Had she lived, Karen Carpenter of The Carpenters, Karen & Richard Carpenter, a brother/sister duo would be 75 this March. The lead vocalist of the band, Karen, was well known across the world for her beautiful, melodious, and flawless voice. Her fans say to her “voice is the voice of an angel.” The Carpenters’ genres included “pop, soft listening, jazz, and soft rock.” Karen Carpenter died at the age of 32 on 4 February 1983. The cause of her death was heart failure brought on by the complications of Anorexia Nervosa, an eating disorder which results from an unhealthy relationship with food.
Carpenter has been battling anorexia all her young adult life to her stardom. Karen’s quest to reach perfection by losing weight (that perhaps she did not need to) started right after high school after she started the Stillman water diet – which does not allow any intake of solid food. Her weight dropped to a skeletal 90 lbs. She has been in and out of the hospital when she felt she needed to seek help. Prior to her death, after gaining a little weight, she discharged herself and went back to Los Angeles but died a few months later.
Karen Carpenter’s tragic death marked the beginning of greater awareness about eating disorders and mental health.
According to my research, Anorexia Nervosa can happen to anyone. It affects more women which typically starts in the preteen age and gradually develops into full-blown anorexia. The victims of this horrible disorder start to have a very destructive approach towards food. Such victims start to develop a negative body image in their minds. They spend hours self-gazing in the mirror. They always focus on the negative body parts, and they always see a reflection of a “fat” person who needs losing weight. Such self-identification as someone “unattractive” remains stuck in their minds. For a lot of the anorexics it becomes a serious psychological issue. It only goes downhill from there if they do not seek professional treatment.
The Center for Eating Disorder Treatment defines Anorexia Nervosa as such: “Anorexia nervosa is thought to be due to the failure to fit in with today’s society. Peer pressure, preoccupation with slenderness and beauty, gaining autonomy, identity conflicts, and the slippery slope of weight loss are plausible social factors many experts believe contribute to anorexia nervosa. Many young girls become praised when they lose a little bit of weight as five pounds and this praise leads down a path to more and more weight loss.”
Anorexia can happen either due to genetically predisposed social factors, cultural influences, and psychological issues. When the issue starts from the genetic factor – it suggests that it is highly likely that there may have been someone in the family who had suffered from it. Cultural factors (the real culprit) promote the idea of “thinness” by using media, social media platforms, and hundreds of fashion magazines who advertise – “thin is beautiful.” Therefore, they starve to fit the image.
Women generally feel pressured to stay thin so that they can be projected as a glamourized version of a Barbie doll that is holding onto the supposed ideals of true beauty. To reach that goal, they start with crash diets by ignoring the side effects, counting each calorie to lose weight, disregarding that their bodies are not getting enough nutrients and vitamins. This type of abuse is extremely hard on the body to maintain an ideal weight. But anorexic women do not listen to any rhyme or reason; they must look thin no matter what the cost. Even when they reach their goal after losing significant weight they are not happy – they perceive themselves as “fat” when the reality is they have become a bag of bones.
Society sets the bar as to how a woman should look to be accepted as someone beautiful in this competitive world. It impacts the celebrities the most as they compete in a very cutthroat competitive domain to remain visible and to attract possible deals by holding onto the idea of beauty set for a woman to be considered beautiful.
Unfortunately, that is what had happened to Karen Carpenter. She most likely was aiming to achieve a “perfectionistic personality.” That is an impossible thing to attain. Nonetheless, she was relentless in her pursuit of the idea of perfection. Meanwhile, her weight continued to plummet, and performing on stage was getting difficult.
After dating a few famous people in the industry, Karen Carpenter ended up marrying a real estate developer in 1980 due to societal pressure. The much older husband turned out to be only interested in her money rather than helping her deal with anorexia. Within a couple of years, they filed for divorce. Karen’s health continued to decline. She died before signing the divorce papers. Everything she owned went to the husband.
Whether Karen Carpenter’s cause of anorexia nervosa stemmed from societal factors, traumatic experiences, complicated family dynamics, or because it was in her genes and got worse in a loveless marriage, she could not overcome her eating disorder. She was in and out of the hospital after gaining some weight. Right away she went back to dieting and cutting her recommended daily calories to a dangerous level. It has been recorded that Carpenter was taking up to fifty pills daily to induce vomiting. As a result, she would throw up every bit of food she ate during the day. She became very thin and one day her body just gave out.
The effects of fame in Karen’s personal life were too much because fame often brings intense public scrutiny from the fans and the media. They were talking about her personal life and its struggles. The entertainment industry can be brutal if an artist is struggling in some aspects of their lives. In the dazzling world of music, there lies a murky place where they exploit anything they find to make a singer feel vulnerable. To deal with the negative pressure an artist can either turn to drugs, or develop other bad habits, or psychological disorders.
Becoming a celebrity changes a person – fame brings a slew of problems including social isolation and addiction, and the line becomes very blurry between the “celebrity-self” and “authentic- self.”” The end result is some celebrities cannot stop them from going into a downward spiral.
In Karen Carpenter’s case, food, which one needs to nourish one’s body, became the nemesis. She rose to mega-stardom but was defeated because of her unhealthy relationship with food. When that took over, she did not have a fighting chance. Her anorexia became severe from 1975 onwards due to reaching an extreme height of fame and fortune.
Music lovers are still mesmerized by the Carpenters’ songs, and in 2010, Karen appeared in the Rolling Stone’s list of 100 “greatest singers” of all time.
On 3rd December 1978, the Carpenters performed their final US concert at the Winter Festival Concert. The Christmas show took place at Pacific Terrace Theatre, Long Beach, California.
Karen Carpenter was a well-loved musician despite her anorexia. Her fan base varied from young adults to mature people (such as late President Jimmy Carter). She died way too soon at such a tender age. Music lovers who once were enchanted by her angelic voice miss her even today. I know I do. With the rendition of her timeless classic, “Yesterday Once More,” Karen Carpenter remains immortal among her fans.
Zeenat Khan writes from Maryland, USA
