Am I a Karen?

Or can I be a Belinda instead?

I have been thinking about ageing of late. How when I’m out and about on buses and tubes I encounter women my age, and they often look seriously pissed off. Or maybe I’ve internalised the patriachy, and they don’t look pissed off, and I’m just imagining it. There have of course been famous cases in the media where women matching the description of ‘Karen,’ have said obnoxious, racist, aggressive and abusive things. I’m not saying that’s okay of course, but arguably it would be better to classify it as obnoxious, racist or whatever category of offensive behaviour it falls into. The ‘Karen,’ definition has become very broad now and encompasses any woman over forty who doesn’t smile.

And deep underneath the slang is this sting that older women are really grumpy. That they’re sad. Bitter. Maybe bitter because they no longer have the external trappings of youth. It’s funny as I don’t think there is a male equivalent? (actually I just Googled and there were a few names available - like Ken or Kevin- perhaps simply because they are K names too). I feel like Ken has more of a fun energy to it than Karen and definitely wouldn’t be the one spraying Febreze all over the place because someone has just smoked a spliff in their kitchen.