Karen

As slang, a Karen is a woman, stereotypically middle-aged and white, who acts entitled and demanding: confronting store staff, insisting on speaking to the manager, or calling the police over minor things. It’s a disparaging term, and many people consider it offensive.

What “Karen” means

Merriam-Webster labels it slang, disparaging and sometimes offensive. The stereotype has a few classic moves: demanding to see the manager, making a scene in public over a small inconvenience, and using the threat of authority, especially the police, against people with less power. Merriam-Webster notes it’s also applied to women of other backgrounds who act this way.

It got attached to a specific look too: a short, angled bob that the internet dubbed the “can I speak to the manager” haircut.

Examples

• “She asked for a refund on a half-eaten meal. Full Karen.”
• “Don’t be a Karen, the barista is doing her best.”
• “The Karen in the airport line had the whole terminal watching.”

Where it came from

Merriam-Webster dates it to around 2018 and says it originated in African American English. Dictionary.com credits Black Twitter with popularizing it and lists a few suggested sources, including a 2005 Dane Cook comedy bit about “the friend nobody likes” and a character in Mean Girls. Its earliest record is a Tumblr post from September 2016; a subreddit built out the persona in late 2017, and in 2018 it merged with the manager-haircut meme.

It exploded in 2020, when viral videos showed people refusing to wear masks in shops and, in a widely shared May 2020 clip, a white woman calling the police on a Black birdwatcher in New York’s Central Park.

Is “Karen” offensive?

It depends who you ask. Critics, including writers Hadley Freeman and Julie Bindel, have called it sexist, ageist and classist, a ready-made insult for any woman who complains. Many real people named Karen have said they’re tired of it, and there’s no male equivalent that ever caught on the same way.

Defenders say the term describes behavior, not identity, and that it calls out real misuse of privilege. Writer Karen Attiah, then the Washington Post’s global opinions editor, argued that calling it a slur trivializes actual violence and discrimination. Either way, it’s an insult, so use it with that in mind.

Related terms

• OK boomer: a dismissive reply to an out-of-touch older person.
• Main character syndrome: acting like the world revolves around you.
• Pick-me: someone who puts others down to win approval.

See more terms like this in our internet slang dictionary.