Celebrity Cellulite Shocker!
A well-written article about the appeal of celebrity body image stories in the tabloids. (Although I'm not sure what "blubber-hungry" is all about, as an adjective. Who likes the word blubber? Let's ban the word! Except we'll have an exception for Judy Blume so she can write Blubber 2: The Blubbening. Anyway, as I was saying...)
"Editions heavy with 'body image' stories... sold better than traditional celebrity fare such as relationship troubles and visits to rehab.... 'It was strange that we hadn't seen it before, because it was obvious that women are obsessed with body image. They think about their body image more than they think about their children. They think about it even more than men think about sex--which is about a million times a day, isn't it?'"
But Louisa Hatfield claims it isn't schadenfreude that motivates us, it's relatability:
"Hatfield says her readers find it 'very empowering to see celebrities without make-up or getting too fat or too thin. They aren't being mean. They're not looking and gloating. It's more like, "Oh my God, they have the same problems as I do."'"
"Editions heavy with 'body image' stories... sold better than traditional celebrity fare such as relationship troubles and visits to rehab.... 'It was strange that we hadn't seen it before, because it was obvious that women are obsessed with body image. They think about their body image more than they think about their children. They think about it even more than men think about sex--which is about a million times a day, isn't it?'"
But Louisa Hatfield claims it isn't schadenfreude that motivates us, it's relatability:
"Hatfield says her readers find it 'very empowering to see celebrities without make-up or getting too fat or too thin. They aren't being mean. They're not looking and gloating. It's more like, "Oh my God, they have the same problems as I do."'"
posted by mo pie at 7:18 AM
3 Comments:
I DO tend to buy tabloids that have big cellulite spreads or "Who's Fat Now"? and "Who's Skinny Now"...and I did think it was kind of an immature 'Nyah nyah nyah" of mine. But I do think body image stuff levels us all -- Like, __________ might be rich, famous, gorgeous and live in an awesome beach house and travels all over the world...but she can't beat cellulite or a jiggly butt.
That is what we all have in common with celebrities -- our humanity and our human flesh and all it's foibles.
Of course they can afford HELLA plastic surgery.
Either way, our celeb-obsessed culture must make them REALLY REALLY neurotic. I'm jiggly but nobody sees it except my SO -- and nobody talks about it in the press.
Think about body image more than their children? yikes!
Heh, that line "lust for lard" cracked me up. Now it has me subbing those words in while I sing Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life."
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