Karen is a
pejorative
A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...
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 by some as being
sexist,
ageist,
classist
Class discrimination, also known as classism, is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of social class
A social class is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the U ...
, 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
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Co ...
white women, including during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
and
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police brut ...
protests.
The term has also been applied to male behavior.
''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide ...
'' 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
Revenge is committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Francis Bacon described revenge as a kind of "wild justice" that "does... offend the law ndputteth the law out of office." ...
'',
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".
''
Bitch
Bitch may refer to:
* A female dog or other canine
* Bitch (slang), a vulgar slur for a human female
Bitch or bitches may also refer to:
Arts and media Film and television
* ''The Bitch'' (film), a 1979 film starring Joan Collins
* ''Bit ...
'' 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
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide ...
'' 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 ''Bitch'', 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
A bob cut, also known as a bob, is a short to medium length haircut, in which the hair is typically cut straight around the head at approximately jaw level, but no longer than shoulder-length, often with fringe or bangs at the front. The standar ...
with blond
highlights. Pictures of
Kate Gosselin and
Jenny McCarthy's bob cut are often used to depict a Karen,
and their bobs are sometimes called the "can-I-speak-to-your-manager?" haircut.
According to Apryl Williams of the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
, the memes "actively call out white supremacy and call for restitution".
Racial context
''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...
'' 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."
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with College admission ...
media researcher
Meredith Clark
Meredith D. Clark is an American journalist and scholar. As of 2021 she is an associate professor at Northeastern University. She was previously an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia. Her research interests includ ...
has said that the idea of a white woman in the vicinity of whom Black people feel a need to be careful because she would not hesitate to use her "privilege" at the expense of others "has always been there; it just hasn't always been so specific to one person's name".
Karen Grigsby Bates agrees that Karen is part of a succession of characters like Miss Ann and Becky, adding that the concept of Karen, as Black people had been using the term, became clear to white people when ''
Saturday Night Live'' played a Jeopardy sketch with
Chadwick Boseman playing as his ''
Black Panther'' character
T'Challa
Black Panther is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist-coplotter Jack Kirby. The character first appeared in ''Fantastic Four'' #52 ...
.
''The Guardian'' notes that "the image of a white woman calling police on Black people put the lie to the myth of racial innocence". Contemporary Karens have been compared to
Carolyn Bryant
Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941August 28, 1955) was a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery ...
(a white woman who accused
Emmett Till of offending her, resulting in his lynching) and
Mayella Ewell (a fictional character in the 1960 novel ''
To Kill a Mockingbird
''To Kill a Mockingbird'' is a novel by the American author Harper Lee. It was published in 1960 and was instantly successful. In the United States, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' has become ...
'').
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
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
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
Karen Attiah (born August 12, 1986) is an American writer and editor. She serves as Global Opinions editor for ''The Washington Post''. With David Ignatius, Attiah won a 2019 George Polk Award for their writing about the murder of their colleague ...
, Global Opinions editor for ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
,'' claims that it lacks the historical context to be a slur and that calling it one trivializes actual discrimination.
Male context
The term is generally used to refer to women, but ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' noted that "a man can easily be called a Karen", with staff writer David A. Graham calling then-president Donald Trump the "Karen in chief".
Similarly, in November 2020, a tweet calling
Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The ...
"Space Karen" over comments he made regarding the effectiveness of
COVID-19 testing became
viral
Viral means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents).
Viral may also refer to:
Viral behavior, or virality
Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example:
* Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spread a marke ...
. Numerous names for a male equivalent of Karen have been floated, with little agreement on a single name,
although 'Ken'
and 'Kevin'
are among the most common names used. The
Jim Crow era
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the S ...
male equivalent to Miss Ann was
Mister Charlie ''Mister Charlie'' is a pejorative expression formerly used within the African-American community to refer to an imperious white man. Occasionally, it refers to a black man who is arrogant and perceived as "acting white".
The term is sometimes writ ...
.
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
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' 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
Nina D. Burleigh is an American writer and investigative journalist, the daughter of author Robert Burleigh. She writes books, articles, essays and reviews. Burleigh is a supporter of secular liberalism, and is known for her interest in issues of ...
wrote that the memes "are merely excuses to heap scorn on random middle-aged white women".
Matt Schimkowitz, a senior editor at
Know Your Meme, stated to ''
Business Insider
''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German pub ...
'' 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.
Notable examples
In 2018 a former New York and New Jersey Port Authority police commissioner,
Caren Turner, was filmed berating two
Tenafly, New Jersey, police officers for pulling over a car in which her daughter was riding.
The video only emerged later.
In December 2019, Australian media reported that in the town of
Mildura, a woman named Karen had been filmed trying to pull down an
Aboriginal flag being displayed by her neighbors. She was unable to pull it down, leading to a
Twitter hashtag #TooStrongForYouKaren and other social media responses.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the term has been used to describe women abusing
Asian-American health workers due to the virus's origins in
Mainland China
"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater Chin ...
