Karen and the Generational Divide

[LucilleBluth]

My very good friend kept sending me TikTok videos via whatsapp and told me to get on it. I resisted but last week I decided to have a look what it was all about.

Now I’m 40, friend is 42, both white and degree educated with teenagers and primary aged DCs. It would seem that according to this app that middle aged white women are the actual devil. I’m from a working class background and friend is MC.

I’ve never seen younger people be so vitriolic against people they don’t know. It’s definitely misogyny and ageism but dressed up as being woke???

I can’t quite figure out why or where it’s coming from. Any sociological explanation for this?

It’s like just as women get more powerful it’s time to knock them down.

That's exactly what it is, OP. You can see this, but too bad your friend doesn't. Is she just trying to feel young by keeping on the right side of the kids?

If someone you calls you a Karen & you’re not behaving like one then just keep it moving?? You don’t have to agree with them, if you know you’re being reasonable then just put it down to the person using the term incorrectly, laugh & go about your business, in the same way you would if someone called you a dick & you weren’t being one

The way the word Karen evolved it's just another form of cultural appropriation. The same way intersectionality or being woke nolonger means exactly what black people wanted it to mean.

@Millenialcunt

If someone you calls you a Karen & you’re not behaving like one then just keep it moving?? You don’t have to agree with them, if you know you’re being reasonable then just put it down to the person using the term incorrectly, laugh & go about your business, in the same way you would if someone called you a dick & you weren’t being one

How about no.

If you don't act like a dick then you won't be called a Karen and you'll have no problem it's very simple

Any woman, anywhere, can be called a Karen, whether they are "behaving like a dick" or simply existing. It's the new "bitch

Exactly.

Same as the guy at the Bank of England calling the economy menopausal when he meant no good for anything any more (and keeping his job). Middle aged women represent a problem for society - no longer willing to put up with crap at a time when society deems them irrelevant, so most likely to assert themselves.

If someone you calls you a Karen & you’re not behaving like one then just keep it moving??

Exactly! This discussion rolls around every so often on Mumsnet and it's always bemusing; on one of the previous threads someone said it's the equivalent of the n-word but for white women

So if someone calls you a whore but you're not behaving like one, just have a laugh and move on. That'll show them.

This discussion rolls around every so often on Mumsnet and it's always bemusing; on one of the previous threads someone said it's the equivalent of the n-word but for white women

Well that's clearly wrong but that doesn't mean I have to accept insults from a man does it.

Wannabe I hadn't heard of that before, that's disgusting.

And just what did this group of middle aged women do.
Looks like a pretty standard holiday snap but just because they are middle aged and white it is ok to turn them into a meme

Same as the guy at the Bank of England calling the economy menopausal when he meant no good for anything any more (and keeping his job).

Wow

@Millenialcunt

If someone you calls you a Karen & you’re not behaving like one then just keep it moving?? You don’t have to agree with them, if you know you’re being reasonable then just put it down to the person using the term incorrectly, laugh & go about your business, in the same way you would if someone called you a dick & you weren’t being one

In other words put up and shut up like a good little middle aged woman.

Back in the good old days of going into shops, I was shopping with a Jamaican friend of mine visiting the UK for the first time. The shop assistant in a large popular fast fashion outlet made what really could only be described as a racist remark and my friend asked to speak with her supervisor- you can guess what happened next... accusations of Karen came from the younger people waiting in the queue behind us who hadn’t heard the initial interaction. This empowered the employee who referred to my
Black friend as a Karen to her Manager and the millennial manager didnt really know what to do other than quickly usher us out the shop after paying
.

Karen as an insult is no longer about calling out racism or bad behaviour as many like to claim, it’s anything a woman does that seems to annoy or inconvenience anyone, especially when somebody needs to escalate very real problems. Calling men a Karen is just a modern version of saying they’re a pansy or being a big girls blouse (and I feel the need to point out I do not condone either of these). It’s using being a woman or feminine in any way as in insult.

I despise people using Karen as an insult and I admit I do judge people who use it as an insult. I also laugh knowing one day soon these people will be middle aged themselves and on the receiving end of this attitude.

@debbrianna

The way the word Karen evolved it's just another form of cultural appropriation. The same way intersectionality or being woke nolonger means exactly what black people wanted it to mean.

Yeah and you'll see people who constantly fling the word at others insist on using it even when black people are complaining it's being misused. It's mostly the same people now complaining that Karen is being misused and demanding an end to it. The irony.

Those women look so happy @Proudboomer not hiding behind a filter or a kaftan, and not a man in sight.
How very dare they?

I had a quick look at Twitter, and the meme posted by proudboomer bears out my own findings that most of people posting this shit don't know how to use apostrophes correctly.

JW you're right, my bad.

How about no.

😄 suit yourself

Exactly! This discussion rolls around every so often on Mumsnet and it's always bemusing; on one of the previous threads someone said it's the equivalent of the n-word but for white women

Ffs facepalm Saying the two are the same is Karen behaviour tbf so there’s that 😄

The way the word Karen evolved it's just another form of cultural appropriation. The same way intersectionality or being woke nolonger means exactly what black people wanted it to mean.

Except this is bullshit. It's usage to call out racism was fairly late in its evolution.

@VladmirsPoutine

I really admire how the debate around the name/term Karen is so centred on whether or not it is offensive rather than the behaviour/connotations. Probably one of the best insults going - imagine your only 'fight' being that Karen is an offensive/ misogynistic term to be called.

Actually, now you point it out, what the F are we complaining about? All this time I've been bitching about -

Rape and sexual assault,
FGM,
The sex pay gap,
Appalling medical understanding of the menopause

I really need to get a sense of proportion. Coz men deal with this sort of shit everyday.

Oh they don't.

Why would you think this is our only fight?

Isn't it just another take on "Essex girl" "dumb blonde" " great personality" the whole "cool girl" lie of porn, Misogyny is very good at changing it's face to put women down, to get others to accept and pepetuate.

@B33Fr33

Isn't it just another take on "Essex girl" "dumb blonde" " great personality" the whole "cool girl" lie of porn, Misogyny is very good at changing it's face to put women down, to get others to accept and pepetuate.

Quite.

DD112 has been noticing language in tv and film lately, she asked me what slut shame meant. We had a discussion about most descriptors of people relating to sex are female based. She's not amused.

Doh. She's 12 not 112.

Well I'm totally screwed as a baby boomer, called Karen and married to Kevin.