Karens (and Kens) in our midst

This American-made pejorative has landed in Malaysia, but it may not necessarily be white and blond.

WE have met our first “Karen” in Malaysia. That’s not her real name, but she became famous (or should I say infamous) a week ago when a video of her kicking up a big fuss at a luxury boutique in a KL shopping mall after she was prevented from entering the shop without a face mask went viral. She also refused to check in with the MySejahtera app.

Four days later, the police announced they had tracked her down and fined her RM3,000 for both Covid-19 SOP (standard operating procedure) violations.

However, neither her name nor nationality was revealed. All we know is that she is a 51-year-old Caucasian woman with what looks like a dirty-blond short haircut.

The blond bit is actually important because the “blond bob Karen” was one of the earliest manifestations of Karen as a pejorative in America that led to, as the BBC explained, “a widespread meme referencing a specific type of middle-class white woman, who exhibits behaviours that stem from privilege.”

The Internet, especially YouTube, is replete with examples of American Karen behaviours, from belittling non-white service industry workers to racist aggressions against African-Americans in public spaces, such as parks and apartment buildings, and calling the cops on them.

One of the most notorious examples is “Central Park Karen” who, in May 2020, called 911, claiming she was being threatened by an African- American man who had merely asked her to leash her dog, which was required in that part of the park.

The New York woman, Amy Cooper, lost her job, which was what happened to many other Karens caught on videotape for their obnoxious actions.

Then there is “Coronavirus Karen” who aggressively refuses to mask in the name of democracy and freedom. Apparently, “our” shopping mall Karen argued that “(Malaysia) is a free country” (thank you), and the Twitter user who posted the video claimed she said those who wore masks were communists.

It’s not clear why the police, when announcing her fine in a statement, did not reveal who she was. Singapore, on the other hand, has no such reservations. The authorities “unmasked” the British man who refused to wear a face mask on the MRT. Singapore not only named Benjamin Glynn, 40, but jailed and deported him.

While we can conveniently label white women as Karens, the equivalent for male perpetrators like Glynn is “Ken”, which may have been inspired by Barbie doll’s white, blond and blue-eyed boyfriend of the same name.

There are a few theories on how Karen became a pejorative in America.

In her article on conversation.com, linguistics professor Robin Queen examines how the name became such a powerful form of social commentary.

“The first name Karen peaked in popularity in 1965, which means that in 2020, most people named Karen are middle-aged. Because roughly 80% of the US population was white in the 1960s, it’s safe to assume that the proportion of people named Karen in 2020 is predominantly white,” she writes.

That, she adds, provides a rough foundation for what the name Karen signals to people. Still, Queen believes it was largely coincidental that Karen – and not other popular baby names from the 1960s like Linda and Cynthia – became “the label for an officious, entitled, white woman” because it was repeatedly used on social media and on the street.

She also theorises that comedian Dane Cook’s 2008 joke routine in which he said “there is always one person in a group that nobody likes” and named the person as Karen helped to cement it as a shorthand in the African-American community for “a white woman to be wary of because she won’t hesitate to wield privilege at the expense of others.”

In the case of shopping mall Karen, who sounded British, I wonder if she behaved the way she did because she was simply having a bad day or she thinks she has white privilege while living in an Asian country. There are claims that she is a repeat offender and that she did the same thing in another shopping centre.

While Karen started out as a pejorative term for entitled white women who viciously pick on African-Americans as well as Hispanics and Asians, it has evolved with the times, and any woman who publicly throws an over-the-top tantrum against another person who, in many cases, is merely trying to do their job is a Karen.

But do we call non-white people in our part of the world who act like entitled, privileged asses Karens too?

Remember “nut rage” Korean Air heiress Heather Cho who grabbed headlines in 2014 for ordering a Korean Air plane back to the gate after humiliating flight attendants for the way a bag of macadamia nuts was served?

Cho was undoubtedly a “super Karen”. In her case, race wasn’t a factor. As a product of her society, which unfortunately, despite modernisation, is still steeped in class divisions and wealth concentrated in the top 20% with little class mobility, she abused her massively high position of power over the poor attendants.

It was also in 2014 that we had the case of a young woman caught on video screaming at an elderly man after a minor fender bender. In her rage, Siti Fairrah Ashykin Kamaruddin hit Sim Siak Hong’s car with a steering lock several times.

At that time, no one labelled her “Karen” and the incident in Kuantan was viewed as a case of road rage.

But in our Malaysian context, it did have a sad racial overtone. It was reported that she shouted “You think you are Chinese, you are better than us! You are very stupid!” before accusing him of intentionally crashing into her car.

She also reportedly told bystanders that she had reacted that way because “Dia Cina (He is Chinese)”.

Fortunately, the incident did not lead to a politically motivated racial riot – the way the Low Yat handphone theft incident did – simply because the video clearly showed Siti to be in the wrong and Sim responding in a very mild and apologetic way.

The fact that she, a young woman, berated a much older man also did not win her any sympathy even when the Sessions Court fined her RM5,000 and ordered her to do 240 hours of community work.

Siti’s racist behaviour might not have been typical of her. Perhaps she lashed out because Sim had knocked into her brand new Peugeot and in the heat of the moment, she spewed her racist rant. And let’s be honest here: which Malaysian isn’t racially coloured, no thanks to our toxic race politics and policies?

In our current trying times, when many of us could be coping with depression, anxiety and frustration, we all may become momentary Karens and Kens when we direct our anger at a person who seems to be in a lower, more vulnerable position than us.

Mandatory masking is an unlikely anger trigger among pragmatic Asians, but it could be anything like getting bad service from a foreign worker in a restaurant or supermarket.

So, our first media-dubbed Karen is a white woman, but the next one could be any one of us. Hold that thought and breathe deeply.

The views expressed here are the writer’s own.