Anyone who spends more than 10 minutes onsocial mediawill run into her , or at least a mention to her : Karen . It ’s become a shorthand for an entitled , selfish , thoughtless white-hot womanhood . While the name often refer to astereotype , sometimes it refers to a specific person .
In May 2020 , for instance , a charwoman dubbed the " Central Park Karen " call the police sham to be threatened by a Black man after the human race involve her to leash her dog-iron in an surface area of the park where leashes are take . The total episode was catch on television .
But where did the term amount from ? And why Karen ?
Possible Karen Origins
There are a few suspect for why we employ the name Karen . First is Amanda Seyfried ’s character from the 2004 movie " Mean female child " who ask Lindsay Lohan ’s fiber Cady Heron " So if you ’re from Africa , why are you white ? " hateful little girl Gretchen Weiners react with the meme - favorable return , " Oh my god , Karen , you ca n’t just require citizenry why they ’re white . "
There was also aDane Cookroutine in 2005 about " the friend nobody likes , " and her name was Karen . In December 2017 , a subreddit called " F***YouKaren " appeared , where the poster ghost over his ex . 1000 of people found his rants funny and followed along , eventually sharing Karen memes they ’d created or found .
A immediate search of Twitter shows that by April 2018 , people were regularly calling out Karen for her confutable potato salad recipe . Logos about her potato salad even reachedWakanda .
Wherefore Karen?
Cleve Evans , a professor who studies the history of names at Bellevue University , told writer Aja Romano at Voxthat public figure have been used in this way for eld . " They are just another lingual item that ’s potential to be associated with a finical group because of the perception that it ’s coarse among that group . "
Evans also pointed out that the name " Karen " is a Danish form of " Katherine . " That name derives from the Greek " Aikaterine , " which is sometimes confused with the Grecian discussion for " pureness . " People using Karen on social media believably did n’t dig deep enough to make that particularly dry misunderstanding .
Before Karen , there was Becky , whose cluelessness prevail from the nineties into the 2000s , from Sir Mix - A - Lot ’s " Baby Got Back " to Beyonce ’s " Sorry . " In April 2018 , " BBQ Becky " called the police because ignominious hoi polloi were using a charcoal grillwork in a parking lot . But the innovative Karen is more than clueless . As NPR ’s Karen Grigsby Bates put it on NPR’sCode Switch , she is " aware there will be result if she muster help — and those consequences will fall most harshly on inglorious people , commonly Black men . "
vitrine like these have convert theKaren stereotypefrom being someone who involve to see the manager to someone who calls the fuzz . Havingharsh blond highlightsis now the least of Karen ’s many subject .
