Celebrity Worshipping: Good or Evil?

1172 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How the media influences opinion

The characteristics of being invisible like gods or untouchable like natural forces were once perceived to be the essential elements for the formation of any religions.

However such view had changed over time, like the arguably most successful US comedian George Carlin once challenged: “I pray to Joe Pesci, and the chance of getting what I want is still 50/50, like praying to the invisible guy in the sky”. Until recent years, the phenomenon of worshiping celebrity stars dramatically overthrown the traditional idea – Millions of people nowadays worship celebrity stars from different fields of the market, chasing and updating any sightless details given night and day.

In the following we will discuss why exactly we would worship celebrities and the effects that come along and whether we should be worrying about the formation of such phenomenon.

D. Weinstein, a professor of sociology from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois; and M. Weinstein, a professor of political science from Purdue University in West Lafayette, viewed celebrity worship as a meaningless religion, they suggested that celebrity worshipers are actually weak and discontented, to satisfy their unachievable goals and overcome insecurities through worshipping celebrities since the weakening of traditional faith (300). The “para-social relationships” is being developed through worshipers’ devotion to celebrities. General worshippers would have extra awareness towards the celebrities. For those who has been seriously affected, they may have the delusion of being involved in the celebrities’ life (300).

D. Weinstein and M. Weinstein referred to the works of other researchers, celebrity worshippers are often found to be reclusive and intuitive. it is difficult for t...

... middle of paper ...

... escape from the stressful environment for a short period for relaxation. With proper parenting and educating, celebrity stars could be served as sources of motivation for youths to find their true-selves.

Works Cited

He, Xianzhong. "Survey Report On Idol Worship Among Children And Young People." Chinese Education & Society 39.1 (2006): 84-103. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.

He, Yuzhang, and Xiaotian Feng. "Idol Worship Among The Youth." Chinese Education & Society 35.6 (2002): 81. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.

Ketsoglou, Eve-Michelle. “When Good Celebrities Go Bad: Examining Celebrity Worship.” Mount Saint Mary College Journal of Psychology Research Proposals 3 (2013):17-21.Web.16 Apr. 2014.

Weinstein, Deena, and Michael Weinstein. "Celebrity Worship as Weak Religion." Word and World 23.3 (2003): 294-302. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. Checklist

Show More
Related

  • Jake Halpern's The Popular Crowd

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Fan Culture in Sports and Science Fiction Enthusiasts in the 1920s

    1298 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Should Employers Dictate What Employees Wear Outside of Work?

    830 Words  | 2 Pages

    Marshall P. David (1997). Celebrity Power; Fame in Contemporary Culture. May 16, 2010. Electronically retrieved from

    Read More

  • Socializing Children Into Immigrant Communities

    1131 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fung, H. (1999). Becoming a moral child: The socialization of shame among young Chinese children. Ethos, 27(2), 180-209.

    Read More

  • The Way American Culture Has Changed Over Time

    1752 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Posts.” Fame is a dangerous Drug: A Phenomenological Glimpse of Celebrity.” N.p. ,n.d. Web 15. Feb 2014

    Read More

  • Miley Cyrus Analysis

    1863 Words  | 4 Pages

    The star text of a celebrity can help to decipher their image and transitions they may undergo. In order to better understand these transitions, one must know the definition of a star text. A star text is the sum of everything we affiliate with celebrities, which includes their body of work, promotion, publicity, and audience participation (Jackson, 08/09/16). One must note that “celebrity doesn 't happen because someone has extraordinary qualities – it is discursively constructed by the way in which the person is publicised and meanings about them circulate” (O 'Shaughnessy and Stadler 424). Destiny Hope Cyrus, “an American singer and actress, became a sensation in the television series

    Read More

  • The Vanity of Celebrity Fame: "Sunset Boulevard" and Celebrity Reality Shows

    2358 Words  | 5 Pages

    A celebrity is not a person known for his/her talent or achievement, but an individual recognized for his/her reputation created by the media. The phase of stardom is slippery, and media may choose to represent celebrities varying from exaggerated admiration to mockery. The three texts chosen, movie "Sunset Boulevard", feature article "Over the Hilton" and television show "Celebrity Uncensored Six" are texts presenting different perception of celebrities than their usual images - either corrupted by the encircling media, overloads oneself with self-indulgence, or just mocks celebrity in a broad spectrum. Such media items empower and impresses the audience by perceiving celebrities as people who pay the price of privacy to gain well knowness, signifying the vanity of stardom from the commonly accepted images.

    Read More

  • Worship of Sports Teams and Athletes

    1119 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hyman, Michael R., and Sierra, Jeremy J. "Sport Celebrity Idolatry: A Problem?." B>Quest (2009): 1-7. Business Source Complete. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

    Read More

  • The King of Children by Ah Cheng

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mao’s Cultural Revolution was an attempt to create a new culture for China. Through education reforms and readjustments, Mao hoped to create a new generation of Chinese people - a generation of mindless Communists. By eliminating intellectuals via the Down to the Countryside movement, Mao hoped to eliminate elements of traditional Chinese culture and create a new form Chinese culture. He knew that dumbing down the masses would give him more power so his regime would be more stable. This dramatic reform affected youth especially as they were targeted by Mao’s propaganda and influence. Drawing from his experiences as an Educated Youth who was sent down to the countryside Down to the Countryside movement, Ah Cheng wrote The King of Children to show the effects of the Cultural Revolution on education, and how they affected the meaning people found in education. In The King of Children, it is shown that the Cultural Revolution destroyed the traditional incentives for pursuing an education, and instead people found moral and ethical meaning in pursuing an education.

    Read More

  • Parasocial Relationships Essay

    960 Words  | 2 Pages

    A weakness in this research was that it only focused on parasocial relationships with celebrities. It didn’t address the possibility of having parasocial relationships with a fictional character and didn’t consider how those would affect self-esteem. A strength was that participants completed the Rosenberg test in order to determine their level of self-esteem. Doing so gave researchers an unbiased method to measure each participant's

    Read More

  • Celebrities In Popular Culture

    1219 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Influences of the Gossip Industry

    1072 Words  | 3 Pages

    Havrilesky, Heather. “Stalking Celebrities.” Remix: Reading and Composing Culture. Ed. Catherine G. Latterell. 2nd ed. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. martin’s, 2010. 446-450. Print.

    Read More

  • Celebrity Obsession

    763 Words  | 2 Pages

    The perks of illimitable wealth, vacationing all over the world, housekeepers, chefs, being in receipt of freebies from designers, multiple homes in diverse parts of the world, chauffeurs, the finest foods, and all the other perks that come with being a celebrity? Do they all sound attractive? Sure they do, to those of us who want to live the fabulous life. The question is do we want the downfalls that come with fame? Can we handle vicious tabloid scrutiny, fabrications, and assumptions? Being a celebrity has its perks, but at what cost? Fame and mon...

    Read More

  • Should You Idolize Them?

    813 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus, Marilyn Monroe, Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, and Lil Wayne are some of the most idolized celebrities in today’s society. People worship celebrities, not because of the good morals they may possess, but because of their fame. We canonize celebrities despite the fact their music encourages use of drugs and alcohol, the abuse of women, and they dress slatternly. There are many luminaries, deceased or living, who are good role models who are often overlooked because they are not at the top of the charts. When you look at whom most teens idolize, you should realize just how bad of an influence they have over their fans.

    Read More

  • A Brief Note On Stardom

    1195 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Celebrity Worshipping: Good or Evil?

Open Document