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It's wild how "Karen" started out as calling out racism and now it's just a way for sexist people to shame women for not performing gender roles. (hexbear.net)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by Dirt_Owl@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net

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Good women are young, quiet, have pretty long hair (never dyed a unnatural colour though!) and never speak up about being mistreated, ever. You want to complain about a genuine problem? Sorry, you're a Karen. Ask people to social distance? Karen. Nicely tell people to please be quiet during a movie? Karen. Ripped off by corporate greed and want a refund? Karen.

Be silent, be feminine and behave, woman.

It sucks because it actually used to describe real harrassment that black service workers experience. Now it's just "Mouthy mom aged women with short dyed hair"

I've even seen a male black service worker be called a "male Karen" I shit you not.

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[–] Sinisterium@hexbear.net 24 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Wasnt woke first used by black americans to refer to being aware of the race construct? Similar thing happened to Karen, its origin comes from primarily black american women working in customer service jobs and using it to refer to entitled white customers who use the “white woman’s tears/distress/discomfort” as a tool to exort her power?

[–] tocopherol@hexbear.net 6 points 3 days ago

Yes, it was used in that way as early as the 20s I think, or earlier. On the wiki page about "Karen" they mention that:

In African-American culture, there is a history of calling difficult white women or those who "weaponize" their position by a generic pejorative name.[6] In the antebellum era (1815–1861), "Miss Ann" was used.[7] In the early 1990s, "Becky" was used.[8] 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".