This is Flex and Frooms.
Welcome to the podcast. This is Flex and Karen. I believe in manifesting and I do not like the route that I'm going down, but I have done some Karen like typical behaviors. I don't ever want to be in defense of Karen, okay, but given that I am Karen, I have to defend some of the actions that a Karen is want to do.
Absolutely.
Incident happened a little while back.
A few days ago.
I called in somebody DM to somebody who runs a meme page because I took offense to one of the videos they posted, which goes against my general ethos of online behavior.
Yeah, you hate policing people. I hate it, but I had to do it.
Yeah, this is my new era of like becoming mouthy.
Yeah, because that feeling of like fighting against your instincts. That sucks, being like I just want to say something, I just want to do something, I just want to go there. So I get why you were, like why you did it, but you know lessons a Karen.
Let's get to it, Caz, this is Flex and Rooms.
On DA last week, I talked about some Karen behavior that I did on a plane. I was using both armrests in the middle. When a man started using my arm rest in adverted commerce. I asked him to please move, I take it out of my space. I said, oh, sorry, excuse me. I like kind of don't really have much room. And he's like, oh, so yeah.
I hit him with the reverse Karen too, you kind of put it on here, be like, I don't have room, Damsel Karen.
That's a new breed. I'm the damsel.
Damsel Karen literally fuck okay. So the Karen just wants to get out of my soul, wants to get out of my system.
She's absolutely banging on the door. Karen wants to reclaim space.
So the other day I was on Instagram. This is the person that I follow. It's kind of like a mean page and they repost a lot of people in the wild. This guy who's like in his twenties kissing this woman who looks in her thirties and like she would be like the archetypical bogan. Like they're at the pub drinking beers. They're both obviously pissed. She's sitting on a stool. The video shows him coming up to her and kissing her like.
Full on him going up to her and kissing her mouth. Yeah, anytime, Oh slippy.
And then he kind of stops kissing her, which makes it look like it was a dare, but she kind of continues and then falls backwards off a chair and he's laughing, and everyone in the pub is kissing their pats laughing. Ye, so this woman's gone us overhead. Everybody's giggling, and this meme page has reposted this video that's obviously somebody sent in. I go to the comment section, so I see this video. Immediately I give me a bad
feeling at my stomach. So yeah, I'm reading the comments and it's calling this woman a mongrel and all this really fucked shit, and I'm like, I have to do something about this. So I thought about commenting and saying, hey, have you asked for this woman's consent to post this video, because at the very end of the video, she's on the ground and she clocks that someone's filming and she
says stop filming, me goes online. So I'm like, I clearly no one in the comments is being like this is fucked And I like to think that if I see something that I really don't agree with, I like
to say something. However, what I've learned in my life, in my past life, is that I don't have the luxury of saying what I think at times if it's quitemercial, because I have had instances in the last year or two where I have spoken up about something and then someone said, oh, no one cares that you're online.
Virtually physically, no one cares that you're online.
What do you mean, Like I've put my neck out to like stick up for someone or say what I think, and then that's construed as, Oh, you think you can like dictate what people say and think because you have some sort of online presence. Yeah, so it's I'm just being the Karen that I am, regardless of it.
If you're a Karen by nature and nurture, I have been a Karen whole.
Wow, you get to be Karen by.
Trade literally, and I don't want to be because I don't want the fallout. But I saw this, and I'm like, I can't in good conscience look at this and scroll on because I know what it's like also to be made fun of. I don't like it when people take videos of me without my consent and stuff like that, and this was like a very unflattering video.
So I messaged the guy DM.
I dmd him because that's my other thing that I've learned in all my time online.
A call in, a call in, that's what they call it.
Because nobody likes me put on show, and there is something very specific about somebody telling you off or calling your behavior into question where other people can see. And so sometimes when you take it into a private space and you say, hey, person, here's a thing.
Have you considered? This could work nicely? But how did it go?
