This morning I experienced a certain sensation and it occurred to me to tell you about it. It’s not exactly anything to do with Fashion or Style Tips or Lifestyle, more or an observation on the world. Probably a rather melancholy one as well to be honest.
I was on my way to work quite early. This was one of those mornings in which (in regards to my appearance) I just didn’t have it together: hair an unkempt mess and shoes slightly scuffed. Much as i’d tried with my hair the wind just kept catching it and nothing would keep it down as I hadn’t had time to style it with gel or anything. I was walking across the bridge connecting CBD-adjacent Docklands to the Convention Centre South Wharf area, headphones in and relatively distant in my own thoughts, when suddenly I felt like I was being watched. You probably know the sensation, some of your hairs stand on end and you adjust your posture and need to do a furtive glance around. Sure enough as I looked forward I noticed this young Japanese couple both taking photos madly of me: assumedly because my atrocious ‘do’. I was suddenly riddled with this mix of selfconscious shame and a boiling angry desire to storm over and throw their iPhones into the River underneath. Where was my right to privacy? I felt embarrassed enough on my own without the worry that my disaster might be publicly projected amongst complete unknown social masses. Perhaps I flatter myself and overdramatise the ripples such a theoretical rock being dropped might cause, but do you guys know what I mean anyway? Without any regard to actually ask me beforehand i’d been photographed looking absolutely rubbish. Who or what was to blame for such blatant disappearance of social manners and decency?
Do you really want to know? I know I did, and the answer slapped me in the face like nothing else?
...Motherfucking celebrity culture...
Apologies for the language. It was a revelation to me though. The phenomenon to which we’ve almost all contributed to. Celebrity culture is almost the only one to which we’re all constantly exposed anymore. Maybe the reason that it surprised me so much is because i’m so engrossed with it: the entire sphere just fascinates me and I feel like I need to know every detail. When on my French exchange strolling the Champs Elysées, I saw the lovely Marion Cotillard strolling out of the Louis Vuitton store, the centre of a swarm of paparazzi and fans dying for a glimpse. And of course, I went right along and snapped a few pictures, without any thought as to her privacy or whether she minded. I just wanted my piece of it, of the glamour, and of her aura. Almost like a souvenir. Maybe because everyone was doing it I didn’t even think of asking, that was a primary example of me buying into it though. There have been thousands more examples though, from clicking blog links and Perez Hilton pieces to magazines etc. It’s suddenly made me feel sick at the thought that with every click of the camera or the laptop i’m slowly invading peoples lives, and poking my nose where I shouldn’t. Of course some of these celebrities invite the attention into their lives, that being said though some don’t.
It’s hard to pinpoint where this all started. Of course general gossipmongers have been around since the start of time, but these days it’s something more than that. It’s gone from mere chatter and speculation to something more cruel. I would almost say La Dolce Vita kicked modern celebrity culture into full swing. A Classic and all around amazing film, it’s one of my favourite Fellini films. That being said, the scene where Steiner’s wife arrives back from the market (entirely oblivious to the fact that her husband has murdered their children and then commit suicide) to be swarmed by the paparazzi lying in wait to capture every emotion and movement as she smiles feeling like a reluctant yet flattered celebrity before finding out the tragic news. All of that to assumedly distribute the story to the Masses and caption it as Entertainment or Society News. Truth be told that was one of the most sickening and chilling moments i’ve ever experienced from Italian cinema. Even though it was dramatization, I feel like it was an indication of the putrid things to come...
Since then I feel like it’s just gotten worse and worse. Especially with the invention of Photoshop, these celebrities are made to look inhuman in their perfection, bronzed and buffed and toned only to then even then that’s not good enough, as the computers complete layers of beautifying sweeps altering body shapes and beauty marks. Looking at these images it becoming more and more depressing constantly, evoking feelings of self-consciousness and inadequacy. And then tabloids splash images of these A-listers in real world situations, looking unkempt or unmade. We make them up so we can tear them down. Don’t tell me you haven’t looked at those sort of photos and not felt some pang of relief; their not being flawless after all means that you’re closer to possibly becoming one of them, because in reality they have flaws and you do too. By editing and creating fake façades all over celebrities to layer this veiled illusion of perfection, only then to re-use them as the sickening tool in tearing down said veil in tabloids is a sickening process for public self-validation. I think it’s more than the media altering peoples self-esteem, I’m not so worried about the young generation feeling inadequate but more concerned with their subsequent need to compensate with altering themselves in every image, constant self improvement...
The proof is in the pudding, you only have to look at any self-respecting persons online footprint; as a social-media-savvy individual you can capitalize on Instagram filters, photo retouching and careful placement of where you check in and whose pages you like, all in this attempt to make it look like you live in your own perfect little world. Of course everybody wants to look their best, but so many tools have been put at our disposal and it’s literally just gotten out of hand. Everyone wants the attention and the moment in the spotlight, and it’s creating a mini Narcissus within everybody. It’s what we’re hammering into our children constantly, what does it really mean for the wellbeing of society, only time will tell....
And then as to who is to blame. Of course there are those more responsible; the fat greedy horrible tabloid editors for example, demanding pictures all the more scandalous, more invasive to bring in more drama and recognition. Or otherwise the celebrities who keep the paparazzi constantly on their tail, dropping hints of their locations etc. What they’ve done is fashion a business out of people’s personal lives, and in doing so they’ve essentially sucked out some of society’s soul. AND THEN DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON REALITY SHOWS and just what that’s doing for the good of anyone at all...it’s just a whole different topic entirely, I don’t want to get into it because I can already feel myself getting angry....All i’ll say is that the one’s that invite that sort of attention give no thought to the fact that these photographers then automatically assume that it’s alright to impose on all of them as such. Now i’m not a celebrity, in fact the absolute furthest thing from it, but these sort of antics trickle down. They’re glamourised in film and fashion and made to look like the idyllic life, and social media cultivating makes everyone essentially feel a little bit famous.
All in all, Television, internet, newspapers and magazines all devote sections to Exposés and articles and spreads about the otherwise private scandals, details and speculations of people the media industry has cultivated us to care so adamantly about. And so when any of us read an article, or click a blog link, or watch a news segment and get gossiping about it we buy into it just a little more. This invasiveness has flowed from those mediums into everyday life as I discovered today; morals are disappearing and even though it’s on a (much) smaller scale than that of the bonafide celebrity, there’s more pressure than ever to make yourself look immaculate and present that to the world, because if you look stupid you’re bound to be caught and captured doing it and there’s not any opportunity to live it down because the fucking internet lives forever.
This entire train of thought today has just made me think to myself that if i ever actually become an established designer I should work to find an old overweight wrinkly opera singer for a muse and use her in raw unedited fashion campaigns... I’ve gone quite into depth with this, probably extensively enough that i’ve lost the bulk of you. For anyone still reading, my point behind this entire story is a return to common courtesy and shirking the ridiculous illusion of fame and flawlessness that the media keep shoving down our throats round the clock. All it’s doing is breeding discontent and angry depressed attitudes in starving and cleansing and moisturizing towards something that doesn’t exist, because nobody is perfect, and everyone has one thing they want to change and we should simply take moments to be perfectly content in our own skin.
On a final note you beautiful attentive bunch, there was a quote of Patrick Bateman’s that struck with me just a moment ago. He said “We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern and less materialism in young people.” So be kind to one another and to yourselves, and don’t buy into the media trash façade that is celeb culture, it’s a lesson I really need to learn too.
P.S. I seriously just applied a quote of Patrick Bateman’s to this situation that was in a positive light, what the fuck is wrong with the world :P
xx