In the 1992 film A League of Their Own, baseball manager Jimmy Dugan (played by Tom Hanks) yells at one of his players when she comes back to the dugout after making a mental error on the field, and the outburst causes that player to start crying.
In day-to-day life, however, some outbursts are not easily explained. After witnessing a woman going bonkers while in line at the post office last week, I have been more aware of people taking out their frustrations publically. It seems that “Karens” – the term given to individuals that make a scene and adamantly demand to speak to a manager – are starting to appear with higher frequency in news stories and social media. So for this week’s blog assignment I spent time gathering information on this trend.
BBC News: What exactly is a ‘Karen’ and where did the meme come from? Once the Covid-19 pandemic took hold of the world, more and more viral videos depicted Karens going off on small business owners. According to the July 2020 article, “in recent months, the meme has evolved into something new: Coronavirus Karen. This particular form of Karen refuses to wear a face covering in shops, won’t stick to quarantine, and thinks the whole pandemic thing is overblown.” The origins of the term are debatable. The article explains that many people use the term Karen not just for middle-aged white women, but to describe a person’s behavior.
The New York Times: A Brief History of ‘Karen’ The third most popular baby name in 1965 has since become a generic term for a middle-aged woman sporting a blond choppy hairstyle who asks to speak to the manager. This July 2020 article talks about how the term has also come to be a symbol of racism and white privilege. The article also points to a 2005 comedy album by Dane Cook, in which he says, “There is one person in a group of friends that nobody likes.” In that stand-up bit he used the name Karen. The article concludes that years from now, the term Karen will go away just as the term Negative Nancy did.
YouTube: Top Karen Moments of Quarantine That Went Viral On their About Us page, What’s Trending calls themselves “a 24/7 news hub, covering and curating the most viral and shareable content across the social web.” This video on their YouTube channel shows a few clips of Karens doing what Karens do – going crazy on public display because they disagree with pandemic mask rules. Notice the amount of suggested Karen video links that appear on the right side of the screen.
Forbes Magazine: Complaining Karens Report Reveals Where You’ll Find the Most Karens in America. This July 2021 article is about a study conducted by a business comparison company in the United Kingdom. The study determined that California was home to the most Karens. “We ran our report to find out if location had a bearing on the number of complaints, and during our research we found the Karen phenomenon was a real thing,” said a member of the study. While the study was done with some lightheartedness, the article did provide examples of how to best deal with a Karen if you encounter one: Be calm, solution focused, and stick to the facts without getting emotional.
Reddit: Entitled Karens – a Reddit subgroup that gives people the opportunity to talk about the Karens that they have interacted with, or to post videos of Karen incidents.
Twitter: #KarensGoneWild – a search that generates all of the posts with that hashtag. It is amazing how many of them are posted on a daily basis!
