Karen meme

[Jaszczurka]

For over a decade, white women have been putting men "on blast" and shaming men for virtually any action they take or words they speak.

There's "mansplaining," "manspreading," allegedly "interrupting" them, the imaginary "wage gap," "all men are rapists," talking to them in elevators, saying the word "dongle," making jokes at work, etc. There's also the false rape accusations and articles, phony cries of discrimination, complains about "dead white male" authors, and more complains about anyone "stale, male, and pale."

Normally, I'd consider the Karen meme in racial terms. But considering how white women have behaved online for over a decade, I see it as payback. It's a justified response to a class of people who have drummed up trouble for too long and who have rarely gotten called on it.

Someone is finally calling these women out on their incessant complaining and belittling others. What goes around comes around and all that.

This is where being a bit older is useful on this forum. I remember this going back to the 1980's. Most of society hadn't yet "woke" fully.

But nonetheless, guys were getting fired for making a fart jokes in front of "Karens" at work, simping was common, and most of the infrastructure of the left had been in place since the 1970's. But it hadn't gone fully mainstream.

Back then, executives had limousine privilege. They had the money to fight this kind of nonsense:

Ex-Miller Exec Wins $26-Million Verdict in 'Seinfeld' Case

A jury awarded $26.6 million Tuesday to a former Miller Brewing executive who sued the company for firing him after he discussed a racy episode of "Seinfeld" with a female co-worker.

www.latimes.com

But if you were an average Joe, and a Karen was offended by you, look out. With this increasingly common in the workplace and beyond, it became part of mainstream culture. This goes back not a decade, but 30 years or more. In the 1970's, the career gals had to be a bit more polite since they were still outnumbered and corporations cared about their bottom line more than being "woke".

 

[NoMoreTO]

I think this is why so many office work environments are so stale these days. Karens have chipped away at masculinity, jokes, and straight talk for decades.

When I see blue collar guys working in shops I always think they have it good, talking about the work or things they care about, joking with their pals, sorting things out amongst themselves, getting tons of work done. But even they are getting Karened these days.

 

[AscendingDude]

What a horrible lady. She could have gotten the poor dude into big trouble with the "Beta, shoot first and ask questions later" policemen of NYC.
I'm also pleasantly surprised to see Roosh trying to make light of this incident, unless he's being satirical of course.

"Help! Someone's threatening my dog" - Proceeds to strangle her own dog.

 

[Days of Broken Arrows]

This is where being a bit older is useful on this forum. I remember this going back to the 1980's. Most of society hadn't yet "woke" fully.

But nonetheless, guys were getting fired for making a fart jokes in front of "Karens" at work, simping was common, and most of the infrastructure of the left had been in place since the 1970's. But it hadn't gone fully mainstream.

Back then, executives had limousine privilege. They had the money to fight this kind of nonsense:

Ex-Miller Exec Wins $26-Million Verdict in 'Seinfeld' Case

A jury awarded $26.6 million Tuesday to a former Miller Brewing executive who sued the company for firing him after he discussed a racy episode of "Seinfeld" with a female co-worker.

www.latimes.com

But if you were an average Joe, and a Karen was offended by you, look out. With this increasingly common in the workplace and beyond, it became part of mainstream culture. This goes back not a decade, but 30 years or more. In the 1970's, the career gals had to be a bit more polite since they were still outnumbered and corporations cared about their bottom line more than being "woke".

Yeah, I agree this is something you notice if you're older.

In fact, the first I saw of the Karen meme was on the blog of Heartiste (who is older) about three years ago. Back then he had the photo that's been circulating, but he called it the "I'd like to speak to your manager" haircut.

This might not resonate with younger guys, but if you're a Gen X-er, you know these types of women and they can be maddening. They know White Knights will always step in and so they have no shame when it comes to belittling anyone. (I should also add that I've seen Karen behavior among both lower and upper class women. Lower class women can sometimes be worse, actually.)

Also, this isn't about women wanting a cleaner or more orderly environment. It's about belittling people to make your point. Example: When I was a writer, I once made an error in an article. An older woman CALLED MY EDITOR (!!!) about this instead of simply emailing me.

Think about that. Why would someone do that? Most men will tell you that you messed up. But Karens go above your head to "talk to your manager." This is just being a troublemaker. Hence the meme.


To me, "OK, Karen" is a pretty clever way of draining their self-appointed power by mocking them. If we'd had it in the "dongle" days, that whole controversy might have been diffused instantly.

 

[Jaszczurka]

This meme could be taken too far.

