This meme is like a roach infestation. Very annoying and obnoxious, and impossible to get rid of. It is so progressive that it builds on itself, shooting out different variants. It is one of the biggest chain letters to eat people's brains starting in the late 2010s.
Discussion On The "Karen" Meme
The "Karen", "Becky", and "Ken" memes.
These memes are not the cool and funny things people think they are when they gleefully, stupidly slap the "Karen" or "Becky" label on some adult brat. Even worse, people can simply get accused of being "Karen" or "Becky" just for being white females who do not subscribe to feminist BLM identity politics and "social justice" agendas.
It's Time To Stop The "Karen" Stereotype
These memes originate from the leftist identity politics that always make a huge deal over who's female, who's male, who's white, or who's any other skin tone.
This article though full of PC sentiment and its bad terminology, does point out the correct culprits of "Karen" and "Becky".
The "Becky" meme is racist. The "Karen" meme started out racist, and remains so to quite a degree. Sometimes it has mutated into a non-racist form, but the racist element is still extremely common.
The so-called "Karen" started out as a middle-aged white woman who throws tantrums and generally causes big drama because she wants to be center of attention and always given her way, no matter what.
A lesser known meme is the gender-bent "Karen" the male version is "Ken".
The "Karen Meme has also mutated and developed this stupid little acronym that goes:
K- Know your rights
A- Accuse everyone
R- Request a manager
E- Escalate to authorities
N- Neglect reason
"Becky" is a young white female who loves Starbucks, uggs, and oral sex. She is also accused of being "privaleged" which just seems to go hand in hand with being white according to the proponents of the meme. "Becky" She is said to be clueless about the so-called oppression around her. This being "white = oppressors, any other skin tone = oppressed".
As for all the celebrities and other rich people who aren't white, well, just ignore that, they can't be "Becky" even if they are privaleged, love Starbucks, uggs, and oral sex.
Bull...
Some people have pushed back against the toxic identity politics in an all too typically disappointing way, by turning the "Karen" meme on the the ideologs, especially when bad behavior is displayed, and it certainly is.
Unlike the originators of these memes, the people who call out identity politics activists as "Karen" are not doing it out of racism. They do not distinguish between the races when they see entitled people acting out. To them, "Karen"s come in all skin types, both genders, any age, and all walks of life.
But "Karen" is still a meme. It is obnoxious, annoying and unoriginal like any other chain letter,
That has received backlash from feminists who claim there is no counterpart to "Karen", and they don't condemn the meme's racist origin. They also continue to perpetuate the meme.
Here is an excellent example of a so-called "Karen". Same woman.
The "Karen" and "Becky" memes are racist, and mean by default to anyone actually named Karen or Becky.
Flying in the face of the "Karen" meme, I bought a furbling (baby furby) that looks like this. I named her Donna Karen.
Real Meaning Of The Name Karen
Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story Remember Karen Carpenter? If not, look her up.
When Your Name Becomes a Meme
In Defense of Karen
By Karen Hugg, Author of The Forgetting Flower
When I was a child in the 1970s, I sometimes watched reruns of the TV show Bewitched. It was a comedy about a modern-day witch named Samantha who, by wrinkling her nose, cast spells on people. She and her husband kept her magical powers secret from friends and work colleagues but one person was utterly convinced dangerous witchcraft was happening in the house: their neighbor, Gladys.
Gladys relentlessly pursued the truth. She witnessed the magic through her living room window and often marched over to Samās house and confronted them. She was a middle-aged, thick-waisted woman with a comedic face, nasal voice, and old-fashioned hairdo. She never gave up. The more she witnessed, the more she pursued Sam and her husband, scrunching up her face and waving her finger with a suspicious determination, doubtful of their innocently delivered explanations and at some points even openly despising the young couple.
At the time, I thought Gladys was awful. I was convinced every woman in the world named Gladys was awful. They all were this frumpy shrew, bold and threatening and outdated. And my opinion was confirmed by other shows and book characters. If a TV or movie needed a comedic character, they often named her Gladys. It became the archetypal name for not only the nosy neighbor, but the pushiest, pettiest woman imaginable.
Fast forward 30 years. Iām watching a different kind of show: Facebook. Iām scrolling through my feed when I see Iām tagged by a friend sharing a Nerds With Vaginas post. Curious, I open it and see the meme asking if Karens are born or just appear with three kids demanding to speak to a manager. Woh. Iām rattled, then the self-examination kicks in. I think, My name is Karen. I have three kids. I havenāt spoken to a manager lately but if I was mistreated, I would. I can be strong and speak up for myself. Is that bad now?I worry momentarily but ultimately, I comment lightheartedly on the post and shake it off.
