Day 95. I can't believe I've been writing this blog for 95 days. Crazy. Time moves so fast. I started it without a clue when I was still looking for an actual job and it has morphed into some weird brain dump of all my random thoughts and figuring outs with a few profound truths and some not so sensible mind wanderings. Today I'm going to celebrate all things Karen because I can.
If you fancy it, you can now buy a Karen doll. She looks a bit like barbie but a lot scarier. Why you would ever want to own one, I have no idea. You can read an article on haircuts to avoid looking like a Karen. You can buy a Karen colouring book just in case colouring in middle-aged women who want to talk to the manager is your cup of tea. You can buy t-shirts that say "hello my name is Karen and I want to speak to the manager." Or one that says, "Don't make me use my Karen voice". There are literally hundreds of people capitalising on a name I've had for 43 years. People profiting of the name I use every single day. It's such a weird world we live in where a joke can turn into a world-wide humiliation for thousands of people just because of social media.
It has been pointed out to me that I am a "Karen" in many ways. I am white, middle-aged and have grown up with a certain white privilege. Even the indulgence of being able to blog about what career I want to pursue is apparently a Karen type thing to do. It's all a bit odd, having a name that is now a world-wide joke and sometimes worse, there's actually hate groups now where people talk about the fact that Karen's should die and a lot of merchandise that quickly becomes depressing if you read it all at once. Most of the time I don't think about it, but occasionally it actually bothers me that people use my name in such a derogatory way and it has made me more conscious about the unconscious bias that so many people have to face every day just because of their names.
When I lived in South Korea, I was intrigued with how their culture placed such a lot of emphasis on names and it was a God moment for me when I researched what my name means. The name Karen means Pure, my middle name is Joanne, which means God's is Gracious and my surname was Crouch, which means dweller by the cross. Put it all together it showed me that God was making me pure by his grace as I dwelt by the cross. I love that meaning and no matter how many Halloween costumes or phone cases are created making fun of it, the meaning of my name is still a great reminder of God's love.
In the Bible names also held so much significance and God often renamed people when they reached milestones in their life, or he had a special plan or task for them to take on. It tells us that when we get to heaven, God is going to give us a new name. One that is significant to us, like a secret code between us and God. I sometimes wonder what my new name will be and I'm fairly confident no one will be creating plastic tat making fun of it.
My quote of the day is by Maya Angelou, who perfectly expresses what I often think about the power of words. “Words are things. You must be careful, careful about calling people out of their names, using racial pejoratives and sexual pejoratives and all that ignorance. Don’t do that. Some day we’ll be able to measure the power of words. I think they are things. They get on the walls. They get in your wallpaper. They get in your rugs, in your upholstery, and your clothes, and finally in to you.”
My photo for today is of me rockin' a ridiculous snapchat filter and being loud and proud of my name.