To think they call us Karen because they fear us

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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?

No, I am a middle aged woman. I have had Karens say racist things to me.

I was wondering that, middle aged women are more likely to have more status in the workforce. Part of it is because we know our worth.

I think they get called gammon

OP I think you are delusional if you think anybody is scared a middle aged women. And even more so if you think it's because they've looked the menopause in the face.

Because it originally used to denote a white woman who was weaponising her whiteness.

Obviously, the term has evolved since then.

It's just a modern way of saying "you're a middle aged, white, privileged woman who is racist"

This!

I couldn't agree with this more. It may well have started out as a term for a woman who was being rude or unfair but now it just seems to be used for any woman who is speaking up. It's a way to humiliate and diminish what she's saying, even when it's correct - the person who doesn't like what's being said only has to say 'OK Karen' and people lose all sight of what's right.

And the fact that 'Karens' are usually mocked for their tone or getting angry just adds to the narrative, but anyone who is being silenced and belittled (and I'd wager has put up with that behaviour for their entire lives and is now fighting back) would tend to get upset, not just women.

No you have racists say racist things to you. Using Karen implies only women can be racist too which is again misogyny.

I think that’s kind of phased out hasn’t it? Once people started pointing out that insults based on skin colour are never a good idea, it kind of lost popularity as an insult.

This makes no sense. If someone insults me, I have every right to be offended. If someone called your mother a cunt would that be OK because she's actually a human being and not a vagina, therefore rendering the insult 'incorrect' and so absolutely fine?

I think Karen is like saying "you're a dick". That's a mans name. It's a body part. But when used in a sentence like "stop being a dick" it means something else. It's just slang language.

Nympho, frigid, menopausal, on your period. Uptight, let herself go, past it.

It used to be, it isn’t anymore.

Do you know anyone named Dick?

When I say "Karens" it's shorthand for saying, I've had middle aged, white, privileged woman go out of their way to say racist things to me. Often disempowered women who get a kick out of putting other people down. (For example people of colour who they perceive to be 'less than' them).

Absolutely, it feels very lazy 'I don't agree with you but I can't be bothered to actually have a proper discussion so I'm going to call you a Karen because that makes me feel big and clever, no one really know exactly what I mean by it as it means different things to different people so its hard for them to argue with me so i get to feel like im right, ha, and if you don't like it you are most definitely just being oversensitive'

If you disagree with a person's behaviour then call it out in a specific way.

Yes!

I’ve never associated it with a specific age of woman. It derives from the knobheads who demand to talk to the manager when the cashier tells them they can’t have a refund for an item they’ve dropped off a cliff edge several times and have no receipt for. They come in all ages.

Karen and racist take exactly the same amount of time to say or write.

Yes but when I say Karen I'm saying racist + other things. Not just a simple racist. A particular kind of racist.

It’s my name so I hate it

To be fair people of colour have had to deal with this shit for ages.

That's not a Karen, that's a racist

People use it as a 'clever' and hilarious insult. Normally when they're far, far removed from clever and hilarious.