Please can we talk about using the name Karen as an insult?

[NiceKaren]

I'm seeing the name Karen being used as an insult all over social media. It started as a meme, but in the last few days I've seen 'Karen' being blamed for panic buying, refusing to self-isolate and general selfishness. My name is Karen and in these tricky times it feels really unpleasant to see my name being used this way. It feels sexist, ageist and most likely classist too. Now I'm seeing it on MN as well and it makes me so sad. I can't help my name and while I used to laugh it off, I'm feeling quite upset by it tonight. Why do people do this?

I suppose I'm just posting for solidarity and wondering whether there is any point in trying to call this sort of thing out? Before, I felt it was just me being precious or unable to take a joke but now it feels quite personal and ugly.

[Nongoddess]

Agreed! What a lazy misogynist (& classist) insult. Wendies, I feel for you too! Very thoughtless...

[Samtsirch]

@DartmoorChef
Wendy and the Wendyhouse became popular after Peter Pan, so you could blame Walt Disney, but the name originated much earlier in Germanic languages referring to a person who has humanity .
I think it’s a lovely name .

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

Feeling a bit guilty about using “Wendy” now.

[YgritteSnow]

My sister is a Karen. I don't like how it's used now. Also don't like the MN use of "Wendy" as an insult either as in a nasty manipulative woman is a "Wendy" and "you've been Wendied". But I have always been shouted down on here when I said anything.

[DartmoorChef]

Aw thanks ☺️

I also believe it may be derived from gwendoline too.. But i still bloody hate it. Lol.

[tryingtoprep]

I'd never heard of it before today. I posted on a thread asking what it meant. A good friend from school was called Karen. I felt very uncomfortable but couldn't put a finger on it as I read more of the thread. It seemed quite unpleasant. Sexist and ageist definitely. I never liked the Sharon and Tracey as an insult thing either. It always was a bit nasty and sneering.

[Fallingirl]

I think it’s a US import and is an attempt at describing a stereotype that doesn’t travel well. Not that that makes it any less vitriolic and offensive, obviously.

According to my young adult offspring, ‘Karen’ is supposed to be a wealthy woman engaging in ‘kicking down’. I’m fairly sure that element has been lost, though, in so far as it ever existed.

I think it may have started as an attempt to remonstrate with a class of people who are better off than many, while going directly for that half of the group it is culturally sanctioned to use slurs against, i e the women.

Absurdly, said offspring who explained the slur to me, as a defence for why she uses it, has the middle name Karen, named after an aunt she has always been close to.

[AlexaAmbidextra]

I hate to see it used like this. As a poster upthread sad, it’s akin to Boomer. It’s lazy, puerile and pathetic and a mark of the intellectually challenged. They think they’re being clever but they just look like thick twats.

[1forAll74]

I like the name Karen, and never identified that name with anything in particular. It used to be the names Sharon and Tracy that got the ribbing some years ago.

[ShootsFruitAndLeaves]

Karen peaked in 1965 but was very popular from 1958. There was a steep decline after 1965 but obviously still people of that age.

Karen is therefore just the average white woman aged 55-60

[LittleLittleLittle]

@Socrates11 I was waiting for someone to bring up the name "Becky" It's normally used by African Americans to describe an entitled racially-unaware American white woman.

Oddly born in the 70s I went to school with lots of "Karen"s. Then went to university with lots of "Becky"s. However the two most common names I have encountered from primary school all the way to work plus hobbies are "Sarah" and variations of "Jennifer".

[LittleLittleLittle]

Explanation about "Karen" - www.vox.com/2020/2/5/21079162/karen-name-insult-meme-manager

[Gatehouse77]

Whilst I understand if it’s your name bring used in this way it would piss you off.

But it used on men too - Hooray Henry’s, back in the ‘80s it was Kevin’s, names like Malcolm and Colin are often ridiculed.

And, as someone else said further up, I’ve only heard other women use them.

[R0wantrees]

I think it’s a US import and is an attempt at describing a stereotype that doesn’t travel well. Not that that makes it any less vitriolic and offensive, obviously.

I had coversation with 13 yr old nephew in December about it. He was using it & the descripion he offered didnt make much sense for the UK.

[Lamahaha]

Sharon is another name I've seen used as an insult. It's always been extremely classist, of course, now joined by other snickering insinuations.

[Lamahaha]

I recently posted this meme on FB, and lots of older women loved it.
They really don't realise, do they!

[Littlepond]

Oh gosh I hate it! How horrible to describe someone as a Karen as an insult! i don’t understand why people would think it’s ok 🤷🏼‍♀️

[HoneysuckIejasmine]

I've discussed this on MN in the past and was told I was totally overreacting to find it sexist and ageist. It wasn't in FWR though, but some posters did come across to back me up.

It's the silencing and ridiculing of older women and it's gross.

[lolaflores]

It gets me when I see younger women using it. I pointed out in the comments section of young youtuber that the Karens of 2020 might be her in 2040. Might not seem possible but one day you will be 50 and wake up to the fact you too are flawed and human.
You didnt invent fabulous, it wont be yours for ever and you dont stop being a human being after your 40th birthday.
Kindness never agea