Admittedly, as someone who has seen the term used online, I had no clue of its origin. Many agree that the term Karen seems to derive from one of Dane Cook’s comedy routines, ‘The Friend Nobody Likes,’ but a modern connection is found in the film Mean Girls, as a character named Karen asks “so if you’re from Africa, why are you white,” and the response is the iconic line “oh my God Karen, you can’t just ask people why they’re white.”
For this response, I will be using Shiftman’s because of the consideration of internet memes. To be considered a meme, the ‘digital item’ needs to have common content/form/stance that were created in cognizance and circulated/imitated/transformed by the internet. Jenkins describes a mode as a collected and emergent ‘phenomenon,’ expressing a concomitant idea rather than preceding.
I think the term Karen was a mode and then circulated into a meme. Before it was monopolized online, Karen was more of a contemporary idea. Many had shifting views of what ‘consists’ as a Karen, ranging from looks, actions, and ideologies. People would call almost any middle-aged woman who was acting out of hysteria a Karen. As the term circulated more online, Karen started to gain very prominent characteristics. You had to be middle-aged, a woman and white-while not limited to what makes a Karen, they were the most prominent. Karen also often acted very ridiculously over the smallest thing and was seen being racist, homophobic, and or outright bigoted. While looks play only a small part, many refer to people as Karens who have a certain haircut. On TikTok, there are videos of people baiting middle-aged white women into acting like so-called Karen. There are also skits acting out people’s own experiences with Karens. This is why I believe that the term Karen has shifted from a mode to a meme because of how the term has spread and transformed online and there being concrete characteristics to what makes a Karen.
If we started to see Karen from the perspective of a mode instead of a meme, I don’t think it would make it easier to defend ethically. Due to the characteristics and how widespread the term is, it would be hard to again see the term as a mode and nterprete it as a phenomenon. Interpretation leads to too much wiggle room. If we started to see Karen as a mode, it would inspire specifically white people to call anyone a Karen and that could extend to people of color. If this were to happen it would successfully shift who we saw as a Karen.
It is something to consider that over-emotional females are readily coined a term ( not necessarily A Karen but are often called out on their emotional state) while men who act worse aren’t. However, it is important to note that men are called out on their behavior especially online. I have seen memes on Tumblr saying “when a woman gets rejected she complains to her friends but when a man gets rejected he kills the woman.” I think my answer would be different if I didn’t regularly think that men are getting called out on their behavior. I think the turbulent state we see in those we call Karens often comes from a place of the privilege of never being called out on behavior and being able to get away with their bigotry. I know women who have acted very emotionally, I have acted very emotionally but never to a point where I am harassing someone, knocking down things on counters because I’m not being served, etc. I also think that specifically white women will do anything to try to be in a minority situation and when looking into these alleged sexism and ageism complaints we need to look into who is making them and who is backing them up. There is something about white women, especially older white women who will do almost anything to experience being in the ‘minority’ due to their entitlement.
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