Paper Abstract: Consuming Celebrity

The mythology of Fame as an honorable way to distinguish extraordinary achievement has been an integral part of history and cultural storytelling for centuries, dating back as early as Alexander the Great. Modern conceptualizations and representations of Celebrity, however, claim more of the public’s cultural consciousness than ever before, energized by the various technological developments of the twenty-first century and an increasingly advertising-based culture industry that blurs the line between journalism and tabloid gossip. While the branding of Celebrity promotes societal discourses and provides fodder for discussion, debate, and critique, the proliferation of the cult of stardom has also radically reshaped of our notions of personal identity, collective values, and success in a neoliberal society.

I intend to begin my paper by performing a structural analysis of the Public Relations industry, whose sole aim is to create carefully constructed and pre-meditated “personas” for a public figure. As cogs of the culture industry, these personas draw upon and reinforce the dominant hegemonic ideals of the society as it wishes to be seen. The inherently unstable “performance” aspect of maintaining and cultivating celebrity illuminates how these mechanisms create idealistic representations that often have little or no bearing on lived reality. One example, Nike and the branding of sports, uses athletes to construct very specific ideals about athleticism, honor, determination, and physical prowess. Another example compares and contrasts Tiger Woods’s meticulously constructed image with reality.

Next, I will use principles of psychoanalysis to explore how Celebrity has become an integral part of the collective debate surrounding personal identity, collective, values, and definitions of capitalistic success. Celebrity in its modern iteration represents a manifestation of Freud’s ego ideal, whereby audiences project their interior desires onto public figures as a method of understanding their lives. Celebrity has also contributed to a shifting understanding of the American Dream as dependent on fame and notoriety rather than wealth. This is evident through the democratization of stardom through reality television shows like Big Brother and competitions like American Idol.

The culmination of these two forces, structural premeditation and audience interpretations, is not only detrimental to audiences, but also to celebrities themselves, who essentially act as vacant receptacles for dominant hegemony. The fanatical fandom encouraged by these structures makes the spectator vulnerable to emotional manipulation by Celebrity that is based on inherently meaningless and constructed values. Fandom not only distracts from more pressing global issues, but also brings out a wide spectrum of human emotions ranging from adoration to obsession. For celebrities themselves, it is an enormous burden to stand in for a concept, as in the case of pop singer Britney Spears where a lack of self-awareness led to a very public and humiliating mental breakdown.

Lastly, the importance of Celebrity is stressed through corporate endorsements on a global scale. Because celebrities are posited as trustworthy, they are able to incentive action. While this power is sometimes used for good, as with the We Are the World initiative for Haiti, celebrity endorsements are most frequently used to encourage consumers to purchase frivolous goods. While corporations often benefit from celebrity name recognition, they are also put in the precarious position of equating their corporate brands with unstable Celebrity constructions. International Celebrity advertisements in countries where American stars have name recognition contribute to cultural homogenization.

I intend to demonstrate that although the cult of celebrity has been constructed as mindless and frivolous entertainment, the increasing force with which these representations have come to dominate societal discourse will inevitably have lasting repercussions. Collective discourses based on distorted celebrity images ultimately draw attention away from global problems and instead redirect these energies towards encouraging consumption through endorsements. In this way, celebrity perpetuates the capitalist economic base that produces it while contributing to the increasing atomization of society that has characterized post-modernity. As for the celebrities themselves, they will continue to act as sacrificial lambs on the zeitgeist’s altar.

Proposed Sources:

• Adorno, Theodore. The Culture Industry. London: Routledge, 2002.
• Bourdieu, Pierre. “The Aesthetic Sense as the Sense of Distinction” in Juliet Schor ed., The Consumer Society Reader
• Braudy, Leo. The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and Its History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.
• Dyer, Richard. Stars. London: BFI, 1998.
• Giles, David. Illusions of Immortality: A Psychology of Fame and Celebrity. New York: St. Martin’s, 2000.
• Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. London: Routledge, 1992.
• Klein, Naomi. No Logo, Ch. 2: “The Brand Expands”
• Marshall, P. David. Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
• Monaco, James. Celebrity: The Media as Image Makers. New York: Delta, 1978.
• van Zoonen, Liesbet. Entertaining the Citizen: When Politics and Popular Culture Converge. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.