The Karens of America
Watching the news yesterday, I occasionally saw the word Karen, and I didn't feel that the corners of my mouth were upturned. Karen is one of the internet celebrity words that soared in North America in 2020-21, and with the special period, the advantages and disadvantages of human nature were magnified, and Karen's performance became more obvious. Let's first take a look at the explanation in the dictionary, because it is a "terrier" internet celebrity word, we can only find it in the urban dictionary.
A Karen gets the wrong end of the stick, believing to be the victim of any given situation due to an overly inflated sense of entitlement. Karens cannot be reasoned with, and often expose themselves to widespread ridicule due to outlandish behaviors, usually leading to the explosion of a trivial issue into something unnecessarily large.
Did you see that? Karen refers to the group of middle-aged women who always feel like victims, make unreasonable trouble, and fully expose their ignorance and absurdity. Karen's great traits are: middle-aged white women, accustomed to white privilege, with a mantra of "I'm going to talk to your manager" with a mantra. It is difficult to find a word that corresponds exactly to Karen in the Chinese, this group is a bit like the synthesis of "big mom who forwards health articles in the WeChat group" + "big mom who dances in square dance" + "big mom who takes advantage of small things in the supermarket" + "big mom who looks down on foreigners with the sense of superiority of locals".
Amy Cooper – has become America's "famous woman"
In the 1960s, Karen was one of the three most popular girl names in the United States, but now... Women born then should be in their fifties now, and it's no wonder Karen is synonymous with white mothers. The most famous Karen in the United States, named Amy Cooper, was reminded by a black man to walk her dog without a leash, but called the police to say that the black man threatened her life. Because of this, she was called "Central Park Karen."
Reddit – American Post Bar
You may ask, there are so many women's names, why does Karen become synonymous with white mother? This also starts with reddit (the American version of Tieba) - in 2017, a user complained about his ex-wife on reddit, and then someone built a plate for him called F***You Karen, turning the individual spit into a collective spray on Karen, and then the word went on fire.
I've also seen people on the Internet refer to people with Karen nature among Chinese aunts as "Karen of China"...
Have you learned?