In today's modern age, the cult of celebrity is at an all-time high. With telecommunications, the world has become smaller, and as a result we know more about other people than we ever have before - even people we have not met. People become famous for many different reasons: they could be important people in the political and entertainment industries, they could be big business figures, and others simply keep themselves in the public eye long enough that people remember them. However, the sheer amount of attention that many people pay to celebrity in today's society give them a lot of power. In this essay, we will examine the power that celebrities have in our culture, and what effect this has on our actions.
Celebrities are often defined as "a person who is known for his well-knownness" (Boorstin, 1961). In other words, they are famous for being famous; the television has let anyone from movie stars to newscasters become faces that are collectively known by millions of people. This collective awareness by the public of these individuals makes them famous, and by understanding that everyone knows who they are, we are compelled to follow them all the more. Knowledge is understood to make us closer to being celebrities ourselves, and the more people know us, the better we are. The "theatricality" of the events surrounding them is usually what fuels the obsession they receive: movie stars perform in films seen by millions, rich people live lavish lifestyles, and many people become famous due to being entertainingly offensive, abrasive or dramatic. All of these events have a theatricality to them, and the performance is what draws people to celebrity.
This power that celebrities have over us can even reach the point where we mourn for people we do not know. For example, the death of Princess Diana was considered a worldwide tragedy. People all around the world mourned her death and paid attention to her funeral ceremonies at Westminster Abbey. Why did they do this? How was such an ordinary person glamorized to this extent? The answer can be found in our identification with her and transference of our grief to her, as someone who is known by many others - "Diana's life, death, funeral and afterlife as quasi-sacred relic on display illuminates the way multiple, intersecting social dramas play both globally and locally" (Taylor, p. 455). Because we all had heard of Diana and identified with her, we wished to connect ourselves with other people in this way, and this led us to seek out microcosms of society through tragic events. The news media and the collective worldwide grief allowed us to play out a narrative that was being performed on a global stage, and so we felt like part of it - that much closer to being a celebrity ourselves.
The Internet has inflated this sense of celebrity even further, with the possibility for anyone to become a celebrity. A blog post, a Youtube video, a tragicomic mistake caught on the news - all of it can be reappropriated and turned into stardom. People have become famous for flamboyantly warning off their sisters' rapists on the news, believing that leprechauns are real, and for biting their little brothers' fingers. The Internet age has made it so that everyone can be a celebrity - particularly if you are being laughed at. To that end, anti-intellectualism is often cherished or valued as entertainment, and the new era of celebrities have come from ordinary people who become famous for one funny or bad thing they have done "going viral." There is even a subgroup of celebrities known for being "famesque" - not really contributing to society or having huge careers, but simply for immersing oneself in celebrity culture. Examples of this include Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie, Sienna Miller and others, many who are simply famous for being rich and remaining in the public spotlight however they can (Argetsinger, 2009).
No matter what kind of celebrity you are, you hold a tremendous amount of power over your audience. You effectively can bend the ear of anyone who follows you and bring a substantially loud voice to political or social issues you feel are important. This is exemplified by the "movie star as social activist" phenomenon that has existed since the era of mass media. George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, and Bono are just a sampling of the kinds of actors and musicians who have taken up pet causes and, using themselves as a mouthpiece, advocate for them. It can be argued that, without this exposure via celebrities, many supporters of these causes would not have acted or been made aware of these issues. However, one can argue that this kind of power over society can be dangerous, provided an ill-informed celebrity is mistaken for an authority on the subject they are talking about, or if the wrong social cause is advocated and picked up by someone many people happen to know. This is a blessing and a curse that comes with the power of celebrity in society - social issues can be advocated to those who do not normally follow politics, but they are still being advocated by non-experts in the field who may be mistaken as such.
In conclusion, there are many different effects experienced in a society due to the cult of celebrity. First, societies often flock to people who are well known by others due to their ability to have that degree of familiarity with someone that so many others know. One of the dangers of the power of celebrity in society is that it can be used poorly, and many people can misappropriate the authority of said celebrity. Princess Diana, for example, was a fairly ordinary person, but due to her celebrity and her extraordinarily tragic death, she is seen as a saint and a tremendous human being. Celebrities who are responsible with their celebrity can use that power to inform others of social issues; however, the Internet age can make anyone a celebrity as long as they publicly humiliate themselves with lewd or idiotic behavior. With this in mind, the idea of what constitutes a celebrity has changed in the past decade, but their power remains just as potent.
Works Cited
Argetsinger, Amy. "They Must Be Stars Because They Get So Much Press, but What Is It They
Do Again?" Washington Post, August 10, 2009. Print.
Boorstin, Daniel Joseph. The image: A guide to pseudo-events in America. New York:
Vintage, 1961. Print.
Jones, Jen. Being Famous. Snap Books: 10 Things You Need to Know about. Capstone Press,
2007. Print.
Richards, Jeffrey. Sir Henry Irving: A Victorian Actor and His World. Continuum International
Publishing Group, 2007. Print.
Taylor, Diana. "False Identifications: Minority Populations Mourn Diana." p. 454. Print.
