I’m not sure what to call this new trend of using generic innocuous names to embody the image of disagreeable people.
There’s a few out there. Mary Sue means an untalented writer trying to glorify themselves through a fictional character. Chad conjures up an image of a well off snobbish asshole.
But lately, the most famous has been Karen. Karen now means entitled bitch. It’s everywhere.
I supposed there’s some use to having a name to establish an instant identifiable character in people’s minds in short snippets on YouTube and elsewhere.
But when I hear the name Karen, I hear the name of my best friend from grade school. She was murdered a few years ago while delivering pizza. She was a single mother who was nowhere near being an entitled bitch. I don’t like her memory being tainted by a linguistic fad.
I’m lucky. My name is foreign enough that it’s not going to be randomly selected to represent an unlikable person in general.
But I’m sure there a real life Karens out there who aren’t too pleased with this verbal development. But we never hear from them.
How would you feel if the internet or any other media suddenly decided your name meant blindingly stupid or sociopathic killer or eye-watering body odor?
Becky has connotations that are rude. But as a ‘Becky’ myself I just laugh it off.
I remember going in Taco Bell, early last year and giving the order taker my name. When my order was up she called out ‘Becky with the good hair’. She got a big laugh. I turned red in the face. The lil’wrekker explained it was in a Beyonce song.
I lived thru it.
It’s not so bad.
I was ‘Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm’ as a kid.
My Doper name is a nickname my Daddy attached to me, cause I was a klutz.
Yes, I agree that this whole thing of personifying undesirable traits with some named character, is very annoying and juvenile. And I’ve heard people say, “well, people have used the names Tyrone and Shaniqua to embody a generic black person” or whatever. Well…that’s fucked up too! It’s a stupid practice and I, too, wish it would go away.
It’s not new, although use of surnames might have been more common - fink, sideburns, boycott, lynch, sandwich… they were all originally the name of someone, and others also shared that name.
I know some people who were having a baby girl early in 2017. They had picked out the name–well, she had, I guess it was on her baby name list for forever–“Kellyanne.” Early in '17 this name had some bad connotations and she felt under some pressure to pick another name so it would sound like her kid was named after a, well, you know. But on the other hand, she also felt that by the time the kiddo was in school, by the time it mattered, that name would have lost its nasty edge. And her kid was her own person in any case. And I think she was right. Hey, at least it wasn’t Karen.
(My kid went to school with a girl named Allegra. Her parents thought that was a wonderful name, she was teased that she was named after an allergy drug and she hated it.)
Anyway my point is, it came up fast, but will it endure? I think we’ll go on to some other meme. 'Cause that’s what we do.
I’m a real-life Karen. I’m very sorry for the loss of your friend.
When this whole thing started, I was just vaguely annoyed. As it persisted, and started appearing everywhere, I got increasingly upset. My good name being besmirched and all that. Then, to my surprise, I got over it. I started thinking of “entitled bitch Karen” as a fictional character. Nothing wrong with sharing a name with a work of fiction.
Yeah, I work with a girl named Felicia. I’m always very careful not to say “By Felicia”. It’s always “Take care” or “See ya later.”
OTOH, I have a coworker named Dave, I get a small thrill out of addressing all his emails: “Hello Dave”, because I’m saying it in HAL’s voice when I do.
I definitely remember “Trixies.” I didn’t realize the name was retired, but, come to think of it, I haven’t heard it in a long time. “Chad” I don’t remember being used as much, but to me that just means a “bro” kind of guy.
My understanding is that guys who consider themselves to be incels (involuntarily celibate) use the name “Chad” to describe good-looking, popular guys.
Possibly misremembering “Stacy”? “Stacy” for a good-looking, popular, desirable girl, especially if sexually active, is a very common usage among the same sort of people who use “Chad” in the way described by kenobi 65.
I’ve never heard the Karen thing before this year. It definitely exploded on social media. ‘Karen does not approve of this weather and would like to speak to the manager.’
Chad is kind of a generic bro, usually went to a large state school and majored in something like marketing. Never took a class before noon, and manages to BS their way to a average. Likely a former high school athlete, joins a frat, plays ultimate frisbee and non stop parties from Thursday afternoon until Sunday. Knows a lot of people and gets a job from one of his fraternity brothers dad and moves to a place like Lincoln Park Chicago to date a Trixie.
Trixie is kinda a female Chad. Probably majors in Psychology, not much of an academic and also focuses on parties and the social scene. She also moves to Lincoln Park and is focused on meeting Chads. Will often go to Cubs games wearing a pink polo with the collar popped so she can take selfies with her mango margarita.