Women Named Karen Are Paying A Price For Just Being Karen

Ah the power of a stereotype! What do you think of when some says person "X" is a Karen? Do you know someone who fits the description?

Who is Karen? Perhaps the better question is - what is a "Karen"? Here's what the Urban Dictionary says from 2018 - Karen "a middle aged woman, typically blonde, makes solutions to others' problems an inconvenience to her although she isn't even remotely affected.....(EXAMPLE) Karen sues the local city council after they installed a new STOP sign that hides the sun from her window for two minutes a day. The sign was installed after a school boy on his bicycle was hit by a speeding driver and died."

The origin of the usage is tricky to pin down but some say it goes back to a bit from a Dane Cook comedy performance in the mid 2000's.

There have been countless "KAREN" memes and references recently and they are starting to have an impact on real life ladies named Karen!

The UK DailyMail reports "women with the name Karen say their love lives have taken a hit since their name became synonymous with pushy, white, racist, middle-aged women. Dating app Wingman asked its users named Karen how their results from the app have changed over the last year, and the Karens report having nearly a third fewer matches this year compared to the same time in 2019"

The Wingman app team says these declines are not system wide but specifically occurred with women named Karen. Women with other spellings of the name—Karin, Carin, Caren—have seen a smaller drop in engagement, but still show a 22 percent decline! That is one powerful stereotype!

BBC-dot-com has an article called "What exactly is a "Karen" and where did the meme come from? It's a good source of info if you are up to speed on your critical memes.

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Categories: Consumer Awareness, Technology, Weird News