Karen, aka I need to speak to your manager - should we make Karen a gender neutral term, & should we think more about people with the name Karen before using the term?

I have a pretty interesting professor in sociology, so let me pose to you two questions she posed to us yesterday. She meant for the discussion to be fun so please don’t say ‘it’s not that serious’ or any variation of that. Nobody here is upset.

#1 ————————————————————-

We use the term ‘Karen’ very often to mock women who fit a certain stereotype.

But what about the males who act this way as well? What do we call them? Are we being sexist by only singling out the women who we think act this way?

Should we change ‘Karen’ to a gender neutral name to include the guys who also want to see the manager and who drive a minivan, or should we introduce ‘Karl’?

#2 —————————————————————

Should we consider how the people with the name ‘Karen’ (or similarly used, like Sharon or Janet) may feel bad when we use the term? By using these names, are we unfairly stereotyping people with those names?