“Must be an old Karen” — Netizens mock woman who refuses to allow hawker serve customers who have a guide dog

SINGAPORE: In response to news of a woman’s recent fit over a hawker in Toa Payoh for serving a customer who brought a guide dog along, many others took to social media to call her a Karen.

According to a recent news report, a woman was upset with a hawker at Toa Payoh for serving a customer who had a guide dog. She reportedly made an issue over not seeing the hawker wash her hands after attending to a customer with a guide dog. The hawker then responded by saying that she did wash her hands.

The woman was then reported to have returned to the area the next day with a printout of her Google search “Are dogs allowed in Kopitiam?” The upset customer was also reported to have said, “Dogs are filthy.”

After an online user shared the news report on an online news forum, a handful of netizens took to the comments section of the thread to call the woman a Karen.

“I may be wrong,” said one online user, who hypothesised, “I think the woman is feeling unhappy in her life and expressing her unhappiness outwardly in seemingly illogical or unreasonable ways.”

Another wrote, “Must be an old Karen.”

Others went so far as to share their preference for having a guide dog as a company than someone with such behaviour. “I think we’d all agree that we’d rather dine with a well-behaved guide dog than a Karen,” said one.

Still, another commended the hawker stall owners for serving the customer who has a guide dog. “Mr Poh and his wife are good people,” the netizen said. “They see from strangers with disabilities POV. If for every Karen, there are the Pohs, soon we will have an inclusive society that welcomes the X-men!”

The Reddit thread has garnered more than 200 upvotes since it was published.

‘Dogs are filthy’: Woman upset that Toa Payoh hawker served customer who had a guide dog
by u/theloneranger_55 in singapore