Can we please stop misusing the name "Karen"?

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Actually, when I was growing up, the couple next door were Richard and Gayle. Known to all and sundry as Dick and Gay.
 
With the substitutionary effect of d, g, r, and c ... Dicks could extend to Eric ... and Rae St Evens dark songs ... ranging over hills and dales to search out young things ... there's a Hebrew word for that which I've forgotten for now ... perhaps because of the pharmaceuticals that cloud the innate process!

Bene ... that's it differing from ancient tyrannies ... then rannies are something else again ... some reasearch needed and not for those that hate knowledge!

Can you figure people that wish to know nothing .. a sector hard to prove because of lack ... or abstract! There in absence something may pop up ...
 
Can people who object so much please read this article?

www.ctvnews.ca

How Karen became a meme, and what real-life Karens think about it

The name "Karen" has become a meme, representing the stereotype of a middle-aged, middle class white woman who acts like she "can get whatever she wants." The term has divided people, but many who are actually named Karen say what is important is being aware of how some people use their...
www.ctvnews.ca
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Names like Karen, or Becky? It's an act of resistance by Black folks, Brock said. It puts a name to the behavior and acts as a way to gain solidarity over an injustice, maybe laugh about it and go about your day.


WHAT A "KAREN" SYMBOLIZES

For the term "Karen," part of its appeal is that this name exists, for the most part, in antiquity. And in that respect, it a potent moniker for someone decidedly out-of-touch.

Just look at baby name data from the Office of Social Security. Between 1951 and 1968, the name "Karen" saw its peak -- sitting pretty in the top 10 for the most popular baby name in the US.

But in 2018, the most recent year available, "Karen" was ranked at 635th in most popular names, quite the fall from grace.

"Karen is a name no one would name their kid anymore," Lisa Nakamura, the director of the Digital Studies Institute at the University of Michigan, said bluntly.

So the use of a name like "Karen," Nakamura explained, is part of locating someone, and their actions, in a regressive time period.

The phenomenon is exhibited by the "BBQ Becky" incident back in 2018, the viral video showing how a white woman called the police on a group of black people barbecuing in a public park, claiming they were breaking the law. In the beginning of the video, the woman asserts herself, but by the end, when the police come, she bursts into tears, saying, "I am being harassed."

White women -- "Karens" specifically -- are able to garner sympathy for displaying their fragility, Brock explained, taking away from the focus that they did something wrong and would be called out for it.

"They're getting away with a behavior that no one else would," he explained.

HOW KARENS FEEL ABOUT THE TERM

So how do actual people named Karen feel about this?

Sun told CNN no one has ever seriously called them a "Karen." Sure it comes up, they said, and sometimes they use it jokingly. But they don't think it's a slur at all.

"There's no real systemic oppression there," they said. "It won't prevent you from getting married, or getting health care, you're just acting entitled and rude and that's why you're getting called a 'Karen.'"

(There’s part of the article - Sun’s first name is mentioned in the rest of it - which is Karen.)
 
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There is a high amount of sexism thrown into it. We generally don't complain when men do similar things. I think they world would be much better off if the behaviour from men that tends to be complained about (and less mocked) fit into the behaviour that fits with this stereotype.
 
There is, although I understand that there is a male equivalent to Karen, not as well known - Ken.
 
BetteTheRed said:
There is, although I understand that there is a male equivalent to Karen, not as well known - Ken.
Click to expand...
Yes, I've heard 'Ken' used in such a context, sometimes paired with 'Barbie'. t least those names came from dolls rather than people (though I think the dolls were named for the creators' children)
 
And I can't say I have known a Ken since a long-ago pseudo-Uncle, long dead. Oh, and my erstwhile back fence neighbour, known as Kenny, about my age.

Kenneth McKellar featured a lot in my early music life.
 
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