“Karen” Halloween display

[tinytrump]

Originally Posted by PegE

You idiots on this thread, Karen is the name of thousands of innocent women. How would you feel if your name became synonymous with ahole? It's not as if we need another hateful term for the half of humanity who happen to be female. Shame on you for defending hatred toward women!

It would not bother me one bit. No complaints with bye Felicia. Or Linda Linda listen. He is a Dick - Richard if course. Why take it personally unless the shoe fits

[WalkingLiberty1919D]

I love understanding linguistics and looking into word meanings and I don't think it takes much imagination or empathy to understand why women named Karen by birth hate the meme. Unlike other name memes like "chatty Cathy" or "Debbie downer" etc it's using the actual name as the insult where the others are using the adjective as the insult and the name as a mnemonic device. It's linguistically different from those other memes. The only other commonly used name that comes close/is the same is Dick but Dick isn't someone's given name, it's a chosen nickname for Richard and someone named Richard can go by Rick, Ricky, or Richard if they don't like the name Dick.

But maybe those women with the name Karen need not worry much longer. It used to mean a white, middle aged woman of privilege who is a bully especially to retail workers or minorities. But now it’s diluted to just mean any person you don't agree and it’s lost real meaning. It’s the insult of equivalent of, “I know you are but what am I?” The fact that a government agency used it in a Halloween display shows you just how overused this zombie the meme has become.