Julie Burchill

Be more Karen

What’s wrong with being a difficult woman?

  • From Spectator Life

In case you were under the apprehension that ‘Karen’ is simply an attractive name popularly given to girl babies in the early 1960s (my best friend as a child was called Karen, and there were three more in our year at my sink-school comprehensive) I’ve got news for you. To quote dictionary.com:

Karen is a pejorative slang term for an obnoxious, angry, entitled, and often racist middle-aged white woman who uses her privilege to get her way or police other people’s behaviours. As featured in memes, Karen is generally stereotyped as having a blonde bob haircut, asking to speak to retail and restaurant managers to voice complaints or make demands.

In other words, it’s a witless way to objectify and demonise non-posh women – you can’t pick on mothers-in-laws any more, but here’s a handy female stand-in punch bag.

This is yet another pathetic attack on women and the working class

I love my adopted hometown of Brighton, but it houses the biggest selection of over-privileged idiots you ever did see outside of ‘Glasto’.

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