated among black people and now of course whites have started using it too.

It's all nasty, though.

@PhilSwagielka. If that's what you think then you misunderstand my OP. An insult is an insult. I can walk away from that and ignore it. What I find hard to accept, however, is that a large group of 'inclusive', 'kind' 'progressives' can use a nasty stereotype that degrades - the very thing they apparently abhor. So there is hypocrisy. Then there is using said name call against a BAME MP rather than pronging her on her politics. And yes, my personal position of being an assertive 40 year-old woman with a WC background is surely at play here. 'Karen' is a name any younger person could shout at me to shut me up.

To the other post about context, yes I'm catching up. I see the current usage in the UK is not directly comparable to the US or indeed to where the term originates. I can see it is helpful to have a 'character' on which to hang racial injustices. But yes, too, these things more on, and usage carries all else before it.

This thread is hilarious 😂
Imagine being that offended by a meme that been around years 😂😂😂

Doesn't take much to amuse you does it? Comedians dream

So, can a "Karen" only ever be white then?

Jesus, if you think Karen is bad, try being called a bitch or a cunt

Haha wow yes what would that be like, I can’t possibly imagine.

There is no way at all that white men calling Priti Patel ‘Karen’ is some kind of righteous stand against racism, and we all know that.

Karens are always white so the people using it for Priti Patel don't understand the meme correctly

That's a hugely dramatic thing , to cry and feel sick over a bloody Karen meme

Like PP have said, there are FAR worse things to be called.

Racist names, sexists slurs. Take a look at the absolute vile hatred from the Trans Rights bunch towards JK Rowling and anyone that dares state the truth about trans, the death threats , the rape threats. Horrific. That's worth tears and feeling sick over.

I'd choose Karen any day.

So those defending the use of "Karen" to slag off a stereotype of a certain kind white woman, would it be ok to come up with names for certain kinds of stereotypical woman from any other ethnicities?

Going to take a wild guess that it won't be...

BeKind was a movement for the few minutes that it took for some to post a statement about it on Social Media. Inclusivity is "trendy" if you're referring to gender but I see things become worse during CV for the disabled community.

I suspect that the people that you work and socialise with a very small bubble. Life is brutal and I feel like many women who are angry about Karen aren't half as angry about other more serious insults that other groups get.

In America they have black/Asian/Latina versions of Karen.

What are they? Do you know? And is it ok for white people to use them?

@flamingochill

Karens are always white so the people using it for Priti Patel don't understand the meme correctly

But that IS how it’s mostly used in the UK context. “Middle-aged woman I don’t like who isn’t behaving how I want her to.” Meanings get changed. In the same way that “woke” gets used as a sneery insult, despite having a different meaning for the black Americans who used it first.

I know them because I read stuff like Twitter. They've been around longer than Karen so it's hypocritical for white American women to be angry about Karen but not those names