Karen

[strawberrydaquiari]

The use of Karen as an insult isn't going away is it?
I'm fed up. I feel silenced. I can't stand up to the insult without being accused of acting "like one" and being shut down.
It's everywhere and I hate it.

Again Karen has a different meaning to some people

If someone has been subjected to racism I really don’t care what they are called

Calling out an Asian guy by what using the term p*ki you think is the same. Oh ok

GAMMON seems to be the insult of choice when it comes to insulting many men. Also a vile insult. Usually spouted by The 'Woke,' when a man dares to have a view that isn't left-leaning.

Yep. Gammon has no bearing on my life, I'm not a white man. But I really don't like it either. I feel like it has racist undertones, and it's weirdly almost exclusively said by one white bloke to another.

Even if the person is a bit of a fuckwit, calling them a gammon makes you look like one too, is what I think, and definitely doesn't further your point.

I think when people use the ' P' word for trying to insult an Asian it just shows them up for being really thick.

As Pakistan is just one country in the very diverse continent that is Asia.

But then racism & stupidity do tend to walk hand in hand.

@HRTQueen

Again Karen has a different meaning to some people

If someone has been subjected to racism I really don’t care what they are called

Calling out an Asian guy by what using the term p*ki you think is the same. Oh ok

Yes, you keep saying it has a different meaning to some people. But given this one is widely used as thick, lazy, ageist misogyny, and that it victimises anyone with that name, and it was started by a Reddit loser, it's thick, lazy, ageist misogyny not to factor its thick, lazy, ageist misogyny into your decision not to use any one of the other jillion words that are better suited to accusing someone of racism. Words that actually mean racism.

If it means different things to different people, you can't complain when people take it to mean thick, lazy, ageist misogyny.

DrSbaitso I’m not offended if you think it’s a thick term used by thick people. I don’t use it so you are not offending me personally what you think of others who have used it against racism I think is irrelevant they felt it called out the behaviour

I think Karen for some it has a different meaning. Like I said if you want to go around correcting people do so I’m not as the meaning isn’t the same for everyone

If someone has been subjected to racism I really don’t care what they are called

Calling out an Asian guy by what using the term p*ki you think is the same. Oh ok

I didn't actually say that word, did I, I said singling out race as a factor is racist like singling out sex is sexism and misogyny.

I think Karen for some it has a different meaning.

Yes, a sexist and misogynistic one, like the other sexist and misogynistic meaning. But if you want to perpetuate sexism and misogyny, go for it.

@HRTQueen

DrSbaitso I’m not offended if you think it’s a thick term used by thick people. I don’t use it so you are not offending me personally what you think of others who have used it against racism I think is irrelevant they felt it called out the behaviour

I think Karen for some it has a different meaning. Like I said if you want to go around correcting people do so I’m not as the meaning isn’t the same for everyone

I am doing so, and you keep popping up telling me to, er, keep doing it.

If Karen means different things to different people, you can't complain that it means "lazy misogynistic shit" to one person when you want it to mean "noble anti-racism".

You keep telling us that it means different things to different people and you keep telling me that if I want to correct people on it then I can. So having accepted that it means what I think it means, and that I have the right to say so, what are you trying to achieve now?

"Central Park Karen" was actually called Amy, so why aren't we calling people "Amy"? Could it possibly be because lots of white women who consider themselves progressive are also called "Amy"?

@Ereshkigalangcleg

"Central Park Karen" was actually called Amy, so why aren't we calling people "Amy"? Could it possibly be because lots of white women who consider themselves progressive are also called "Amy"?

It's because the Reddit loser's imaginary ex wife was called Karen. That's where the slur comes from. That's how worthless and arbitrary it is, and why it's got fuck all to do with racism. It's giving some people a field day with their lazy, performative "anti-racism" though.

The whole idea of it meaning "noble anti racism" has been retconned to suit an agenda.

It's because the Reddit loser's imaginary ex wife was called Karen. That's where the slur comes from.

I know, my question was rhetorical.

I can't get worked up about it. It is a term to describe a certain type of woman. So what? The same as I have heard this week a man being called a will because he got defensive outside a pub.

@Ereshkigalangcleg

The whole idea of it meaning "noble anti racism" has been retconned to suit an agenda.

Exactly. Just an attempt to exploit racism to try to keep a misogynistic insult in vogue. Oppose the Karen slur? YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT RACISM!!!

