The WOKE Generation!

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I have seen someone say Karen online as some kind of insult but I don't think its used here in the UK. How did it start? Who is the patient X Karen that started it all?

I have seen someone say Karen online as some kind of insult but I don't think its used here in the UK. How did it start? Who is the patient X Karen that started it all?

Karen is a pejorative term for a white woman perceived as entitled or demanding beyond the scope of what is normal. The term is often portrayed in memes depicting white women who use their white privilege to demand their own way. Depictions include demanding to "speak to the manager", being racist, or wearing a particular bob cut hairstyle. A notable example was the Central Park birdwatching incident in 2020.

The term has been criticized as being ageist, sexist, racist, classist, misogynistic and seeking to control women's behavior. As of 2020, the term increasingly appeared in media and social media as a general criticism of middle class white women, including during the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests. The term has also been applied to male behavior. The Guardian called 2020 "the year of Karen".

Origin
In African-American culture, there is a history of calling difficult white women or those who "weaponize" their position by a generic pejorative name.In the antebellum era (1815–1861), "Miss Ann" was used.In the early 1990s, "Becky" was used. As late as 2018, before the use of "Karen" caught on, alliterative names matching particular incidents were used, such as "Barbecue Becky", "Cornerstore Caroline", and "Permit Patty".Linguist Kendra Calhoun connects "Karen" stereotypes to the older "soccer mom".

For the term "Karen", several possible origins have been proposed. Early uses of Karen as a joke punchline include the airheaded character Karen (played by Amanda Seyfried) from the 2004 film Mean Girls, Dane Cook's 2005 sketch "The Friend Nobody Likes" on his album Retaliation, and a 2016 Internet meme regarding a woman in an ad for the Nintendo Switch console who exhibits perceived antisocial behavior and is given the nickname "antisocial Karen". In December 2017, Karen memes regarding entitled women went viral on Reddit, the earliest being from user karmacop9, who ranted about his ex-wife Karen. The posts led to the creation of the subreddit r/FuckYouKaren, containing memes about the posts, and inspiring spinoffs including r/karen and r/EntitledKarens dedicated to criticizing Karens.

A more pointed explanation, which involves race, is the expression originating among Black people to refer to unreasonable white women. The term was popularized on Black Twitter as a meme used to describe white women who "tattle on black kids' lemonade stands"or who unleash the "violent history of white womanhood". b***h magazine described Karen as a term that originated with Black women but was co-opted by white men. In an article on high profile incidents in the U.S. of white women calling the police on Black people, The Guardian called 2020 "the year of Karen".

Meaning and Use
Kansas State University professor Heather Suzanne Woods, whose research interests include memes, said a Karen's defining characteristics are a sense of entitlement, a willingness and desire to complain, and a self-centered approach to interacting with others. According to Woods, a Karen "demands the world exist according to her standards with little regard for others, and she is willing to risk or demean others to achieve her ends." Rachel Charlene Lewis, writing for b***h, agrees, saying a Karen doesn't view others as individuals and instead moves "through the world prepared to fight faceless conglomerate of lesser-than people who won't give her what she wants and feels she deserves."

The meme carries several stereotypes, the most notable being that a Karen will demand to "speak to the manager" of a hypothetical service provider. Other stereotypes include anti-vaccination beliefs, racism, excessive use of Facebook, and a particular bob haircut with blond highlights. Pictures of Kate Gosselin and Jenny McCarthy's bob cut are often used to depict a Karen,nand their bobs are sometimes called the "can-I-speak-to-your-manager?" haircut.

According to Apryl Williams of the University of Michigan, the memes "actively call out white supremacy and call for restitution".

Racial context
Time called the meme "Internet shorthand ... for a particular kind of racial violence white women have instigated for centuries—following a long and troubling legacy of white women in the country weaponizing their victimhood.

The meme became most popular in 2020 when the Black Lives Matter movement surged in response to multiple events. Andre Brock, a Georgia Tech professor of Black digital culture, connected the virality of the meme in the summer of 2020 with the coronavirus pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and the Central Park birdwatching incident, noting that both incidents had occurred the same weekend during a period when much of the world had been forced to stay home and had plenty of free time to watch the videos. He said the virality of the two videos was the result of an "interest convergence" in which the pandemic "intersected with collective outrage over police brutality" and "highlighted the extreme violence—and potentially fatal consequences—of a white woman selfishly calling the cops out of spite and professed fear." Apryl Williams of the University of Michigan called it a "Black activist meme", saying it was ultimately beneficial in helping people recognize problematic behaviors, but warning that jokes downplayed the threat posed to Black people.

