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?

I feel it has become a way to control us

Yes, it's also been significant to break female bonds. Instead of older women being wise women, matriarchs, respected, they're foolish, pointless, dried up fools, hysterical, unreasonable and neurotic. That way younger women look to men rather than older women for wisdom and knowledge.

@RisingSunn basically you’re saying that because no one has called you a Karen to your face, then people aren’t called Karens unless they’re behaving badly. You’re saying the whole Karen thing isn’t an issue, because it only affects people who deserve it. The scene in the film shows someone thinking they’re right when they’re wrong!

People aren't called Karens because they are being entitled, obnoxious, rude or opionated.

People are called Karens because the person calling them that thinks that they are being entitled, obnoxious, rude or opinionated.

And perhaps most of the time, like several PPs believe, they are correct to think that.

But sometimes those people are wrong. Just as some middle aged women can believe their unreasonable behaviour is fine and justified, some people will take behaviour they'd think fine and justified in most people as unreasonable in a middle aged woman.

Why does it matter if someone incorrectly calls a woman a Karen for making an entirely reasonable request or justified complaint, especially if the woman doesn't even hear it?

Because the people who do hear it learn that whatever that woman did was something that justified being labelled Karen, and that teaches other women and girls to make themselves just that little bit smaller and that little bit less assertive just in case they accidentally cross the line into Karendom.

I don't like the term Karen, and I don't like social media shaming of people, which often turns out not to show the full picture.

Alternative viewpoints on a couple of social media Karen witch-hunts. https://www.newsweek.com/i-was-branded-central-park-karen-i-still-live-hiding-1839483
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12351961/CitiBike-Karen-breaks-silence-Pregnant-NYC-hospital-worker-shamed-leave-taking-rental-e-bike-black-teen-claimed-slams-version-events-New-York-Times-columnist-backs-her.html

I’m saying just because the odd incident happened in America (which is not in fact the centre of the universe) it doesn’t mean that it extends to all white women in the world. It does not mean all white women have power over black men. Let’s see a white women in Iran or Afghanistan and see how well she does thing to oppress the black men there.

Wow 3 cases. Your definitely proven your point that white women are a problem. You want me to show you cases of black men convicted of raping women?

If a white woman calls the cops on a " suspicious black man" versus a black man on a " suspicious white woman " the responses are typically different.

Where I’m from yes they’d be treated the same. You don’t want to hear it but it’s true. Just because it’s different in Buttfuck USA it doesn’t mean the rest of the world like that.

Like other posters have mentioned - and it has been MY observation. Usually people who are called Karens have displayed a type of behaviour.

You disagree - and that’s fine. It doesn’t make me wrong.

Oh and BTW one of those links was about misogyny in the police so kind of blows your “white women have power over black men with the police” theory out the water

I’ve seen plenty of videos taken 3/4 of the way through an argument and out of context. And yes women do get called Karen’s for raising issues with service staff

I literally saw a video not long ago of a woman being called a Karen because she asked for a proper mug and not a takeout mug. IIRC the server had a strop and threw it in the bin

Nope. Karen is the name for someone called Karen

Anything else is just thick

Why are you talking like this is a regular occurrence the world over? I can see ONE documented example. And yet the rest of the world’s white women have to scrape and apologise for it.

Men commit 98% of violent crimes in this country. Wheres their name? Where’s the blanket statements about how they use other misogynistic police to victimise women?

Also the vast majority of racist crimes are committed by men. So why is it the women getting a nickname for it?

Well you you’ve used one example of a “Karen” to paint all white women the same - so why isn’t the standard the same for others?

Trust me there are thousands of examples in the US, it's a behaviour pattern most black Americans are familiar with and if they chose to give it a name, good for them.

Exactly.

If someone is saying “Karen” out loud they should be called out on it because it’s misogyny. The same way racist or ableist terms should be called out. But I’ve a feeling that poster sees women as not in the “can be discriminated against” category

@Cookiecrumblepie How would you feel if I used your given name as an insult instead?

The racism here is not identical to racism in the US and so it shouldn’t inherit the US’s problems.

The same way that misogyny isn’t identical to that in Afghanistan

Nobody has said it’s racist free in the U.K.

I’ll wait for the many millions of cases then that you know doubt can show me

I am a 38 year old woman and I wouldn’t group myself with Karens. As previously stated it’s a stupid term for a particular type of middle aged woman. And no, people aren’t scared of me anyway.

But that type of behaviour is normally “Didn’t STFU about something”

There’s thousands of examples of white women calling the police because a black man patrolled through a park?

I do disagree with the OP on one point though - they don’t fear middle aged women. They just plain old hate them

There are thousands of examples of white women leveraging their whiteness to police the everyday behaviour of black people, or to gain preferential treatment over them, yes. I'm amazed you aren't aware of this tbh.

I’ll look forward to you showing me then, if there’s thousands.

Meanwhile millions of men rape women every day but don’t have a special little name. Ever wonder why that is.