Celebrity Culture Will Eat Us Alive
Image Courtesy: Ezra Shaw for Getty Images
In today's digital age, the allure of celebrity culture has never been stronger. Our fascination with the lives of the rich and famous permeates every aspect of social media. As someone who was once hardcore in the world of stan Twitter, I understand just how fun and exciting it all is. It’s hard not to get invested in the media that you love, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized how ridiculous stan culture is. One of the turning points for me was my senior year of high school when I heard a song by Cardi B on TikTok. I've been a hardcore Barb since I was in elementary school, and I was engaged in online Barb communities. It was Blasphemous as a Nicki fan to even look at Cardi B, much less enjoy and listen to her music, and this was a sentiment supported by Nicki herself. After I heard that song on TikTok, I decided to listen to her album for the first time, and I loved it. I realized that all this fan loyalty had done for me was deprive me of enjoying things. Being the perfect Barb did not make my life any better and did not impact Nicki’s career; the only thing that happened was I had less fun. Over the last few years, my views on celebrity culture have changed a lot, and I've come to realize how this celebrity media machine does nothing but drain our attention from politics and important issues. While it is a fun distraction, and it is only natural to be invested in the artists you care about, we really need to reevaluate how we think about and interact with celebrities. It is all part of a consumer culture that needs to end.
The 2010s was the peak of “relatable” content online, and there was a very specific brand of relatability that celebrities participated in. It was all about hating Mondays, binging Netflix, singing in the shower, and loving pizza (always pizza specifically). Jennifer Lawrence is a quintessential example of this. We see similar content on TikTok now, with influencers desperate to relate to the masses. Recently, influencers like Emma Chamberlain who based their careers on relatability have found themselves getting backlash from their audience as their lives are no longer relatable. Wealthy TikTok influencers such as Alix Earle have also gotten backlash recently for their attempts to make their lavish lifestyles seem relatable. I think this type of backlash is happening because people are realizing this relatability is just a tool to conceal privilege and that most of these people were never relatable to begin with. Celebrities and influencers exist to sell you a product, and it is hard to sell to people who have no connection to you. We can all sense a corporate-like hollowness to the relatability of celebrities and influencers. Being relatable is meant to be positive, but now it is just used as a weapon to promote consumer culture. Like most Gen Z kids, I grew up on YouTube and watched many YouTubers leave their humble bedroom beginnings and start to exist in an oversaturated market of uninspired content, where they continue to sell us relatability but now from a mansion. Like Jeffree Star eating Taco Bell while advertising his makeup products to you, it’s all a tactic to make you feel more inclined to spend your money on him. The combination of the cheap food and Gucci suit makes us feel like we could be that successful too, and when you see yourself in Jeffree, you’re more likely to give him money. We've seen this replicated time and time again, but I think it's starting to lose its appeal. Relatability has become an industry standard for entertainment. The most gorgeous supermodels in the world are talking about binging pizza, while the most famous pop star is talking about how uncool and awkward she is. There is a disconnect between what celebrities think makes us all alike versus what actually does. It's not a conscious thought, but we all understand that those Victoria's Secret models are not really binging pizza, and that glamorous pop star is not really a dorky, uncool, lovable goof, but we accept this pandering regardless. I think understanding that it is all fake is very important to how we interact with it. When people get caught up in celebrities' personal lives, drama, and gossip, we must understand that it is all just designed to make us consumers. We need to talk about celebrities like Taylor Swift as the corporations they are because all corporations need to be under public scrutiny. I don't mean scrutiny in the superficial, cancel-culture way, but I mean scrutiny in the sense that we cannot allow the Swift corporation to pollute the planet and promote overconsumption because we have an emotional investment in the personal life of the CEO. We need to take the joy, art, and value from this media and leave the parasocial investments behind.
