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A fact from Karen (slang) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 20 May 2020 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that one of the most common stereotypes of a Karen is asking to "speak to the manager"?
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I have seen it mention many times that the definition of a karen is 'white' and 'middle class', but I think that this is incorrect. There have been countless of hours of karens on all kinds of social media showing that this is universal behaviour, not related to [perceived] race, [standing], or education level, and I would support a move to reclassify 'karen' as " a woman but not exclusively so, who exhibits a pattern of entitled, demanding, and often confrontational behavior in various social situations, particularly when interacting with service providers or authority figures. This behavior is characterized by a sense of superiority, entitlement to special treatment, and a tendency to escalate minor issues into conflicts. Karens are known for asserting their perceived rights aggressively, often disregarding the perspectives or needs of others and displaying a lack of empathy or self-awareness. Their behavior may include making unreasonable demands, insisting on speaking to managers or supervisors, and attempting to exert control over situations in which they feel dissatisfied or inconvenienced."
Aethalides (talk) 15:09, 18 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I'm talking about my opinion, and stating that I would support such a definition. Not sure if a list of youtube videos would qualify as sources for Wikipedia, though. Aethalides (talk) 19:09, 14 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I assume what you're talking about is things like asking to speak to the manager rather than calling the cops? It's probably pretty likely those kinds of interactions don't get covered in media, so yeah, unless someone is discussing that somewhere, we don't have a source for inclusion. If you have a source saying something like "the vast majority of Karen interactions do not involve a racial element", we can add that. Without a source, we really can't. Valereee (talk) 13:35, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I wanted to point out that the term Karen started as a pejorative all the way back in 1998 and has been in use since then. It stemmed from a flame war in an AOL chat forum (yes AOL) that was focused on the tv show Will & Grace and the character "Karen" who was Grace's assistant. While a niche term until around 2005, it gained traction in various forums from the time, especially on Myspace posts. Widespread adaptation didn't take off until 2018 when it became conflated with the "can I speak to your manager" haircut meme, taking on new connotative meaning associated with that meme, rather than its original use as a pejorative, which was: a loud or obnoxious woman, often drunk or inebriated, and with whom there was difficulty in handling. When the two terms conflated, the meaning shifted to an individual who was arrogant, demanding, and unreasonable, often to the extreme. While they were similar, the new meaning eclipsed the prior uses, which is likely why the origin seems to have been lost and prior referential uses lost. FriarMartin (talk) 21:24, 18 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I've always believed the usage of "Karen" really became big after the SNL skit black jeopardy with Chadwick Boseman (original black panther actor, that sadly died young of colon cancer). In that 2018 SNL skit, "Karen" is a Caucasian woman that's nice and noble for bringing potato salad to share, but it's bland and has raisins, so is oblivious to black culture. The joke being that not just anyone can bring the potato salad. It's like bringing Ambrosia (fruit salad with marshmallows) to a party in the South or Midwest, but not making it pink. Since then the usage of Karen seems to have changed from a white woman that's nice, but oblivious of black culture, to instead someone that's entitled. 108.18.208.58 (talk) 23:36, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
