The Guardian’s Hadley Freeman has previously noted the sexist undercurrent of the ‘Karen’ meme increasingly being used by the BBC in particular and the Media generally. A Karen is a woman, a middle-class woman, seemingly a non-graduate woman, and a family-oriented woman. Karen thinks her kids can do no wrong. Karen shares Facebook memes to show she agrees with them. Karen is bourgeois basic. Karen’s gravest sin, though, is that she is white, and if you had already detected a post-Christian millenarianism in the movement currently trying to purge humanity’s vices, it is no surprise that its concept of original sin takes female form. There’s nothing wrong with the BBC having a debate about Karens. The problem is that there was no debate. Women who broadly agree sat down to agree broadly. It’s the fact that, at no point in the production process, did anyone ask whether it might be worth getting a Karen on, since they are seemingly so plentiful, or at least someone to balance Dr Riley’s opinions on ‘white privilege’.
Media Bias Part 4
