Thread by @JuliaPillai

@bairdjulia @smh So um, @bairdjulia , I’m a massive meme follower. The “Karen” meme only recently became associated with Gen x. Let’s do a deep dive. Karen was originally about a hairstyle

@bairdjulia @smh So it’s originally about a middle aged woman (and the gen x association came once people realised that 40-50 y/o people arentvbaby boomers but gen x-ers- well and truly after the Karen meme went viral.

@bairdjulia @smh “Karen” grew out from the “I want to speak to your manager” meme which was about a middle aged upper middle class woman with a particular haircut

@bairdjulia @smh The Karen character is not specifically gen x, there’s boomer Karen’s, gen x Karen’s, certainly gen y Karen’s in training and gen z Karen’s

@bairdjulia @smh (Oops I shared the same meme picture twice) @knowyourmeme is a pretty valuable resource, here’s their page on speaking to the manager knowyourmeme.com/memes/speak-to…

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme Somewhere along the line, the yummy mummy, 4 wheel drive driving, talking to the manager, soccer mom type got baptised as Karen (here’s an example of when they called her Kim)

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme Then Karen became “that b***” the person who was just kinda nasty in a way that embodies privilege and entitlement in a gross kind of way. See, we can’t all be Neurotypical Karen

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme The “Karen = that b” association became a broader critique about not only entitlement but a critique about a more malicious kind of behaviour. See anti vaxxers, casual racists, MLM types etc. google.com.au/amp/s/amp.know…

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme At this point Karen is no longer about a haircut. This then becomes a much more political meme. In neurodiversity related memes I see Karen as the anti vaxxer Mum, in PoC/indigenous spaces Karen is “the ‘innocent’ white woman”

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme Then I guess it’s important to talk about “too strong for you Karen” which is Aus specific and definitely about race. Now, according to the original meme, don’t think the “Karen” here fits the haircut/middle class/suburban/speaking to the manager mould but
sbs.com.au/news/mildura-w…

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme -but at this point Karen = malicious relatively privileged white Person. But like, this is a turning point for the Australian context of the meme. It’s no longer about 4 wheeled drives, to the people making the meme it’s about the violence of white women.

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme So out of that rabbit hole, the gen x thing really came out from after buzzfeed reported on Karen memes (years after the meme started). This came out after ok boomer burst out of memescurity (as it were)

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme So this is the article to which I was referring. As a gen z I don’t remember the time we got together and voted on this... buzzfeednews.com/article/lauren…

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme So the gen x association was probably due to generational conflict being in The zeitgeist/memegeist. But that isn’t really the point of the meme.

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme So then I guess, yeah it’s weird that it’s specifically towards women. But I would not say a Karen = a woman speaking out. Karen is specifically self righteous (across apolitical and political iterations of the meme)

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme In conclusion I get why Karen meme seems wrong if you don’t have the context of the memes origins and the memes more political contexts. I’m still annoyed at buzzfeed pushing the “its generational” slant when that is not the main point of the meme really.

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme And ps, I think the meme has become less funny/powerful since it became a generational drama meme

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme Épilogue
Someone linked this. Just want to note that this entry specifically cites the buzzfeed article. I’m of the mind that the generational aspect of Karen would be only minor if it weren’t for buzzfeed google.com.au/amp/s/amp.know…

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme I think @bairdjulia brings up good points about meme cultures treatment of women. Yes, a Karen isn’t as suggest a woman just speaking up. A Karen isn’t a nice person- fundamentally. But we don’t have male specific terms in mainstream meme culture

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme Ok it’s late here but I guess my little light bulb is that there are memes that are against certain kinds of men but they don’t go mainstream because of the ways memes form/are appropriated/reappropriate etc

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme The Karen timeline is
1. Fun meme, apolitical, lol hair
2. A critique on treatment of hospitality workers
3. A meme about white women and their role in class/race relations
4. we don’t like Karen for genuine reasons
5. Karen is gen x’ers
6. wE dOn’T LiKe kArEn

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme Step six is I think where we see people resort to lazy insults towards ppl they don’t like

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme is there a male equivalent to a Karen or at least a male meme character who is just unlikable. The closest I can think of are the chad/virgin memes, they were started by incels but the formula has been appropriated by normal meme folk to dig at incels google.com.au/amp/s/amp.know…

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme By reappropriated by normal folk an example after a white nationalist shooting was stopped by a grandpa in a mosque this meme was making the rounds. Here it aims criticises the would be shooter and celebrates. But also memes like this aren’t mainstream (and maybe for good reason)

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme Then you got doomer and wojak but this all thoroughly reddit style memes that won’t really carry through to mainstream non meme zeitgeist google.com.au/amp/s/amp.know…

@bairdjulia @smh @knowyourmeme TLDR; most of the memes that bag out men for poor behaviour/bad traits were made by edgelords on 4chan/reddit who aren’t great/funny/good people whereas Karen meme didn’t ever come from a deeply malicious place but fell into it maybe?