Favorite “Characters”: Karamo Brown (Queer Eye)

I got a little sidetracked from finishing my Favorite “Characters” posts (in quotes since they’re not actually characters) on the Fab Five, because So Much Pop Culture, Not Enough Hours in the Day. That doesn’t mean that I don’t like Karamo or Antoni, quite the contrary. It took me a little while to get back to it, but really, I’m just spreading out the Queer Eye goodness a bit more.

In both the original and rebooted versions of the show, the “culture expert” has the most difficult job of conveying the value of their expertise in a TV-friendly format. And despite having the same title, Karamo’s role on the show is very different than Jai Rodriguez’s in the original. While Karamo occasionally dips into “cultured” stuff like introducing the heroes to new experiences/more “sophisticated” activities, his focus generally lies elsewhere. For him and the new Queer Eye, “culture expert” might more accurately be termed therapist or life coach.

More than anything, Karamo’s time with the heroes is spent digging into the internal issues that are maybe manifesting more visibly in the stuff that the rest of the Fab Five helps them with. On TV, a borderline-hoarder disaster of an apartment or a wardrobe that hasn’t been updated in 15 years is both easy to display and cinematic to go about fixing. But Karamo wants to know why the hero isn’t spending time on keeping their home or appearance in order. Are they too depressed to do anything, or are they afraid of putting themselves out there? Do they spend so much time taking care of other people that they don’t leave anything for themselves (a common issue for probably the majority of the women the Fab Five have helped)? Do they need to find the confidence to take a needed first step, or do they need to resolve something in their past before they can move forward? These are the questions Karamo tries to get at.

Again, it’s difficult to show this in a 45-minute episode format (especially when Karamo is splitting his time with four other people whose expertise is all more visually-apparent than his!) Sometimes, the show boils it down to a particular action (like a hero in a wheelchair sitting down to talk with the man who shot him or a trans hero getting the gender on his ID changed,) but often, these are just conversations/sessions that Karamo has with the hero. Although the show sometimes tries to jazz these up and make them a little more dynamic, throwing in visual metaphors to symbolize what Karamo and the hero are talking about, the work that’s happening is much more internal.

And the tears, oh, how they flow! Karamo’s secondary expertise is making people cry – heroes and viewers alike – and he’s super good at it. But it’s about a lot more than just heartstring-pulling and good TV. I mean, I get that it’s a reality show, so of course that’s part of it, but it’s not just that. One thing I really adore about Queer Eye is about how, with the male heroes in particular, it regularly touches on the effects of toxic masculinity. If many female heroes have a common thread of helping everyone except themselves, many of the guys are struggling with something in silence. Whether it’s insecurity, depression, fear, or past traumas, we see so many of them telling Karamo that they don’t think they can admit these feelings, like they’re less of a man if they tell someone they’re having a hard time or ask for help. It’s an important way to show how much sexism can hurt men too, and Karamo’s work is huge in helping these guys dismantle some of that and realize it’s okay to be vulnerable.