Awhile ago I started a blog called Gossipology that was meant to give a timely criticism on the gossip industry, but I let it slide fast because it felt like a pretentious excuse to read gossip blogs, which I couldn't stomach anymore since I realized they made fun of little girls my niece's age. But the drift of the thought behind it was that, like all advertiser sponsored media, its crappy effects are things the audience bears the moral responsibility for.
We know the nasty effects of making private details of public life news items and lots of people excuse them - including most of the gossip mongers, I expect - by explaining some celebrities invite that sort of attention in an effort to remain in the public eye. But can we really excuse ourselves as an audience or perp by saying "lots of celebrities invite this sort of attention" when there are lots who DON'T, but because it's a lucrative thing to do paparazzi will still fucking follow their children to school and gossip rags will publish icky intimate accounts of sexual encounters from spurned former lovers that their kids or parents might come across?
I mean, ew. If I imagined the possibility of details of my sexual life being of sufficient interest to the public that even the men of no importance who've occasionally kept me company could get serious cash to publish, I'd lose my fucking mind. That poor gorgeous bastard Ralph Fiennes is hardly a tabloid darling but a few moments of shunting in an aeroplane bathroom with a gold digging stewardess had good enough market value to get into the IHT. Can you imagine the trust issues? The neurosis? The deep feeling of misgiving every time you want to surrender to the moment? It's inhuman.
Speaking of which, of course drunk driving may have had, in quantifiable terms, more to do with Dodi and Diana Whatser's death then anything else, but I can't believe the fact the poor bastards died like that hasn't made us as a society draw back a little and think 'paparazzi are fucking dangerous so maybe I'm going to devalue their product now, no matter how some celebrities might enjoy or invite that attention.' It killed people - real people, with children and parents and people who'll miss them. For what? A more interesting wait in line at the grocery store? A few hours of amused clock watching at our crappy office jobs? Why don't we just look away?
5 commenti:
The problem is that the paparazzi and the public don't accept blame for the events they cause or at least have a hand in. People think there's a conspiracy behind Diana's death. People say Brittany Spears is going crazy but no one stops and thinks - as you have done - wouldn't you go crazy? Every single thing you do is criticized no matter how common or normal it is. I feel sorry for her and I hope that she finds help because it seems to be that she is suffering from some form of post partum or something similar. (You can see the amount of attention I give to these stories by the examples I have had to use.)
Her parents encouraged her to be a sexual fantasy to the masses back when she was still jailbait. PPD's no joke but if that's the greatest of her mental worries now she must already have a damn good team of therapists.
Who knows. I really haven't been following her story much but she seems to be punishing herself for something.
Yeah, it's true isn't it - the paparazzi does still go after people aggressively, even if they try and stay in the shadows. I have great sympathy for the people that got in way over their head in terms of courting attention; but it's still hard for me to have great, great sympathy because I do believe they made their own choices that took them there. Having said that, their children are innocent in all of it and I think it's disgusting when paparazzi and the general public are obsessed with celebrity's babies. There needs to be some really obvious rules enforced in the gossip game.
I do think Britney Spears is dealing with some kind of post-partum issues on top of everything else. I know it can happen at any point, but I think the risk for it might be higher if you don't give your body and hormones a year off between pregnancies. She's had an intense last two years and she needs to decompress. But where??
Yeah, but those really obvious rules won't be enforced because it's not in the interests of the people who break them to pay attention to them while the market in gossip is so lucrative.
There are privacy laws a-plenty but loopholes get found and fines are accepted and paid as a result of cost/benefit analyses that indicate putting up with the trouble is worth getting good gossip to a public who's willing to pay attention.
The onus is really on us to look away.
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