Feminism: chat
Use of 'Karen' as a slur
HDDD · 02/11/2020 16:58
3 times in the last few days I've seen this and it irks me every time. I naively thought it was a short-lived thing and had faded out...clearly not. Is anyone else still seeing it? Are you calling people out when you see it? Or am I in a minority of one at getting annoyed by it?
QuentinWinters · 02/11/2020 18:32
You might enjoy this
www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/08/karen-meme-coronavirus/615355/
hilariousEatTheHamTina · 02/11/2020 18:51
Oh and Susan is another one. Stacey Solomon started that one... she even promoted pjs you can get with Susan printed across the front. Apparently someone called Susan made a comment about something of hers and she decides to call anyone who doesn't agree with her a Susan.
Maduixa · 02/11/2020 22:00
DidoLamenting: I don't like it and I don't care that it was supposedly invented and used first by black women.
It really wasn’t; little middle class white boys in the USA claim this but actual black women repudiate it, it’s just (fairly) not at the top of their list of issues. Just another way men use women as mules and try to turn oppressed people against each other while deflecting from the fact that if you buy into the whole “oppression” thing at all, these white American boys are right at the top of it.
Siameasy · 02/11/2020 22:54
Personally I laugh or roll eyes. I often say “omg someone said Karen/Terf/Boomer” or I’ll say “hang on I’m gonna say Karen before someone woke says it”
I’ve been called a Trump voter for saying biology is real despite being British. If they think they’re getting to you they’ll keep using it. I won’t be distracted by it
miri1985 · 03/11/2020 00:08
FFS was just reading that San Francisco made making racist 911 calls a crime and called it the CAREN act.
"Vic Vicari wrote that the insensitive use of the name “as a general purpose term of disapproval for middle age white women needs to stop”. Carynn Silva said she loves the name her mom gave her and called it a racist term against white women. Caren Batides asked if the supervisor would want his name mocked.
“Yes, I am named Karen, and I do speak up for injustices on a regular occasion,” wrote Karen Shane. “So could we attempt at coming up with some other acronym that doesn’t vilify a whole group of people named Karen/Caryn/Caren?”
Reached by phone, Shane, who lives in a San Francisco Bay Area suburb and describes herself as a middle-aged white woman, readily pokes fun at her first name and said she is aware that even complaining about it is something that a “Karen” would do. But she feels the supervisor didn’t need to cheapen what she agrees is important legislation.
“By using the name Caren, he’s just perpetuating a racial divide,” she said. “Granted it’s not a protected class, but it’s somebody’s name.”
Walton has dismissed the concerns, saying the legislation does not refer to any individual."
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/20/caren-act-san-francisco-racist-911-calls
SheepandCow · 03/11/2020 00:16
It's ageist and sexist. Its less about race - here's a black (middle-aged) Karen.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Alexander_(fashion_model)
It's especially nasty to use somebody's given name as an insult.
There's also the inappropriateness of using the name of an oppressed ethnic group - the Karen people - as a slur.
worldrelieffortworth.org/burma-myanmar-karen-cultural-profile
DeeCeeCherry · 03/11/2020 00:35
I don't like it and I don't care that it was supposedly invented and used first by black women
No - It wasn't. The default is always to blame Black women for things that men start. Convenient scapegoats. More women really need to take the patriarchy-led goggles off, do some research and wise up to some truths in life.
DidoLamenting · 03/11/2020 02:50
@DeeCeeCherry
No - It wasn't. The default is always to blame Black women for things that men start. Convenient scapegoats. More women really need to take the patriarchy-led goggles off, do some research and wise up to some truths in life.
There have been posters on here saying they are woc and suggesting this is its origin.
I don't require to research where it came from because I have no intention of ever using it and will think very badly of anyone who does.
Maduixa · 03/11/2020 04:34
It's millennials are hitting back at being called 'snowflakes'. You can't blame them really.
Hmmmm, no - here we CAN blame misogynists (“really”), and we do, frequently and vocally. Welcome to FWR: the learning curve will do you in for a bit, but it’s worth sticking with it.
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