I happened upon an online article the other day about the "Karen" meme. (As an infrequent-to-none user of social media, clearly I do not pick up on trends right away!) I am not a "Karen" - gen X female with blond asymmetrical bob haircut but I still was bothered by this, as well as the earlier "Shut up, Boomer" trend. Back in my childhood people said "Never trust anyone over 30." Since I was about 5 or 6 at the time, and 30 seemed absolutely ancient, I did not pay any particular attention to this. When stereotypes are mean-spirited, applied without consideration of individual differences, and are used to dismiss or undermine anything a person has to offer, I think any potential humor is diminished while intentional or unintended negative consequences are enhanced. There are and have been stereotypes that are embraced "owned" by those they are applied toward, and, while a few people named "Karen" have expressed acceptance, I personally think this particular meme was created to highlight difference rather than to embrace it. To admit my own personal context here, however, I have particular dislike of things like hazing practices applied to groups - by virtue of their group membership rather than individual attributes (although I cannot see that I would support individually-administered hazing either) and I don't like many insult comedians. I am technically a "Boomer" by most definitions although some more generously place me at the front of Gen X. My own experience is that the early to mid Boomers got all of the good stuff - inexpensive higher education degrees, advancement in jobs, reasonably priced houses, fat retirement accounts - whereas those of us at the bottom came out of school to one recession, experienced downsizing during another along with other job loss during the years of companies buying up other companies, incurred student debt during our attempts to re-educate to be more competitive in the job market, have never been able to easily afford what goes for a "starter house" these days, and shorted or emptied retirement accounts (and incurred tax penalties) during times of no employment. This list that summarizes some of my experiences does not characterize the generally accepted notion of the "Boomer" and shows one of the dangers of sterotyping too broadly.
I have a couple of other thoughts. One is that it seems like stereotyping and finding vulnerable groups or vulnerabilities to pick up is an accepted practice; the tone of political and media content during recent years may be a major contributer to this, or it may just, sadly be human nature - although organizing things into groups and being mean while you do this are two different things. The other is that, as a qualitative ahd mixed methods researcher, although I seem to be on an ongoing quest to find "themes," I am fascinated by individual and context-associated uniqueness. Behind every Karen or Boomer is a person with hopes, fears, values and meaningful things to offer. And, as I've said before, the solutions to many problems often reside in the outliers.
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AuthorI am Sheryl L. Chatfield, Ph.D, C.T.R.S. I am a member of the faculty in the College of Public Health at Kent State University. I also Co-coordinate the Graduate Certificate in Qualitative Research and I am a member of the Design Innovation Team at Kent State. Archives
February 2024
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