I want you to tell me what you thought of this? Okay, hello King, I love your shit. Nice But I wonder about that last video with the woman. Does she know that it's online. I didn't want to comment on the post to start shit, but some of the comments are really cooked, calling her a mongrel, and the fact that she said, don't fielm me and then it ends up online. I imagine this would make her feel really shit. I'm not the police, but I just had to get this off my chest, so are you?
That's what the cops would say. That is absolutely what the cops would say. I'm not the police, but I just had to get this off my chest.
Because I've been in her position before and I wish someone stood up for me. Salutemoji, salute emoji, fingers up emoji.
And what I will say about that approach is I really appreciate that you've made it casual the whole way round, and you've led with emotion, not like a morality thing where it's like this is a bad thing. It's just like I have noticed this, and these are the reasons she said, don't put it up. The comments are really cooked,
Like what do you think about it? To be fair, I wouldn't have done it because I'm of the belief that the amount of steps it takes to post that shit's intentional, and the same way you're seeing the comments ramp up is the same way that person seeing the comment ramp up, and if their own moral compass is telling them like this is fine and cool because the engagement is good and the analytics are ups told me all I need to know.
But I think I'm.
More in my harm reduction error at the moment where I'm like, I've done my call out, call in, and I'm just gonna be silly and talk about big concepts with you.
Yes see, I'm in that liminal period where I can't decide where I'm getting pent up about things, and then feeling even more pent up that I feel that I'm not allowed to be pent up.
And that's not good.
Levels are up, Yeah, fully up when I was sending that, But I'm glad that I did. And I think I'm only in the future going to put things on record and put myself out there if I wouldn't care for literally everyone in the world saw period period. So then he replied, Hey, mate, I haven't looked at the comments, and I'll get in and get rid of that shit. Then double check she's aware of it. I don't know how you're going to double check.
Hey, this is really unsafe.
People aren't actually going ham they hate it, but.
Fled to it in numbers.
Seriously, And if she isn't aware, I'll get rid of it. Thanks for pointing that out. And then he said they both appear to go at each other all tongues blazing yep, which means that it's consensual, and she didn't mind that it's something, but who who are.
We to decide what something is or is through observation?
Then he goes, and I love your shit too, shake hand, emoji, and I said, God bless, I look forward to many toortals, to which he said, and I look forward to.
This friendship blossoming.
So the moral of the story there is I'm so excited that I didn't call him out on the post because that would have ended badly, because clearly he stands by it. But I'm glad that I said something generally because I don't want to leave my life like I can't bring out my Karen when the Karen has a reason to be the Karen.
Ye, you know, But in this instance, I think you need to give yourself like some props because the plane that was that was very Karen like. This is more so I wouldn't even call it vigilanteism either. I think that every now and then people forget that the Internet becomes a really wayward place because nobody feels responsible enough
to set rules and guidelines, right. I just think there's room to regard any interaction, whether it's virtual or in a real life space, as a real like as a real interaction where it's like you're posting real people and a real person is there being embarrassed and real people are commenting cooked stuff, and like you're encouraging an atmosphere where real people think this is okay to do, to real people think all that's really good.
I think it's really tricky because the.
Reason why I stopped doing call in call out culture is that I wasn't really interested in like rehabilitating people either, because I think there's, like you said, an element of if he stands by the post, who am I then to be like, here are the reasons why it's bad, and here's the reasons why it offended me, and here are the reasons, like I'm not doing that shit, you know,
And I think that is necessary. When you are calling people in and out, you got to stick with them on the journey, Like because it's your problem, you know what I'm saying, Like you called it out. So if you if you feel so highly or you feel so strongly about it.
Then see it through flick and frods.
The other a week, I was at the Sydney premiere of Elvis. Yeah, so Hot, so sexy. I'm obsessed with Basil Woman and Austin Butler. And if you go to my Instagram flextut mommy, you'll see the moment in which he bewitched me. I have never seen myself look at a man that way. My eyes were glistening. I was looking at his eyes, looking at his lips like I was entranced, and I was being entrance in the moment, being like, why has this guy got me?
