To think they call us Karen because they fear us

[InformEducateEntertain]

I absolutely hate the term Karen. It's pejorative and deeply unpleasant.

Middle aged women (of whom I am one and to whom the term is most generally applied) are bloody amazing. Putting us down for our don't give a f**k badass attitude and willingness to fight back strikes me as lazy categorisation.

I'd go as far to say that those who use it are scared by the knowledge that looking the menopause in the eye has given us the courage to have a voice at last.

AIBU?

That awful haircut certainly has

@Princessconsuelabananahammock9 I think the concept and nomenclature “Karen” should exist. And it certainly shouldn’t have been extended to mean any middle aged woman who asks for something perfectly reasonable.

Misogyny. Same old, same old.

To whoever said that (collectively) middle aged women are not brilliant I think you are wrong.

In many cases they are dealing with complex family scenarios, holding down jobs, caring for elderly parents all while their bodies are leeching oestrogen and making it hard for them to think straight.

The middle aged women I know deal with this on the whole with humour and a determination not to let it get them down. They also generally have stopped worrying what others think of them and are, at last, free to make their wishes clear. This does not mean that they are rude or unpleasant in their dealings with people. Just that they refuse to crawl under a rock and accept that 'the change' means the end of them as functioning members of society which our largely patriarchal society is more comfortable with.

It worries me that so many women think it is ok to dismiss these great people with such an unpleasant pejorative term but twas ever thus.

It's literally about white women using thier white privilege in a racist system that allows racist cops to be in charge.

Historically? Yes. If a white woman accused an innocent black man of a crime and he got killed for it? I'd put some blame on her.

I'm confused. Do white women in the UK not know racism is a problem there? I've been called the N word and a n word Cunt/bitch in London.

It seems many on here think racism is only an issue in the US?

But that’s the thing. I have never seen someone called a Karen because of a simple request. (Not saying it doesn’t happen at all.)

So my point was that - I have not been called Karen because I don’t display those behaviours.

'Karen' may have started out (in America) as a name for arrogant, middle-aged white women using their privilege against women of colour, but it evolved pretty quickly into a general way of insulting middle-aged white women full stop. In the UK I'm not sure it ever really had the original race-based connotation. Language evolves, and since the internet, popular terms evolve pretty rapidly. It's no good stubbornly insisting they still mean what they originally meant. See also 'woke'.

I find it sad when younger women at work preface a perfectly reasonable request with an apologetic "look, I'm not trying to be a Karen here, but..."

This didn't used to happen a few years ago. Heard it a couple of times recently.

Katherine Ryan describes how her teen daughter gets embarrassed and (tongue in cheek) calls her a Karen when she makes reasonable requests or complaints to service staff.

She pulls her up on it, even though Violet is semi-joking, educating her that standing up for yourself assertively, not rudely, is not a negative thing. It's a teaching point.

You have not been called Karen because you happen not to have been called Karen. I have heard teenagers refer to women as Karens based on their hair cut, their clothes, or their general air of middle-agedness. I'm a teacher, so I hear a lot of what teenagers talk about! My own dd was in the habit of referring to women as Karens. I'm pretty sure she's grown out of it.

British police aren't routinely armed so death by cop is largely a US problem, yes. Our own police are fully capable of institutionalised racism and misogyny, per countless news stories, exposes and investigations. The most recent case of a UK police officer killing someone that I can think of is Sarah Everard but there may be others since.

Historically? Yes. If a white woman accused an innocent black man of a crime and he got killed for it? I'd put some blame on her.

I’m not sure all the racially motivated killings have actually been that particular scenario…

I think you maybe need to work on holding men accountable for their own actions.

Not according to MN it’s not

As many on here have decided that it is only used to silence all assertive women and nothing to do with labelling a particular type of racist behaviour as that can simply be called out by announcing that they are racist

I dont call people karans i call them knob heads and a lot worse if they push my buttons.

That might be the intention behind it but in reality it gets used by some to describe any woman with opinions, not necessarily unpleasant ones, just like some people dismiss anyone over the age of about 40 as boomers.

See I’m not referring to teenagers. I was thinking more general adult population.

Though I can imagine teenagers having a field day with it…

@RisingSunn you repeatedly saying you haven’t been called a Karen because you don’t behave like one reminds me of that scene in When Harry Met Sally. “You do the math”…..

Did I say all racially motivated killings were about that?

I have no problem holding white men accountable for thier actions. I also have no problem holding white women accountable. Do you?

A few documented cases? You can’t be serious. Please. You cannot be serious.

hysterical

I’ve never watched it…

Well that was your answer to me asking if a white man killing a black person was actually a woman’s fault so yeah, kinda.
Unless it was meant to be a non sequitur or something.

Or..Could you just perhaps just tell me what you mean?

Interesting original post. It maybe that people fear ageing and so they denigrate older people who don’t shrink themselves to be invisible.