From Karen to the Dark Goddess: Let’s Take Back the Karen Videos
Divine from
John Waters Female trouble (1974)
A meditation on Karen Culture, female archetypes from media both past and present, and a history of female wisdom, power, and goddesses that defy our patriarchal culture.
I admit it: I watch short-form content. I'm addicted—and a little ashamed. I’d love to stop, but it’s so seductive when you’re lying in bed or waiting in line at the supermarket. Scrolling through TikTok or Instagram feels like playing a slot machine: you never know what’s coming next. It could be a cute puppy, a baby, a killer alligator, or a story about how great it is to live alone in a van in a Walmart parking lot. (LOL, yeah—that sounds like a dream...)
But every time I see a "Karen" video, I cringe.
The Gendered Nature of Public Shaming
The absence of a male counterpart, such as a widely circulated "Kevin" archetype, suggests that the “Karen” label may be more than a critique of specific behaviors. Instead, it may reflect deeper cultural anxieties about older women, particularly those who speak up, express dissatisfaction, or assert boundaries. These women are often framed not just as socially disruptive, but as laughable or monstrous, echoing centuries-old narratives that cast older women as threats to social order.
Matriarchal Structures in Nature and Indigenous Cultures
A useful contrast can be found in both the animal kingdom and human history. In killer whale (orca) communities, for example, family groups are matriarchal. Older females lead pods, guide hunting strategies, and transmit knowledge across generations. Notably, killer whales are among the few species besides humans to undergo menopause—a trait that supports a post-reproductive role focused on caregiving and education rather than competition for mates.
30,000 yrs ago in cave painting, three-quarters of handprints in ancient cave art were left by women, study finds. Archaeologists have found hundreds of hand stencils on cave walls across the world. Because many of these early paintings also showcase game animals—bison, reindeer, horses, woolly mammoths—many researchers have proposed that they were made by male hunters, perhaps to chronicle their kills or as some kind of "hunting magic" to improve success of an upcoming hunt. The new study suggests otherwise.
The art was made by shamans who went into trances to try to connect with the spirit world. "If you go into one of these caves alone, you start to suffer from sensory deprivation very, very quickly, in 5 to 10 minutes," Whitley said. "It can spin you into an altered state of consciousness."
Similarly, many Indigenous cultures historically valued older women as vital repositories of wisdom and cultural continuity. Among various Native American tribes, elder women served as healers, midwives, and spiritual guides. They played central roles in the transmission of knowledge, medicine, and traditions—roles that were both respected and protected.
Witch Hunts and the Suppression of Female Authority
However, in Western history, older women have frequently been positioned as threats to patriarchal systems. The European witch hunts from the 15th to 18th centuries targeted an estimated 40,000–60,000 individuals, with women comprising 75–80% of the accused. A disproportionate number of these were older, unmarried, or widowed women—those who existed outside conventional family structures and thus represented autonomous sources of authority.
These women were often midwives, herbalists, or community healers—figures whose knowledge posed a challenge to emerging medical and religious institutions dominated by men. In persecuting these women, early modern European societies reinforced the association between female autonomy and danger—a cultural association that arguably persists in modern media.
The Role of Narrative: Fairy Tales and Media
This suspicion toward older women is also evident in folklore. In many Brothers Grimm tales, for instance, the villain is an older woman: the evil stepmother, the jealous queen, the wicked witch. In Snow White, the queen’s desire to be the “fairest of them all” leads her to disguise herself as a harmless old woman in order to destroy a younger, more beautiful rival. In Cinderella, the stepmother blocks the protagonist’s path to social advancement, only for Cinderella to escape by marrying a prince, suggesting that power and redemption lie not with elder female figures but in submission to a patriarchal order.
These narratives construct a binary: the young woman as passive and desirable, the older woman as envious and oppressive. This trope has been widely reproduced in both popular culture and social media, where aging women are often devalued or demonized.
Digital Media and the Reinforcement of Ageism
Platforms like TikTok appear to extend these narratives into the digital realm. While short-form videos may appear trivial or humorous, they participate in powerful forms of cultural transmission. Imitative learning—how young people adopt values and behaviors based on repeated exposure—means that media depictions shape social attitudes. When older women are consistently portrayed as irrational or dangerous, these portrayals inform how younger generations perceive authority, emotion, and femininity.
The “Karen” trope thus risks becoming a digital witch hunt: a socially sanctioned form of ridicule that marginalizes older women and undermines their credibility. Rather than acknowledging the structural conditions that lead to certain behaviors—economic precarity, social isolation, or cultural dislocation—the “Karen” label individualizes blame and invites public humiliation.
Reclaiming the Narrative
It is crucial to resist reductive caricatures and to acknowledge the wisdom, labor, and resilience of older women in our communities. Historically, they have served as caretakers, educators, and spiritual leaders—roles that continue to be vital today.
In response, we should ask: who benefits when older women are framed as the villains? Who controls the algorithms that amplify these portrayals? And how might we instead highlight the stories of older women as mentors, guides, and transformative forces in society?
Honoring Our Elders
Let us honor our elders—not as relics of the past, but as essential figures in our present. From Lilith to Kali, from grandmothers to community organizers, older women embody a radical form of knowledge that patriarchy has long sought to suppress.
If you have stories of older women in your life—women making a difference in your family or community—I would love to hear them. Share them with me, and I’ll feature them in an upcoming newsletter.
Let’s reclaim the narrative.
Source:
Were the First Artists Mostly Women? https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/131008-women-handprints-oldest-neolithic-cave-art
Inside the killer whale matriarchy - Darren Croft https://youtu.be/sQpGT1BgdX4?si=nJ6xitfdFc-aQQfG
movie recommendation; Female Trouble (1974) Trailer https://youtu.be/vxLJmeV8dvM?si=rIkPtNA1CX1L-T1b
Journal of Literature and Art Studies, February 2015, Vol. 5, No. 2, 114-127
doi: 10.17265/2159-5836/2015.02.004
Aging With Disney and the Gendering of Evil https://www.davidpublisher.com/Public/uploads/Contribute/550bafe6543fe.pdf
Daily Life and Responsibilities of Plains Indian Women https://windriver.org/the-womens-role/
Killer whale behaviour shows granny knows best https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/killer-whale-behaviour-shows-granny-knows-best.html