I just called someone out for using the term 'Karen'

[ChristinaRussell]

On a FB group I'm on so nobody I know personally. A young guy (I think). He wasn't being nasty at all, it was along the lines of "Don't call me a Karen but..." I replied to him saying it was an offensive term and did he mind not using it. We had a brief, very amicable interchange where I explained it was rapidly becoming common usage but that it was actually quite sexist and ageist. He said he was really sorry, he'd never understood it in that way, and he edited his original comment! What a sweetheart.

I felt a bit daft challenging him but I do worry that this meme is starting to be an everyday way of putting down older women and I think it should be nipped in the bud.

Now I worry I should have just let it go and that by complaining I have left myself open to some prat calling me... a Karen...

My adult son called me a Karen recently. He got telt.
He gets it now.

I mentioned I had remonstrated with a lorry driver who’d parked fully on the pavement blocking pedestrian/ wheelchair/ pushchair access.

Well done! Karen is just a way of keeping uppity women in their place and it should be challenged whenever possible.

Good for you. There is a long thread about this in AIBU at the moment, with the vast majority agreeing that it is a misogynistic way of shutting women up. There's also some good research cited, proving that the term did not originate as a way of calling out racism, as often claimed.

@Ifyourefeelingsinister

Well done! Karen is just a way of keeping uppity women in their place and it should be challenged whenever possible.

😂😂😂😂 loool. Behave

You did exactly the right thing.

It is sexist and ageist, and I say that as someone who is firmly in the avocado toast age range.

Well done OP

You did the right thing.

Incidentally all the women I have ever known called Karen were lovely people, even though that is not why the expression should be challenged.

Well done!

I did the same on a fb group- breastfeeding older babies and beyond.

The admins deleted my comment and temporarily (for a week) banned me from posting on the group. They left the original post with the Karen slur up. I left the group. I don't suppose the admins would tolerate racial slurs but misogynistic ones are fine apparently

Well done OP.
Dd (teen) called me Karen (once) So I replied and called her snowflake. She was so offended I explained that her being offended at snowflake was silly as it's just a name (which was what she said about calling me Karen) She's never done it again.

Well done!

@uytp

I did the same on a fb group- breastfeeding older babies and beyond.

The admins deleted my comment and temporarily (for a week) banned me from posting on the group. They left the original post with the Karen slur up. I left the group. I don't suppose the admins would tolerate racial slurs but misogynistic ones are fine apparently

That's really shocking. And I suppose answers my question as to whether I overreacted - no, I didn't.

Thanks for the support everyone x

Thanks op for those of us who can't speak up for ourselves. Well done.

Yanbu.

There's a few posters on here who I had hitherto thought of as rather articulate and interesting who are happy to defend Karening. It's completely flipped my opinion of them.

That's great you had a good response from him. Well done all round!

A male facebook friend of mine shared a meme entitled "A Karen Meme - with Zombie Noises". I was surprised and disappointed because he's always been someone I felt I could trust and had a connection with. I challenged him about it and he basically told me to lighten up saying that it was meant to be funny and that people are always taking offence at jokes these days .