Leigh
It’s a tough time out there for the Karens of the world, isn’t it? Not the literal Karens, of course, but the proverbial Karens (although I’m sure there are Karens named Karen, which is a slap from God himself). Everyone knows a Karen, and everyone hates them. Like a Becky, they’re the kind of white women that give white women a bad reputation, the ones who know they’re being an a-hole and use it to their advantage.
Dictionary.com defines Karen as, “a mocking slang term for an entitled, obnoxious, middle-aged white woman. Especially as featured in memes, Karen is generally stereotyped as having a blonde bob haircut, asking to speak to retail and restaurant managers to voice complaints or make demands, and being a nagging, often divorced mother from Generation X.” LOL.
Urban Dictionary defines them even more specifically with this scenario: “After a long day of talking to managers and driving her kids around she sits down with her mom friends at book club and drinks lots and LOTS of wine.”
Are you a Karen? Be honest.
A very clever Reddit user, ThisOne_NotTheOne, posed an interesting question about the Karens of the world—to their partners.
Redditors who are married to Karens, how is it like? from r/AskReddit
And all of Reddit’s people who love or know a Karen spoke up, throwing their family members right under the damn bus (they deserve it):
1.
“Not married to one, but my aunt is. My uncle is this soft-spoken giant. He never stands up to her in any way. Except once. At their daughter’s wedding, she was about to interrupt the ceremony to close a window because she was chilly. Everyone sitting close could hear her whisper ” I’m going to do it, but I don’t want to be an asshole.” My uncle, in a calm quiet tone, says quickly “why stop now?” Almost as if his filter just missed this one. I swear I could hear my dad snort two rows back trying to hold in laughter. Karen was not happy.”—ToastyToast1111
2.
“My mom’s a Karen. She is self-aware she is a Karen my siblings and I send her memes about it. When my stepdad divorced her last summer we were all amazed he lasted 17 years, to be honest. None of us like going out with her it’s terrible and my husband just straight up tells her no you aren’t talking to the manager when we go in a place. I’ll tell you guys a story my step told us; they are farmers and own a small beef and bee farm. They have a store they go to for bee supplies. The owner called my stepdad and asked him to please be the one to pick up their stuff because his staff was tired of dealing with my mom. He is the only one who went to the store for the next 5 years.”—The_Turtle_Moves_
3.
“My sister is a Karen. Everyone feels so sorry for her husband. Everything is his fault. He is treated like a slave. She only addresses him by yelling. She constantly insults him. We have no idea why he hasn’t divorced her or flipped out and attacked her. We have all told her to cool it and her response is that he’s just so stupid. I could go on and on but my sister really is a horrible person.”—Foco_cholo
4.
“My best friend married the Karen of Karens. She’s the absolute worst. She’s mean and rude to EVERYONE, me, him, our Facebook friends, wait staff, everyone. Even her kids, their disposition when she’s around changed completely. A few of us have subtly pointed things out to him and he always says everyone is overreacting or something to that effect. So, one day over beers, I finally told him how we all felt. He begged me to. I laid it out clearly and concisely, gave him concrete examples, and explained to him why none of his friends will hang out with him anymore. He agreed, cried, was apologetic but shocked that it was as bad as it was. And that was the last time he and I hung out, 3 years ago.” — M00N3EAM
5.
“Coworker of mine is married to a Karen. He tells us stories multiple days a week how she drives to four different grocery stores and harasses the employees because their stock is low on the specific item she wants.”—ShrekTheHallz
6.
“Blink blink blink Bliiiink Bliiiink Bliiiink Blink blink blink.”—Sleek_ 24
7.
“None of them are on here, they’re on shared Facebook accounts named “KarenNDave Smith”. this exploded more than I could imagine, thanks for the awards and my first gold.”—ImAGirlPants
8.
“My Mom is a literal Karen, as in…it’s her name. But she’s like a Bizarro Karen. She will constantly ask to speak with managers and supervisors and bosses… But when said managers arrive, she unloads about the employee helping her out was fantastic, hardworking and friendly. And then she’ll spend 20 minutes trying to figure out if she and the manager know someone in common. Nine times out of 10 they do. As a kid it would embarrass me, as an adult it’s one of my favorite things about her. She makes people feel good about the work they do—and it’s really special to watch how wonderful she makes people feel. Plus she’s got long gorgeous silver hair. “—areaysee
9.
“My husband’s ex is Karen. She a classic narcissist. When one of our feral hens started acting aggressive towards other hens, my stepson named her Karen.”—taney34
10.
“I was married to a “Karen”. I’m sure the question on everyone’s mind is “was she like that at home”, the answer is abso-f*cking-lutely. She was the kind of Karen who it had to be absolutely perfect or I’m complaining. Restaurants, stores, anything. At home was worse. I couldn’t do anything right. Any ambitions or dreams I had, I wasn’t good enough to do…so why try. Ugh. So glad I divorced her! Bonus: the lawyer she hired was an idiot and wrote the paperwork up wrong, so she won’t get anything from my retirement.”—rockman99
