American obsession with celebrity causes blind eye to reality
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Spring, 2002. Today in America, we’re too greatly defined, not by our deeds, but by our relationship (real or imagined) with famous people. Unless we’re actors or public figures, we are not able to see ourselves, to watch ourselves in our interactions with other people (though we wish we could, by participating in reality shows like Survivor and The Real World). Celebrity lives seem more “real” to us than we are to ourselves, because we can “see” their lives in a way that we cannot see our own. From our obsessions with O.J. and Tupac to our supreme need for Pamela Anderson and Anne Robinson, Americans have a minute-by-minute “spark” obsession with everything famous, which prevents them from participating in democracy, caring about the issues facing our nation, and understanding the value of learning. There is one memorable case that questions the very foundation of our values surrounding the American obsession: The death of a Princess. “There are no royalty in America, and yet the run-ins between celebrities and those who would take pictures of them are growing increasingly ugly,” according to Time Magazine (1). Princess Diana was the people’s princess. Diana was a voice for the millions of suffering children, minorities, and women. She gave people hope and motivated people to succeed. But that all disappeared when she was killed in a car accident while trying to escape the paparazzi. There was a high price on the head of Diana, Princess of Wales – dead or alive, as it tragically turns out. Hollywood is all about celebrities and other famous people more glamorous and skinny and beautiful and rich than you or anyone else you could ever hope to know. That’s why Americans have an obsession with it – the looks, the styles, the graces, the beauty, the godliness. All the glitz and glamour is fake – and Americans love fantasy and can’t deal with reality. So Americans are blinded by the glamour. We sit in front of our television for hours each night, munch on potato chips, and wonder why we are fat and lazy. We’re fat and lazy – Americans, that is – because we consume what our media decides to feed us. We suck on the nipples of the American media. The American media monopoly fed us Diana, and we consumed it. That’s one reason Diana is no longer with us. American consumers have misconceived ideas about people – myths such as that Michael Jackson is a pedophile, that Julia Roberts is a lesbian, and that Brittney Spears actually has talent – because of our monolithic media. America’s obsession with celebrity may not have been created by the media, but the media’s predominance has made that obsession into the country’s central preoccupation in the late ‘90’s and early ‘00’s. The media’s hyper-attention to every little detail of a celebrity’s private life has encouraged the erosion of personal privacy and the almost complete destruction of tact in mainstream print and TV journalism. There is a moral panic – a problem that is causing an uproar – regarding the media portrayal of celebrity, and the American need to eat up the image of celebrity. The obsession is out of control, as evidenced by Princess Di and other like incidents of famous people’s private lives or personal sagas. The obsession is so delicious to Americans that they don’t ever quit. The solution may be as simple as fighting the image that Hollywood sells. Stop buying crap like Us and InStyle, and stop watching E! and MTV. Stop paying to see the latest odes to Gwyneth and Julia. Support the work of people who have integrity, such as Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Janeane Garofalo, Christina Ricci, and Linda Ellerbee. And pretty soon the image you see on the front cover of a magazine might actually resemble a real person. Imagine that! The American relationship with celebrity is shallow at best. There is a uniquely American habit of elevating stars to the status of demigods. The interest we show in celebrities is not really heartfelt, but, on the contrary, convenient. It provides tidbits about people that we have never met, which is how we bridge the gap between ourselves and others. For instance, in the case of Princess Di, we would probably have mourned for longer than we did if the interest in her was truly genuine. The fact that we forgot her the minute she no longer provided the fuel for any further speculating indicates how truly shallow our relationship with celebrity really is. Celebrity lives seem more “real” to us than we are to ourselves, because we can “see” their lives in a way that we cannot see our own. The moral panic within our celebrity obsessions prevents us from participating in democracy, caring about the issues facing our nation, and understanding the value of learning. The case of the Princess is a primary example of what the media does to us when we become passive and weak. We lose our dignity, we lose our principles, and we cease to be informed. Works Cited Carlson, Margaret. “Blood on their hands?” Time Magazine. OnLine. http://www.time.com/time/reports/diana. Accessed 18 November 2001. September, 1997. Raven, Charlotte. “Why celeb gossip is a healthy obsession.” The Guardian. August 28, 2001. Tilley, Steve. “A century of gossip.” Express. OnLine. http://www.canoe.ca/Jam1999/century_gossip_sun.html. Accessed 18 November 2001. December 26, 1999. |
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