Where I live, even if it's been misogynistically loaded by :reddit-logo: and related communities, "Karens" are very real, both in my neighborhood and where I go to get groceries. They argue, a lot, and are especially confrontational and condescending with employees. They will fight and demand a manager over a difference in cents or a matter of months on an expired coupon, and snap their fingers to get people's attention, lick fingers when handling their money as a performative thing they learned from TV, and it isn't just a women thing. For lack of an agreed-upon term, "Henrys" are roughly the same thing but dress like 55+ year old children, wear flip-flops and cargo shorts and have goatees to go with their thumb heads, and have more direct threats of violence toward employees for the same setbacks.
The other stereotype involves self-described libertarians. I knew dozens, in fact scores, during college, and many never grew out of it. Speaking of growing up, almost every single one of them at some point argued with me, usually unprompted, that age of consent laws are "a social construct" and that "a lot of teenagers, and even children" (their words not mine :desolate: ) "are easily as logical and capable of consent as adults." Lots of them cited how child marriage is common and normal or even that they had ancestors that had child marriages and dared me to say their ancestors were pedophiles (in one case, I did dare say that. Yes, there was a fight). They didn't agree on everything but their desire to violate teenagers was a consistent trait. :epstein:
Karens are, sadly, a thing. I really don't know what to do when some of my friends start to have a Karen moment, except try to gently defuse the situation. I have a theory it's a response to the economic and social precarity of middle-aged women in the middle classes, related to the "Social Invisibility" many older women experience in all classes. There are two responses for middle-class women who find this intolerable.
Wear a lot of purple and be charmingly eccentric (I fully support this option)
Be a Karen, act in all the ways people find are most annoying in masculine-coded people, but without the social hierarchy giving you the cred to pull it off.
And I get it, the process of "Femininity isn't working anymore, I'll try treating people how every 45-Year old Male Bank Manager has treated me all my life" but it's a horrible thing to behold and it doesn't make them not an asshole.
This is extremely, insightfully on point. And I absolutely support a woman's right to wear a lot of purple and get a little nutty with it. Those are some of my favourite people. In fact one gave me a recipe the other day because she saw I was picking wild garlic and when I told her thanks she said it was even better when made with "that weed butter" before laughing to herself as she walked off. I stan our purple queens.
:fidel-cool: :deng-salute: :xi-clap: