"Stop being a Karen"

[ValsCupcakes]

I heard this on Tuesday from a young, no more than 20, guy saying it to his girlfriend in the street in town.

Is this still going on? I'm out this afternoon at my friend's house. She is called Karen and is sick of it. I heard a woman phone into the radio too the other week saying her husband's satnav was an annoying female voice so he called it Karen.

The male equivalent is Ken or Kevin, but I've rarely heard anyone use it.

It's a stupid trend.

What could we offer up instead so the term Karen gets replaced?

Having read the thread many of the supposed ‘Karen’ examples do seem to suggest exactly this. Why are you questioning this part of my post and ignoring how rude and demeaning to women this term is. I bet if the ‘Karen’ moniker was your name your daughter/mother/best friend you would find it offensive.
In my opinion misogyny is not to be accepted, if you see bad behaviour call it out if you want to but don’t label people as a ‘Karen’. I hope that clears it up for you.

What could we offer up instead so the term Karen gets replaced?

Unfortunately doing so invites the accusation of racism by being a white person who is policing black people's speech and choice of language.

Because I don’t think it’s as simple as just ‘rude and demeaning to women’. I’m a woman, calling someone a Karen isn’t an attack on me. I think it’s an attack on people called Karen therefore people shouldn’t use it.

But when people say it’s an attack on women it ignores the experience of other non white women. You can say it’s an attack on middle class white women, and have your opinion on that. But don’t insist that it is an attack on all of us when the behaviour of the original ‘Karen’ for me personally is a far bigger attack.

I’d say what I’ve observed in the UK is that it’s an attack usually on white middle aged women that speak up or challenge issues. Not sure it’s class based. The age and gender are key though. Women under 40 don’t usually get called Karens.

Vitriol is just reserved for those of us over 40 who have lost the 3Fs (femininity/fertility/fuckability) and are therefore useless and should shut ourselves away and serve men and or children.

I'm not even called Karen and this is so unbelievably beaten to death for me at this point. It was never funny to begin with and the name has no relevance whatsoever. I'm so done with it.

It's the modern day equivalent of the scold's bridle.

I get what you mean. I think of my dear friend who died a few years ago, Karen, and its use is insulting to her memory. She was such a fabulous, clever, funny friend.
Honestly apart from that, I inwardly groan when I hear it. It's so stupid and used by stupid people.

Your 3Fs did make me laugh…

And I will one day be all of those things so I don’t agree with women of this demographic feeling silenced. However, I think the calling out of the original ‘Karen’ behaviour was (and is) important.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-53588201.amp
I think the BBC explain it pretty well tbf

There is a male version of a Karen, it’s Alan, believe me it’s from personal experience of every male I have ever met with that name, they love to moan and bitch!

It’s bloody awful!
Started by a man to degrade women (AGAIN!) any woman with an opinion now is ‘a Karen’ … dare to complain about poor service ‘KAREN’… question the safety of vaccines or the necessity.. ‘Karen’… basically women are being suppressed again and they can’t even see it! When I see women calling other women it, I get saddened… women can’t even see how sexist it is!! You might as well be telling each other to shut up and not have opinions or get back in the kitchen….
it’s awful!!
I found it very interesting the other day though when there was a huge discussion on line abaiut what a male Karen was called… some suggested it should still be Karen as they were acting like a bitch… others chined in and said they thought it was Darren/Kieran/Kevin/John…. But the general consensus was that no one really knew….
What people seem to ignore is that as well as being sexist it’s almost racist. … predominantly used to describe and belittle white middle aged women!…. Anyone saying ‘No it’s not racist’….. imagine just for 2 seconds if we started calling all men of colour ‘ok Leroy’ or ‘stop being a ‘insert common name for that nationality’…. There would be uproar and accusations of racism… probably winding up in court….
in fact when I’ve pointed this out on Facebook I’ve even had MY comments removed!
when a man asked what the male version was and I said ‘oh I think it’s ‘inserted his name’ I was told to F off….. ironic eh!

So next time anyone reading the is wants to bash another human with this insult just think, how would you feel if your name was associated with everything and a woman dares to be! …. After all we should just be little delicate wall flowers

Karen is used as an ageist, misogynist insult in the UK.
in the US, it has a more nuanced meaning. That's ok, they have Fanny packs and wear their pants as outerwear.
We are different countries with a language that doesn't even share the same spellings.
Calling any woman a Karen is just a way of making her die inside slightly for expressing an opinion. I've been called a Karen by a stalker: a coffee chain manager when I complained about a fifteen minute wait for a latte: and generally seen it used online as a way to justify every sort of bad behaviour by the people who are so happy to use it.

Maybe because 99.9% of he women and men acting like knobs aren’t even called Karen….. of course the behaviour is wrong but by calling everyone that’s horrible a Karen you are part of the issue…. It’s no different to assuming all blondes are thick, all Scottish are a certain way, all Chinese people do certain things, all black people are criminals etc….. it’s bullshit!! Racist and sexist!

Why use any name? Why not just call out the behaviour? I bet the driving instructor isn’t actually called Karen….
so why not just call it snobbery?
yes I hate the term ‘snow flake’ too.,,,,, another term invented to shut people up for daring to have an opinion!

And those, including women, who may either deplore or defend the use of the name as an insult are happy to deploy another misogynistic term of abuse.

She’s not “a Karen”. She’s a despicable manipulative racist.

We all understand the meme, and agree there is a need to acknowledge and call out this particular behaviour. But that has nothing to do with actual women called Karen, whose name has been hijacked. And it also has nothing to do with women speaking up for themselves.

Weird. None of the Karens I know - and I know many - are anything like that.

Did she have a name badge on?