"How the 'Karen Meme' Confronts the Violent History of White Womanhood"

[Igneococcus]

This just popped up as a recomendation in Firefox when I open a new tab. I can't fully read it right now because I'm in a meeting any moment now (someone's still sorting out techinical issues), but a first quick scan makes me go "WTF" :

time.com/5857023/karen-meme-history-meaning/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

What’s your issue with it?

Oh, aye. All the male violence is the fault of women. Course it is.

It’s funny how it’s white men who built the patriarchy, the capitalist systems that place black bodies at the bottom of the pile, amassed the worlds wealth by using those bodies, continue to protect and uphold those systems the world over. Yet when it comes to trial by twitter and the ‘woke’ vitriol it’s always, always women who get it and are made the example of. I don’t condone any of their actions, but I’ve seen far more criticism of these women than, say, the men who have murdered black people. But twitter is a cesspit of misogyny, so I’m not surprised. That article is a largely a load of toss. I’m mean this gem

Trump Administration have made it abundantly clear that white women can and are often complicit in oppressive systems.

Well duh. Classic example of women being held to a higher standard.

Also this

White women are positioned as the virtue of society because they hold that position as the mother, as the keepers of virtuosity, all these ideologies that we associate with white motherhood and white women in particular, their certain role in society gives them power

I’m actually laughing out loud at this. Yes I’m sure white women positioned themselves in these ‘powerful roles‘ in society where they spewed out babies every year until they died, probably as a complication of spewing out babies, and enjoyed every darn minute of it. This is a classic example of trying to pit one group of oppressed people against another. You have to wonder who wins out of that tactic.

I've not read it, sorry. But 3 seconds ago nobody in the UK had a clue that Karen meme was about wealthy racist American women (which doesn't stop it being somewhat misogynist). In the UK it was routinely used to mock working class and lower middle class women (of any race) for their clothing, hairstyle, interior decoration choices and for having the temerity to stand up for themselves despite their lowly status.

Does anyone remember the comeback reminding young people that "Karen" was their childminder, and their TA, and used to look after them?

Accepting the US version of "Karen" handily erases the fact that UK misogynists have been using it against black women and working class women.

Wow dinocan thanks for reading it so that I don't have to! I don't think my monthly migraine can cope with this shit!

I haven't read the article, will try and do so later if my blood pressure feels up to it, but I hate how some people act like they've only just noticed that women are actually human beings with capacity for both high and low behaviour. Yeh, all white people, including white women, are socialised into a system of white supremacy, and participate to some degree in perpetuating that. Just like all men, including black men, are socialised into and participate to some degree in perpetuating patriarchy. Being a member of an oppressed group does not somehow make you intrinsically virtuous or morally better. Being a victim of sexism does not make you immune to racist behaviour, any more than being a victim of racism makes you immune to sexist behaviour. But of course because the bar for female behaviour is set sky high, every one seems constantly baffled that all women aren't perfect saints at all times.

Accepting the US version of "Karen" handily erases the fact that UK misogynists have been using it against black women and working class women.

This.

As far as I know all of those police officers who have killed black people in the US have been male. Yet they make a meme to target women.

Right.

Of course they do.

Great post bygrabthars

I've personally seen the Karen meme used 4 times this week, and every single time it was being used against the newest enemy "woke Karen". A picture of a white woman with "I can't breathe" written over her mouth attending a protest was captioned "woke Karen is what you get when the attention isn't on white women for 5 seconds". A YouTube video on the "cancelling" of Jenna Marbles for her alleged black face video, had as its first comment "woke Karen can try but she will never destroy comedy". A video on Twitter of a white woman at a BLM protest shouting at a black police officer was full of comments from people asking "who let woke Karen go to the protest?" Lastly a comment on a Plan International advert I saw on Facebook by a white woman saying that using cute black babies in a campaign was a form of "race baiting" was piled on for being "woke Karen" and asked if she wanted to speak to the manager of that advert. I've even seen a recent lipstick Alley thread (an almost entirely BAME forum) where the women there were discussing times they've felt threatened by black men and how they were afraid to call the police in case they were labelled Karens. So any women who think the Karen meme is only being used to describe the behaviour of racist white women, or who think being woke and smearing other women as Karens will therefore be protected from it happening to them, are sadly mistaken. The people propagating this meme don't care what colour you are, whether your woke or racist, what your character or position in society is, they only care that you are female and they can use it to belittle and dismiss you. It's got nothing to do with "the violent history of white womanhood" or the "powerful position of white mothers" (and both of these are laughably stupid concepts), it is only about misogyny and that's all it'll ever be about.

