To believe the team “Karen” isn’t misogynistic

[SummerAsh]

To start with… I don’t like the term. It can’t be pleasant if you are actually called Karen. And I don’t believe I’ve ever used it….

But I don’t see why it is misogynistic…. Unless someone says that all women are Karens. Some women are just insufferable, the same way some men are. Admitting this doesn’t make you misogynistic! And more than calling someone a Dick makes that person a misandrist.

Bandying the word “misogyny” around whenever anyone says anything that’s not completely complimentary about a woman just devalues the word, and makes it more difficult to call out real misogyny.

Before that it used to be Sharon or Tracey…never heard a derogatory man’s name!

There is a male version it's called being a Kyle just because you've never heard it doesn't mean it doesn't exist 😂 there's also calling a guy a chad

It has been co-opted to be used in a specifically misogynistic way once it became a mainstream term but it didn’t start out as a misogynist term.

It originally described a specifically gendered form of racism but not (like woke, or PickMe) has been abused so it’s meaningless.

You can’t be really serious, surely.

As you say yourself, you feel bad for women called Karen - that’s enough, isn’t it? That you acknowledge that a woman’s name is being weaponised against women?

You have said exactly why it’s different, in your own post!

As for ‘dick’, yes, it’s a man’s name & it’s quite a common nickname where I live. However, it’s quite different. It has a long standing link with male anatomy, and that’s how it’s used, it’s not used as an insult linked with a man’s name, it’s also not weaponised in that it’s used prolifically and across age-groups, and indeed sexes, so it’s completely different in intent and meaning. Hth.

nonsense. It’s exactly because no-one’s heard of it that it doesn’t count. ‘Karen’ is used liberally across social media and in general discourse. Kyle (if it even exists) is not. Therefore it lacks potency and is not weaponised.

There is no such thing as ‘being a Karen’. That’s the point. Do try to keep up.

I got called a Karen by a young teenage boy once maybe 12/13. There was a group of them behind me in the queue for a rollercoaster. They were being very boisterous and keep pushing each other and bumping in my younger son and I. I said "guys would you mind being a bit more careful, you keep hitting into us". Most moved away a bit but one said "God you are such a Karen". I was sad to hear it from such a young lad.

Ive literally never heard this so I googled memes and nothing came up.

Nothing.

And actually, the very fact noone has heard of it proves my point about Karen being misogynistic

Many of the women who were murdered on the pretext of being witches were Karens - middle-aged, and older women who wouldn’t meekly put up and shut up, women who caused issues to their neighbours, disputed with cheating tradesmen, defended their rights to their livelihood.

Have a listen to the wonderful Witches of Scotland podcast, which gets into the actual stories of these victims and the behaviour of people calling out Karens in modern day starts to feel distinctly uncomfortable.

I don’t personally use the name ‘Karen’ (I know too many and definitely wouldn’t want to offend them)

And women who stand up for themselves. It's sexist and ageist.

The fact that you need a special, belittling word to "shut down" (specifically) women who say things you don't like, tells me everything I need to know about you.

For those of you who casually use the term 'Karen' and think it's no big deal, try being named Karen, as I am. Try being blonde, as I am. Then try being embarrassed to tell people your name. Try being given the side-eye when you give your name in public in a coffee shop, or some such. Try querying something on your local FB page, and then having such a pile on, with increasingly offensive and vile comments that you have to take the post down. Try being shouted out by kids in the street when you tackle them for nearly taking you out on their bikes "stop being such a fucking Karen". I can go on.

Then come back and tell me 'it's no big deal, get over it'.

I agree and hearing people use that term just makes me think wow what a sad loser

I suspect she may just be thick

What is the equivalent male version……oh that’s right, there isn’t one.

The sign on our local beach sauna and the response from the owner to a woman who chose not to book and called it out as misogyny in an email …

I think it is a really derogatory term. I previously booked the said sauna and spoke to the employee because it just wasn’t hot! It was warm, the view of the beach was nice but I wasn’t breaking a sweat. I was told ‘but look where you are…’. I’m sure my daring to complain would have been deemed Karen too!

@TheDevilWears I'd be leaving them a bad review and calling out their misogyny

I honestly think that people who don’t think it’s misogynistic just don’t know what misogynistic means.

Lol, the irony in that statement!!!

It’s a shame to spoil the name. But it is misogynist to label a particular type of person as automatically a woman. And it is interesting that while Dick is a traditionally male name, the behaviour profile
ia applied to both sexes-but there are no male
Karens. Which is what usually happens to so called “gender neutral” things.

What a wanker and an idiot given women are his main demographic.