Looking all patient? I was giving demure. I saw that he was a you're looking up and down on his lips. I'm like, yeah, she wants it.
I was giving delicate. I said this man, I see what you've done. And now the bar has been raised. Because whatever that feeling was, I need a tenfold. It was feeling like those memes where they say like women should be peaceful around. However, so we're on a red carpet of one side of the street, and there are fans along the side that we're on and parallel l
like across the road looking towards the red carpet. And when the cast and celebrities get out of the car, they get out facing directly to the red carpet and they have their backs to a whole row of fans across the street. Baslanan gets out of the car immediately stops, turns around, sees that there's droves of people across the road holding up signs goes through traffic to say hello
to everyone, take selfies, give autographs, say thank you. Then came across the road back to where the red carpet was. There were fans there did the same thing. And all I could think of was, damn, these new celebrities are not built correct. They're really the default because the start of the show, he's taken his time to go and show gratitude to the people that quote unquote are paying his bills. Right, you are giving this movie a sense
of like fanfare and legacy. Right, he recognizes the necessity. It's like the ultimate formula. There is no pandemonium without the fans that stand on the road and hold the signs and go to these red carpets. And I was like, yeah,
I don't think a new celebrity would do that. I don't think that like an Instagram star or an influencer or a TikToker would understand that that is something that you can do because you're not really given a guidebook of interacting because you build so much of your profile in solitary alone on your phone in your room, not interacting with anyone in a way that feels physical.
Yeah, and so perhaps when you get into a physical.
Space, you maybe internalize the idea that you have to engage from a fart like maybe wave or you know, acknowledge with a smile, but stepping forward and actually like touching people and signing things. They just weren't doing that. I said, damn, is this like this weird consequence of social media.
I assume that they are thinking if I go over there, They're not going to want to talk to me because I'm not a real celebrity.
But people were screaming. It's like they're screaming their name. If someone had been like you got out of your car to do a red carpet and someone's like, oh my god, rooms, rooms, hi, and instead of going up to them acknowledging them, you just kind of waving like ahaha, thank you.
I don't do something reasonable.
It's almost not an idea that like you don't want to break the fourth wall and like actually interact with them because you're kind of used to this separation of like you consume me from afar and like here, I'm over here, wave. But this idea of like physically going into that into your fans orbit and being like I'm right here with you in this moment.
So Basi Lemon was really good at god giving people credabum were there people that weren't.
I think like Austin Butler was really good at just giving everyone that that look like he was just maintaining eye contact with everyone. He was moving at a zoo point five speed, talking at zero point five speed. I think he was really good at letting people can like bask in him a little bit, like kind of just stood there and let people acknowledge him. He wasn't rushing
himself through. That makes sense. Like the star Tom Hanks, for example, didn't do the red carpet, raced out of the car straight inside, but he.
Was here for it.
Yeah, and he got COVID exactly, so like bad vibes, I get it, but like he doesn't need to do that, But it was notice of one comparison to others.
Everyone's like, where's Tom. I was like, he's not.
He's not doing media's he's castaway to me, and he doesn't have to because he's an og. But I'm just saying, perhaps some of these some of these new celebrities need to take a page out of the vintage book and he.
Would be stars listening give a bit of attention, give.
A lot of attention. I think it's worth like cranking. It make someone's day.
This is flex and frooms on whether or not we like it. Farting comes up a lot on this show. I believe it's a new remit in your professional career.
Yeah, definitely not part of my core themes, not part of my core branding.
But I'm here to be involved. Well, I have a story for you, and this is a love line. So this has been sent in by a listener.
Here we go.
Yes, I realized the title sounds ridiculous, and the title is fiance acts weird about the fact I fart around him. Standard procedure, that would be me, I'd be acting weird. But this is something that really bothers me. My fiance is extremely gassy and has long been comfortable farting around me.
