Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post provides some internet excerpts about the social meanings in the United States that have been given to the names "Karen", "Becky", "Chad", "Kyle" and "Ken".
The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural and linguistic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-social-meanings-of-terms-chadbro_9.html for a closely related pancocojams post entitled "The Social Meanings Of The Terms "Chadbro" & "Karen & Ken Chadbro".
Also, click the tag "Karen and Becky memes" for other pancocojams posts about the social meanings of these names in the United States of those names.
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THE SOCIAL MEANINGS OF VARIOUS NAMES IN THE UNITED STATES
These excerpts are numbered for referent purposes only.
Excerpt #1
[…]
Only seven commenters posted replies to this often quoted post. Most commenters gave multiple suggested names in their replies. By a very small margin, there were more people who answered “Kevin” (for the USA) than any other name. There was one "Ken" and one “Kenneth”.-snip-
I recall at least one televised incident in May or June 2020 in which a Black man called the White man who was harassing him "Karen".
There may still be no consensus about the best name for the male version of a "Karen". However, as of June 20, 2020, the name "Ken" seems to be winning that "contest".
****
Excerpt #6
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Excerpt #7
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ken-and-karen-st-louis-missouri-gun-couple
Part of a series on 2020 George Floyd Protests. [View Related Entries]
" About
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This pancocojams post provides some internet excerpts about the social meanings in the United States that have been given to the names "Karen", "Becky", "Chad", "Kyle" and "Ken".
The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural and linguistic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-social-meanings-of-terms-chadbro_9.html for a closely related pancocojams post entitled "The Social Meanings Of The Terms "Chadbro" & "Karen & Ken Chadbro".
Also, click the tag "Karen and Becky memes" for other pancocojams posts about the social meanings of these names in the United States of those names.
****
THE SOCIAL MEANINGS OF VARIOUS NAMES IN THE UNITED STATES
These excerpts are numbered for referent purposes only.
Excerpt #1
What does it mean to be a ‘Karen’ or a ‘Chad’? Viral name
memes explained
By Suzy Weiss, May 14, 2020
…”Are you the type of gal who demands to speak to the
manager when you feel you’ve been wronged? You just might be a “Karen.”
Karen is the latest in a growing line of internet memes
poking fun at real-life archetypes. Names such as Karen, Becky and Chad have
been co-opted to call out social faux pas online, think: calling the police to
shut down a kids’ lemonade stand because they don’t have a permit, or as slangy
put-downs like, “Don’t be such a Becky.”
[…]
But while the internet directory is fun, real-life Karens
(or Beckys, Debbies, Chads and Kyles) bear the brunt of the jokes.….
Karen
“Karen” has become social media shorthand meaning a
middle-aged white woman — potentially with an asymmetric haircut a la 2009 Kate
Gosselin — who makes a big fuss, and is not-so-blissfully ignorant...
One recent example of a Karen? A woman brawling with the Red
Lobster staff, reduced because of the pandemic, because she had to wait too
long for her food on Mother’s Day.
Calling the cops, usually on black neighbors, is a calling
card of a host of sub-Karens such as “Pool Patrol Paula” and “Dog Park Debbie,”
who enlisted the help of the police when a man’s dog humped her own at the
park.
Road rage is another feature of this viral type, on full
display on the West Side Highway earlier this year when an angry mom, nicknamed
“Kidz Bop Karen,” lashed out at a Lyft driver and his passenger.
Chad
This one comes from the incel subculture, that’s often
described as involuntary celibate and comprised of mostly men who lack sex and
romance in their lives. Per incel lingo, “Chads” are the guys who get laid.
[…]
These hyper-masculine sexually active dudes have chiseled jaws
and bulging muscles. According to the internet etymology bible “Know Your
Meme,” the term began in the ‘90s in Chicago to describe an affluent frat boy,
but quickly exploded on online forums reddit and 4chan.
[...]
Becky
[…]
This name has been co-opted by both disgruntled online men
like incels and social justice warriors calling out oblivious white women, like
“BBQ Becky” who called the police on a black family’s cookout.
The opening monologue in Sir Mix-A-Lot’s 1992 song “Baby Got
Back” is one of the origins of the disparaging “Becky.” The hit kicks off with
two pals commenting on another woman’s behind: “Oh my God, Becky, look at her
butt! It is so big. She looks like one of those rap guy’s girlfriends.”
[…]
Beyoncé gets some of the credit for revamping this Rebecca
nickname: on her 2016 song “Sorry” she sang “You better call Becky with the
good hair,” which threw the internet into a tailspin of speculation on who she
could have meant.
Now, it’s expanded to reference any snobbish or out-of-touch
woman….
Kyle
[…]
The caricature of Kyle is an angry, young white man with a
love of energy drinks. This name originated from a foul-mouthed video posted in
2015 on the now-defunct video platform Vine. Titled “White kid fight,” it had
over half a million views, and showed a tatted-up teen antagonizing an
imaginary “Kyle.”