It's the tail end of award season, and I can't help but make connections to “The Hunger Games”. It’s very Capitol-core how celebrities become living mannequins for luxury brands at these award shows. They build up relatability so they can be living billboards and advertise the American dream to the public. Being one of these living mannequins has been framed as prestigious. It is an honor to be important enough to have a fashion house sponsor you. As I get older and more detached from my stan culture mindset, I've realized that Hollywood as a whole is just a circus meant to distract us. Celebrity culture is a drain of our attention on current events; it’s why a massacre was carried out during the Super Bowl this year. These award shows are broadcasted events where celebrities mimic the aesthetic of the multi-billionaire class, but it is just a loan. On these red carpets, everything from the jewelry to the shoes is a loan; celebrities are not wearing anything they own. They can cosplay a level of wealth that they do not possess. They are not the multi-billionaires who could afford blood diamonds, but they are allowed conditional entry into the very bottom ranks of the elite class. While this might seem very glamorous, being the distraction means you are also the infantry. They're meant to make the American dream seem possible in a world where it is increasingly not. They advertise this aspirational elite lifestyle to the general public, and in the public's mind, they have wealth equal to that of the ultra-billionaire class. In exchange for access to the elite lifestyle, celebrities must bear the public backlash for wealth inequality in our country. Nobody's checking up on the CEO of Kellogg's when they're under the impression that Taylor Swift is the most powerful person in America. If a kind of peasant revolt ensues against the upper class, it would be the celebrities who get attacked, not the billionaires who own the world and ruin our lives. Hollywood celebrities consume their wealth in the gaudiest way possible so that the true elites can consume their wealth privately. We envy the rich and famous while simultaneously despising them, so we are obsessed with “exposing” people for who they “really are.” We are spectators in a gladiator show, watching a constant battle between celebrities and the masses, and this further distracts us. As our economy gets worse, I expect the allure of award shows to decrease. It's not entertaining to watch the ultra-privileged drape themselves in expensive fabrics while the world falls apart around us. I even noticed that at the Grammys this year, the tables were decorated with fresh food not meant to be eaten. As America enters a recession, the rich have begun using food as a status symbol, and I hope that such displays will soon be unpalatable to the general public. I have also recently become jaded by how the ever-churning rumor mill of celebrity gossip is reported on as news. What Selena Gomez may have said to Kylie Jenner at the Golden Globes is just as newsworthy as the state of our democracy. While our president bypassed Congress to aid in devastation overseas, America had all eyes on Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce. All of this has made me view celebrities like Victors in The Hunger Games. Like the Victors, the modern celebrity is granted conditional access to an elite lifestyle, but they are meant to be expendable and disposable should there ever be a revolution.
Table at the 2024 Grammy’s, using fresh fruit as a decoration.
Image Courtesy: Silverlake Socialite on Instagram
The way we interact with celebrities needs to change. We cannot keep letting this circus distract us from current events, and we need to be aware of how insidious the nature of celebrity is so that we can interact with it healthily. Because so many celebrities are artists, there will never be a clean break, and that is OK. Despite my views on celebrities, I can’t help but follow what Ariana Grande and Beyoncé are up to; they’re my favorite artists. I naturally get excited when they win Grammys and release new music, but I don’t allow myself to get so invested that I tune out the rest of the world. Just because I think Beyoncé is the greatest musical act ever to live does not mean I think her billionaire status is ethical, and I do not need to go to war online for Beyoncé. It’s okay to engage with and enjoy it, but not as an identity marker. Let the music impact you, let the celebrity be the frivolous entertainment they are and leave it at that. They are the court jesters, not the kings. Fame is an ad campaign run by the elite classes, and celebrities are just commercial actors, not idols. People are unwilling to dismantle the culture of cultish celebrity and excessive wealth because they want it for themselves. We would rather have impossible odds at this lifestyle than no odds at all. People don’t dream of ending oppression; they dream of becoming the oppressor themself. People have made things they are fans of part of their identity, and these parasocial relationships allow us to excuse horrible behavior. Taking your fandom on as an identity makes any criticism of your fav feel like a personal attack and moral judgment, which is why fans are so vicious. They genuinely feel like you are attacking who they are as people. Our planet is dying, and our people are starving, so we need to stop letting these people proudly flash their dollars in our faces. They should be ashamed to flaunt their excess gained at the expense of millions. They should be scared of a metaphorical guillotine. We should be disgusted at the wealth inequality in this country, but Hollywood has conditioned us to root for the wealthy. This obsession with celebrities is going to eat us alive. It allows us to root for oppressive systems and distracts us from global events, which will come back to bite us. When the US funding of terror overseas escalates us into the next World War, Americans are going to feel very stupid that they ignored the signs while Hollywood was jangling keys in their faces. The entertainment industry isn’t going to feel so important when the world starts literally ending. We’re all arguing about things like transgender athletes and Ariana Grande’s boyfriend instead of organizing to save our planet and demand equality for all. Take the artistic value from the work and leave the rest behind. Don’t let yourself get distracted. Don’t let the glitz and glam blind you into thinking that this system of wealth inequality is how things should be.
Strike Out,
Writer: Richard Rentz
Edited by: Reanna Haase and Hollis Humphrey
Orlando