, those
hoarding essential supplies such as toilet paper, and both those who policed others' behavior to enforce
quarantine and those who
protested the continuance of the restrictions because they prevented them visiting
hair salons,
as well as over being forced to wear
face masks inside of stores, prompting one critic to ask whether the term had devolved into an all-purpose term of disapproval or criticism for middle-aged white women.
Use of the term increased from 100,000 mentions on social media in January 2020 to 2.7 million in May 2020.
In May 2020,
Christian Cooper, writing about the Central Park birdwatching incident, said Amy Cooper's "inner Karen fully emerged and took a dark turn" when he started recording the encounter.
He recorded her calling the police and telling them that an "African-American man" was threatening her and her dog.
On December 16, 2020, Miya Ponsetto was dubbed "SoHo Karen" after tackling 14-year-old Keyon Harrold Jr., son of jazz trumpeter
Keyon Harrold, in the lobby of the Arlo Hotel in New York City and accusing him of stealing her phone. Ponsetto alleged that she was assaulted during the altercation, though she could not provide evidence to her claim. An
Uber driver returned her phone after the incident. In early January 2021, Ponsetto was arrested in
Ventura County, California and extradited to New York, where she was charged with grand larceny, attempted robbery, child endangerment, and two counts of assault, as she also attacked Harrold Sr. during the altercation. It was also revealed that Ponsetto was arrested twice in 2020 for public intoxication and drunk driving. During the initial court hearing in March 2021, Ponsetto interrupted the judge by requesting to avoid jail time.
Legislation
In July 2020,
San Francisco Board of Supervisors member
Shamann Walton
Shamann Walton is an American politician from San Francisco. He has been a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors since 2019, representing District 10, and was elected President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on January 8, ...
introduced the Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies (CAREN) Act, which proposed changing the San Francisco Police Code to prohibit the fabrication of racially biased emergency reports. The Act was passed unanimously in October of that year, after which Williams noted "these memes are actually doing logical and political work of helping us get to legal changes".
Other uses
The mid-2019 formation of
Tropical Storm Karen The name Karen has been used for seventeen tropical cyclones worldwide: six in the Atlantic Ocean, nine in the Western Pacific Ocean, one in the South-West Indian Ocean, and one in the Australian region.
In the Atlantic:
* Tropical Storm Karen (19 ...
in the
Atlantic hurricane basin led to memes likening the storm to the stereotype; several users made jokes about the storm wanting to "speak with the manager", with images photoshopped to include the "Karen haircut" on either the hurricane or its forecast path.
In July 2020,
Domino's Pizza ran an advertisement in Australia and New Zealand offering free pizzas to "nice Karens";
the company later apologized and dropped the ad amidst criticism.
In July 2020, an internet meme in the form of a
parody advertisement for a fictional Girl of the Year character depicted as a personification of the "Karen" stereotype, wearing a
track suit, bob haircut and
openly carrying a
semi-automatic pistol
A semi-automatic pistol is a type of repeating single- chamber handgun ( pistol) that automatically cycles its action to insert the subsequent cartridge into the chamber (self-loading), but requires manual actuation of the trigger to ac ...
while defiantly violating face mask guidelines mandated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, provoked criticism from
American Girl, who took umbrage to the use of their name and
trade dress
Trade dress is the characteristics of the visual appearance of a product or its packaging (or even the design of a building) that signify the source of the product to consumers. Trade dress is an aspect of trademark law, which is a form of intell ...
, stating that they were "disgusted" by a post from brand strategist Adam Padilla under the online persona "Adam the Creator", and "are working with the appropriate teams at American Girl to ensure this copyright violation is handled appropriately."
Boing Boing, however, expressed doubts over the merits of American Girl's proposed legal action against the "Karen" parodies citing the
Streisand effect, though it has also noted the debate on whether the satirical intent of the parody advertisement is protected by law.
In July 2020, the
BBC called the
Wall of Moms "a good example of mainly middle-class, middle-aged white women explicitly ''not'' being Karens. Instead, the Wall of Moms is seen by activists as using their privilege to protest against the very same systemic racism and classism that Karens actively seek to exploit."
See also
*
''Karen'' (film)
*
Becky (slang)
*
Bye, Felicia
In American English, the phrase "Bye, Felicia" (actually spelled "Felisha" in the cast listing) is an informal phrase intended as a dismissive send-off, where the recipient is rendered so unimportant their name is reduced to "Felicia." The phrase ...
*
Bye Felipe
Bye Felipe is an Instagram account and book by Alexandra Tweten; the term became an internet meme for men "behaving badly" in online dating apps. ''The Atlantic'' called the Instagram account a "crowdsourced menagerie of mankind's worst specimens." ...
*
Chad (slang)
*
Cracker (term)
*
Gammon (insult)
*
OK boomer
*
Trixie (slang)
Trixie is a generally derogatory slang term referring to a young urban white woman, typically single and in her 20s or early 30s. The term originated during the 1990s in Chicago, Illinois, with a popular satirical website dedicated to the Lincol ...
*
Will to power
*
White fragility
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Internet memes introduced in 2017
Pejorative terms for white women
Stereotypes of middle class women
Stereotypes of white Americans
Slang terms for people
American slang
Misogyny
Black Lives Matter
White supremacy in the United States