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Would You Like to Be Famous?

Up until recently, I held famous people on a pedestal and thought fame was a very desirable concept. However, I have grown to see that fame may not be all that it is expected to be. Personally, I would never want to get famous--mainly due to the issues I would imagine come along with the lifestyle. 

The first aspect of celebrities' lives that seems undesirable is how their private lives are (sometimes) exposed to the public, If I were famous, one of my main goals would be to keep certain things in my life out of the public eye. Having your entire life online gives you no privacy and seems stressful. While celebrities should expect to have at least some of their privacy disclosed, I think there are certain lines that should not be crossed when it comes to what the public has access to. For example, some paparazzi can go too far (in my opinion) to get photos that will grasp the most attention, or some interview questions may be digging a bit too much into the celebrity's personal life. 


Another stereotype surrounding fame is that having it makes your life better in every way. What we fail to see is that being famous does not get rid of all your problems you may face as a non-famous person. For example, if you were in an argument with a friend, being a celebrity wouldn't magically make this argument go away. If anything, it would be harder to deal with personal issues because of the worry that the public may come to know of it. While being famous usually comes with the obvious perks like wealth and resources, it doesn't mean you wouldn't deal with struggles many "regular" people also face. Failing to see this can also breed unhealthy comparison, as you may compare your current situation to that of a public figure you look up to. However, this person may very well be going through a struggle in their own life which is why it is important to not create unrealistic perception of celebrities. 

My last concern with fame is that it would stop me from living a normal life. when celebrities go out in public, many times security is surrounding them, they are consistently getting recognized, and they may even cause a huge scene wherever they go. For some people, this may not seem so bad, but personally this sounds like the last thing I would want. I would hate getting recognized everywhere I went and not being able to do these types of things as easily as I can now. 

With these points in mind, I asked myself why we tend to put celebrities on a pedestal. One theory that could explain this is that fan based are developed by individuals who are making up for something they lack in their own life by indulging in the lives of celebrities (https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zjgv6v4). It has also been proven that certain personal issues can go hand in hand with worshipping a celebrity, presumably to live vicariously through these figures (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3960781/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3960781/). While I don't think there's anything wrong with being a fan of a public figure, I think it's important to be aware that their lives are not as glamorous as they are mad out to be, and you should definitely not compare your life to theirs. 

-Meher


Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 16, 2022 at 1:05 PM

    As I think you know, this is one of my favorite things to think and talk about. I certainly agree with everything you said here, but I would like to add a couple things. There are some levels of celebrity where you don't have to walk around with security all around you, and even some types of celebrity where that's true too. For example, a smaller scale celebrity wouldn't have to deal with that kind of security, and all of the problems of being a giant public figure don't exist while you can still make money and get plenty of resources. Of course, you wouldn't get as many resources, but still. Plus, there are more niche areas you can be a star for. An artist wouldn't get as much of the problematic public figure-ness as a model was, and the same thing is true with a bunch of other professions. I still agree with you, just something I wanted to note. In your last paragraph, you talked about reasons people like celebrities, and why we put them on pedestals––I'd like to add to that. I think that calling someone a celebrity, and being a fan of theirs, is a form of awarding them. It's nice to get praised, and I feel like it's entirely possible that people think a way to share their praise is to watch someone's movies, or view and interact with someone's media, therefore giving them more fans and making them more famous. Overall, I agree with you. I don't think I'd want to be a full scale celebrity, but I would be interested to live a day as Taylor Swift and see what her life is like and whether I'd want that.

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  2. AthenaMay 17, 2022 at 7:32 AM

    I have thought about how celebrities' lives are so public, even to the point of addresses, and I've felt somewhat bad for them. I do sometimes wonder what it would be like, but I don't think I would survive with being that well-known for long. I agree that I also wouldn't want to be a celebrity. Interesting thing to think about!!

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