Karen Memes

First time hearing about ‘Ben’
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…….This wouldn’t be the first time a common name has been smeared via meme culture. Social media has been responsible for the ridiculing of men named Chad (a stereotypical alpha male), young women named Becky (slightly basic white women who love pumpkin spice lattes and Uggs) and, most notoriously, middle-aged women named Karen (we’ll get to that shortly).

Thousands of people unfortunate enough to possess one of these names might have to grapple with jokes made at their expense. But it’s debatable whether they’ve suffered real consequences as a result. Is being named Ben or Karen genuinely miserable in 2023?

Karen Van Hook is a 61-year-old voice coach from near Boston, Massachusetts. In 2019, she noticed that people were making fun of her name online.

The “Karen” meme depicted a photograph of a middle-aged white woman with straw-blonde hair cropped in an asymmetric bob, alongside the text: “I would like to speak to a manager.” It went viral.

As per the rules of the meme, a “Karen” is always white. She is over the age of 40. She shouts at baristas when her coffee order is wrong. She has a controlling, superior attitude. She demands to speak to the person in charge after every minor inconvenience.

The meme caught on, becoming a catch-all for any middle-aged white woman who faces the world with entitlement and rudeness.

Van Hook discovered that there were other Karens out there equally confused by the meme – and even a support group on Facebook called Karens United.

There, more than 2,000 women named Karen (or Karyn, or other variations on its spelling) were venting and debating what their name had come to symbolise. Van Hook joined after she saw jokes about Karens being anti-maskers (she herself wears a mask and has been shielding since the pandemic).

When I first hear about the group, I’ll admit there was something slightly humorous about it. But after I speak to Van Hook, it becomes clear that they’ve been seriously affected by the meme and are desperately wanting to clear their names.

“We got together to laugh about how we’re getting sick of these silly jokes,” she says. “But then, as it got more hateful, it became a more serious support group.” Van Hook assumed people would “snap out of it”. But they didn’t.

Van Hook tells me some of the stories she’s heard from Karens United members. Just last week, one woman named Karen gave her name in a bakery and was laughed at by the employees. Another was asked by a barista if she wanted to “change” her name so they didn’t have to call out “Karen” once her order had been made.

“Some women are even considering a legal name change,” she says. One member has a three-year-old daughter named Karen. “And she’s hoping that the fad will pass before little Karen is old enough to know what’s happening.”……..

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/ben-stage-karen-tiktok-meme-b2286229.html