Karen
A first name that became a character, an accusation and one of the most argued-over words of 2020.
A saying
- SourceNo single original
- MediaNot held by ViralWorld
What this was
A pejorative for a woman who demands to speak to the manager — a stock figure with a haircut, a tone and an assumed willingness to escalate a small dispute using whatever authority she can reach for. The name had been in circulation online for several years, and became universal during 2020.
It first appeared in 2020, during short-form and streams.
It is the clearest recent example of internet shorthand doing serious work and taking serious damage at the same time. In 2020 the term was applied to a widely reported incident in which a white woman called the police on a Black birdwatcher in Central Park, and it became the standard way Americans discussed a specific kind of racialised confrontation — the Guardian called 2020 "the year of Karen". It was simultaneously criticised as sexist, ageist and classist, and defended as naming a real behaviour.
The word entered dictionaries, generated its own counter-arguments in serious outlets including NPR and the BBC, and gave rise to a genre of filmed public confrontation that raises its own questions about consent and permanent record. It has also, awkwardly, made life harder for a large number of people called Karen.
More from 2020
- Doggface208 Dreams video 2020Short-form and streams
- Baka Mitai 2020Short-form and streams
- Xue Hua Piao Piao 2020Short-form and streams
- VTubers 2020Short-form and streams
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons 2020Short-form and streams
- Jerusalema 2020Short-form and streams
- Tiger King 2020Short-form and streams
- Jerusalema Dance Challenge 2020Short-form and streams
- Ratatouille the Musical 2020Short-form and streams
- We did it, Joe! 2020Short-form and streams
Short-form and streams
- The GameStop short squeeze 2021Short-form and streams
- FoodTok 2021Short-form and streams
- Noodle 2021Short-form and streams
- Hawk Tuah 2024Short-form and streams
- Moo Deng 2024Short-form and streams
- Sigma Boy 2024Short-form and streams
- AI slop 2024Short-form and streams
- Grimace Shake 2023Short-form and streams
- Skibidi Toilet 2023Short-form and streams
Related
Nothing related yet. Relationships are recorded where evidence supports them, not inferred from similarity.
Behind the recordWhere it came from
There is no original to identify: this spread through many separate posts at once rather than from a first one. ViralWorld holds no copy of it either — what it was, when it spread and what people called it is the record.
Nothing here is claimed to be the first version of this, because research established there was not one — it appeared in many places at once.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
- What happens
- A pejorative for a woman who demands to speak to the manager — a stock figure with a haircut, a tone and an assumed willingness to escalate a small dispute using whatever authority she can reach for. The name had been in circulation online for several years, and became universal during 2020.