I find the concept of celebrities and celebrity culture an interesting one, not because I follow it religiously as some people do but because it make such massive news every time a celeb does anything from the seemingly ordinary that “normal” people don’t even give a second thought to, all the way to things society deems as abnormal. For example if Lady Gaga is pictured without makeup the picture creates a fuss on all sorts of social networking sites and entertainment news sites and channels; on the flip side when she wore that meat dress it created such a furore that even mainstream media reported on it.

Sure I’m a fan of different actors or musicians etc and if I see trailers or hear snippets of their music I’ll be inclined to check out whatever it is they’re involved in, I just don’t feel the need to be clued in on everything that they do on a daily basis. Yes they have put themselves in to the public realm to show off their abilities or talents, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m sure that’s the main reason they do it for, and not to have their private lives invaded on a regular basis.

I’ve never been particularly fussed about the minutia of celebrities daily lives or what they wear at awards ceremonies I do however have a gripes I would like to try to express and elaborate upon in this post. Celebrity culture becomes a problem in a number of different forms:

• Firstly how celebrities are portrayed in the media. Celebrities are not consistently portrayed by the media. Meaning there is not one “image” that all famous people are held to as a fair comparison. I know this is more a problem with the media and it is a big problem but I’m not entirely sure famous people are 100% blameless in how celebrities are presented to the world. As guilty as the media are at bashing celebrities, they are equally as guilty at stroking their egos. this will have conscious and sub concious effects on those people.
• How celebrities act does seem to have an effect on people and how they behave, especially younger people and those who are more impressionable. If they see their favourite celebrities acting in a way that wouldn’t normally be acceptable and getting away with it, are they more likely to act that way themselves at some point in the future? Or defend behaviour of that sort when they see it? Considering the amount of young people who constantly jump to the defence of Justin Bieber every time he does something utterly dickish I’m going to say yes.
• The fact that celebrities are held so loftily is ridiculous, yes they are talented, but so is everyone in their own way so why are particular people are held under the limelight and others not. Is it that the people who are everywhere easier to mould into what people think they want to see.
• celebrity culture seems to have a big impact on a lot of things these days, from fashion to how people act towards each other. With one set of rules for most people and another for celebrities how people are supposed to behave seems to be a bit of a grey area and it makes no sense at all what so ever. Some celebrity behaviour is bizarre from drug habits to spitting on fans who thinks they can get away with this sort of stuff.

I could continue to rant on and on, if you gotten this far then well done, I fear that it could get worse and I could have to rant a bit more in the future, but if I think about it for too much longer my headache is going to get worse. So sorry for ranting but it had to be said.