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An essay on celebrity as a role model
The influence of fashion
The influence of fashion
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The idea of celebrity has long since astonished the everyday individual. Both men and women alike have looked upon a person in the world of fame in a way that equated them to an idol, a superbeing among others. As the interest in the lives of sought out individuals grew, so did the idea that they had to develop an image of sorts; a calling card that would serve to set them apart from others of their social stature. As the years went on, the image that the celebrity and their publicity team would come to depend more and more on different facets on the former’s life, how they dressed, where their lived, the cars they drove. Thusly they create a way to market themselves as well as products they use through the means of their fame . The latest styles and popular items, while not instituted by the celebrity, have been, and continue to be observed and duplicated by observing the person in the position of fame, in effort to achieve a similar lifestyle and sense of glamour that the idea believes them to possess. Though it has long since passed, the golden age of fame usually brought individuals into the spotlight through different facets of talent, an affinity for the arts, such as song, drama or those of like. Yet starting with reality television’s debut, …show more content…
Her hair, specifically, has come under scrutiny a number of times. The socialite has come to be known as a fan of wigs and hair extensions, something that has commonly been worn by women of African descent. While this in itself is not necessarily the issue, her almost excessive use of the products and media regarding her as a pioneer for the style has angered the black community that has been using the same beauty regiment long before Jenner. That, paired with her large backside and breasts, the celebrity seems to pull her fame from physicalities that have long since categorized black women
It is clear that in the world of reality television, personality and popularity are everything. Popularity on reality TV shows can translate into commercial viability and an unreal life beyond reality television.
Reality based television has a broad landscape ranging from competitive game-like shows to programs following the daily lives of a group of people. Every major network now has some form of reality programming because the genre’s shows are high in viewership and require low costs for production. The genre is appealing to viewers because it provides them with a first-hand look into the lives of everyday people, which allows them to observe social behavior that helps them determine what is appropriate or not (Tyree, 2011, p. 397). Since the majority of modern reality stars start out as unknowns, frequent viewers of reality programming believed that fame is obtainable if they appear on a popular show (Mendible, 2004). According to Mendible’s evaluation of the genre in the article Humiliation, Subjectivity, and Reality TV, people enjoy reality programs beca...
Marshall P. David (1997). Celebrity Power; Fame in Contemporary Culture. May 16, 2010. Electronically retrieved from
She admires the African American history, the art of African American hairstyles, and she has even attended one of the top HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) in the country. While that has not given her the “rite of passage” to blackness, it has made her the laughing stock as she is being ridiculed by the media for wanting to be something she is not. The question still remains why that is the case. There are millions of people that do anything in their power to pass off as a different race in order to obtain the job or mate they desire. Although the extremes typically go viral on sites like Youtube and Instagram, it never really makes the news. Why is this one story in particular getting so much coverage? The only reason that comes to mind when trying to answer that question is the fact that someone is actually giving up the privileges that come with being white and trading it in for all the hardships that come with being black. More often than not, when Blacks make the news, it’s usually to report rapes, murders, kidnappers, robberies, shootings, riots, and wrongful killings of the youth by police officers and terrorists. If it’s not regarding that, it’s about the U.S. education system that continues to welcome the achievement gap between white children with a high
“Posts.” Fame is a dangerous Drug: A Phenomenological Glimpse of Celebrity.” N.p. ,n.d. Web 15. Feb 2014
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
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.
