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Calling someone a ‘Karen’ is ‘borderline racist, sexist and ageist’, tribunal says
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2025
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Judge must be a Karen
[Karen] is pejorative.
No shit, Sherlock. It's an insult. Insults are pejorative. That's literally the point. It doesn't make it a slur, though. Slurs are about insulting someone for their genetic attributes, like their race or sex, or their sexuality, their nationality, or their religious or cultural identity, i.e. things that are inherent and largely unchosen about their identity. Slurs are not critiques for behaviors. "Asshole", "Fascist", "Bigot", and "Karen" are insults that are about behaviors, specifically about treating others without respect, equality, or basic human decency.
"Karen" is an insult for someone who acts entitled and who treats service workers poorly or sticks their nose into others' business and tries to police their behavior. The fact of the matter is that the majority of people that are that entitled and behave that way (in the US at least) are middle aged or elderly white women, which is where the name came from. But the term is not about insulting someone for being a middle aged or elderly white woman, is it? It's about their behavior. Older white women aren't the only ones that can be Karens, and most older white women do not behave like Karens.
If you cannot see the difference between insulting things you do vs things you are, you are probably very familiar with actual slurs.
You can choose not to be a Karen. You can't choose not to be Black, for instance. Big difference.
So we just go back to using 'entitled dickhead'?
Sounds about right. I do think the “Karen” stereotype is a bit unfair to some people with the name; I know a Karen who is literally the opposite person, she is lovely, sweet, and shy and well intentioned and empathetic.
You can still put Karen in a headline. Children can still be named Karen.
Ok, Karen...
honest question,
isn't insulting someone protected by freedom of speech?
like, you can't prosecute someone for saying the N word
edit: first of all, my bad, thought it was the States, missed the UK part.
they do have hate speech laws there. I rescind my question
You think British people have free speech? They get the police knocking at their door for dark jokes on social media.
oh no,
I'm not allowed to advocate harm to minorities, the tyranny.
In Brazil you can totally go to jail for saying racist shit.
hate speech laws make sense.
but was asking specifically about the US, which was stupid because the article is about the UK
using the n word is hate speech and is a derogatory against race which is usually a protected status.
calling someone a Karen is like calling someone a bitch or an asshole. it is protected by freedom of speech because you're attacking their character not their identity.
first of all, my bad, thought it was the States, missed the UK part.
they do have hate speech laws there. I rescind my question
Judges do not understand that the term has become a general reference most often unrelated to the initial stereotype.
But also a lawyer bloody well should have known better than to use such terminology.
Yeah, it was useful for about six months or so, but now it's just stupid.
Well what isn't. Those terms have been devalued to zero over the past 7 years or so.
Judges being behind language vernaculars of the current generation‽ Say it isn’t so chat?
boomer judge haz no rizz.