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Celebrity culture effects on society
Celebrity culture effects on society
Celebrity culture effects on society
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Introduction and Background Information
Celebrity worship syndrome is a personality disorder that is becoming more apparent in 21st century Australia, and it is estimated that 30% of the population has it. Several studies have shown that celebrity worship is more prevalent in adolescents, especially teen and preteen girls. When the British boy band One Direction toured Australia in late 2013, many articles were published surrounding the hysteria that many girls were experiencing. The Adelaide Entertainment Centre CEO said that they “were expecting lots of teenage girls” and needed to set up the centre with “reserved seating only … to mitigate the risk of any crushing…”. Additionally, there were countless celebrity worship articles published, including a story about a fifteen-year-old Australian girl who started working part-time in a café so that she could spend all of her money on the band’s merchandise, approximately $130 a week. This report will be exploring the different aspects of celebrity worship syndrome to address whether celebrity worship is a prominent issue in Australian society that needs to be addressed.
What is a celebrity?
Nowadays, many dictionaries have included in their definition
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There is a correlation between maturing and a decrease in celebrity worship in girls, although some still experience more than low-level traits. Whether this celebrity worship is negative or not depends on the individual’s beliefs, in addition to if the worship is controlling their lives or not. A little bit of admiration can be beneficial, but worshipping celebrities can have detrimental effects. Parents should keep an eye on their children to make sure any worship does not become unhealthy or life
Celebrity worship is a term given to those who obsess over one or more celebrity. Jake Halpern's "The Popular Crowd," discusses how loneliness increases the likelihood of someone worshiping celebrities. Worshiping of celebrities is not necessarily bad, it can be helpful for those who have a social need that they need satisfied. However, this worshiping can sometimes lead to stalking and violence towards celebrities. Once this happens celebrities are put in danger. Some celebrities receive phone calls, letters, emails, and more from stalkers. They might not feel like this is a sign of danger, but it is. In order for celebrities to remain safe, they need to be educated about dangers that come with having fans.
A fan in today’s world is usually characterized as the result of the “star system” portrayed in society due to mass media where media figures’ lives are constantly emphasized on a day to day basis. The internet and society are obsessed with news concerning celebrities, and knowing about their personal life. Today’s social media keeps fans constantly updated about celebrities, giving fans the illusion that they know everything about that celebrity and that they are connected somehow. This type of mass media has made the difference between appropriate behavior and inappropriate behavior of fans less noticeable (Lewis 11). These types of fans, the pathological fans, are also classified as the “o...
Rock and roll was the most compelling commodity to enter the teen consumer culture. Rock operated as both a form of sexual expression, and a form of sexual control which privileged the presentation and marketing of masculine styles. Music genres and idols such as Elvis Presley and the Beatles shaped the sexual ideology of adolescents. Frith states that “Elvis Presley’s sexuality, for example, meant different things to his male and female fans”, enforcing the idea of a double standard by creating tension between male appropriation and female appropriation such that male and female sexuality were organized in qui...
The Celebrity as a Commodity Hurst introduced the idea of a commodity in the text. By definition, a commodity is something that is of use, advantage, or value. More directly, Hurst showed how people by use of their skills, looks, or names, could be used as advantages in society. He uses the examples of celebrities, sports figures, and beautiful people to show that people can be commodities. All of these groups bring some sort of recognition or attraction that is beneficial to a company, firm, or individual.
If a teenager or pre-teen is focused on particular celebrities and their goal is too look like them, it is not difficult to slip into acting like them as well, or at least being influenced by their behavior and perceived attitudes. The media abounds with bad examples of celebrity behavior, from Justin Bibber driving recklessly to Miley Cyrus parading around scantily clothed, and although every celebrity is not a terrible role model, a disproportionate amount of them can be found to have shaky morals and seem to have let the attention that they receive affect their behavior. In addition, the perfect bodies that most of them display are not realistic and in some cases not even naturally attainable, thanks to the modern tools of plastic surgery, augmentations, liposuction, and other cosmetic surgeries. The media too contributes to the unreal portrayal of models and famous people by using airbrushing on pictures and other editing that lead regular people to compare their bodies to images that are not even humanly possible. The Barbie-like models that girls compare themselves to and the ripped and muscled men that boys compare their bodies to are often completely unnatural and the people who have somehow attained them are,
So many young people go into the entertainment business. Most of them do not know that without a support system to keep them grounded and stable their mental development can be compromised. The society that we place so high in our culture and deem worthy of such high praise, eat our children alive. They grow too fast, have to defend themselves constantly, and are watched around the clock. As a society, we must take a look at what we are doing to the people in the entertainment industry.
In this day and age there are plenty of celebrities that are idolized. The one celebrity that is idolized the most is “Beyoncé” she shares so little
"Children are influenced by media–they learn by observing, imitating, and making behaviors their own" (APA, 2001, p.1224). Girl’s as young as 4-years sees Britney Spears music clip “Baby One More Time”, who at the time was a 17-year old girl/world pop icon at the time wearing a school uniform showing off her midriff, wearing a lot of makeup and a short skirt. Disney teen icons such as Miley Cyrus aka Hannah Montana taking personal photos of herself in “sexy” poses and sending it to her ‘older’ boyfriend and then having it all published all over the internet for the entire world to see. Boys also face sexualization too, as has been seen in Calvin Klein ads, where pubescent-looking boys pose provocatively with perfectly sculpted six-pack abs hawking teen fashion These pop culture celebrities both female and male are always in the media, for inappropriate actions and they’re meant to be role models for children. In fact most of these sexualized celebrities are still children themselves. The sad part is it’s not just sexualization being encouraged in the media other negative things such as violence, drug and alcohol use ...