Months later, I see an earlier meme from a comedian doing a bit about how every group of friends has one friend that everybody in the group hates. In the female version of the group, the personās name is Karen. Another hit. I canāt help but self-analyze. I donāt have a group of friends per se, but I wonder if the friends I do have secretly dislike me. Have I said anything careless lately? There is that friend that hasnāt called me in months. Am I the idiot whoās clueless about how much everyone dislikes me?Eventually, I conclude I canāt be that annoying person because the friends who really love me do call and want to get together. So again, I brush it off and move on.
When I ask my husband about it, he confirms the meme and shows me the āKaren haircutā photo online. Itās short, longer in the front, blondish, set on a middle-aged, heavy set woman. I examine the photo, concluding I donāt have that haircut and overall donāt look like the woman, but regardless, Iām now, as a middle-aged woman, feeling oddly self-conscious.
That self-conscious mood balloons out of control when I go searching for information. I discover thereās a whole sub-Reddit just for mean Karen jokes. Itās called Fuck You, Karen and has 57,000 subscribers. Theyāre vicious. āKarenā meme board populate an Pinterest page. Urban Dictionary even has a definition: 44, mother of three, blonde, owns a Volvo, annoying as hell, wears acrylics 24/7, currently at your workplace speaking to your manager.
Damn it, I owned a Volvo in college!
The bits of coincidental truth sting. Iām targeted by a myth I never asked for. I feel exposed. I suddenly want to delete my social media profiles and use a pen name for all of my publications. I used to worry that the name Karen simply gave away my age as a Gen Xer. Now, Iām petrified anything I say or do will be used as a means to a cruel, viral joke.
Fear, and moreso, disappointment, gnaw at me. I struggle to process how, by being named a name that my Polish-American mother chose so I could blend into American culture rather than stand out with an ethnic name, has led to this strange new reviled identity. It wasnāt my choice to be born when I was. It wasnāt my choice to be named what I was and yet, I feel as if Iām guilty of being a loser for having the third most common name in America in the late 1960s.
I begin to feel like Leslie Jones or Lindy West from a handful of years ago. Iām out here in real life land, minding my own business, working toward a successful career, sharing my passions on social media, when suddenly Iām a pariah for existing. As Jones and West were mocked for their statures and strong personalities (not to mention race in Jonesās case), so am I, for a name crowdsourced as repulsive. Iām socially, and in some ways psychologically, handcuffed. If I get upset or truly do need to speak to a manager, I play into the ridiculed framework and fulfill the reductive troll version of a woman named Karen. Thereās no good way out.
That this cultural reality was initially created by a male comedian seems sexist. That the generic Karen photo features a heavier woman, seems body sizeist. That sheās also middle-aged, seems of course, ageist. And when women pile on with their own anecdotes or jokes or posts, it reinforces the faux reality that men nailed it because women agree: Karens suck.
And so, my name has been reduced to a nasty meme. Never mind that it means āpureā in Danish and āvalorous manā in Persian. My choices are to leave social media (as Jones and West did), use a fake name on my public profiles, or hang on and weather the storm. Perhaps I should own it full on. I could buy one of the many Karen T-shirts Iāve found online, especially the one that says, āBecause Iām Karen, thatās why.ā Lately, Iāve told myself I should just continue being the authentic, positive person I am until the trend fades. That might work. But in the meantime, I may change my name to something more ordinary and inconspicuous, like say, Gladys.
ā Published on October 18, 2019
Karen Hugg, Author of The Forgetting Flower
By CHRISTOPHER BORRELLI
CHICAGO TRIBUNE |
AUG 11, 2020 AT 7:40 AM
Know what, letās just ask a Karen about āKaren.ā
Like Karen Burris, a.k.a. the Chicago childrenās entertainer Mary Macaroni, a.k.a. a moderator for the Karens United page on Facebook, a.k.a. a Karen very annoyed by our contemporary demonization of mild-mannered Karens everywhere. She seems to know what Iām going to ask about before I ask it. She doesnāt need to speak to a manager. Because journalists are predictable, and because her name is Karen and, well ā who needs a childrenās entertainer in a pandemic? I ask about her name and she groans and unloads: What was an irritating meme before the pandemic is officially tiring, disturbing.
