Celebrity Culture

Celebrity culture is almost like a god like type of life when thought of by the average person. We call celebs, “stars, superstars, icons” (12), and are constantly catching up with them in magazines, on television and readings their interviews. It seems like their always in the public eye, since they are.

Being in the public eye is not a walk in the park. The amount of attention a celeb gives the public need to be regulated and meaningful. Too much awareness on someone can get boring for an audience or an editor and if the work they are putting out there is simply boring or repetitive celebs can be forgotten about in the blink of an eye. Just like an average person does not want to be a bore at a party, “Celebrities, in the same way, are in danger, of becoming public bores” (13).

Even though they do have to monitor their time in the media, in some way they always wanted to be gaining public awareness, celebs “are ranked by the number of media mentions they or their work have garnered” (17). So in the end the more attention you receive the higher rank you will be which can draw out the conclusion that, “publicity is power” (17).

Wanting to be seen or heard is not something new, being in the public eye was always an importance to celebrities. Even back in the early 90’s T.S Elliot wrote to one of his Harvard professors that, there were two ways to achieve literary celebrity in London: one was to appear often in a variety of publications; the other to appear seldom but always to make certain to dazzle when one did.” (19) Being seen and making an everlasting impressions is what celebs strive for today, since they want to keep recognizable and memorable.

Interesting how the image of celebs have changed from wholesome to scandalous and the classification of who is a celeb has changed through the years but the strive for public attention has always remained the same. Celebs know they are going to be watched so they make the most of their image, especially their appearance. It is said that, “Ms. Sontag would quite have achieved the same celebrity. I think, that is, that her attractiveness as a young woman had a great deal to do with the extent of her celebrity” (18). Getting the spot light is work but looking the part in the light is what will keep you there.

The aspect of gaining public attention weighs more important than any other celebrity culture characteristic. Simply because if no one is watching nothing counts.

Reflection of Joseph Epstein, Celebrity culture. Spring 2005.

Joseph Epstein, award-winning author, essayist, and literary critic, is perhaps best known

as “Aristides,” editor of The American Scholar from 1975 to 1998. He has published over

six hundred essays, stories, and reviews, as well as several books of fiction and non-fic-

tion, including Snobbery: The American Version; Fabulous Small Jews: Stories; Envy: The

Seven Deadly Sins; and the forthcoming Friendship.