Karen Tongson: Why Queer People Love Karen Carpenter

LGBTQ&A

Jeffrey Masters

Society & Culture

4.7 • 703 Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2019

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"Are you a boy or a girl?" It's the question Karen Tongson's been asked more than any other throughout her life. When she was in grad school, following in the footsteps of countless butches before, she finally cut her hair short, leaving behind the performative version of femininity. "I finally just shed that last bit of gender trouble."

"Gender is something that is fun and fluid," she asserts. The performance of it all, the reluctance to conform to historical gender norms, is just one of the many qualities that drew Karen Tongson to Karen Carpenter, the now legendary singer who died at the age of 33. Karen Tongson's new book, Why Karen Carpenter Matters, delves into the LGBTQ+ community's unlikely connection to the late singer.

LGBTQ&A is hosted and produced by Jeffrey Masters. @jeffmasters1

Transcript

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0:00.0	Don't you remember you told me you loved it, baby.
0:05.7	That's sad you be coming back to's waking, baby.
0:11.2	That's Karen Carpenter.
0:13.1	She grew to worldwide fame in the 60s and 70s, and is probably best known today for her
0:18.5	cover of Superstar that we just heard.
0:21.4	Karen Carpenter was one of my father's favorite singers.
0:24.8	Her music plays in the background of many of my childhood memories,
0:28.0	and I very distinctly remember my dad telling me about her battle with anorexia,
0:33.8	still mourning the shortness of her career.
0:36.7	She died at 32, and yet despite that, despite that short length of time that she was making music,
0:43.3	her voice lives on, and somewhat surprisingly, has had a rather big impact on the queer community.
0:49.9	Karen Tonkson is our guest today.
0:52.1	She grew up in the Philippines and was named after Karen Carpenter.
0:55.9	Karen Tongson has a new book called Why Karen Carpenter Matters.
0:59.4	We talk about that and also a lot about gender.
1:03.0	Karen Tonkson has fielded the question, are you a boy or a girl for all of her life?
1:07.7	And says that sometimes it's just easier to let people think that she's a man.
1:14.6	From Luminary Media, I'm Jeffrey Masters, and this is LGBTQ and A.
1:23.8	So your new book is Why Karen Carpenter Matters.
1:30.7	I want to start with that big question just because I think it provides important context for people.
1:35.3	So can you tell us why queer people and marginalized people are so connected to her?
1:40.2	Well, I think that one of the things that I explained from the very beginning of the book is that, you know, there are a lot of different reasons that music critics or cultural historians would say why a particular musician matters.
	...

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