Even bullying.
That is, if youāre named Karen.
If you were born in the 1960s, thereās a good chance you are a Karen. According to the Social Security Administration, the third most popular name in Illinois then was Karen.
That was peak Karen.
Nationally, Karen went from a moderately-favored name in the 1920s to a post-war phenomenon during the 1950s, when more than 330,000 Karens were born. (So, yes, thereās a reason that a lot of Karens are also boomers.) It became that decadeās eighth most popular name in the United States, and by the mid-ā60s, it was the fourth most popular name. In 1960 alone, more than 2,000 Karens were born in Illinois. And yet, by 1980, Karen had slipped back to the 56th most popular name in Illinois, behind Alicia, Andrea and April. By 2018 (the most recent year the government released figures for), Karen wasnāt even a presence on the Illinois Hot 100. Nationally, Karen has free-fallen to No. 635. Today, even Mary (No. 126) and Jane (No. 291) are more popular.
Karen Burris (born in 1965) would like to say upfront that she doesnāt want to be seen as some solitary activist drawing attention to rampant derogatory use of the name Karen. After all, the Karens United group on Facebook now claims more than 800 members. And thatās just one group: Facebook is home to Karenās Unite, Karens Against Karen and Karens United for Progress, among several others. (Conversely, as backlash to the backlash, thereās also Karens Who are Against Karens Against Karen Memes.) Besides, as Karen notes ironically, āSince I am a Karen, nothing I say about Karens is important.ā
Itās been a dizzying fall.
Karen Burris grew up in Wisconsin and moved to Chicago about 25 years ago, to establish herself as a performer and educator. She doesnāt know why sheās a Karen. She once asked her mother if she was named after the obscure ā60s TV series āKaren.ā
But no, sheās just Karen. The following questions and answers were edited from our conversation.
Me: Did you like your name as a child?
Karen: I probably didnāt think about it much. There were names that were more exotic and fun. Everyone at some point wants a different name. But it was just a normal name.
The name Karen derives from Katherine, which itself comes from the more ancient Aikaterine. Some famous Karens include Karen Allen of the Indiana Jones films and Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Karens have infiltrated every corner of society. You may even know a Karen or two. Karens are perfectly fine. But Karens as a social media meme, Karens as a concept, those Karen are not fine. Though the meme had circulated for years, Karens has been one of the most consistent villains of the pandemic. Karens call out people for not wearing masks, and Karens refuse to mask-up at Red Lobster. Karens call the police on Black people having picnics, and scream at baristas speaking Spanish. Karens even have a haircut, a kind of strange mullet, blonde, long and spiky.
Karen has become the ubiquitous, all-purpose put-down of 2020, to describe a white woman of oblivious self-interest wielding the patrolling urge that comes with entitlement.
But before its weaponization, the name Karen was more of a moniker for ordinariness.
Like Bob. Or Barb.
Me: What is your main issue with the name serving as an insult?
Karen: Itās attaching a proper name to negative traits. Iām not personally worried, Iām confident in who I am and what I do, but it is setting a bad example. As a childrenās performer, part of my job is partly being a role model, teaching kids to be kind and caring. And here are adults basically name-calling people, affecting 1.1 million Karens to a degree.
Me: Since itās closed to non-Karens, what does Karens United discuss?
Karen: Positive things and how to deal with (the insult) A lot of women have come to think they have to have someone not named Karen speak up for them now. People get afraid to just say their food is bad because they donāt want to be called a Karen. There are Karens out there who are caring and thoughtful but they feel like this is silencing them. A friend told me to ignore it, that it would all go away. But it doesnāt seem to be, and maybe this is an opportunity for people to consider the language they use. I mean, people donāt even seem to care that there is a Burmese group also called the Karen (many of whom fled Myanmar) and about 200,000 of them now live in the United States.
Me: What did you think of Mayor Lori Lightfoot calling out White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany as a Karen after she called Lightfoot āthe derelict mayor of Chicagoā?
Karen: I posted on (Lightfootās) Twitter account. I said sheās better than that, sheās better than name-calling.
Names have long been a shorthand for traits.
