T E X A R K A N A M A G A Z I N E
(L-R) Karen Mote, Karen Stephens, Karen Rayfield, Karen Wacha and Karen Mittelman. Sitting: Patsy (NOT Karen) Morriss and Karen Schmidt.
MY DRIFT COLUMN BY PATSY MORRI SS Don’t Call Me Karen
I have a friend who enjoys engaging in debates on social media. Because she is my Facebook friend, those debates usually show up on my feed. Recently, a participant in one of them made an unnecessarily biting comment to her, and I couldn’t resist pointing out that it was inaccurate and unfair. “You’re missing the point, Karen,” was the reply. “He called me Karen,” I texted my friend. “LOL. That’s what they call any woman they disagree with,” was her reply. I wasn’t amused. I didn’t even know this guy. I had never been called “Karen” before, and I was actually pretty surprised at how insulted I felt. I would like to apologize up front to my many—and there are many—friends named Karen. They are all very nice people. I want to examine the “Karen” phenomenon, though, because I find it interesting and worthy of exploration. Harking back to middle school, I recall that every word has both a denotation and a connotation. The denotation is the literal or primary meaning of the word; my eighth-grade English teacher called it the dictionary meaning. The connotation is the idea or feeling the word invokes. The literal meaning of Karen is that it’s a once-popular given name for a female. A connotation has evolved, however, wherein it is “a pejorative term for an obnoxious, angry, entitled, often racist
middle-aged white woman who uses her privilege to get her way or police other people’s behaviors.” My research with real people indicates the term has morphed into something much less specific. Karen doesn’t have to be middle-aged, entitled or white. She can be any age, race, or socio-economic class. She has some characteristics, however, that don’t vary. What seems to be consistent is that Karen likes to call people out for not following the rules. On the flip side, Karen doesn’t always like to follow the rules herself. She will, however, ask to speak to the manager if she feels mistreated in any way. In addition, as if that weren’t enough, she’s decidedly narrow-minded. So why do we call these annoying women Karen? There are several theories about how the name came to be used as a put- down. There was a character named Karen in Mean Girls who some think inspired the whole thing. Others believe it was a character in Goodfellas. The slur has been in use since 2016 and, judging from what I’ve observed among my Gen-X kids, isn’t going away anytime soon. One of them called a woman Karen for correcting her grammar incorrectly. Another used the name to describe a woman who asked if she was wearing a dress or a cover-up. (It was a cover-up being worn as a dress.) This was all done behind said women’s backs. The only one I’ve caught calling anyone Karen to her face called me Karen when I asked if we could turn the music down. I threatened him with dis-inheritance if he ever called me that again.
54
L I F E & S T Y L E
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs