Chances are pretty high that you have interacted with at least one male Karen in your life. That uppity snob who is never satisfied with anything, who reminds you of Logan Paul or Pharma bro, who is always a jerk to the waiting staff, who always wants to speak to the manager, and who further helps justify the existence of the word ‘entitled’. I write further because all the Karens in the world already do justify the word.
But who is a male Karen anyway? And what special moniker can we assign him?
The Internet seems divided in the hunt for the male version of a Karen – giving us strong contenders like Terry, Kyle, Ken, and even Donald (of the Trump fame) – but still unable to reach a consensus. So, I think we should give it a shot by analyzing who a male Karen is, what are his characteristics, who are the male Karens in popular culture, and what masculine name comes closest to a Karen.
This is an attempt that I think will help us find who the real male Karen is, or at least take us closer. We want to highlight the sense of entitlement and privilege that some men have, and we’re here to call them out.
What Is a Karen?
A Karen is a term in popular and meme culture that is used to describe an annoying woman who unknowingly or knowingly projects herself as entitled, arrogant, and privileged. According to The Guardian, its popularity rose exponentially during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 when persons attributed as Karens made news in the United States. In the article, the term was mostly attributed to racism, but it’s grown to signify much more.
It is also attributed as a given name to a woman – usually white, middle-aged, mother, American – who is classist. This stems from the stereotype that Karens are often always upper-class, middle-aged white women who sport a specific bob cut hairstyle and who need to have their way in every social event.
According to the influential meme database Know Your Meme, Karen as a meme element is assumed to have originated from a variety of sources. For example, The New York Times attributes it to Dane Cook. But the most believable origin story seems to be when comedian Jay Pharaoh refers to an annoying woman as a Karen in a 2015 special. In 2020, he self-proclaimed that he was the one who popularized it.
Side Note – After some internet sleuthing, we’ve discovered other terms for a Karen are Betty and Patty, who are also usually attributed as Karen’s close friends or sidekicks who, over time, have accumulated the qualities of their leader. Similar offensive terms include Becky, Felicia, and Trixie.
Who Is A Male Karen?
It could be said that Internet users – mostly being males, some of them harboring toxic attitudes – created the male version of Karen to justify their blatant usage of the term which allows them to assault anyone who knowingly or unknowingly falls off the line of basic social manners. Today, both female and male Karens co-exist, even if there is no consensus on what to call the man, who, according to incels, might be the opposite of a Chad, the alpha. Or a toxic version of Kevin, the absent-minded nobody.
Unlike “female Karens” – to add more context to our statement here – the Internet has not been able to create a common, noticeable, and unique physical trait for male Karens. If female Karens have a bob cut to let netizens distinguish themselves, male Karens only have white skin, a heavy and tall build, an American passport (maybe), and possible affiliation with alt-right groups.
Most Common Traits of a Male Version of a Karen
The most common traits of such a person the internet has described as a male Karen are:
- Feeling of entitlement in any given situation (like a supermarket or a park)
- Sexism, racism, and/or classism
- Physical appearance: white, middle-aged, masculine
- Loud in their attacks
- Very confident during their conversations and attacks
Some popular examples of male Karens are Donald Trump (Karen in chief), Elon Musk (space Karen), and Tucker Carlson.
We also spoke about Logan Paul as a celebrity form of a male Karen at the beginning of this piece. That’s because he is mostly known to ‘have a punchable face’, owing to his controversial actions that reek of entitlement. For instance, in 2017, Paul came under fire for filming a corpse and uploading it to YouTube. He knew that his entitled personage would save him from being reprimanded. And guess what? He was back in the game after a brief hiatus. The same goes for Martin Shkreli, yet we wouldn’t explicitly tag him as a male Karen. Maybe a half male Karen, if you will. He was just being a snob when he decided to raise the price of critical AIDS medicine by nearly 56 times.
Although there is an exclusive subreddit for Karens, called r/F**kYouKaren, which has over a million subscribers as of March 2021, there isn’t yet one for male Karens. Instead, you will see interesting examples on communities like r/PublicFreakout, r/IAmVerySmart, and r/iamverybadass. Here’s a recent popular entry showing a male Karen refusing to wear a mask. And another one on 4chan.
Some Examples of Typical Male Karen Behavior
Not sure what exactly amounts to male Karen behavior? Here are some examples that we’ve personally seen:
- A man mocking a Chinese woman by squinting his eyes with his hands repeatedly even after it’s obvious that she’s uncomfortable
- A man in his early 30s refusing to wear a mask in a country where wearing mask is mandated, and saying that he has his rights
- A man insisting to talk to the manager while reaching out to customer support through email
- A man calling the cops on a party organized by Hispanics a park that he was not invited to
There are several such stories on the Internet of male Karens disrupting social decorum. Yet there doesn’t seem to be an agreement over what to call them. Even Reddit seems divided on the moniker that we could give to a male Karen. Countless users have asked the question ‘what is a male Karen called?’ (including this recent poll where Darren got the lowest number of votes) yet a homologous term similar to Karen is not yet officiated.
Is it Ken? Or is it Kyle? How about Kevin? Or is Donald Trump the epitome of a male Karen? Here’s some analysis.
What is the Male Version of a Karen Called?
We think Kyle fits the description even though there’s no physical description as we noted above. We choose Kyle as the name for the male version of a Karen because of three reasons:
- Kyle starts with a K
- Has a likening to Karen (subjective, we know)
- Gets a similar pleasure, from something like calling someone derogatory names
- Is also a meme format of his own (below)
But don’t just take our word for it. Vox’s Aja Romano also agrees. Radio.com has sourced quite a few names for the male Karen while assuming the meme culture of Karens and “Kens” as an attack on white privilege (read racism). They are:
- Donald
- Chad
- Tucker
- Kevin
- and many more!
Note – We recommend not taking this list to heart if any of the names seem personal. While the original term and its male adoption are definitely problematic, there is no reason to get dull over a name’s appropriation.
Unfortunately, looking at all the mentions of male Karens on Reddit, it seems like the front page of the Internet wants “Ken” to be the official version of a male Karen. We’ll take it.
Another popular school of thought (at least in the deep Internet circles) here is that the male version of a Karen is just called a Karen. Karen as just a joke that can be directed at women itself makes it sexist. So, why not make it gender-neutral? “Karen is Karen is Karen. Male, female, black, white, purple… they’re all Karen,” goes the Reddit user LLminibean and we agree.
What About Donald Trump as the Poster Boy for Male Karens?
The former US president has most, if not all, the traits of a male Karen. It is a well-known fact that he is both racist and sexist (and a lot many things). But what led David Graham, a staff writer at The Atlantic, to give Trump the ‘Karen in Chief’ moniker is that he appropriated him (back in May 2020 in the middle of the pandemic) as the reason why America had turned so many people into Karens.
Male Karens can also be the supporters of Donald Trump. In Urban Dictionary, most definitions consider MAGA hat wearers, KKK supporters, and Republican sympathizers as male Karens. “A 40-year-old man usually wearing Trump2020 hats and looks like he is on steroids usually worth his Karen wife,” goes one popular entry.
Lots of people on and off the Internet tend to agree that Donald Trump is the Karen of male Karens. However, with Trump out of the Oval Office and also the media now, we don’t think it’s appropriate to continue to call him the Karen in Chief. We are the Internet and I think it’s time we look for more eligible candidates. How about we all focus on Tucker Carlson for a while? Get John Oliver on the line for some support, maybe.
Female Karen vs Male Version
While male Karen has originated from the original term, there are obviously few differences and similarities between the two. For example, threads surrounding male Karens are relatively lower. While the timeline difference is the main reason for that (male Karen got popularized only in 2020), we have seen far fewer Reddit posts about Kens and Kyles than Karens. The fact that there is an exclusive subreddit for Karens with an average monthly post number of a few hundreds. That’s huge for a meme trend that started as a joke and has constantly come under a lot of fire by all groups of people.
In comparison, somebody attempted r/MaleKaren in February 2020 which has been languishing with a measly two subscribers since. That’s just one person along with the user who created it. Just do a Google search for ‘male Karen’ and all you will see are photos of female Karen.
Another notable difference is the physical appearance and style. Although a white t-shirt and a haircut that reminds us of Eminem of the late 2000s are also attributed to a male Karen, it’s not received widespread support like the bob cut. Even in the case of Musk’s space Karen remark, he was photoshopped with the blonde bob. So, it can be concluded that there’s no distinguishable physical trait in male Karens. This makes the original term even more offensive because then it also becomes physically discriminative, which it anyway was in the first place.
A male Karen is basically just a man who annoys people in just about everything that he does. It could be while taking a walk in the park, lifting weights at a gym, taking shots at a bar, or just browsing through products at an Apple store. In the coronavirus context, he is also someone who first calls Covid-19 a hoax, refuses to wear a mask, denies the efficacy of vaccines, and then when the bug finally gets him plays the victim and privilege cards and assumes that he is entitled to receive the first shot. In other words, the male version of a Karen could be a Steve, a Kunal, a Karan, a Vlad, a Peter, or a Greg. The larger point is that he is around you. And we’re calling out his sense of entitlement and privilege.
