When I was hanging out with my cousin the other day, she was reading the latest issue of Us Weekly. She was enthralled with the magazine, and kept commenting on the latest celebrity gossip, saying things like: "Can you believe he did that?" and "Did you know that he was with her?" When I asked her how she was able to keep up with the lives of celebrities so well, she told me about a website she often reads, perezhilton.com. The byline for the website is "Celebrity blog site covering news and rumors of Hollywood stars" and it is updated very frequently with the latest gossip. I found this to be a good example of something that Americans romanticize: the lives of celebrities and the gossip and rumors that surround them. Television shows such Cribs on MTV make celebrity life look like one of endless luxury, showing tours of the stars’ homes and highlighting their most lavish processions such as several very expensive cars. Shows such as this leave many Americans wishing they could become rich and famous and live in a big, beautiful house. Stations such as MTV, VH1, and E! are devoted to exposing the lives of Hollywood stars. Americans romanticize the celebrity lifestyle, making it seem much better than it actually is. Magazines such as Us Weekly, People, and Star focus on what each celebrity is dong with their lives, who they are dating, where their last vacation was, and what they last wore on the red carpet. They make it seem that the lives of celebrities are much more important than the lives of the average American, thus again romanticizing the celebrities lives to be better than their own. They also cause an obsession for some people that has resulted in an industry devoted to just following the celebrities lives and publishing them in the forms of magazines and television programs. Instead of worrying about their own lives and the problems they face, many American indulge in following the lives of overly romanticized stars. In reality, we are all human and therefore why is it so important to follow the lives of people we do not know and most likely will never meet?
1 comment:
I agree with you, I've never really been able to understand why people make such a huge deal over the lives of famous people. I mean, they're just people who chose professions that get more widespread recognition than the average job. Does that make them that much better then your "average joe"? Does that suddenly make their problems suddenly more important? They're still just people. It's like those sections of magazines we make fun of in class, "celebrities are just like us!" ...because they eat french fries? I mean, why is that worth talking about? I think that people definitely have a tendency to romanticize the lives of celebrities and believe they're better then they actually are.
Post a Comment