We'd usually just laugh about it.
Shortly before we got engaged, I got comfortable enough to start farting around him, and we laugh about that too. I didn't think there was anything wrong about it. Of course you didn't. And for clarity's sake, I am not shrek.
Thank you, queen. That was one for you.
I don't go around farting everywhere. I only do it around him because we're going to live together, so I may as well break him in now. I was just texting him tonight and the topic came up. He surprised me by saying that my farting caught him off guard because and I quote, women don't fight. He then proceeded to say that a woman has never farted around him before.
Oh clean blood.
He's had many girlfriends in the past, and I would say, any.
How old is that he chose you?
He's thirty two, okay, she's twenty three, which I think is also numb.
He's had minutes what notable? Okay?
Nine years As difference, He's had many girlfriends in the past and would say that he used to go for the model type. He then made a joke that he may have to check me for male private parts. I'm not usually easy offender, but this rubbed me the wrong way.
I'm still stuck on. He used, he usually goes for the model type. Then who are you? Babe? I switched it up to you? She shrek.
She also asked, how the heck in thirty two years of life, have you never seen a woman fat or smell it? Rather than in conclusion. I told him this whole thing upsets me, and he told me I was overreacting and that he was just teasing me. He claimed he wasn't comparing me to anyone, but I don't know. It left me feeling sour, like my femininity was less legitimate because I fought even typing that feels ridiculous, But it just feels so offensive to be told women don't fight because they're women.
Is that what he said?
Yeah, or at least that's that's what she's Yeah, you're interpreting.
I'm stressed out.
My first issue is him fighting around her. Don't be your most comfortable self around me, is what I'm trying to say.
I get it. You far do it another room. I get it.
You bur I mean burping is chill if you're not belching.
Wink ye looking at our prettyper number one belter in the land.
I would much prefer some gonna blow their nose. They did it in another a coughing fit for the first couple. I'm like, yeah, you can have it, but if it's gonna be an occurring thing, just take it elsewhere. These are all things that I do. I'm looking you dead in the eye. So the next time you want to do that, Yeah, honestly, like she lost me out, like he farts a lot around me because I wouldn't nit that in the bud number one. But fine, if that's the dynamic you have. I think he set a tone, right,
you're fighting a lot, You're making it a thing. I'm gonna assume you're comfortable with the concept of fighting in the same way if I was gonna blow my nose, I would leave the room. That's a standard I'm setting for myself, and I'm just hoping that people who spend a lot of time around me will just do the same thing.
I'm not gonna hold them to it. That's not my business.
But in this instance, when you started fighting around him and he started taking offense, well that's just weird because you've said a standard. If you don't want it that way, then shift your behavior to shift hers. I do think like the women don't fight thing is not personal, like the I don't think he's like, you're grossing me out because you far.
I think you're just warping his perception of the world.
He's like, wait a second, I've dated so many of these creatures and none have ever done what you've just done. Now you know, he thought you were a non fighter. Now you're letting a few things rip, and I think it's shattering his illusion.
Which is pretty fair.
It's like the first time you see someone do something, like the first time you see someone get really mad, you're like, WHOA, that's hectic. I didn't know you did that. That is never seen someone do that before. In this instance, though, I'm sure you can take it personally for a myriad of reasons. I'm not gonna tell you not to. But like the fighting thing is the least of your concerns. Missage gap. Yeah, don't get us talking on this topic.
They go, well, we're gonna send her on away with this song. I don't know what she should do.
Just just stop fighting.
Just do whatever makes you more coomfortable, because don't stop farting. Don't make it a point to keep fighting around him if he's gonna make you feel like you're an ogre because of it. But also, if that's the new dynamic you're creating, it needs to be mutual. Like he's got to stop letting it rip so comfortably love.
It, plug it up. You've been listening to the Flex and Rooms Catch Up podcast. For more, tune in to Icata on DAB or check it out right here on iHeartRadio