The Specular Celebrity Culture

The idea of no privacy has become the norm for most celebrities, as privacy is something that you usually don’t associate with in regards to the lives of celebrities. It is undeniable that celebrities are aware that through the uproar of social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other similar mediums in this century, getting access to personal and private information on our favorite celebrities is much easier than necessary. And “with these new media platforms greater portions of the populace are now constructing online public personas.” (Marshal, 2010)

Marshal (2010) describes the term ‘specular’ as “a two-way mirror projection on to the screen and the circulation of and interaction with those images and texts into the wider world.” With this, we can discuss the impressions that celebrities are leaving on us through social media. On our beloved celebrities social media profiles, they’re projecting their personas out to the world. But unlike us, their beautiful black and white profile picture was taken by a world-renowned photographer, it’s rare that you’d see a typical ‘shameless selfie’ taken at arms length and edited with a few filters to look a little more appealing by someone such as Emma Watson.

Emma Watson grew up under the spotlight, so ultimately she would have changed in the response to the rise of social media, since for her, growing up from child star to young celebrity adult was under constant surveillance. Marshall (2010) describes our modern world as “a well-developed specular economy whose foundations are derived from the much longer tradition of celebrity culture and whose repercussions relate to an emerging comfortability with a society of surveillance.” With this we can understand how the privacy of celebrities such as Emma Watson, was no way near as valued as any other individual. But of course, nothing stopped Emma Watson from admitting in an interview to getting extremely drunk, which many celebrities wouldn’t have the nerve to do in risk of putting a damper on their reputation. This is understood as celebrities are not only representing themselves as they “evolve into a persona, then a brand, then an empire, with the business imperative of grow or die — a process of expansion and commodification that transgresses boundaries by substituting celebrity for institutions.” (The New York Times, 2013)

The only downside of interactivity and virtuality comes precautions such as being way too engaged in a virtual world, which can lead to misinterpretations, and false expectations. And as we all know, the media depicts people as they choose, by manipulating what we see online.

References:

Marshal, P.D 2010, ‘The Specular Economy’, Society, vol. 47, no. 6, pp. 498-502

Packer, G 2013, “Celebrating Inequality” in The New York Times, May 19 2013, Accessed, September 3 2013,

< http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/opinion/inequality-and-the-modern-culture-of-celebrity.html?pagewanted=all>

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