A woman has issued a desperate plea to society after her name started being used to as an insult to call out 'unreasonable' women. The 36-year-old explained how she used to love her name growing up - but has started resenting it over the past five years.
The woman, named Karen, said on Reddit: "The now ever-trendy use of the name Karen as a tag for any entitled, rude, crazy, b**** is just not going away. Honestly I think five (ish) years in, it's still ramping up.
"I've become very weary of the trend. It annoys me and hurts my feelings because the use of my name is always vicious." When speaking about her name to her mum, she says she "got so upset at the world" as she didn't know it would be turned into an insult when picking it out from a baby book over three decades ago.
"I know I'm too sensitive, but I can't even just own the name either," she added.
"I'm a doormat who can't even muster the courage to send my food back when there is something actually wrong with it - like when my baked potato was completely uncooked in the middle.
"I had hoped to just wait out the trend but that just doesn't seem to be happening."
The woman is considering going by the name Ren in an attempt to escape the stereotype attached to Karen - but "feels too old to be adopting nicknames".
She said: "I can't change my name and break my mum's heart.
"Any name advice or just encouragement for a depressed Karen spending too much time on the internet and feeling hurt and sorry for herself?"
Commenting on her post, one user said: "I hate that stupid sexist meme, and I’m sorry it's ruining a nice name for you.
"Carrie (or Karey/Karie for similar spelling) is another nickname option that sticks close to the original sound."
Another user added: "Hi Karen, my name is Karen too and I can't stand the meme.
"It does not feel like a joke anymore. I'm 29 and super shy and I get my son vaccinated and I'm really, really nice!
"I just very recently started asking people to call me Karie and I changed my name on Facebook and everything.
"I've had a couple people tell me I'm overreacting but is there even a 'right' way to react to your name becoming the new slang for 'nasty b***' everyone hates?'."
A third user said: "I'm sorry, I think they've gone too far with Karen too, and I can't imagine how I'd feel if my name was Karen.
"I think they just chose Karen because it's a basic boomer name, and the trend at least started out complaining about entitled boomers."
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