Why I Don’t Support ‘Karen’ As a slur for women
“Karen is a beautiful girl's name. The name means pure or innocent. “
A few days ago, I was struck by a local journalist's on-air reference to a local woman as a "Karen." The highly respected Santa Barbara reporter was part of a panel discussing a recent altercation between a woman and a construction worker. She is white, the man is Hispanic. The incident went viral, including coverage in the Los Angeles Times.
I don't like Karen used as a slur. For one, its use is exclusive to the female. Two, its ultimate aim is to silence and shame women, so assuredly a form of effective verbal assault. Where have we as women experienced silencing and shaming? Since forever! Must we as mature adults continue to permit playground politics to dictate public discourse?
I wrote to the reporter, a man for whom I have much respect. Happily, he responded to my email the next day. Not only that, but he had taken the time to check out my main contention: that "Karen" is a sex-specific slur intended to silence women. So he asked others at the office if there is a male equivalent to "Karen." (There is not.) Based on that, as well as my feminist distress, he apologized. A good man did the right thing for women.
Perhaps my issue with Karen comes across as trite, given the horrific female-specific issues before WoLF currently. But I don't think so. The same folks who want males in our female spaces, who want to control our bodies in every way, including the taking away of our right to call ourselves mother, who legislate violent felons into female prisons, who support the mutilation and sterilization of healthy young girls -- those are the same folks who now control the language and manipulate discourse in order to twist lies into fact. The rational into insane. I will not permit ideologues to control language.
Karen is a beautiful girl's name. The name means pure or innocent. Karen is also a Hebrew name, so there is the strong possibility that anti-Semitism plays out here, too. Speak out against this female-specific slur. Just end it.
- Celeste B.
Letters From the Front is a series from WoLF curating stories from women about how “gender identity” ideology has impacted them. We’ll share new letters, submitted anonymously, each week. Write in to share your own story!
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