Popular Culture and Celebrities

Lillie Poland

Professor Chapman

Sociology

7 June 2017

Popular Culture and Celebrities

        We live in a world of famous rich people that populate the tabloids, news, and tv shows. People have become obsessed with the lives of millionaires they will never meet and buy magazine upon magazine in order to stay in touch with every aspect of the celebrity lifestyle. Young kids grow up understanding that there are people in the world who are famous for nothing at all, people in the world who leave their mark to earn stardom, and people in the world who will forever view the celebrity lifestyle as untouchable. Dazed news describes this celebrity epidemic by saying that “There is no doubt that we’re living in a celebrity-obsessed world. The rise of celebrity is an exchange of commodity: the relationship between consumer and consumed, performer and their public”. It has become evident that stardom is only able to survive because of the obsessive watchers and social media that feed its vortex. However, in the last couple of years the amount of influence celebrities have had on society has come under scrutiny. People argue whether the subject of fandom as part of America’s pop-culture is beneficial, or harmful to the lives of the ordinary people in our society. Though many people are fanatics about the world of the stars and their life stories, it has been found that their role in America’s pop-culture is more detrimental than it is beneficial. The impact of celebrity  culture has become more harmful to society because it causes a problem with how people evaluate their own lives, people have begun to view celebrities not only as cultural figures, but as political figures as well, and being famous doesn’t mean what it used to mean.

        Some people have become so entranced by the lives of pop-stars and famous people that it has begun to become a problem with how they are evaluating their own lives. “It is logical to suggest that continual exposure to celebrity culture impacts in negative ways on some young people’s senses of identity. This may well affect health and well being, but how this happens and to what degree is incredibly complex”(Fairclough). The article “Celebrity, Youth Culture, and the Question of Role Models” states that in order to fully understand the negative effects that celebrities have on an ordinary human life, it is important to first evaluate the ways that the media focuses on presenting celebrities as beautiful, flawless, and untouchable. Within the celebrity culture, thin bodies, perfect skin, and flawless characteristics are portrayed and often celebrated. People watch these characteristics be flaunted again and again because this is the way that the media and pop-culture wish to present these people. These characteristics have been found to influence the rise of eating disorders in people; young teens and adults alike have found it harder to, “cope with images permeating from a celebrity culture in which thin bodies are celebrated, larger ones are ridiculed and children are sexualised”(Wright). It is usually the complex use of the celebrity culture surrounding them that leads young people to generalize what is socially acceptable contrasted to what society does not wish to see from them. This problem mostly arises when people compare themselves to the overall picture of celebrities and stardom in which is dangerous in the sense that it creates a false sense of identity within the people who overly obsess with the stars.

        The influences of our country’s top icons and celebrities are no longer confined to pop-culture, TV films, or social media; they are now directly impacting the process of self-identification and cultural identities. While celebrity culture is usually segregated from the political sphere, they have recently collided in small ways leaving society to make some sense of mixed ideologies. Recently our country has let stars lead and represent radical movements. The article “The Politics of Celebrity in Today’s Pop-Culture” states, “Genuine or as a form of self-marketing, various stars are now choosing to proclaim their love of diversity, feminism, LGBT rights, to name a few, as the relationship between celebrity and politics deepens...Although movements such as feminism have been co-opted to fit systems of commodification, one thing is clear: there is no longer a clear dividing line that separates celebrity from politics”. With  a country fanatically obsessed with the celebrity culture, it makes it easy for people to jump onto the side of their most beloved icon rather than identify with the social issue themselves. Because of this, global pop-figures are able to have more global power than some politicians, making them have the power to effect real social change. This has become more evident with the rise of social media.