January 6, 1973, famous anthropologist Margaret Mead published an essay in TV Guide in which she addressed her view of PBS’s series “An American Family.” This series was groundbreaking during that time because is followed the Loud’s, a California family who were neither actors nor public figures just average middle-class family, which was unheard of at the time. The Louds were filmed for seven months and the product was twelve one-hour episodes which showed everything from the monotony of their everyday life to the corrosion of Bill and Pat Loud’s marriage. Meade called this series “a new kind of art form” and marveled at the shows ability to show the drama and entertainment value of the average human condition. Forty years later, as Meade had predicted, reality based television and films have become more understood, respected and prevalent in our modern culture. Extreme success stories of documentaries such as Justin Bieber’s 2011 “Never Say Never” and countless reality shows indicates that a celebrity’s presence , musicians particularly, on reality media channels can change audience’s perceptions, promote new material and help them to stay relevant in the public eye. These “reality” documentaries and TV shows present the audience with carefully edited material that conveys only a fraction of that individual’s personality and character yet has profound effects audience perception and acceptance. The British boy band One Direction is a prime example of how using the model of framing in reality television shows and documentaries effectively promotes projects, molds the opinions of audiences, allows artist to appear more open and relatable and leads to extreme monetary success.
In his article Stars as a Cinematic Phenomenon, he used the ‘photo effect’ conception of Roland Barthes to examine the present/ absent paradox of stars. He proposed influential qualitative distinctions in between stardom in films and television. He argued that ‘Stars are incomplete images outside the cinema: the performance of the film is the moment of completion of images in subsidiary circulation, in newspapers, fanzines, etc. Further, a paradox is present in these subsidiary forms. The star is at once ordinary and extraordinary, available for desire and unattainable. This paradox is repeated and intensified in cinema by the regime of presence-yet-absence that is the filmic image’(1992). Therefore, the impractical mode of ‘this is was’ on nature of stardom ‘awakens a series of psychic mechanisms which involve various impossible images’, such as ‘the narcissistic experience of the mirror phase’(1992). Ellis then continued to indicate televisual stardom, which is more current or ‘immediate’ than cinematic fame. He argued that ‘What television does present is the “personality”. The personality is someone who is famous for being famous and is famous only in so far as he or she makes frequent television appearances… In some ways, they are the opposite of stars, agreeable voids rather than sites of conflicting meanings’. Ellis’ thesis definitely points out the differences between cinema and television fame, due to the multimedia and transmedia of current era implies a much more diverse and unpredictable relationship in between stars’ images in any kind of
“Wealth, as a byproduct of fame, provides immediate, tangible evidence of celebrity’s distinction and staying power. Fame’s windfall goes a long way in lifting financial burdens, opening the celebrity to experiences that are special. Money is no longer a “worry,” and provides “the glory side, the financial side of being famous.” Some celebrities go from “not being able to afford a home,” to multi-million dollar contracts. They are our royalty.”, according to Donna Rothwell’s essay “Being a Celebrity; A Phenomenology of Fame”(Rothwell page 191).Basically, wealth dissolves the concern regarding financial status that the average citizen feels 24/7.Like most people, to acquiring such assets does provide a sense of a luxurious life. It is
From the first time I saw Lady Gaga interviewed on the Oprah Winfrey Show, I decided that she was not only a musical genius, but also so brilliant she probably possessed an actual genius IQ. I was struck by her confidence, especially in light of the fact that she is so young. I never had that kind of poise or self-assurance in my early 20's. Heck, I often feel that I barely have that now!
Is this the reality we are seeing or will be seeing in the near future? Has the lead up to this degree of reality television begun? We are so addicted to the media and its spot light, even young children’s ambitions have been changed from things like being an athlete or an accountant to being ‘famous’ not for a particular cause but because in this day and age individuals are becoming famous for being on television. So Truman as he leaves ‘The Truman Show’ would be famous since he has been on the show from the time when he was conceived.
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
Hollywood is known to be the home of many celebrities, ranging from musicians, actors to models. The celebrity life is something everyone wishes to live. Driving big cars, living in mansions and having attendants to attend to various needs all seem to be something to make life easy and comfortable. Despite all the love that is shown to the celebrities, the celebrities live a life of intense scrutiny. The common people, who are their fans, keep track of every single detail of their life. Each short coming is noticed and put on the limelight with the help of the media who are the main information givers on every move celebrities make. “The paparazzi, in turn, have become watch dogs who never let them out of our sight, staking out their gyms,
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)?