STOP calling people "a Karen"

[PaperwhiteTheFriendlyGhost]

Why are people so lazy and ignorant? Ironically they use it in some instances to berate someone for a perceived insult. Maybe this should be on Pedants' Corner, I don't know.

And literally no one on this thread disagrees with this.

We would just prefer you, if you witness bad behaviour and wish to “call it out “ that you have the balls to actually own that sentiment and address the specific behaviour head on.

Don’t hide behind cowardly internet inspired insults or you are no better than the person you direct this at

Couldn’t you just call them a racist, or just rude whichever is most appropriate?
Surely that’s more powerful

I will, but I won't be behaving in the way middle aged women with bob haircuts behave which is what caused the phrase to be coined in the first place.

People aren't called a Karen for being old, they're called a Karen because of their behaviour. Which is mortifying to witness tbh. Becoming middle aged doesn't automatically mean becoming an ass.

Oh dear. Okay, so you find it offensive. So what? The world doesn’t stop turning. Just move on with your life.

Again. Just call them racist or rude or entitled (whatever that actually means). It’s far more powerful than a thinly veiled insult.

I have worked with the public for years and yes sometimes people are rude and horrible, but its never been a middle aged women with a bob more then anyone else.

Ahhhh. So you have to be stupid to understand it, as well as use it

got you

The point you miss is that I could go to a cafe for lunch now, be served inedible food, politely but discretely ask a waiter to replace it and I will likely be called a Karen. Either to my face or behind my back.

You are BU unreasonable if you think using this slur so casually is ok based on the behaviour of a few horribly behaved women you have seen on for all you know, edited and out of context a few Tik Toks

"...lady of a certain age"

so ageism too

yes, you definitely fit the stereotype of people that use the term Karen.

if you'd called me that I'd have told you to fuck off. I'm sure you'd have no trouble understanding that

yes, people who do what she did to me are fucking stupid.

If you have any issue with that, i suggest you become disabled enough to need a blue badge, then experience some horrendous arsehole challenging you over it like they're entitled to do so, and also know better than you do.

I'll call her an ableist cunt next time, how's that?

Funnily enough I do think it's my place to
"call out" (awful term) people
using the term Karen.

we all have our own experiences but mine is
that it is used to make women wheesht

and used by the hard of
thinking
thats my experience.

Much better. What’s your point?

Yes it’s this that is the problem - it’s very “get back in the kitchen, silly little woman” vibe and it’s loathsome, lazy and misogynistic.

Fuck me - are women now insulting other women because they have bob haircuts??

So it doesn’t bother you - but maybe it bothers women with the actual name Karen to be made fun of because of this stupid stereotype?! (Not my name but I fully get how hurtful this could be).

Oh so if a gay man calls me a p@ki, it's fine for me to call him a p0*fter then? If someone's being racist towards me I'm allowed to use whatever slurs I want towards them, since it's 2025?

Or is it just women who are fine to be insulted because of their protected characteristics, but any other group it'd be completely out of order?

I'm quite old now but I know how to use my words - real, proper words in addition to swear words

if someone challenged
me, I'd explain. Funnily enough I've never ever been challenged when taking out both parents and DD who all have BBs

And if you called me a "Karen" I'd adjust my language to one or two syllables as that's the typical level of understanding of those using that term.

That's why fuck off is perfect. You'll understand it, it's not nuanced and it makes the point

Would you say that to any other member of a minority who'd been insulted because of being a member of a minority? Yeah didn't think so. 'Progressives' are always the worst misogynists.

Yes they should be called out. By naming the behaviour and explaining why they are wrong, NOT by using a name as a lazy slur. Get it?

@inadequatepillow ”If you were called a Karen, you should probably be thinking about what you were doing to warrant being called that rather than being offended by the term itself.” Last time I was called a Karen I was telling a young man to keep his out of control animal under control. I was also called a middle aged busybody and a dried up old cunt by the same person at various points. Did I think I had done anything wrong? No, I went and caught his animal (which was loose on the road) before it caused an accident. I thought all of the terms he called me were offensive and designed to be so, but were specifically used to try and shut a woman older than him down. He was embarrassed, you see, and using offensive terms is seen by certain demographics as a possible way to reflect that embarrassment and get the woman to back off. There are many more people calling women Karens to try and shut them up than there are women who need shutting up. The sort of person who uses the term Karen as an insult uses it specifically against women who are older than them, which makes it a misogynistic, ageist slur. You’d be naive to think that it’s only used against people who are doing something wrong.

What a ridiculous post. You say people are being called Karen because of their behaviour, straight after describing their behaviour as 'the way middle aged women with bob haircuts behave'. How do these women with bob haircuts behave? Have anthropologists studied this tribe and written papers on their behaviour?

Substitute 'afro haircuts' in your post. Or 'how gay men wearing lycra behave'. I bet you wouldn't have written it then. You can't even see your own prejudice because you're too busy being righteous.

I don’t call people ‘a Karen’. It’s just not in my vocabulary. But no, if I was called one I wouldn’t bat an eyelid. As far as insults go it’s a pretty shit one, used to ‘shut women up’? Then don’t be ‘shut up’.

I never understand adults getting worked up about what are essentially just words.

So because you have not heard it being used in this context

I believe its used as a way of saying I recgonise your racist behaviour

And I trust people can recognise when someone is being racist towards them

It's not a slur, grow up.