Karen advert

[IncognitoMam]

This shouldn't be allowed surely? Who comes up with this shit?
I'm not called Karen but I know Karen's that hate their name now because of the way it's used.

The company whose advertisement was shared by the OP is based in Queensland and likely primarily aimed it at the Australian market. My DH is from Queensland. I expect that their understanding of the use of the word is more closely related to the UK's in 2023 than the US's before 2020.

I am telling it to you all. It’s not unheard of for terms to be commonly misused. This doesn’t mean that usage has ‘evolved’ in any way, this means that they have been appropriated.

And as it happens, Karen is one of a million things appropriated from Black culture. Then it is misused over and over until its origin and intended use is completely erased and our culture erased. That is what white supremacy does.

It’s not just history and past culture, it takes and takes and erases almost everything new that we create.

hahahah I expect that their understanding of the use of the word is more closely related to the UK's in 2023

Which is???????? Why do people HIDE behind words/ or no words?!

I've never seen a Karen thread go like this before. It's usually a couple of incel men saying something about the irony and how we're the Karens for complaining.

People shouting in caps and going too far. There have been some deletions at least.

You are very aggressive. What do you mean? It's clear what I mean already from the hundreds of posts preceding mine which have explained it.

im called Karen. I hate my name. If I wasn’t in my 40s I’d change it.
one shift in work a women made some sort of fuss. The boss turned to me and said
’she’s a Karen, that’s what we’re calling them now’. I really was too shocked to say anything,

Yup. For over a decade. It wasn't even obscure, it was all over Reddit and then the wider Internet. This was where pseudo-activists on Black Twitter got it from. At this point posters are being disingenuous at best. They know very well they are spreading false information. It is a white man's word and always has been.

Your response is bizarre. I''m off.

I am telling it to you all. It’s not unheard of for terms to be commonly misused. This doesn’t mean that usage has ‘evolved’ in any way, this means that they have been appropriated.

Then would you suggest education is needed as that's how the youth (and others) appear to be using/misusing the term in the UK.

So it’s racist to object to being called a “Karen” for the temerity of being a middle aged woman voicing an opinion - have I got that right?

This is getting a bit weird now to be honest. I think I'm done too @resipsa

Even if everyone involved is the same race and there are no racial overtones involved?

On Reddit what was there was only about crazy ex wives/girlfriends and it had mostly died out years before the Karen meme.

Completely different from the Karen meme that originated years later on Black Twitter.

The OP said, "This shouldn't be allowed surely? Who comes up with this shit?
I'm not called Karen but I know Karen's that hate their name now because of the way it's used." Whichever meaning you think it has do you think that advert should be allowed? That's what the thread was about.

This thread is mad!

@wayyour Weird is an understatement 😂

Isn’t it just?!

Instead of shouting at us all to “try harder” “discuss now” etc try listening @Bettelucksecondtimearoundimherewaitingforu .

The daily use of Karen as an insult in the UK in 2023 is not racist, it is misogynistic. It has nothing to do with race in the way it is widely used today. This doesn’t mean it is being used wrongly, it means it has a new meaning as well as the racist meaning.

Your inability to accept that is blocking the conversation discussing the issue of the advert, which is what the thread is supposed to be discussing.

Not surprising to see that two of the most aggressive, derailing posters on here have stated that they’re not Black. I see these white activist-saviour bullies at my work, whitesplaining racism to People of Colour, even accusing those of us who aren’t white of racism if we don’t kowtow to their reductive American-derived ideas that make little sense in the UK context. As far as I can see, it’s a way of entrenching white, middle class privilege, and all-too-happily at the expense of / by exploiting those who aren’t white. I’m afraid I’ve seen enough of this now, that when I hear the term “ally”, I know exactly what’s coming.

@BillaBongGirl no it hadn't died out lol it was absolutely everywhere, for years. It was a huge part of internet culture. That was where they got it from. That's why that term was used. It was borrowed/co-opted/appropriated from a well-established sexist meme created and popularised by white men to attack white women. The women here you're arguing with are correct and people being unable to admit that seems more to do with ego than any interest in accuracy or insight.

This- it’s being used in the UK at least as an alternative to a man saying ‘calm down luv’ and then sniggering at other men in their group when a woman is politely questioning something.
Except the Karen insult is mainly reserved for women over 40- black, white or Asian IME here in the UK I’ve heard is said to many women across the last couple of years.
Teens and young adults seem to be the worst for saying it but then they watch most of the memes on social media.
No matter where it’s come from it’s just a horrible thing to say to a woman to shut her up. No need for it at all and absolutely no need for companies to be endorsing it- completely irresponsible.

The advert was published in Australia, by an Australian company who is likely using the Australian definition and usage of Karen. I will post it again.- as it was the 2020 word of the year for the Aussies dictionary.

So you insistence on the U.K. common misuse of the term Karen and various levels of outrage caused by such misuse here are what imho are a blocking a discussion of this Australian advert in its appropriate Australian context.

A Karen trend was popularised by middle aged white men to criticise their exes after an origin thread where a man was venting about an ex actually named Karen.

That’s all it was.