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Karen is My Name, and Smashing Stereotypes is My Game

 Okay, my name isn't actually Karen. However, Karen is my mother's name and the name of other important people in my life. Unfortunately, Karen has also become a neganym, a derogatory name for any woman who insists on doing something that the user disagrees with, from refusing to wear a mask to cleaning up a mess left by the user's children. The meme originated because of one man dissing his ex-wife, but it has now morphed into a widespread insult. 

In my post Don't Be Like Judas, I mentioned that his worst act was his last one, and that's all he's remembered for now. The same is true of Benedict Arnold, and now these two names are widely used neganyms for anyone who betrays someone else. These neganyms are perfectly acceptable while using Karen as a neganym is not.

The first reason is because what Judas and Benedict Arnold did is universally seen as wrong. Almost everyone has felt the sting of betrayal at some point in their life, although for most of us it's far below the scale perpetrated by these two men. With Karen, most of the time it's used because of a disagreement. The "Karen" isn't actually doing anything wrong, it's just something that the person using that neganym disagrees with.

The other reason is that Judas and Benedict Arnold are not common names, whereas Karen is. Judas betraying Jesus was an act so heinous that even atheists don't give that name to their sons. Benedict is slightly more common, but the addition of his last name in the neganym keeps others with the name from being perceived as being as traitorous as he was.

Karen is a name that means pure, a fact I found particularly interesting when I learned it because it so accurately described all the Karens I knew at the time. Now, because of people using it as a neganym, it is rapidly losing its popularity. Sure, names often fluctuate in popularity throughout the years, but the reason this one is doing so hurts those that already have that name. I know Mom was upset when she first saw Mean Girls because the character Karen was such an idiot, and she didn't want people to see that movie and think that all Karens were stupid. Now I'm sure that she would much rather have that version of the neganym than the one we currently have.

I'm sure none of us want our name to be used in this way, so why would we want to do that to anyone else's name? God commands us in Exodus 20:7 not to use His name in vain, and I'm sure He feels the same way about the names of his children. So next time you're tempted to call someone a Karen, I would ask that you first consider how you would feel if one of your mistakes caused people to begin using your name in the same way.

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