Use of 'Karen' as a slur

[HDDD]

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?

Oh and as for this "than younger women today who can survive without a man's support"

I bought my first flat, on my own in 1982 with a 2 and a half times salary mortgage (being 2 and a half times the standard 2nd year wage for a trainee, nothing exceptional). It would be absolutely impossible to do that now.

Well that's a bit of a sweeping generalisation coupled with a fair lack of imagination. The boomer generation is generally defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, which coincides with huge increases in women entering male professions and business.

I take your point about house prices but I'm dubious whether it would've been anywhere near as commonplace to have a female boss in the 70s/80s. My mum was a programmer and was offered a ridiculously well paid job with IBM in what I think was around 1980-81. She literally didn't know a single woman apart from herself who was into computers.

Despite reading a fair few articles over the years, I'm not really very fluent in feminist theory tbh. But I often think 'well off' is a very subjective term if we use it as a measure of somebody's quality of life rather than just individual financial wealth.

My ex boss's wife was very much the 'trophy wife' type and had been a carer before marrying him (incidentally for his mum). She seemed to look down on women who 'had to work' and all the women at work disliked her. They were undoubtedly more 'independent' and self made but she had much more spending power and a much higher 'quality of life' - which seemed largely to involve spending lots of money and enjoying boozy lunches after which she'd come into the office and irritate everyone.

I think she would see herself as privileged but others would see her as a 'handmaiden'.

Sorry, I've gone a bit off the topic...

@LordLancington

Well that's a bit of a sweeping generalisation coupled with a fair lack of imagination. The boomer generation is generally defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, which coincides with huge increases in women entering male professions and business.

I take your point about house prices but I'm dubious whether it would've been anywhere near as commonplace to have a female boss in the 70s/80s. My mum was a programmer and was offered a ridiculously well paid job with IBM in what I think was around 1980-81. She literally didn't know a single woman apart from herself who was into computers.

Your anecdote about your mother isn't data whereas it is a fact that women born in the boomer generation were entering professions like law, medicine, accountancy, surveying, architecture, veterinary medicine and dentistry in ever increasing numbers.

I don't know why you are now referring to a female boss. Your post was originally asserting women of the boomer generation only had wealth because of their husbands. Are you of that generation yourself? I ask because your post says to me that you aren’t and to be honest you don't know what you're talking about.

DD(10) used this term on the way home from school, cue a lecture from me on it being sexist and misogynist and why she should use proper words to describe her opinions rather than buzzwords which just make you sound like you don't really know what you're talking about.
She gets it now.

Agreed I also thought it would be a short lived thing and am very annoyed it seems to be staying.

Your post was originally asserting women of the boomer generation only had wealth because of their husbands. Are you of that generation yourself? I ask because your post says to me that you aren’t and to be honest you don't know what you're talking about.

I'm just saying that I believe women are much more independent now than several decades ago.

The average age of motherhood in the 70s was early 20s whilst it's now around 30. That alone would result in many more women reliant on a man as I'd imagine many of those young women wouldn't have attained degrees or reached the same level of career success as one does by their 30s.

Yeah, my children use this word. Not with me - I've told them why I don't like it - but with their friends.
Misogyny always catches on, sigh.

Apparetly its 'just another way of calling racists racist'

I was also informed by somene who seems to use it every other sentence these days, that its also used for men. Yes, I imagine, as much as TERF is used for men too right?!

Used to eyeroll at it. Now it pisses me off a fair bit. And I have very very rarely seen it used to 'pull up racist people'. Seems to be just a way of shutting down/ridiculing women who disagree with what some men think. Same old.

I think people often aren't particularly strict when employing these types of stereotypes. Like, a mate might say to me "stop being such a Kev and turn your car stereo down" despite the fact I'm in no way "a Kev".

ive never heard or seen 'a Kev' ever!

My older teenager has used it and we’ve talked about it. Thanks to social media it is in popular use here now.

Using a name as an insult is particularly awful. People throwing around insults, however give away more about themselves than the person they are insulting. It is basic bullying. A silencing tactic as others have mentioned.

Children and teenagers have now been given this one on a plate to use against their mothers, it seems to go along with a trend of creating intergenerational division.

@Helmetbymidnight

ive never heard or seen 'a Kev' ever!

No- because it isn't a thing.

No- because it isn't a thing.

@LordLancington

No- because it isn't a thing.

That proves nothing. The use of Karen is widespread on social media by all sorts of users , male and female. The use of "chav" similarly- although "chav" now seems to be recognised as unnecessarily derogatory.

A "Kev" ? Nope

What about negative Nancy?

It was originally about a woman complaining about black people in her space. She would call the police for seeing them taking a walk. A black woman don't have that opportunity to pick up the phone, the police often go against them when they do.

Because Karen is a popular white woman name, they have been using that.

It was suppose to be about racism

I've no idea what a "negative Nancy" is.

Karen's origin is, as far as I'm aware, disputed. One version is it was coined by black women in service industries to refer to white women who complained about poor service.
I don't actually care whether or not its origin is as you say or other similar variations . It still does not make it acceptable.

Yes it is awful. I see more posters are using it thankfully they're always pulled up on it.

I don't like it, not just because all the women called Karen I have known have been pleasant and friendly.

en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/negative_Nancy#Noun

And there is Debbie downer. It's probably why my aunt insist we call her something else instead of Debbie

It's millennials are hitting back at being called 'snowflakes'. You can't blame them really.

It isn't the same thing at all - unless you know anyone who's first name is Snowflake.

@AnyOldPrion

If it’s a transactivist, I’ve started to respond like this. Seems to make them grumpy. Can’t imagine why...

Excellent idea!

(Stewart Lee's really let himself go.)

It was originally about a woman complaining about black people in her space. She would call the police for seeing them taking a walk. A black woman don't have that opportunity to pick up the phone, the police often go against them when they do.

Because Karen is a popular white woman name, they have been using that.

It was suppose to be about racism

Indeed. And the responses have shown that to many a white woman's pride is more important than a black man's life.

@LordLancington

It was originally about a woman complaining about black people in her space. She would call the police for seeing them taking a walk. A black woman don't have that opportunity to pick up the phone, the police often go against them when they do.

Because Karen is a popular white woman name, they have been using that.

It was suppose to be about racism

Indeed. And the responses have shown that to many a white woman's pride is more important than a black man's life.

Your sanctimony is reeking off the page.

Firstly it doesn't seem at all verified that the origin is what you say.

I've read that it was coined by black women in service industries about white women who complain about poor service. (Although even if that were true why should white women not complain about poor service and where is the male equivalent?)

I've also read that neither of those are true and it was made up by men.

Secondly how many white women have actually killed black men? In all the police shootings how many were white female officers? Yet there's no male equivalent is there?