If Karen wants to scream in my face because I'm not wearing a mask, she can f*** off.
But what if, for example, Karen complained about the streets covered with garbage? Or if she complained about some kids playing obnoxiously loud music in public transportation?
Would we say to her "Ok Karen"?

There's a "boy who cried wolf" dynamic going on here. After decades of being Homeowner Association watchdogs complaining if someone painted their mailbox burgandy instead of red, or a store employee took 5 minutes to issue her a refund, or literally the A/C was 5 degrees lower than she liked (no exaggeration)

It's August, It's 2016, Let's Just Acknowledge the Office A/C Issue

Now is the summer of our discontent

time.com

Should someone run to their aid and White Knight them even if they have a legitimate complaint? How feminism destroyed masculine values in Sweden:



Notice how Ingrid doesn't seem to "get it" and this is despite being on air with Stefan.

 

[Jaszczurka]

It has to be a white woman, because they are the ethnicity that is the furthest out of touch and has least respect to paternal authority. Karen is also a British name and kind of reminds me of the more butch type of wives (which seem like the majority in the UK).

Well, there is one group that may have that beat. I won't say it (you can figure it out), but they have high single motherhood rates.

 

[Bitter End]

Sure, from American point of view it could be. In Europe the current Karen meme reflects society most accurately. In Eastern Europe the Karens would be the aging wives of oligarchs, public officials and other people in power.

 

[Galaxy_Traveler]

Had this meme existed 4 years ago, it would have stuck well with Hillary Clinton, even though she is way past Karen age.
But the way things are going, who knows, we might get to use it on her if she ends up running. Want a Karen as your president?

 

[open source]

You can find your local Karens hanging out at your neighborhood Nextdoor.

I've been on there less than a week. It should be called Karens Nextdoor.

Here's an actual screenshot. I had to crop, it goes on even longer...:

 

[Papaya]

"Karen" is just the manifestation of the "anger" phase in the face of their own obsolescence.

In other words: No man wants to hit it anymore and she's lashing out at the attention deficit

 

[Islander]

 

[Sherman]

Notice how the woman in the bike video threatened to call the Sheriff. That is why they are so entitled and nasty. They have their cell phone and can dial 911 at any moment and call their enabler. They have never had the experience of someone punching them for being unreasonable. They are the true definition of privileged.

 

[Easy_C]

I'm not going to complain about this meme too much. It's the single most effective cultural weapon we have against lockdown policies. The "#staythefuckhome" crowd can be aggressively and simply mocked as "Karens" and the way they're almost guaranteed to face that kind of mockery for pushing their stupidity online is a good disincentive.

 

[Roosh]

One issue with the Karen meme is that the media can easily harness it to promote their racism agenda:

 

[estraudi]

Notice how the woman in the bike video threatened to call the Sheriff. That is why they are so entitled and nasty. They have their cell phone and can dial 911 at any moment and call their enabler. They have never had the experience of someone punching them for being unreasonable. They are the true definition of privileged.

Have any of you guys seen the extreme Karen down in Houston video? Group of cars gathered in a neighborhood for a little boys birthday during the lockdown and extreme Karen comes out screaming and losing her shit, calls the cops but the cops eventually arrest HER! Hilarious bit of irony.
Word is she made her husband put the house up for sale and the poor guy isn't even invited over for bbq's or beer anymore.
Karens. Not even once.

 

[kel]

Before Karen there was Becky, who was the slightly younger version of Karen, but Becky got called out as an anti-semitic slur and kinda disappeared.

 

[ABeast]

Karen is an important meme, I think. She started out as a symbol of black anger at White women who report them for noise-violations or something. Now she is being used as a symbol of Right-wing anger at White women who complain about social distancing. So she generally represents anger at the privileges that White women supposedly have, but is used by both sides of the political divide. Is this another sign that the Left/Right paradigm is cracking?

 

[kel]

It's a sign that, despite race being the obsession of the last ten years (particularly), the gender divide is in many way more significant, and I think that will grow, unfortunately.

 

[Papaya]

We used to just call them "c_^ts". Come to think of it ...actually still do

 

[911]

Had this meme existed 4 years ago, it would have stuck well with Hillary Clinton, even though she is way past Karen age.
But the way things are going, who knows, we might get to use it on her if she ends up running. Want a Karen as your president?

There's talk of Biden choosing Amy Klobuchar for VP, she's the ultimate Karen, more so than Hillary, because she is less outwardly and obviously evil than Hillary, who is a transparent witch. She keeps a thin veneer of midwestern wholesomeness but you can still tell that she'd the boss from hell.