This has been on my mind pretty much forever and I don’t really know my full thoughts or necessarily how to explain them but the following text is an attempt to succinctly explain my problems with celebrities and the fandom that surrounds it.
First and foremost it is important to see that all celebrities are normal people. Despite those who were born into fame, celebrities (as a whole) grew up under normal living conditions. Being normal, I should clarify, is an umbrella term I’m using to distinguish between them and us, them being celebrities. Normal in the sense that before fame one would not even bat an eye passing said celebrity in the streets. But suddenly they are associated with fame and become an icon of observation. Celebrities are seen as rare, and although they are the rareness should not transfer to idolization.
I find it so completely ridiculous that individuals can idolize celebrities so much. It is important though to note a fan base is a goal of any celebrity as it means more business, profit, visibility etc. I am too guilty of looking up to celebrities and such there is a level that fandom reaches where the celebrity isn’t looked at for their talent but more-so their way of being human. The best examples I have for this resides in the fans of celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and Beyoncé. Both females have huge fan bases, and rightly so. But what they often are praised for are external to their direct job and are rather things common in all people or thoughts that are not new but rather new to the listener.
J.law is often loved by her fans for being a ‘real girl’, getting drunk at award shows, eating pizza and overall rejecting the typical celebrity lifestyle. But if J.law is getting so much praise for her lifestyle and because of this her fans see themselves in her, why is in that we cannot look up to our peers in this way? Why is it that once she becomes a celebrity these traits, that are common is most people, are suddenly worthy of such a fan base. I think it is just so, strange that eating pizza and getting drunk which are normal occurrences suddenly become praised since they are being performed by a celebrity. Her behavior makes her ‘funny’ when in truth all of my friends act that way and they are just people.
Beyoncé just released a video commemorating her one-year anniversary of her self-titled album. This video runs 11 minutes long and basically serves as a reflective piece on each of her songs that allude to their meanings. She explains in the beginning how being a celebrity is the biggest sacrifice as all privacy is lost etc. Mid-way through she begins talking about the struggles of gender stating that she is not a feminist but rather a humanist. Right when I heard this I wanted to puke. My nauseous feelings were not a result of her poetic statements about equality but rather that these statements are rooted heavily in years of theory by very famous theorists. I am only aware of these though my own education, and although I know my education is a sign of privilege among those who may never have such access. Those of whom will see this, or idolize Beyoncé will attribute these thoughts to only her, as if she is some bright, all knowing individual without taking into consideration the context that may have influenced her or rather the theorists who actually hypothesized said idea. I think this is almost what Roland Barthes was alluding to when he spoke about the idea of the ‘myth’. The audience has displaced the actually beginnings and Beyoncé is ultimately taking credit for these ideas. I am not trying to say that Beyoncé is doing wrong by trying to educate her following but rather her following should educate themselves and not simply praise Beyoncé for something that is not her original thought – when I feel this will most likely be the case. My last point was that Beyoncé painted this picture on how difficult living a celebrity life is yet contradicts it by producing the video in the first place, which celebrates her fame, and the video alone serves as a product to disseminate her fame further. I know that fame is a choice for her, and that promotion is a part of her job but I just found it strangely counter-productive.
Ultimately it just bothers me how celebrities receive praise for either normal things or ideas that are not there own. Really what this seems to mean is their ability to influence, and under no context other than fame. It bothers me that simply being famous then connotes so much more privilege when in truth they are fundamentally no different than you and I who are, in theory, just as good of role models
– This is not to say that ‘normal’ people don’t look up to one another, just that celebrities hold a greater pull
Do The Right Thing 