Multiple writers have rejected accusations of the term being a slur against white women. Karen Attiah, Global Opinions editor for The Washington Post claims that it lacks the historical context to be a slur and that calling it one trivializes actual discrimination.

Criticism
The term has been called sexist, ageist, classist, and anti-woman by some. Hadley Freeman, columnist and features writer for The Guardian, argues that use of the meme has become less about describing behavior than controlling it and "telling women to shut up". Jennifer Weiner, writing in The New York Times during the COVID-19 pandemic, said the meme had succeeded in silencing her, saying she had had to balance her desire to complain about a nearby man coughing into the open air, hawking and spitting on the sidewalk, with her fear of being called a Karen. In August 2020, Helen Lewis wrote in The Atlantic, “Karen has become synonymous with woman among those who consider woman an insult. There is now a market, measured in attention and approbation, for anyone who can sniff out a Karen." Lewis also noted what she called the "finger trap" of the term, saying "What is more Karen than complaining about being called 'Karen'? There is a strong incentive to be cool about other women being Karened, lest you be Karened yourself."

British journalist and feminist Julie Bindel asked, "Does anyone else think the 'Karen' slur is woman-hating and based on class prejudice?" Freeman replied, saying it was "sexist, ageist, and classist, in that order". Kaitlyn Tiffany, writing in The Atlantic, asked, "Is a Karen just a woman who does anything at all that annoys people? If so, what is the male equivalent?", saying the meme was being called misogynistic. Nina Burleigh wrote that the memes "a merely excuses to heap scorn on random middle-aged white women". Matt Schimkowitz, a senior editor at Know Your Meme, stated to Business Insider in 2019 that the term "just kind of took over all forms of criticism towards white women online", and that it had risen to popularity due to that demographic being seen as entitled.

I have seen someone say Karen online as some kind of insult but I don't think its used here in the UK. How did it start? Who is the patient X Karen that started it all?

It's culturally appropriated from black Americans. Before mobile phones white American women have historically been able to cry wolf when being aggressive toward a black man and the police arriving at the scene are weaponised. A lot of black people have been charged or worse because the cops automatically assume the white woman is the "damsel in distress"
My understanding is that younger white women who call cops on black men were called Becky or Stacy
Older white women were called Karens.

Nowadays Karen refers to any trouble making women (even black women) of any age caught on camera.

And as others have said it's basically become a misogynistic insult to target white females of a certain age. It really needs to be dropped because it's an offensive term that idiots have taken way too far now.

It's culturally appropriated from black Americans. Before mobile phones white American women have historically been able to cry wolf when being aggressive toward a black man and the police arriving at the scene are weaponised. A lot of black people have been charged or worse because the cops automatically assume the white woman is the "damsel in distress"

The most famous historical Karen was Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman who lied about 14 year old Emmett Till whistling at her back in 1955 resulting in his lynching, She is still alive today.

My understanding is that younger white women who call cops on black men were called Becky or Stacy
Older white women were called Karens.

Nowadays Karen refers to any trouble making women (even black women) of any age caught on camera.

Good to see you standing up for the black community.

Too late...it's entered common vernacular

I have a feeling years from now people are going to look back on the Woke movement and see it for failure it really is.

It started off with good intentions about raising awareness for justice but in the end these supporters of the movement have proven themselves to be almost as disgustingly hateful and intolerant of others as Trump's MAGA crowd.

It really is the fault of both sides that are leading the US down the path to self-destruction and neither will get any sympathy from me because neither side will ever admit to f*****g this country up.

Boomers do less damage

There are zoomers who would disagree with that claim. Specifically, by "clinging" to the old definitions of racism and privilege, by being nonracist instead of antiracist they enable the open racists so are just as guilty as MAGA terrorists. In addition, we are viewed as selfish hedonists, who f****d up the economy, are bankrupting the country, and ensuring their generation would be the first generation to do worse than their parents. In addition, our workaholism destroyed families. And after all that, we have the gall to call them lazy and entitled. That was the sentiment behind "Ok boomer".

I don't agree with, for example, the song Fairytale Of New York sung by the Pogues being taken off the radio after being a loved Christmas classic for so many years because it apparently is offensive to gay people. I don't like that song myself as I find it depressing but a lot of people love it and are sad that it can't be played any more. Even my gay cousin likes that song and doesn't agree with it being cancelled

never heard of that song being taken off the radio. in fact, I am absolutely sure I heard it on the radio just a few days ago