Punching drywall, being obsessed with extreme sports such as
paintball and BMX, and opting for wraparound polarized sunglasses are all
tropes of the Kyle meme"...
-snip-
That post includes photos and embedded videos.
-snip-
Added July 5, 2020
That post includes photos and embedded videos.
-snip-
Added July 5, 2020
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE ABOUT THE USE OF THE NAME "KAREN" IN BLACK JEOPARDY'S "RAISIN IN THE POTATO SALAD" SKETCH
A portion of the April 7, 2018 Saturday Night Live's "Black Jeopardy" sketch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzMzFGgmQOc starring Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa [Black Panther] included a reference to a White woman named "Karen". However, this use of the name "Karen" for a White woman doesn't have the negative self-entitled or racist connotations that have been given to other uses of the name "Karen".
A portion of the April 7, 2018 Saturday Night Live's "Black Jeopardy" sketch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzMzFGgmQOc starring Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa [Black Panther] included a reference to a White woman named "Karen". However, this use of the name "Karen" for a White woman doesn't have the negative self-entitled or racist connotations that have been given to other uses of the name "Karen".
In the sketch, Kenan Thompson, in character as the host, reads a card from the category “White People” that says, “Your friend Karen brings her potato salad to your cookout.” T’Challa responds, “I sense that this white woman does not
season her food.” He continues, “Something tells me that I should say, ‘Aw,
hell no naw, Karen! Keep your bland-ass potato salad to yourself!’ " https://variety.com/video/chadwick-boseman-snl-potato-salad-joke/
The core difference between this depiction of the White woman named "Karen" and other depictions of White women named "Karen", particularly in 2020, Karen" is that the female name "Karen" in that Black Jeopardy sketch is described as a "Black man's White friend". Presumably, she is a that Black man's non-romantic female friend, such as a co-worker. In contrast, in most of the later "Karen" memes that include Black men and/or other People of Color, the White woman named "Karen" is adversarial toward those people who she doesn't even know.
Black Jeopardy's "raisin in the potato salad" sketch resulted in a new internet meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/raisin-potato-salad explains this meme as "Raisin Potato Salad is an internet slang term to describe unnecessary actions taken by white people, usually adding their spin on examples of black popular culture."
-end of quote-
I disagree with that interpretation of that meme. Instead, I believe the "raisins in potato salad" meme is all about Black Americans' belief that -in general- we are better cooks than White people and (even more specifically) that the food that White people cook or prepare is often bland, and often contains ingredients and/or seasonings that Black Americans consider unnecessary, strange, and off-putting.
That the White woman in that 2018 Black Jeopardy sketch is named "Karen" may have been a coincidence as "Karen" was/is often considered a "White" female name, That said, I grew up in the 1950s with a Black girl named "Karen", and since then I've known one Black women named "Karen", including one who spelled that name "Caren". I'm sure that there are still a lot of Females of Color who share the name "Karen" with White females. And I'm also sure that there are many White females named "Karen" who aren't self-entitled and/or racist- and some of those women probably know how to prepare a delicious bowl of potato salad- without raisins.
That the White woman in that 2018 Black Jeopardy sketch is named "Karen" may have been a coincidence as "Karen" was/is often considered a "White" female name, That said, I grew up in the 1950s with a Black girl named "Karen", and since then I've known one Black women named "Karen", including one who spelled that name "Caren". I'm sure that there are still a lot of Females of Color who share the name "Karen" with White females. And I'm also sure that there are many White females named "Karen" who aren't self-entitled and/or racist- and some of those women probably know how to prepare a delicious bowl of potato salad- without raisins.
