It's ok you can be named Karen and not be a Karen. Same for Chad or Dick/Dickson.
Words can have multiple meanings, and so do names.
The context of a sentence usually is enough to distinguish, hence no one meant your mom isn't nice just because we use her name as a insult for other people.
Easy for you to say if that's not your name. I don't have any hope of dissuading people from using the name that way, but imagine your name was "motherfucker" and it was a completely new combination of letters, no one had any negative connotation associated with it, then all of the sudden everyone is calling each other motherfucker and it means "fucking someone's mom." You probably would be pretty bummed out. Doesn't matter if you know someone calling someone else a motherfucker isn't referring to your birth name.
That's a real Karen thing to say.
That's a real boring thing to say.
That's something a motherfucker would say!
I still get it, don't mistake my comment for a lack of compassion.
It's especially true for teenagers that gets bullied because of things like it. (Although probably less of a problem for Karens since it's a rather outdated name.)
You'd be in the right to be bummed out sure.
But as adults I don't think you should hold as much importance to it, it's how to avoid hurting, lightheartedness and humor is the better response.
Someone named Karen making fun of Karens is just perfect, and the jokes for someone named motherfucker would write themselves!
Nah. My name starts with Chat that is pronounced Shat. I grew up with my name being joked at being equated to shit by immature people. It's easy to get over. Every chat someone types out or references is not me. Same with every shit or shat. People need to get over themselves.
I do like pretending everytime someone asks "Chat, is this blah?" that they're talking to me, but only as a joke. I'm in no way personally offended.
It's odd for someone to make the social stereotypes of strangers somehow be all about themselves, especially when their stance is that they don't like it being all about them.
It's like some unusual form of egocentricity self-inflicting harm on itself. Like, there's no spotlight, but the complaint is that there is one, so the person finds a spotlight to shine on themselves to make the complaint valid.
And the coincidence of what society calls those people...
There are others that could consider their names to be in far worse situations, but obviously don't—in fact many run with it for laughs. And yet, your comment...for this... Life must be pretty good to have such troubles.
I encourage you to put yourself in someone else's shoes. The "joke" is there's this archetypal character who is often named Karen who is entitled and makes unreasonable demands. If your name is Karen, that sucks. It's not about egocentrism, the villain in this joke is literally named Karen. Imagine you couldn't go through life and raise a concern about any issue because someone would be like "har har, you're being a real Karen". Even if it's a joke, when you hear it a thousand times that gets old and it sucks.
I have some friends who named their daughter Alexa before Amazon released the virtual assistant with the same name. Kids at school tease her. She can't go by Alexa, she has to go by Lex. Again, I encourage you to imagine yourself in someone else's place.
It IS about ego-centrism to hear a comment about some OTHER person with your name, and go, "ugh, this will reflect poorly on me".
Yea, it will if you're surrounded by morons that don't know you're a different person...
Literally, get over yourself. Alexa is far more understandable, but the same thing applies: It's only a problem when you're surrounded by morons. Children are morons. Stop trying to regulate what adults do simply because morons exist.
Do better. Set a better example than some troglodyte that gets caught up in every zeitgeist.
You're right, we shouldn't regulate this type of speech. I'm not proposing we outlaw calling someone "a Karen." I'm arguing that people who care about how others feel should reconsider this type of joke.
You mentioned that this sort of thing is only a problem if you're surrounded by morons. Let's be generous and call them people who don't see things your way. Isn't that all of life? I gave the example of a child named Alexa because it's a literal real life example. It is a thing that happens, not a hypothetical. I have a kind and quiet family member named Karen, and it's a nuisance in her life.
You mentioned egocentrism. Isn't it egocentric to think "I will say whatever I want and if that makes someone else feel bad who cares?" I try to live my life in a way where I'm not knowingly causing other people discomfort. Sometimes that's not possible for good reason. We can still try.
I love your responses and I totally agree about putting yourself in someone else's shoes. Those who dare to call others inappropriate for things are the same ones that start movements like Karen and ruin peoples lives to gain more views and followers on there platforms...
Though the things I say are offensive and I'm not allowed to say them anymore in private... (example)
No, I meant what I said. Surrounded by morons.
What you need to realize is... Most humans are morons. Not caring what others think can be motivated by many things, ego only being one of them.
I do not speak of being offensive, but people taking offense at stupid things like, "karen". Stop being an easily offended moron. It goes A LOT further than trying to walk on egg shells.
Be honest... Have you recently taken psych-101.
Right? I've known some Becky's that were alright but I have also met some real Becky's.
Dick Dickson
#NotAllKarens
This lady at the pool yesterday was being a dick to my kids yesterday about my kids being kids at a pool.
A few moments later, one of her friends came up to her later and said "hi Karen how've you been?" I got a laugh. She was a Karen that fit the description.
The Karen I grew up around nails the "karen" archetype so perfectly that when people started using the name like that, I immediately understood what they were referring to. It was uncanny.
These years later, even my boomer family all know the reference and agree, regularly point it out to our Karen.
Wife of a friend is also named Karen, she is a wonderful person.
My friendgroup still really like Karen memes, but she somehow doesn't :D
Yeah, I know two Karen's, and they are some of the sweetest, nicest people.
Do they know how to properly pluralize proper nouns?
They do, but sometimes their phones autocorrect to use an apostrophe, and they don't notice right away.
And what is your first dog’s name ? And your favorite ice cream flavor ?
Asking for a friend
If I remember correctly, it's been a few years since anybody has actually named their baby Karen because of this.
Daniel Rostén of Marduk is actually a very nic-, no wait, that's accurate.
Karen best girl in Harvest Moon 64 and BTN
I knew a Karen growing up. Last I heard she was getting a masters degree in queer studies. Wonderful lady, you’d never suspect her to have that name.
she look mad tho
Best Karen.
I think I only know one shitty Karen in my life and the rest are great