A Scrooge hasnāt been just a fictional 19th century merchant for long time. The name Guido is not the same as the guido thatās offensive to Italian Americans. An Uncle Tom hasnāt been just someoneās relative for at least 150 years. And before Karen, there was Becky; and before Becky, there was Susan ā to describe a steamrolling white woman moving through the world unaware of her good fortune. Karen Grigsby Bates, of NPRās Code Switch podcast, traced Karen back to āMiss Ann,ā the Antebellum nickname āfor a white woman who is aware of her whiteness and the status it conveys.ā
A Karen had been sort of a malevolent HR professional for mankind.
But now a Karen contains complicit ignorance but heedless racism.
At another time, a Karen might have meant a member of the bourgeois. But this isnāt another time. A Karen now holds inequality and distrust and arrogance, all inside a handy signifier. A Karen speaks to our moment. Yet it canāt really do the work, not forever. Because itās reductive, contentious, sexist, a trivializing meme among trivializing memes, paradoxically fixing a generic nickname broadly to bad behavior. A Karen gets mad for losing a parking space at Whole Foods and a Karen calls cops on a Black man in Central Park who is birding. And thereās no male equivalent.
Me: Do people who call people Karens have a fair point about a kind of behavior?
Karen: Bad behavior should be called out. But why assign a personās name to it?
Me: Do you find it sexist?
Karen: And ageist. A lot of woman in Karens United think so. You might say there is (the nickname) Chad, but youāre not seeing Chad all over the place. No one is performing songs about Chads on Stephen Colbert. Did you see that? It was set to āJolene.ā
Me: You donāt see humor that?
Karen: Itās just become tedious, and not just because itās my name.
cborrelli@chicagotribune.com
Christopher Borrelli
Christopher Borrelli
Chicago Tribune
CONTACT
Christopher Borrelli is a features reporter/columnist whose subjects include shadow puppet theater, acclaimed authors and cartoonists, Godzilla and people who hoard copies of āJerry Maguire.ā Before joining the Tribune in 2008 he was the film critic at the Toledo Blade. He grew up in Rhode Island and lives in Rogers Park.
š§āāļø
This Film Daily article about the "Karen" meme was almost excellent except for a couple of things.
"We may laugh at Karen memes on Twitter"
Replacing "We" with "You, and completely nixing out the end where it said not to let the meme die out, would've made it excellent.
< Are Karen memes making life hell for people called Karen?
Film Daily
šWe may laugh at Karen memes on Twitter, šbut you know who isn't laughing? Women named Karen. They're being actually affected by the meme.
August 22, 2020 Bethany Wade
Are Karen memes making life hell for people called Karen?
Not every woman named Karen fits the criteria of the Karen memes. But unfortunately, we, the Internet, may have tainted the name Karen forever.
āKarenā has been used as a nickname for women who feel like they are above everyone else and demand special treatment when out in public. But thanks to the Internet, specifically Twitter, Karen memes have taken over in the past few years, and completely blown up thanks to quarantine.
So what started out as a joke is now seen as a generalization of an entire name. This may seem harmless, but imagine if youāre a relatively normal person named Karen. In that case, the Karen memes are no longer funny.
šWe may laugh at Karen memes on Twitter, šbut you know who isn't laughing? Women named Karen. They're being actually affected by the meme.
Looking down on āKarenā
In a survey by website PlayOJO, 62% of responders said that they associate the name Karen with being demanding, privilege, and entitlement. Naturally, this comes about thanks to the Karen memes associating entitled, obnoxious people with the name.
In addition, 69% of responders between the age of 40 to 54 would not name their daughter Karen because of the meme. A similar percentage would be concerned talking to a woman named Karen for similar reasons.
Most surprisingly, nearly one in five people would feel uneasy if their mother-in-law was named Karen. Of course, mother-in-laws and āKarensā share similar stereotypical traits, so that connection makes sense when you think about it.
The survey found less than half of participants actually know someone with the name Karen, so people who donāt even know a Karen are holding these beliefs. While it works great the next time some racist woman gets exposed on Twitter, your co-workers, family members, or friends named Karen are struggling.
So do yourself and your fellow Karens a favor: remember that not every Karen is a āKarenā. Very few of the people dubbed āKarensā on social media are actually named Karen, so any person can be an entitled prick. Itās unfair to assume that just because someoneās named Karen that they canāt be a nice person.
Author
Bethany Wade
Bethany dreams of making her own award-winning film, but for now writes about other media and current events. Sheās a child at heart specializing in hot takes on animated family movies, as well as an unhealthy obsession with 'The Good Place'.
bwade@filmdaily.co
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Article fail ending seen here.š
āKarenā the meme, āKarenā the nickname, has become a real problem for real Karens