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Excerpt #2
Excerpt #2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_(slang)
"A Chad, in derogatory slang, is a young urban American man, typically White, single and in his 20s or early 30s.[1]
"A Chad, in derogatory slang, is a young urban American man, typically White, single and in his 20s or early 30s.[1]
History
The term originated in Chicago, Illinois.[1][2] It was
further covered by a satirical website dedicated to the Lincoln Park Chad
Society, a fictional social club based in Chicago's upscale Lincoln Park
neighborhood.[2] The female counterpart to the Chad, in slang, is the Trixie[3]
or Stacy.[4][5][6][7]
A Chad was originally depicted as originating in
Chicago's affluent North Shore suburbs... receiving a
BMW for his 16th birthday, obtaining a law or business degree from a Big Ten
university, belonging to a fraternity, moving to Lincoln Park, marrying a
Trixie, and then moving back to the North Suburbs.[8]
Manosphere
The term was later appropriated in incel forums to refer to
sexually active "alpha males".[9] Within the manosphere, Chads are
viewed as constituting the top decile in terms of genetic fitness.[10] In
online animation drawings in the manosphere, a Chad is further tagged with the
last name Thundercock and is often depicted as muscular with a very pronounced
crotch bulge.[11]
[…]
Due to their characterisation as being genetically gifted
and privileged—though sometimes depicted as shallow, air-headed, arrogant, and
overtly sexual[13]—the term Chad is used in both a pejorative and complimentary
way on incel forums.[14][15]
-snip-
Here's my correction for that first sentence: "A Chad, in derogatory slang, is a young urban American man, typically White, single and in his 20s or early 30s.[1]
-snip-
Here's my correction for that first sentence: "A Chad, in derogatory slang, is a young urban American man, typically White, single and in his 20s or early 30s.[1]
****
Excerpt #3
Excerpt #3
https://qz.com/1092037/the-alt-right-is-creating-its-own-dialect-heres-a-complete-guide/ The alt-right is creating its own dialect. Here’s the
dictionary
October 30, 2017
By Nikhil Sonnad & Tim Squirrell
"…Chad
Origin: Unknown, possibly 4chan
Meaning: Chad Thundercock—or just “chad”—is a derogatory
name given to attractive men who are sexually successful with women.
Etymology: The origin of the meaning of “chad” is murky, but
it was probably popularized on 4chan, the imageboard also home to the Anonymous
hacker collective. It rose out of the depths of the internet around 2013 but
only reached alt-right consciousness in the last year or so. (You might have
seen the “virgin walk” memes floating around, for example.)
Today the place you’ll see “chad” most often is on the
subreddit r/Incels, which is a depressing mix of self-loathing, self-pity, and
misogyny. Chads are the ubiquitous successful object of envy for this
community: attractive, smart, successful, and always lucky with women. The idea
is used to reinforce the notion that celibacy is involuntary; incels think the
only reason why women won’t sleep with them is because they don’t look like
chads, as women are shallow and will always go for chads."
-snip-
Incels...a portmanteau, of "involuntary celibates", are members of an online subculture who define themselves as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one.[1][2][3] Discussions in incel forums are often characterized by resentment, misogyny, misanthropy, self-pity, and self-loathing, racism, a sense of entitlement to sex, and the endorsement of violence against sexually active people.[14] ... Incels are mostly male and hetrosexual. Many sources report that incels are predominantly white, although a group of researchers have argued that there is no definitive proof to support this claim.[18][19][20][21] Estimates of the overall size of the subculture vary greatly, ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands.[22][23]"...
-snip-
Incels...a portmanteau, of "involuntary celibates", are members of an online subculture who define themselves as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one.[1][2][3] Discussions in incel forums are often characterized by resentment, misogyny, misanthropy, self-pity, and self-loathing, racism, a sense of entitlement to sex, and the endorsement of violence against sexually active people.[14] ... Incels are mostly male and hetrosexual. Many sources report that incels are predominantly white, although a group of researchers have argued that there is no definitive proof to support this claim.[18][19][20][21] Estimates of the overall size of the subculture vary greatly, ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands.[22][23]"...
****
Excerpt #4
Excerpt #4
A Kyle, in derogatory slang, is an online caricature of a white
boy referenced as an antagonistic character in memes. Similar to how Karen is
used online, "Kyle" jokes parody a certain kind of person with a set
of characteristics one associates with the name; in "Kyle's" case,
these are characteristics of an angry, video game–playing white male
teenager.[1][2]
History
Kyle memes began on Twitter in 2015, then spread to Reddit,
leading to the creation of the /r/Kyle subreddit in 2016 and the expression
"Kyles gonna Kyle." They include exercising poor judgment and acting
impulsively,[3] punching holes in drywall and drinking Monster energy
drinks.[2][1]
Bro culture is a subculture of young men and adults who
spend time partying with others like themselves.[1] Although the original image
of the bro lifestyle is associated with sports apparel and fraternities, it
lacks a consistent definition. Most aspects vary regionally such as in
California where it overlaps with surf culture.[2] Oxford Dictionaries have
noted that bros frequently self-identify with neologisms containing the word
"bro" as a prefix or suffix.[1]"...
-snip-
-snip-
Pancocojams Editorial Note
There are a number of internet discussion threads and articles asking about the name for the male version of "Karen". Prior to June 2020 and in particular prior to the incident with the St. Louis Missouri couple [discussed in Excerpt #5], there didn't appear to me to be any consensus about the name that would be the best fit for "male Karens". Most of those posts include profanity, for example the October 2019 reddit post with the "f__ word" in its link that has the title "A male Karen! Do we have a name for that yet? Ken?" [October 2019].
Only seven commenters posted replies to this often quoted post. Most commenters gave multiple suggested names in their replies. By a very small margin, there were more people who answered “Kevin” (for the USA) than any other name. There was one "Ken" and one “Kenneth”.-snip-
I recall at least one televised incident in May or June 2020 in which a Black man called the White man who was harassing him "Karen".
