Why We Should Stop Calling Women “Karens”

A name should not be a judgmental slur

Which of the four females pictured is ‘a Karen?’
Photo credits and the answer at bottom of article

To all the wonderful women named Karen, I think society or the media owes you an apology.

I’m sure you’ve noticed, people are using your name as a term for an overly-demanding, privileged white woman. There are a few theories of how this happened.

But who cares how we got here? Let’s stop.

If a woman has the name ‘Karen’ on her birth certificate, then you can call her Karen. If not, then find out what her name is and use it.

We ought to call individuals by their name, not by some category we think they fit into. This isn’t high school where the jocks, burnouts, preps, and nerd labels were inescapable. Once we graduated from high school the world was supposed to become more nuanced, less pigeonholed.

We were supposed to grow up.

Lots of Karens

Besides if we were going to pigeonhole women named ‘Karen’, what grouping would we choose?

Actress/Comedian — Karen Allen, Karen Black, Karen Gillan, Karen Kilgariff,

Author — Karen Ackerman, Karen Anderson, Karen Armstrong, Karen Blixen