Looking at television and magazines today, it seems that the majority of news is focused on celebrities and their appearances and lifestyles. Covers of tabloids are wrought with photos of celebrity cellulite or celebrities displaying bad habits to the public. They are often criticized by the media for any bad traits or behavior they may display, as if they will inevitably influence the men, women, and youth who dote on them. But instead, we choose to view celebrity lifestyles as an unobtainable goal. As Daniel Harris states in Celebrity Bodies “The dreamer imagines an existence as unlike his own as possible and is content to admire this world from afar...” (428). But celebrities aren’t just admired from afar, they are criticized for being too thin, too fat, health-obsessed, or just unhealthy. They are criticized for the clothes they wear, the movies and television shows they choose to star in, the way they conduct their personal relationships, and even the way they raise their children. It is like they cannot catch a break. They are under constant scrutiny and have every decision picked apart by the media. This is the reality of stardom, not so glamorous and wonderful. But Americans have a plethora of problems that require immediate attention. It seems that the media should focus less on the supposed shortcomings of celebrities and focus instead on how they can be a good influence on the American people. Although people tend to villianize celebrities, Americans should try to be more like them because they are healthier, more charitable, and more active than typical Americans.
To begin, America has one of the highest obesity rates in the world (Finklestein 15). The vast majority of celebrities are very thin and toned. Celebrities...
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... portrayed as a negative one and anyone can turn a positive into a negative. We should look at the way celebrities live their lives as an achievable goal, not as something to be criticized. If Americans would focus more on eating healthier diets, being more benevolent, and staying active, we would probably be a lot happier than if we spend our days on the couch watching television, reading trash magazines about the who, what, and where of celebrities, and criticizing people of being too vain and selfish.
Works Cited
Finklestein, Eric and Zuckerman, Laurie. The Fattening of America. New Jersey: Wiley & Sons, 2008. Print.
Harris, Daniel. “Celebrity Bodies.” The Writers Presence: A Pool of Readings. Eds. Donald McQuade
and Robert Atwan. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2009. Print. (425-433)
Pringle, Hamish. Celebrity Sells. New Jersey: Wiley & Sons, 2004. Print
Celebrities hold a strong power to influence the lifestyle trends of an audience. As members of the entertainment industry, celebrities are looked up to as role models by a large general public. With such high exposure, celebrities essentially hold the power to positively or negatively influence their followers, from fashion trends to behavioral tendencies, the attitudes and lifestyle habits of celebrities influence cultural qualities and the way in which many people function within society. Mindy Kaling’s career started when she became an intern on the popular show “Late Night with Conan O’ Brien”. Mindy was a 19-year-old sophomore at Dartmouth College when she first started her internship.
Part of that is because some people’s perspectives of celebrities allow them think as if they’re on a pedestal and are more important than the average human. When people vision these celebrities as these quintessential people it enable’s their own thoughts and opinions on the celebrity. It’s like brainwashing, these celebrities only show the media what they want, which allows them to put up a whole façade and mask who they truly are. During the O.J Simpson trial it opened more people’s minds to visualize the concept that celebrities have the ability to be just as deranged as the average person, and that we are all equal, but the only difference that’s separates us is the fact that their job is in the lime
Marshall P. David (1997). Celebrity Power; Fame in Contemporary Culture. May 16, 2010. Electronically retrieved from
The irony is the fact that a majority of Americans are fat by national standards. Over 90 percent of women don't conform to the diet standards developed by insurance companies in the 60s. The media create a need to lose weight because they realize most Americans aren't statistically thin. By creating a standard of what is "normal" and then creating a need to achieve this normality, an industry of dependence is born - dependence upon diet pr...
Why is that all blogs or media sites only pay attention to the bad behavior? We see videos of famous people getting drunk, doing drugs, and even being disrespectful. Eventually, we see this domino effect on young girls, they start being rebellious, start to talk back to their parents even go to parties and drink. Nowadays, celebrities are seen as role models to these kids. What kind of example are these celebrities providing to teenagers when they can barely control their life. Role models are supposed to be someone you admire, someone you look up to and try and follow their examples. Not someone who lives a fake life and you barely know. As stated in an article called “Why this generation is so completely obsessed with the idea of Celebrity” Adam Pliskin explains the real reason to why we follow celebrities as much as we do. This is because we secretly want fame ourselves.
People look up to celebrities as role models, the youth especially. The youth believes that if they imitate these cynosures they will become affluent and legendary. Famous people imply that if the youth act insubordinately they will be successful in life. Celebrities of today are not appropriate role models for this generation.
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There was once a time when there were more simplistic views on life; where truth and justice prevailed above all and the main concerns of society were much more primitive. However, those times have long vanished and have now been strategically replaced by the commodity that celebrity culture fully encompasses. Guy Debord writes in The Society of the Spectacle, that the “spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation amongst people, mediated by images” (Debord, 4). By this, he simply means that the spectacle is constructed by the daily images devised by celebrities, reality television, and pseudo-events. And those images have altered and strongly influenced the way people perceive themselves and others, as well as the social
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
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?
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