Summary
She's rude. She's got a bad haircut. And she will, indeed, be speaking to your manager. We've finally arrived at everyone's favourite pejorative, "Karen". The most contemptible lady in America today, Karen has had a bit of a reverse trajectory in popular culture. Hannah and Maia discuss the dual role that Karen occupies on our feeds, from the "can I speak to your manager" meme to her more insidious form as a 'Miss Ann', and the throughline of entitlement that runs between them. To what degree can we critique elements of ageism/misogyny embedded in the Karen meme, while unpacking the very devastating consequences that "white women tears" have had, both historically and imminently, on BIPOC living in the United States? It's time to rehash.
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SOURCES:
Henry Goldblatt, “A Brief History of ‘Karen’” (2020), The New York Times
Evan Nicole Brown, “Will It Take a Clever Acronym to Stop Racially Motivated 911 Calls?” (2020), The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/briefing/caren-act-911-san-francisco.html
Robin Queen, “How ‘Karen’ went from a popular baby name to a stand-in for white entitlement” (2020), The Conversation https://theconversation.com/how-karen-went-from-a-popular-baby-name-to-a-stand-in-for-white-entitlement-139644
Hadley Freeman, “The ‘Karen’ meme is everywhere - and it has become mired in sexism” (2020), The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2020/apr/13/the-karen-meme-is-everywhere-and-it-has-become-mired-in-sexism
Aja Romano, “Karen: The anti-vaxxer soccer mom with speak-to-the-manager hair, explained”, (2020), Vox https://www.vox.com/2020/2/5/21079162/karen-name-insult-meme-manager
“What’s In A ‘Karen’?, (2020) Code Switch https://www.npr.org/transcripts/891177904
Aja Romano “How ‘Karen’ became a symbol of racism”, (2020) Vox https://www.vox.com/21317728/karen-meaning-meme-racist-coronavirus
“The Murder of Emmett Till”, PBS https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/till-timeline/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We've got straight vibes in this room right now. |
| 0:03.0 | We have the incense going. |
| 0:05.2 | I bought this gentrified incense for like $15, but it smells really good. |
| 0:09.6 | It does smell nice. |
| 0:10.4 | I have always loved incense so much. |
| 0:13.6 | When I was a kid, we had this one family that we were friends with, and they always had |
| 0:17.5 | incense in their house. |
| 0:19.5 | And I loved it so much. And my parents hate the smell |
| 0:22.6 | of incense. So whenever I would light it in my own room, they'd be really annoyed at me. But yeah, |
| 0:28.6 | going to Kensington Market as a kid, I loved it because everything smelled like incense. |
| 0:32.8 | Oh. Yeah. My parents always lit incense growing up. Our home was different. I mean, to be fair, |
| 0:40.0 | we're also Hindu, so that's why. But my parents also went with this kind of like pan-Asian, |
| 0:45.7 | like, inspired decor. It was a different time. And then we always had incense going and like |
| 0:51.3 | multiple Buddhas around the house. It was was a vibe and that was like such a |
| 0:56.6 | thing like when we were growing out there was such a thing there was warehouses yeah gentrified incense |
| 1:02.2 | buy it or don't where do you buy gentrified incense i get it at the store that's like these |
| 1:06.8 | overpriced goods like i don't know how to describe it. They'll sell like little key trays and |
| 1:11.9 | little pots for your plants, but then also like incense and soap. But this incense, it just |
| 1:16.7 | lasts so long and it smells like sandal wood. It smells great. I love it. I love a nice smelling |
| 1:23.0 | apartment. Do you have a plug? |
| 1:32.9 | Movie sent me like a free tote for Christmas and I was like that is so awesome. So I've been carrying it around everywhere because it's just a really nice tote bag. But then I keep having |
| 1:36.8 | people being like, what is Mooby? And then I'll just start like rolling my ad to them. |
... |
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