Obsession

In our recent articles about Fandom and Stardom, it mainly discussed regular people looking up to celebrities. Celebrities are suppose to be these icons of achievement balled up into everything we want but will never have, a very depressing thought when you consider who is famous currently. My generation have created a whole new identity of celebrities because you can now be famous for just being a hot mess or being arrested. High standards are still provided but the Lindsay Lohans of the world are still just as famous as the Jennifer Anistons. In between was born as new celebrity. The reality show celebrity. How tv stations pick the people for those shows I do not know but reality tv stars has become a whole new category. Seeing as we hold celebrities on these pedestals makes me want to critique celebrities who wants to be perfect. The first name that comes to mind is Heidi Montag. Self made fame whore, Heidi started on the MTV reality series the Hills. She was the best friend to the lead role and started off as the innocent girl from a small town. After a season or two, her plastic surgery charade began. First it was minor changes, but eventually it led up to what we see now in the current season and many tabloid magazines. Her desire to be perfect or ideal caused her to have many surgeries in one day. Not only did she risk her life but she looks like she came out of the mattel factory right next to Skipper. Her surgery supposedly made her have the perfect face and body, etc. Instead she no longer looks real. This just goes to show how the lime light causes celebrities to want to buy into our obsessions with them. They want to continue to be held on this pedestal, to be seen as perfection that no one else can achieve except for in this case her perfection can be paid for at a really high price. Her own stardom caused her to obsess about perfection and I cannot help but wonder if she never was on the show to begin with would she still be the small town girl from Colorado. I think stardom and fandom can ooze into celebrity world as well. We think that we are idolizing people that we can never be like and that pedestal causes them to have to live up to our expectations. When they fail we enjoy their down fall and when they succeed we are jealous of their accomplishments or look up to them as idols. Actors and Actresses, musicians, artists of all kinds say they want to go into the business to pursue a dream but do some just really wanna be famous? People do not have to have any real talent any more as long as you can make a profit, you are valuable. It really makes you think where these people will be in a few years as shows like the Hills come to an end. Will they be desperate to find work just to stay in the spotlight, will they follow their passions, or will they fade into the background amongst many other celebrities that lost their ten minutes.

In the show Will and Grace, it centers around the relationships of heterosexual and homosexual men and women. With a show that bases so much of its content on homosexual characters lacks in representing a wide variety of aspects. While I love the show and think it is a great sitcom, it just plays into the rest of the sitcom stereotypes. They give you the gay character but they only give you part of it. It is nice, however, to see the characters not fall into the same dynamic that other sitcoms often do. Instead they show Will and Jack, the two main gay characters, having multiple relationships that are not always monogamous. This is a big change since most other shows portray gays as having the same mindset that everyone is suppose to have drilled into them and even though heterosexuals are represented in the media as having more than one kind of relationship mindset, it is nice to see a gay person not seen in the media light as being married or having children. It is important to give gays the same representation as heterosexuals have especially because of the day and age we live in. People are a lot more open minded so why shouldn't media be. Even still the show Will and Grace does not come full circle by any means. They show did have an episode where Jack was so desperately waiting the gay kiss that was suppose to be featured on his favorite television show but was not shown because of network censorship. This kiss was made a big deal on the show and in the end Will ends up kissing Jack to show that major kiss but despite the message that was shown by the show, it never really went above that level of intimacy. They never really had that much that went beyond a peck or two and even then that was not seen very often. This was kinda strange considering the fact that the show surrounded two gay men. In fact, most of the kissing was seen between the men and women despite the fact that the men were gay. This lack of representation plays into the articles and speculation of the media and how they only show certain amount of homosexuality.

Stereotypes occur in media everyday but what happens when one stereotype takes on another? Is it offensive to a culture even though stereotypes are often seen in a negative light or does it just create a whole new identity to stereotype? We have often seen different cultures blend especially in the media realm i.e. white rappers. Rapping is linked mostly to the African American culture and attributes to the hardcore identity that is stemmed from a life of struggle. What happens though when people like Eminem join the scene and behave just like the black rapper stereotype we have known for years. If I remember correctly he was not taken seriously right away but his relationship with respected rappers like Dr. Dre helped reinforce his identity and gave him credibility. Now he is seen to have talent and capability from what I have seen and heard but coming from a background that lacks in rapper world knowledge I would not say I am an expert by any means. There is then the crowd that sees Eminem and follows his identity to create white rapper wannabes and while Eminem grew up in a trailer park and raps about his drunken mother, these kids grew up in upper class suburban families. Are they know less credible even if they have talent? This whole new culture that popped up where white kids are going against the hegemonic norm and behaving like a culture that is stereotypically suppose to act a certain way. So even if the stereotype that black people can rap and have certain images is offensive then can they also be offended that someone from another identity would be imitating their supposed identity or are they just viewed as being obscene. This also comes into play with language and slang. Is it okay for one group to use certain words and not everyone. I know with some words it is but I am talking about more everyday words. There is so much slang out there but if someone white says it are they less credible and less hardcore and just look stupid. When people say they are from the ghetto but are really from suburbs that maybe just are not as affluent as others, is it offensive to people who actually live in the ghetto? This ties into media usage and how they can joke around about stereotypes and use phrases and images to convey meanings that might be trying to shed light on a certain situation, but are misunderstood and repeated. If viewers are not aware that there are certain shows that poke fun of things to bring awareness like SNL and MADtv which have many outrageous skits that can be interpreted in various different ways. People can get offended or they can repeat what they hear or act out what they see without thinking about the underlying messages. All these things play into the identities media created and how we use them everyday to create our own identities.

While this video is fairly old, I was recently reminded of it after watching the NOM video “Gathering Storm.” This topic in general is important but not what the main focus of this post is going to be about. Instead I want to talk about the main tactics they used to portray their message and why this video was one of the best responses put out. Gathering Storm uses actors portraying so called real life experiences. I have no way to tell you if this is true or not but we will give them the benefit of the doubt for the moment. Even so they use a wide variety of races in their actors despite my assumption that it is not significant of the race the real person was. They use this to make it seem like the storm is coming for everyone and its gonna throw you into Oz like dorothy except munchkin land will be homosexual land. They make it seem like we should all be afraid with their fearful tone and the dark clouds rumbling behind them. All this is called out in the video response weathering the storm. Unlike most of the responses, this one is not a parody, it does not poke fun at the video ever but instead use the same type of tone. Instead of black clouds they have a sunset like vision behind them, they show individuals that are showing how their rights and lives are being restricted because of certain laws. Who decides what love is considered real love and who is worthy or not of getting married. Religion aside, there are more than churches to get married in. Without getting too side tracked with my thoughts on the subject, the video points out that fear is being used to scare others into being opposed to other people living as they choose as if it will some how threaten their existence or livelihood. They used emotional support in each, the first through fear and the second through sadness and showing that one thing most people take for granted is something they don’t have which in a time like this when generations have fought so hard for equal rights and people are still being oppressed because a lifestyle choice. Last time I checked I had all my rights so why can’t everyone.