There may still be no consensus about the best name for the male version of a "Karen". However, as of June 20, 2020, the name "Ken" seems to be winning that "contest".
****
What Is the Male Version of a Karen?
His name is Ken. He might be you.
By Matt Berical Jun 08 2020
"It all started with BBQ Becky. Before she was re-birthed,
dripping in the amniotic fluid of internet shorthand, her name was Jennifer
Schulte and she was a middle-aged white woman who called the police to report
that a black family was using a charcoal grill in a park where open fires were
not allowed. Schulte dialed 911 several times over the course of a few hours
not because she was in any danger but because the family was doing something
that she didn’t like — open fires turned out to be permitted, as though that
matters. She wielded her whiteness like a buzzsaw.
Once Twitter got wind of the events, Schulte was given a nom
de guerre, one of a number of dismissive sobriquets for entitled white women
who patrol people of color. BBQ Becky was followed by such figures as Permit
Patty and Central Park Karen, each a riff on the theme of racist
quasi-distress — the discomfort of the
privileged mistaken for an emergency. While the name Karen has come to describe
a particular type of middle-aged white woman who demands to speak to the
manager, she falls into this taxonomy as well. While less discussed, these
women have male counterparts. Karen has a husband. His name is Ken.
“It’s a snapshot of a conversation happening,” Dr. Apryl
Williams, an assistant professor at University of Michigan and Fellow at the
Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard who broadly studies
race on the internet, says of the Karening of Twitter. “The thing that I love
about it as a tool is that the memes highlight the everyday power of
whiteness.”
To date, the memes have mostly highlighted the everyday
power of whiteness for women. Williams may be the only scholar with a cohesive
theory as to why this is the case and why the Internet (and Black Twitter in
particular) seem to let Kens off the hook. Her theory, based on an analysis of
nearly 100,000 tweets, suggests that racist narratives are deeply internalized
and woven into the fabric of American culture."....
-snip-
The name "Ken" for the male version of a "Karen" is almost certainly lifted from the doll "Ken" who is the boyfriend of the children's fashion doll "Barbie".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Barbie%27s_friends_and_family
"Kenneth Sean "Ken" Carson (1961–1967, 1969–present) The second character added to the line, Ken has been Barbie's boyfriend for much of the character's existence. After a short break, they got back together. According to the 1960s Random House books, Ken's full name is Kenneth Sean Carson."...
-snip-
The fact that the name "Ken" begins with the same letter as the name "Karen" helped that name compete in the contest for the best name for the male version of a "Karen", but other male names (beginning with "K" or beginning with another lettter) appeared to be winning that contest before June 2020.
-snip-
The name "Ken" for the male version of a "Karen" is almost certainly lifted from the doll "Ken" who is the boyfriend of the children's fashion doll "Barbie".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Barbie%27s_friends_and_family
"Kenneth Sean "Ken" Carson (1961–1967, 1969–present) The second character added to the line, Ken has been Barbie's boyfriend for much of the character's existence. After a short break, they got back together. According to the 1960s Random House books, Ken's full name is Kenneth Sean Carson."...
-snip-
The fact that the name "Ken" begins with the same letter as the name "Karen" helped that name compete in the contest for the best name for the male version of a "Karen", but other male names (beginning with "K" or beginning with another lettter) appeared to be winning that contest before June 2020.
Excerpt #6
Erin Wilkins
@SmileyEw
·
Jun 21 [2020]
"This was the Tulsa Ken and Karen rally."
-snip-
This tweet refers to the rally that President Trump had in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Almost all the people attending that rally were White.s
-snip-
This tweet refers to the rally that President Trump had in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Almost all the people attending that rally were White.s
****
Excerpt #7
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ken-and-karen-st-louis-missouri-gun-couple
Part of a series on 2020 George Floyd Protests. [View Related Entries]
June 29, 2020 by Matt; Updated about June 30, 2020 by andcallmeshirley.
Origin
On June 28th, 2020, Twitter user @xhularx tweeted the video.
They wrote, "A couple has come out of their house and is pointing guns at
protesters in their neighborhood." The tweet received more than 10 million
views, 64,000 likes and 37,000 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).
Spread
Throughout the day, people began referring to the couple as
"Ken and Karen," referring to the pejorative meme nickname Karen used
to for overly entitled middle-aged white women. Shortly after @xshularx posted
the video, Twitter[3] user @fusillyjerry tweeted, "Ken and Karen are
seconds from the death penalty being their KARMA." This tweet is the
earliest available reference to the nickname in regards to the video (click
the link to view that video).
[…]
Throughout the next 24 hours, "Ken and Karen" was
trending in the United States on Twitter.
[…]
On June 29th, President Donald Trump retweeted the video."…
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