Transparent, shameless, risible, and absolutely depressing when people fall for it and start turning Karen into some kind of crap Schrodinger's cat in an eternal quantum state of meaning. It's not. It's a shit, lazy, misogynistic slur and clever people don't use it.

I think the way the Americans use it, it definitely is used to call out racism. Maybe in the Uk it’s used differently but my American friends say it’s used in one context and it’s used perhaps different in the UK. You’re not the center of the world.. you don’t get to dictate how Americans use a term coined by them in the context of how racism is shown in their country.

But have a field day in your white british world being outraged about it I guess. I’m white and I’m not offended at other white women being called Karen. Women of all colours get called Karen. It’s really a 1st world problem and these ridiculous threads popping up demanding it be banned just shows how navel gazey and self indulgent many of you are.

Karen is the l weakest insult anyone could be called.. but yes. Let’s act like it’s the worst most mysogynistic term a woman can be called.

Half of you have been called a cunt this week by your kids and husband but you’re outraged by Karen. The amount of threads in here about your husbands and partners calling you a bitch.. but Karen is as bad.. what?!

I've never been called a cunt (to my face!) in my life. If I ever was, you'd see my reaction from the fucking moon.

I guess women can't have 'microaggressions', just 'first world problems'. Jog on, troll.

*Half of you have been called a cunt this week by your kids and husbands
*
!! Really ?

Fuck me, must have missed those threads 😂.

Hi cunt! (waves to fellow cunt in the wild)

🤣

It's cuntastic to see you MorrisZ 👋🏻

I think our dear contributor needs to spend more time watching British sitcoms. If our husbands were engaged enough to call us 'cunt' we'd be blimmin delighted. Most of us are chuffed enough to get 'dear'.

In other news, my dad calls us all darling. We are darlings, but it's also a handy way to save him remembering which of us is which 🤣

@DropYourSword

The fuck difference does it matter if someone calls you a Karen rather than a twat, a cunt, a prick, a moron etc. Either you've acted like a twat and are being called out on it, or you haven't and the person using the insult is the one being a twat. I absolutely don't get all the handwringing about 'Karen'!

The OP's NAME is Karen. She has a 7 year old friend/family member who is also called Karen. She doesn't want/condone her name being habitually used in a racist, misogynistic (and apparently ageist and classist, in a UK context) manner, and she doesn't want a little girl to grow up with that baggage.

According to the US Social Security Administration (sorry, I don't know how to get the equivalent stats for the UK):

There are 1,120,445 people in the U.S. with the first name Karen.

It's statistically the 36th most popular first name.

More than 99.9 percent of people with the first name Karen are female.

Are there a lot of people legally named Twat, Cunt, Prick, and Moron in the UK? And are those generally unisex names? Perhaps there really is a cultural difference here which just makes it look like some people don't understand basic logic (and internalized and normalized racism and misogyny).

I agree that this is not the most pressing problem in the entire world. Many people would say the same about how many times a letter can appear in wordle and whether Prince Harry should have publicly financed security and if it's OK for somebody's husband to talk about babysitting his own children and whether Quality Street is less nice than it used to be. And yet all of those things get discussed to fuck on here without - astonishingly enough - a whole lot of rather desperate-seeming shooshing.

It is misogyny and ageism but also looking at the extreme examples I think it also minimises some behaviour. The Central Park “Karen “ was a racist twunt. It would have been better to call her out for being a racist rather than calling her a Karen

@DropYourSword

The fuck difference does it matter if someone calls you a Karen rather than a twat, a cunt, a prick, a moron etc. Either you've acted like a twat and are being called out on it, or you haven't and the person using the insult is the one being a twat. I absolutely don't get all the handwringing about 'Karen'!

What's your first name?

@MarshmallowSwede well see there your wrong as cunt is not a massively overused word in Britain
And we can choose to be offended if we so wish and many of us are more offended with how its now being used , to shut up a woman if she dares speak up
How its being used in the uk is very different and if in the uk some of us feel its offensive we have that right

Exactly. Just an attempt to exploit racism to try to keep a misogynistic insult in vogue. Oppose the Karen slur? YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT RACISM!!!

Transparent, shameless, risible, and absolutely depressing when people fall for it and start turning Karen into some kind of crap Schrodinger's cat in an eternal quantum state of meaning. It's not. It's a shit, lazy, misogynistic slur and clever people don't use it.

Excellent posts Sbaitso 🙌