A friend posted a cartoon version of this on FB.
He’s very active with BLM. He’s very vocal about how white people cannot experience the level of prejudice that the BAME community experience & calls people out on it, but at the same time uses TERF as a slur & refuses to believe that a woman’s experience of being a woman are as valid as that of Transwomen & will in no way discuss it. Any debate is immediately shut down & the person is piled on by other friends saying that they are promoting hate speech etc.
I’m not great at replying in writing & tbh I’m too intimidated to engage.

Has Time fired all its copy editors?

as the keepers of virtuosity

That word, it does not mean what you think it does. Meanwhile, this meme remains a bunch of sexist bollocks.

The people propagating this meme don't care what colour you are, whether your woke or racist, what your character or position in society is, they only care that you are female and they can use it to belittle and dismiss you.

Yep.

There was a thread on here recently where someone posted about Priti Patel being called a 'Karen' on Twitter. It's being used as a way to silence women irrespective of their ethnicity.

hat word, it does not mean what you think it does

In my day, it was plain old virtue and I think it meant keeping your legs together.

Accepting the US version of "Karen" handily erases the fact that UK misogynists have been using it against black women and working class women.

I think 'Karen' and 'Becky' were first used by black women to refer to racist, white women, however it has now been appropriated by white men, and in the UK is just used to refer to any middle aged women.

This article is from the US, where there are indeed many videos of white people calling the police for made up reasons, and where the consequences have been deadly. (Not clear why there isn't a name for white men who do this - maybe there is but it never spread to the UK? )

It's also true to say that racist men are often overly concerned about protecting the purity of the white 'womenfolk' from black men. (Not so concerned about protecting white women from their own behaviour).

However, the article does not acknowledge the harm that has been done to women by the general use of the meme - the message that any woman who stands up for herself is a 'Karen', and that middle aged women should just get out of the way.

According to the way that 'Karen' is generally used in the UK, this would be a 'Karen'.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/18/nurse-claims-met-police-wrongfully-arrested-her-because-she-black-neomi-bennett

'this woman would be a Karen'.

I suppose it's similar to the way the 'boomer' meme has evolved. The term Baby Boomers started out as an accurate way of describing the post WW2 generation when there was indeed a baby boom.

More recently it's chucked around with abandon and I've seen it aimed at 30/40 year olds who are quite clearly not of that generation.

I read the article, it's a load of woman-bashing. First, most of what these 'Karens' are doing doesn't merit the severe punishments they're getting (a woman and her partner both losing their livelihoods because she confronted a man she thought was defacing her neighbour's property?) Second, any bad behaviour by a woman seems to be worthy of Karenating and turning into a weapon of mass shame and personal destruction - where are all the men being shamed? Aren't men ever guilty of anti-social behaviour? Third, we know that at least one person (Karlos Dillard) has been harassing white women to produce 'Karen' videos - no mention of that in the article. This is pure misogyny.

I think its relevant to talk about the 'violent mythology of white womanhood' - Lynch mobs often claimed to be protecting the purity of white women.

However, the 'Karen' meme does not attack racism in the UK, it just attacks women.

Even in the US it often just attacks women. I saw a woman who going by her name was most likely Chinese called a Karen for posting a complaint on social media about an old white guy flashing her when she was out on a walk. It pretty much just means "woman who's complaining about anything" when deployed by men.

I think 'Karen' and 'Becky' were first used by black women to refer to racist, white women, however it has now been appropriated by white men, and in the UK is just used to refer to any middle aged women.

"Becky" was, and black women may have picked up on an already existing meme and popularised it further with that meaning, but it doesn't look like "Karen" was first used by black women, from what I've read. It looks like it was started by men originally.

Honestly I don't know erish - I have definitely heard people claim this, but wouldn't know how to prove or disprove it.

Anyway, whether or not this was the way 'Karen' was initially used, that isn't how it is generally used now.