Karen is a mocking slang term for an entitled, obnoxious, middle-aged white woman. Especially 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, and being a nagging, often divorced mother from Generation X.
Every time I hear it I cringe so much. I absolutely hate it. Add to that all the Karens I know are nothing like this
While I don't think it's a very fair term to the nice people here called Karen, please try not to take it personally. Folks know who you are; the person you are..so no worries there (yet I'd hate it too if my name was Karen and I was a nice decent person!!)
The "Karens" out there, unfortunately, ruin it for the great Karens out there..and again..I was friends for many years with someone I saw as a great person. Friends in the 80's/90's. She eventually moved miles away from me after that, and we'd either spend time talking on the phone for hours; or would get together now and then. Never realized what a total "Karen" she was until she moved back to the town I was living in, giving us more time to hang out.
I apologize if this may get a bit long..my life with a "Karen".
I learned the first day we hung out after she came back. Going through a 2" PLUS pile of receipts (while we ate lunch) in order the return the bags and bags of clothes to TJ Maxx she had in her trunk. I found it totally ridiculous and said something. She got completely defensive and told me that it was HER right as a customer to return the clothes she purchased there, as that was their return policy. She told me she'd worn half of them and while not getting an especially great "reception" from her significant other while they were out..she was returning those also. Told her that returning those clothes may not be the best idea..but she came back with, "Hey..it's MY right re their return policy.", along with, "My personal bank account..."
My friend had absolutely no filter when they brought our food out. When the waitress came back to ask if everything was okay..she complained that she order fries (she DIDN'T), so they brought out an order of fries they didn't charge her for. While my friend complained about her "bun being wet", I told her that it was probably the juices from the steak sandwich she ordered..and to just let it go. Waitress came back to check again..and it was like my friend's head was going to blow off if she didn't say something..."Well...the bun on my sandwich is really wet..and very soggy to eat.." The waitress said, "Well you ordered it medium rare..it's the juices in the meat honey." as my friend proceeded to tell her that the LAST time she ordered the exact same sandwich the exact same way..it wasn't like that..all wet and soggy. I wanted to crawl under the table while she argued with the waitress for 10 minutes!! How TOTALLY embarrassing!!!
"Karen" showed up often during our days out..me trying to just look past it. Not so when we went to our cousin's family establishment and she went off on my cousin for not telling her about the "Football Game" special they had. $15 all you can drink mixers during the game; while "Karen" paid $10 for all the beer she could drink, etc. Took one look at MY drink and started scolding the bartender (my cousin), for not explaining to her about ALL the specials!! Ripped my cousin a new one to get her first beer free..and then pay $15 for mixers. I apologized for "Karen" a ton to my cousin. No biggie. Still soo darned embarrassing!!
The worst was at our wedding. Everyone was told they'd have to pay to have their own hair and makeup done ON THEIR DIME. Our amazing photographer pulled out her makeup case, set it aside for later; (as she planned on doing MY makeup as a surprise wedding gift.) All my girls knew better than to bother her as she was there to take pictures and NOT do makeup (except mine)....until the first part of my photo ops were taken.
Welll "Jealous Karen" took it upon herself to ask our photographer to do her makeup the second she saw the makeup kit come out. Where it went from there....UGH!! Our sweet photographer spent TWO hours doing her makeup (while losing dozens of photo ops I wanted!!)
Came in the room I was getting dressed in..apologizing profusely; as she'd wanted to do MY makeup as a wedding gift. No biggie..I just wanted to get married to the love of my life!!
THEN shortly before we were to walk down the aisle..."Karen" was nowhere to be found. Came bombing into the parking lot in her car..running up as fast as she could. There's a picture somewhere of me with my hand on my hip asking her where the heck she was. She said, "I went to Walgreens to get some lipliner to match my lipstick.."
Drop the mic right there!! That's when I KNEW we should have walked down the aisle without her...letting her make a fool of herself trying to catch up.
That friendship went from the land of great friendships to the land of NO MORE!!
Why I continued to spend time with her anymore after that fiasco re her is beyond me. Guess I don't really know how to say no when one is dealing with a freakshow. Hate to say it, but thank goodness for the lockdown..good excuse for a year no longer able to spend any time with her. The lack of spending time together continues...WHEW!!!