Celebrity (AKA CMN 2180B - Fall 2019 - Class 5)

Celebrities come in all different shapes, sizes, and flavours. Among other things, they can be actors, singers, models, musicians, writers, Instagrammer, Vloggers, politicians, (fictitious) superheroes, members of the royal family, athletes, entrepreneurs - they could even be villians, serial killers or other infamous ‘bad guys’. Ultimately, what makes someone a celebrity is their recognizability - their image, their words, their very performance.

‘Celebrity” has been linked to and is now synonymous with notions of stardom and fame. It’s also been association with ‘celebration’, or the honouring and observation of something notable (about someone or some thing). In this sense, celebrity is less about the individual and more about what is happening around them - whether near or far. It makes sense then that celebrities not only require an audience but would be nothing without them.

While celebrity historians (literally the best job ever) debate the rise and emergence of celebrity culture, they tend to agree that it’s institutionalized through consumer culture, fashion, and new media. They also agree that what constitutes a celebrity varies from time period to time period, and from place to place. If this is true, then how do we know a celebrity when we see one?

Richard Dyer identified four “motifs” or characteristics found in all celebrities:

• Ordinariness

• Extraordinariness

• Luck

• Hard work

While on the surface, some of these ‘motifs’ might seem contradictory - how can someone be BOTH ordinary and extraordinary - I argue that it’s possible to identify such motifs in all of our favourite celebrities.

Celebrities, argues Boorstin, are a pseudo-event. They are manufactured and based on the public relations industry. Similarly, Baudrillard argues that they are a form of the hyperreal - they’re created and used to sell products to the masses for profit. And yet… they can inspire us, they can connect with us and we can relate to them. This fascination with celebrities and their prominence in popular culture helps to explain why they’re celebrity studies has grown as an interdisciplinary field of research.