We are part of a generation that is obsessed with celebrity culture. Celebrities are distinctive. Media and consumers alike invented them to be a different race of super beings: flawless, divine and above all the real moral world. In a 1995 New York Times article “In contrast, 9 out of 10 of those polled could think of something
Much of today’s society seems obsessed on what actors/actress, athletes, and music artist are wearing, eating, who they are marrying, dating, where they are vacationing, what affairs they are having or have had, and how they live their everyday lives. What’s so interesting about this obsession is as a society we are implacable and often place celebrities on a pedestal, only to destroy them when they are illusive or promiscuous. Media outlets are swift to report when celebrities are in trouble but quickly forget all their accomplishments. It’s as if we want them to be perfect but once they are associated with a scandal we embark on destroying their reputation and character. Should society hold celebrities to higher standards just because they are paid millions for endorsements and a craft they worked hard to perfect? Do we as a society have the right to castigate celebrities when they misbehave? Do celebrities have the right to become livid when they are focused on for their immoral behavior? Do they love the media attention only when it benefits them? Before we can answer the above questions, would we, furthermore, can we live our life as a celebrity if given the opportunity?
In today’s day and age we live in a society obsessed with celebrity culture. This however, is not a new addiction; our society’s fascination with celebrity culture has been around for decades. Through the years, we’ve seen fandom come in various forms, shapes and sizes. From the groupies of the 60s, to the more recent digital-followers, one thing common among all fans is the pedestal on which they’ve put their favorite celebrity. Some people would argue that fans are not only the most important part of a celebrity’s life, but fans are quintessential in their success. Fans admire them, follow their every move: physical or electronic, and purchase anything and everything that might bring them in looking/feeling more like their desired celebrity. Many experts even believe that fan and fan-clubs often resemble religions. One can easily note the similarities between fans and a religious cult; from worshipping to organizing conventions and event recruiting new followers. To some it might even sound like a disorder, and Dr. Lynn McCutcheon after her intense research, was the first one to coin the term: (CWS) Celebrity Worship Syndrome. According to Psychology Today, CWS can be described as a mental-disorder where an individual becomes completely obsessed with the details of the personal life of a celebrity (Griffiths). A celebrity, as defined by Mark Griffiths, can be any person who is present in the ‘public eye’, including Politicians, authors, and journalists, but according to Dr. McCutcheon research they are more likely to be someone from the world of television, film and/or pop music. Continuing on Justin Bieber’s ad campaign, this paper examines the peculiar relationship between consumers and God-like celebrity figures. It showcase...
There is a central notion that there seems to be a mysterious curse surrounding child stars. These young celebrities are often described as having ‘too much too young’ or being ‘scarred for life’ by success (WLVDialogue, 2009). According to Dr. Jane O’Connor (2009), an expert in child stars at the University of Wolverhampton’s School of Education, child stars lack the routine that most children usually benefit from. They often struggle to have a childhood due to the high demands of the show business lifestyle. This strengthens the idea that childhood is a private space for the development of a person’s identity and personality. Childhood is a special time that comes only once and if you miss it, there can be problematic repercussions manifested in the adult identity. Children put together from what they see and hear eve...
According to the article “The Effects of Celebrity Role Models on Kids and Teens” by Eliza Martinez,“Many celebrities do not make a secret of alcohol or drug abuse and the glamorization of dying due to an overdose in the media might make your child feel that using these substances is acceptable.” The fans see the celebrities’ work and not the person themself. This is the main reason celebrities make such terrible role models. The fans will idolize them, but they don’t know what the celebrity is like on a personal level. They don’t know the opinion of the celebrity on certain issues. If they did and they agreed with the celebrity, then there is a whole other reason to look up to this person. If a fan disagreed, then they could still like their work and just agree to disagree, but it will never be like that. It is no one’s fault, but that is the main reason celebrities aren’t good role models. That is why parents, siblings, friends, other family, and even fictional characters work as role models. The people that look up to them know their role model personally and therefore know whether or not they agree with the role model’s
Movie stars. They are celebrated. They are perfect. They are larger than life. The ideas that we have formed in our minds centered on the stars that we idolize make these people seem inhuman. We know everything about them and we know nothing about them; it is this conflicting concept that leaves audiences thirsty for a drink of insight into the lifestyles of the icons that dominate movie theater screens across the nation. This fascination and desire for connection with celebrities whom we have never met stems from a concept elaborated on by Richard Dyer. He speculates about stardom in terms of appearances; those that are representations of reality, and those that are manufactured constructs. Stardom is a result of these appearances—we actually know nothing about them beyond what we see and hear from the information presented to us. The media’s construction of stars encourages us to question these appearances in terms of “really”—what is that actor really like (Dyer, 2)? This enduring query is what keeps audiences coming back for more, in an attempt to decipher which construction of a star is “real”. Is it the character he played in his most recent film? Is it the version of him that graced the latest tabloid cover? Is it a hidden self that we do not know about? Each of these varied and fluctuating presentations of stars that we are forced to analyze create different meanings and effects that frame audience’s opinions about a star and ignite cultural conversations.
First, Gabriel recruited 348 college students, one-fifth of whom admitted to having a celebrity crush. She handed out questionnaires to establish each student's normal range of self-esteem, and subsequently had them spend five minutes writing an essay about their favorite celebrity. This was then followed by another self-esteem test. It turned out that the students who scored the lowest on the first round of self-esteem tests scored much higher after they wrote about their favorite celebrities. Gabriel pointed out that a little admiration for a celebrity can be good for a person because it reinforces a feeling of community and belongingness, which are two crucial components of healthy childhood development. But too much can be harmful, she said. Stalking, extreme imitation, and isolating oneself from friends and family all have negative effects on the individual. (Gunter,