Thomas: This is a significant cultural shift, and the acronym is, frankly, awful.
It stands for “Affluent White Female Urban Liberal.” It is being used in a way that feels similar to “WASP,” which stood for “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.” That term became popular in the 1960s and 1970s and was often used to shut down debate. “Oh, you’re a WASP, your opinion doesn’t matter.”
It is interesting to see how much has changed. I was watching White Christmas, and there’s a joke about there being no Democrats in Vermont. I remember thinking, “Wow, that was a different time.”
Now “AWFUL” is being used as a modern version of that same rhetorical move. “Oh, you’re an affluent white female urban liberal, your opinion doesn’t matter.” It is basically an acronym version of the Karen meme.
Millennials popularized “Karen” as a generational label because Karen was a common name among Boomer women. But it did not have cultural endurance. It was overly specific, but also overly broad. It grabbed too many women, including women it did not really apply to.
“AWFUL” is different. It is not tied to a generation, so it can target younger women too. And it is especially relevant in publishing because a lot of people in the publishing world fit that description. Many publishing professionals, and many authors, are affluent white female urban liberals.
This is worth monitoring because it may affect how people interpret you. If listeners or readers are biased against that identity label, they may dismiss what you have to say before they even hear you.
Discrimination and stereotyping create a “what do you do if that’s you?” problem. If people say, “I don’t like WASPs,” and you are one, what are you supposed to do with that?
It’s also telling to see who gets described with the negative acronym. That has shifted over the last 80 years.
Jonathan: I’ve been on the receiving end of Karens a lot. But I saw this most clearly in the homeschooling community when I worked as a teacher or fitness coach. Moms who prioritized safety did not like me because I didn’t seem “safe.” I’m loud, I play rough, I yell, we have fun. That wasn’t appreciated, until they had “the problem class.”
The problem class was 8 to 12-year-old boys. Nothing was wrong with them, they just didn’t want to sit still. The “safe-care” moms couldn’t manage them, so I walked in and had them doing math recitation while doing pushups and burpees. They weren’t talking because they were trying to breathe.
The Karen meme can be funny, and I like memes, but it helps to understand what it’s rooted in. A lot of these women are trying to preserve their neighborhood, protect their kids, and keep their world stable. That impulse can come from love, but it often gets taken to an inappropriate extreme. That’s the meme.
Thomas: The Karen meme is getting politicized.
Early viral “Karen” incidents were often right-coded behavior, even when they happened in places like New York City. Over time, “Karen” has shifted into a politically coded identity.
The “Karen haircut” got pulled into that identity too, which is funny because that haircut is more associated with Gen X women, and Gen X women aren’t likely to be named Karen. The term is messy and inaccurate, but the aesthetic stuck.
At the core, Karen behavior is refusing responsibility while expecting special treatment. The signature line is, “I want to talk to your manager.” It’s essentially saying, “You don’t have authority, so find someone who does, and make them treat me differently.”
Jonathan: Originally, this was tied to the Boomer versus Millennial divide. “Millennial” used to be a pejorative. Boomers felt like service had declined, especially in retail and food service, and they blamed younger workers.
It’s the difference between going to McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A. You expect different levels of service. Karens were the customers who demanded the old standard and wanted employees held accountable for not meeting it.
Thomas: A lot of people have noticed quality declines across the board. Food isn’t as good. Service isn’t as good. Things feel dingier and more run down.
Economically, a lot of it tracks with currency losing value over time and businesses using shrinkflation. You get fewer M&Ms in the bag for the same price instead of paying more. Shrinkflation hits service too.
Cracker Barrel is a great example. People noticed quality slipping. Instead of baking biscuits fresh, a company can bake them elsewhere, ship them, and microwave them. Save ten cents per biscuit across a thousand locations and it adds up.
The problem is that the Karen yelled at the millennial server who did not make that decision. The server can’t fix it. The restaurant manager can’t fix it either. Corporate made the call. Nobody at corporate knows your name, and they don’t care.
So younger workers got punished for doing the right thing, following store policy. That fuels resentment.
Jonathan: There’s a biblical warning about this: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath.” Jordan Peterson makes a similar point. If you punish someone for doing the right thing, you create a monster.
Millennials got punished by customers for problems they couldn’t fix. That created generational resentment. It’s exactly the kind of dynamic that fosters discouragement and rage.
Thomas: The political coloring of this generational conflict has flipped.
In 2016 it was “Okay, boomer.” Boomers were coded as pro-Trump, and young people were coded as pro-Clinton. But in the 2024 election, boomers were the only age group that moved toward Democrats and away from Trump.
Meanwhile, online discourse shows younger men moving in a more conservative direction, the “red pill” culture. You don’t fully see it in voting patterns yet, but you see it in what people are saying online.
Why does this matter for authors and storytelling?
Thomas: This is why it’s so important to pick a Timothy. When you know who your Timothy is, you understand their generation, ideology, region, and cultural assumptions. That changes everything, including who they see as the hero.
Is the hero the woman who notices society is deteriorating and speaks up, or is that the villain? You cannot write a story that appeals to both if your audiences disagree about who the hero and villain are.
Millennials are not young anymore. I just turned 40. People are getting older, and the wheel keeps turning.
There’s also the housing conflict, boomers not moving, boomers buying more homes, younger people feeling locked out. It all adds fuel to the generational divide.
Knowing your reader helps you navigate what hope looks like for them, and what kind of character they’ll root for.
Can fiction help heal generational rifts?
Jonathan: You can also try to repair this in fiction. In Shades of Black, I have a cross-generational relationship between a girl and her grandfather. She respects him because he teaches patiently and doesn’t punish her for mistakes. He corrects her, she learns, and they move on.
In book two, she begins to realize who he was when he was younger; he was the demon hunter and the keeper of the death songs. When the demons return, she sees a side of him she never knew.
That kind of relationship can help heal the rift. You can respect your elders when they don’t punish you for doing your best.
Thomas: One way to bridge these gaps is to show healthy cross-generational relationships in fiction. We have an unusually high level of generational conflict right now.
It’s not the first time. The 1960s were full of it too. The wheel turns. Boomers once shook their fists at the Silent Generation, and now younger generations are shaking their fists at them.
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