So-called "Karen" videos have become a staple on social media. Meme accounts like "karensgoingwild" broadcast "Karen" incidents to millions of followers, and almost every day there's a new trending "Karen" caught on tape.
What first began as meme shorthand to describe white women acting in an entitled way has become a part of the vernacular — a succinct way to clock white women behaving badly, especially when that behavior involves racism or another form of discrimination.
The "Karen" archetype has always existed in some form or other (see also: Becky), but the twin factors of the COVID-19 pandemic and the conversation around race and police brutality following the death of George Floyd have turned "Karen"-spotting into something of a national pastime. In recent months, "Karens" have waged war against wearing masks, pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protestors, and called the police on a Black birder.
"Karen"-ing has become a way of confronting the complicated space white women occupy as victims of misogyny and gendered discrimination, possessors of privilege, and perpetrators of racism. Many have criticized the term as sexist, noting there's not a similar trend around white men who have committed similar trangressions. Some worry about the impact of mass outrage over video snippets that flatten a person's life into a single recorded moment, leaving them vulnerable to doxxing and harassment. And still others argue against using the name "Karen" because they say it gives a non-threatening and de-personalized moniker to deeply harmful behavior — effectively allowing these women to distance themselves from their actions.
Despite the wide range of opinions surrounding "Karen" memes and stories, the viral videos have captured the news cycle and taken over the internet.
Here's a history of how the term has exploded into the mainstream.