STEVER! I thought you were a dude!

Is it a HE or is it a SHE? (kind of conjures up that Pat song from SNL)

Geeze, I’m starting feel a bit androgynous over here. I can’t tell you how many emails I get from people who say, "I totally thought you were a dude." Know what? I love it. I smile every time! It means I will never be lumped in with the_______wow…am I ever at a loss for words? Um, no.

But I try to be appropriate where possible. We’ll just say the standard category most female singers are put in. ;)I do understand my last name can be confusing too...like some guy named Steve (by the way when my name switched to just Karen on here a while ago, I have no clue why...artistically I go by my last name. That was myspace weirdness)

I think every woman has the right to present her look how she wants it, so long as her confidence in herself extends to being ok with the reactions she receives. If you wear miniskirts and heels, you will possibly get whistled at. If you are exotically gothic, you will get stared at. It’s kind of how it goes. I am pretty much neither one of those people. I am the girl who stares at a computer all day, editing, singing or writing…hair in a pony tail, no make-up and the crappiest clothes you probably would consider giving away to charity if they’d even take them. HA!

I do like to dress-up…not in long dresses and heels, but in make-believe and pretend. I love history and characters and I love acting. If I could ever stand bright light bulbs around a mirror, I would set up an actual station where I consciously enter a make-believe world, put face-paint on for a time and then go back to no make-up and hair tied back right after. I don’t go out on Saturday nights much anymore and when I do go out, I like garage sales and swap meets.
I suppose when I get a comment, email etc about looking like a boy, I’m really ok with it. It not only means I don’t have to be pigeon-holed in the same boring camp, but it means I am free to dress as I want. My brother was my best friend growing up (I could knock your block off, ya know…he did teach me how) hahahaha so I think the boy thing means I am not too far from the girl I was playing ball and getting my shins scuffed up. It’s a rather cool revelation I’ve been having about it. I am not suggesting I want to be a boy… I like being female, but I am enjoying the absolute freedom I feel in being me and if that is interpreted as ‘boyish’ then it’s closer to me than the sad girl I used to be who dressed to impress.

But none of it defines me. It’s pure crap you know when they say we are defined by our looks. I don’t even view at it as expressing yourself. Expressing oneself ought to come from actual expression. I do think the clothes I make, the hats I wear and the make-up I put on is just for fun. It’s really cool to read up on people in history and play a role for art sake. (Think Halloween more than culture).

I will be exploring more of the visual in future STEVER projects. I will also wear my T-shirts and crap jeans in between. None of it is sexual expression or me trying to be a feminist smashing society in the middle of its forehead. I like to think of myself as more of a humanist although that word is plagued with inaccurate classification too. I’m just having a good time when I feel up and drenching myself in the emotion of it all when I am down. It’s really not any more difficult than that.

Wow, that was talking about myself way too much. How are YOU doing?

Much love on ya!
Karen :)

"Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself." ~Walter Anderson