Celebrity worship is not new but is something that has been a part of human experience for centuries, ever since people have exhibited skills others do not possess while maintaining a degree of inaccessibility. Opera singers and silent film stars were the celebrities of 100 years ago. The Greeks and Romans had warriors that were celebrities of their era, and royal families throughout history were the figures of intrigue to everybody else. That being the case, the way that celebrity culture manifests in this decade is different from times past.
Is it healthier that countless blogs and tweets mock celebrities for their privilege, their embarrassments, and call them out on bad behaviour publicly? Or is celebrity culture more dysfunctional today in that social media allows us a constant degree of surveillance into the lives and images of celebrities?
Firstly, the celebrity worship syndrome is a real mental illness, it is an obsessive, addictive disorder, in which a person becomes overly invested with the details of the personal life of a celebrity- we have normalised and watered down the disorder to the term ‘stan’. It’s easy to laugh and scoff at the thought of CWS being a real thing, but it is, and some number one fans have gone as far as killing celebrities.
The obsession with celebrities has come a long way.
“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about,” Oscar Wilde famously wrote in the novel, The Picture of Dorian Grey, in 1891, 129 years ago.
We can appreciate that humans have always adored a bit of glamour and a whole lot of validation for it makes the hierarchy of our society. We love having people above us regular folk, living lives we wish we had- so, in turn, we live vicariously through them.
Despite Princess Diana coming from an aristocratic family, she was adored for the sense of normality she brought to the royal family, doing things that the stiff upper lip society looked down upon. Naturally, she gained her own following and was crowned the People’s Princess– and the media gave the people more and more of her through photographs and frequent front-page news articles; truthfully speaking, the British press is a different species on its own. They hunted her down like prey, and to this day, she is still a much loved and respected global phenomenon. There’s simply no one like her.
Being a celeb took a turning point when media became something that couldn’t be contained, something akin to a wild beast, looking more and more into people’s personalised lives and normalising trends that effectively continuously conditions society to thrive off of the new wave of influencers such as Beyonce, Rihanna, the Kardash-Jenner clan, etc. Argue with me all you’d like but we can all acknowledge that these celebrities define the zeitgeist of our era from the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, to the trends we follow…their level of fame is what leads the pack, and we let them; because it is far much easier to pick apart and scrutinise flaws and lives that aren’t our own.
Our own motherland grown celebrities aren’t free from scrutiny either. Celebrities like Cassper Nyovest and Bonang Matheba are considered some of Africa’s biggest stars. Many of us want to achieve fame and stardom, and they are seen as beacons of hope. The Rihannas and Drakes of our continent, so many develop the ‘if they can do it, why can’t I’ mentality. Alas, not everyone can be a celebrity. Among them are artists like Nasty C and Davido, whom I’ve had the pleasure of watching them perform.
If you’ve ever underestimated the influence of our African artists- as I did a year ago- then I implore you to change your mindset ASAP. The concert I went to was crazier than anything I’ve ever witnessed. It was surreal seeing Davido and Nasty for the first time, however, I can never forget the way the crowd roared and came to life as soon as the If intro boomed through the speakers- which led to being buried alive by starstruck fans and losing a few nails.
There was one particular fan who stood over 6 feet tall and yet found his way to the front of the stage, where I was standing. He was Nigerian and proud- he got into an argument with a Nasty C fan about who was the better artist- and he even got pulled onto stage by Davido himself, who gave him a chain. It must’ve been stan heaven, and at the moment, I had an epiphany about just how much we love our African celebs.
With the COVID-19 outbreak in Africa, fans turned to celebrities to take a stand and make donations to relief funds, Cassper It’s 2 Bentleys, A new V Class and new sprinter, 5 Rolexes and I’m rich as fuck!! Nyovest tweeted,
“Maybe if we were supported and stunted like y’all stan Drake and Rihanna, we would have the money to help.”
One could dissect and analyse this tweet and argue that anyone who can afford a Bently and a Rolex can afford to donate some money for relief funds, however, it just goes to show how dysfunctional the culture and our relationship with it is. We are able to nitpick the faults and contradictions of these humans we’ve put on a pedestal for no good reason. Now, look at us, having great expectations. Especially during a global crisis.
We’ve seen the do-gooders, and I suppose we can thank them for being decent people and sharing their resources with those that need help. However, I believe that I can confidently say that we as a society do not give a rats ass about how celebrities are unravelling or spending their time in quarantine/lockdown.
There is much to sympathise with, nevertheless, I believe that we can change our minds and lives by snapping out of this media brainwashing. You don’t have to keep up with their lives and monitor all the good and bad they do. Unfollow the blogs that like to spill all the latest tea and stop the dehumanisation of these rich people by worshipping the ground they walk on. Some beasts have to be put down and negative media is definitely not the exception to the rule.
Written by Theresa Ntswaki. She writes in her own capacity.