“Natasha St-Pier, she’s such a Karen,” we can read on X. “She insulted [Inès Reg] and now she’s making us a Karen and is going to file a complaint,” tweeted another user. “Natasha St-Pier is the definition of a Karen: she attacks Inès and then she plays the victim,” adds a third tweeter. Dozens of posts of this type have appeared to describe the behavior of the Canadian singer since the disagreement between her and Inès Reg. Both women participate in Dance with the stars on TF1. What is a “Karen” and why do Internet users associate this first name with Natasha St-Pier?
“In recent years, Karen has become a widely used meme to refer to a type of white, middle-class woman who exhibits behaviors associated with her privilege,” explains an article in the BBC. “Typically, Karen defines a white woman who complains for unjustified commercial reasons. She overreacts to discontent linked to a commercial transaction or, in the street, she threatens a person of color with calling the police,” explains Tristan Mendès France, associate lecturer at Paris Diderot University, specialist in digital cultures and of online extremism.
Usually it is filmed. “Quite systematically, Internet users describe this type of profile, white women, mostly in their forties, as Karen. It has become a generic term to disqualify certain attitudes,” he continues. She could be one of the heroines of Desperate Housewives. It’s here control freak unsympathetic to the American suburban environment. Dissatisfied in a store or at a restaurant, she insists on “talking to the manager”, and takes the opportunity to belittle her interlocutor, a salesman or a waiter (to follow these two examples).
A tweet from the Karens Gone Wild account [les Karens sont devenues folles], followed by more than 37,000 subscribers on X, summarized in 2020 the main behaviors of the Karen. “1. Create problems; 2. Ask to speak to the manager; 3. Position yourself as a victim and 4. Call the police.” She has a string of oddities and “racist micro-aggressions, such as touching a black person’s hair,” points out the BBC article.
What does this have to do with Natasha St-Pier? Let’s return to his argument with Inès Reg to understand these online attacks. The singer who participates in Dance with the stars on TF1 got into a disagreement with the comedian the first week of rehearsals, revealed an article from Parisian published last week. According to Inès Reg’s version, Natasha St-Pier would have gratuitously insulted her as a “little slut” while she asked the singer to turn down the music to record an interview with her camera operator and her journalist. The Canadian then reportedly escorted her abruptly to the door.
A well-identified hair style
According to Natasha St-Pier’s version, this insult was formulated in a joking tone in reference to a game between Valérie Trierweiler and Inès Reg on Beijing Express: Shock duos in 2022. And faced with the reaction of the comedian who allegedly uttered threats and insults, Natasha St-Pier and her dancer Anthony Colette apparently became afraid and decided to drop a handrail. Inès Reg denounces the racism of her competitor DALS. “I am the Arab of 93 in this story” she observed, in her Instagram story, devastated by the “lies” and attacks to which she was subjected after the article in Parisian.
If Inès Reg was insulted, why did Natasha St-Pier and Anthony Colette file a handrail? The role reversal is pointed out by Internet users who accuse Natasha St-Pier of “playing the victim” when she insulted her rival.
In the 2.0 imagination, this feminine stereotype sports a well-identified hair style: a short cut, often peroxided, long locks to frame the face and tousled hair at the back. The Karen cut is often associated with the one worn by Kate Gosselin, American television personality, in 2010, or even that of Victoria Beckham, Spice Girls era, in a blonde version. Finally, not so far from Natasha St-Pier’s current cut.
The “Karen of Central Park”
While it is difficult to pinpoint the origin of this meme, Karen took on a political dimension on May 25, 2020. A few hours before the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which gave birth to the Black Lives Matter movement, Christian Cooper, a black bird watcher walks in a protected area of Central Park, New York, where dogs must be kept on a leash. He comes across Amy Cooper (no relation) who has released her animal and asks her to tie it up. Hysterical, she calls the police and screams that an “African American [la] threat, [elle] And [son] dog “. She begs to “send the police immediately”. The exchange was filmed and published on social networks. Amy Cooper was renamed the “Karen of Central Park” (Central Park Karen). In the wake of Black Lives Matter, Karens, like Amy Cooper, have given a face to the broader issue of systemic racism, recalls the BBC.
In the case of Natasha St-Pier, only video would allow the mystery surrounding this incident to be resolved and, perhaps, to put an end to the attacks suffered by the protagonists of this story. The phenomenon of polarization does not help the online war. “This type of controversy is accentuated by the ecosystem of social networks which confronts hermetically separated communities. Each defends its hero and this results in a clash of communities,” analyzes Tristan Mendès France. Contacted by 20 minutesTF1 did not respond to our requests.