The Audacity of a White Woman 💁‍♀️

Using My White Privilege—for Good

Jul 29, 2025

📂 Filed Under: Protest in Lip Gloss, Confessional Activism, Karen Rewired, Dispatch 11:11, Smile for the Algorithm

Don’t just have the privilege. Wield it.

The Audacity of a White Woman

by Rebecca M. Bell

The Bell Rings 🔔

Let’s be honest:

No one on Earth has more raw audacity than a white woman in a Target Customer Service line.

She will demand to speak to someone’s manager about a rug she bought in 2008 with the confidence of a war general.

She will roll up with nothing but vibes and a crumpled receipt from a completely different store—
and she will still get the refund.
Why?
Because she expects to be heard.

Because the world made room for her complaints.
Because her outrage is familiar.
Because somewhere along the way, someone taught her:
“If you’re loud enough, you’ll win.”

And I’ve decided:

I’m going to use that exact same energy.

But not for a refund.
Not for a discount.
Not for a faster table, a better parking spot, or a manager’s attention—

I’m going to use it to defend the people this country was built to ignore.

Because if the world is going to hand me a megaphone for simply being palatable and pale,
I’m damn well going to scream something worth hearing.

If I’m going to be watched in line,
I want it to be because I said something radical—
not because I made a scene over almond milk.

If I’m going to be labeled difficult,
I want it to be because I disrupted a room full of cowards.
Not because my salad came with croutons.

I’m tired of watching white women waste their rage.

We throw tantrums over Starbucks orders.
We cry on cue.
We weaponize discomfort.
We walk into every room with centuries of unearned credibility
and too often spend it on vanity, gossip, and brunch complaints.

But what if we didn’t?

What if we walked into the room and used that same default authority to say,
“Actually, no. You’re not going to get away with that.”

Call it the “Karen Aesthetic.”

That’s fine.

Just let me be the kind of Karen who gets your racist uncle fired.
Let me be the kind of Karen who calls ICE’s bluff.
Let me be the kind of Karen who files FOIA requests like bedtime stories and memorizes police badge numbers for sport.

Let me weaponize the weapon they built in me.

Let me be unbearable on behalf of someone else.

Let me be the woman you regret handing a microphone to—

because she didn’t use it for a TED Talk.
She used it for a takedown.

Let me be the woman who doesn’t “de-escalate,”
but intervenes.

Let me be the woman whose tone doesn’t change.
The one who doesn’t “just want to keep things light.”
The one who saw the fire—and brought gasoline.

Because if they expect me to be loud,
then loud I will be.
But not for a coupon—
Not for a crooked eyebrow wax—
Not for a neighborhood Facebook feud—

I’ll be loud for the trans kid in your school board meeting.
For the undocumented mother at risk of deportation.
For the Black teenager wrongly accused.
For the Palestinian child labeled a threat before she could spell it.

I will take every ounce of my inherited social power,

every ounce of my proximity to safety,
and use it like a crowbar against the system that handed it to me.

I will not whisper in rooms built for shouting.
I will not smile through genocide.
I will not stay soft for your comfort while the world burns.

You want audacity?
You want "too much"?
You want "angry white woman energy"?

You’ll get it.

Just not in the way you’re used to. 💁‍♀️

I will be asking to speak to the system,

—Rebecca M. Bell

The Bell Rings 🔔

PS. This post was sponsored by centuries of unearned authority and one woman’s choice to redirect it.
I’m not sorry for being loud.
I’m sorry it is taking so many people—who look like me—too long to aim their outrage and volume in the right direction.

📂 Filed Under: Protest in Lip Gloss, Confessional Activism, Karen Rewired, Dispatch 11:11, Smile for the Algorithm

Ring the bell. 🔔