Repopulating celebrity

THE SHIFTING DEFINITION OF GREATNESS

BRENDAN CATHCART STAFF

Thomas Carlyle, writing in 1840 about hero-worship, said this: “Yes, from Odin to English Samuel Johnson, from the divine Founder of Christianity to the withered pontiff of Encyclopedism, in all times and places, the Hero has been worshipped. It will ever be so. We all love great men; love, venerate and bow down submissive before great men: nay can we honestly bow down to anything else?”

Carlyle’s top-four list of historical fi gures that deserve to wear the hero cape may seem anachronistic and gender-imbalanced, but underneath all the beards there is something held in common that is more quintessentially vital than penises. Th ese context-specifi c heroes are celebrated as such because of their spectacular successes or sacrifi ces within their fi elds of expertise.

Taking the spectacular success/sacrifi ce model into consideration, who today should be celebrated as a hero? Donald Trump? Billy Graham? Pamela Anderson? Brangelina? Mark Burnett (creator of the TV show Survivor)? Th ere is no doubt that these people are celebrated and are in some sense at the top of their respective fi elds, but applying the epithet of hero seems absurd. Is Paris Hilton a hero for having rich parents and being seen by half the world in a home sex tape? Certainly not, but she’s a celebrity for it. In the past, celebrity may have been inextricably linked to heroism, but today we need to account for answering yes to Carlyle’s question, “can we honestly bow down to anything else?”

The shift from hero-worship to celebrity worship

In a 1992 article entitled “Media and the Rise of Celebrity Culture” in the Organization of American Historians Magazine of History, Amy Henderson notes the dramatic transformation of the notion of celebrity from “traditional largerthan- life heroes, to cultural icons — to celebritypersonalities . . . celebrated not for achievement but simply for wellknownness.” What is responsible for such a metamorphosis? Perhaps the roots are buried in the social function of celebrity.

Henderson cites historian Daniel Boorstin, saying that the old celebrities were “traditional representatives of such basic social institutions as the state, the military, and the church — and their lives served as an example.” Th e worship of celebrities performed a profoundly important function in older societies, providing an avenue for people to rally around and uphold the cornerstone philosophies and ideals of their society through human representatives such as priests, generals, and monarchy.

In a February 2006 article for Cosmos Magazine, “Divine Trash: Th e Psychology of Celebrity Obsession,” Erica Harrison interviews professor of sociology and culture at Nottingham Trent University, Chris Rojek. Rojek compares celebrity worship to religious devotion, noting that “the more a person subscribes to a formal, institutionalized religion, the less likely they are to worship a celebrity.” Professor of sociology Frank Furedi, in his article “Th e Age of Unreason” asserts that deference to the older forms of authority is eroding, resulting in celebrities becoming the new form of social authority.

Twentieth-century Canada has seen mass conversions from religious observance to secular practice, from national pride and patriotism to distrust of politicians. From respect and fear of police to ridicule of their attempts

at wielding authority. Th e common factor in these shifts seems to be the distrust of power as well as the rejection of hierarchy and imposed standards of living. The people that have displaced the representatives of religion, government, and military from the highest positions of celebrity are generally representatives of the entertainment industry. Singers, dancers, sports players and actors are amongst the highest paid, well-known, and most talked-about people on the planet.

If the old forms of celebrity off ered people moral and social ideals to believe in, support and consolidate around, what function has the entertainment celebrity had for us? Henderson cites clinical psychologist James Houran, saying that modern celebrity worship is “a form of social bonding, stress reduction, escapism and entertainment.” Apart from the continuation of social bonding, celebrity has been evacuated of most of its original socially edifying functions. Th is seems to be where the diff erence between the old hero-worship, and the new celebrityworship, lies. We look up to sport, movie and pop stars as ideals of ability, but not as moral examples that help us to become better citizens.

Deposing the superstar celebrity for the celebrity guru More recently, there is a new phenomenon that is beginning to overtake our unconditionally vapid acceptance of superstar entertainers as celebrities. Furedi, lamenting the erosion of traditional authority, asserts that, “Without such institutions to guide us people have no choice but to defer to Fate and its earthly representatives in the makeover industry.” What Furedi is referring to is the rise of the celebrity guru that can be seen on any myriad of makeover television shows, telling their surprisingly willing subjects that they couldn’t button up their pants without being shown how to do it properly.

Furedi sees this as a danger because it is not teaching self-reliance and confi dence but doing precisely the opposite. He says, “Today’s makeover culture self-consciously commands you not to be yourself. On television they make fun of the way you dress, off er sarcastic references about your poor taste in the way you furnish your home and insist that you follow their superior regime of child-rearing.”

Not everybody believes the shift toward makeover gurus and reality television has negative implications for society. Rojek sees this shift as the progression of successful democracy. “Th e people we regard as role models are emerging from our own ranks,” he says, “We have become celebrities to ourselves — our passions, our desires, our flaws.”

On television now there are entire channels devoted to chefs, nannies, designers, mechanics, psychologists, builders, family therapists, health experts, crafts people, and representatives from many other trades. Instead of idolizing people for abilities that are generally unattainable, or for wealth that is generally unfathomable, many people are beginning to turn to professionals with practical experience that can teach people how to make diff erences in their own homes, families and lives.

Reality television and average person ideals

Apart from the rise of the celebrity guru, reality television has made it possible for the average person without exceptional abilities to experience a moment of public recognition. Anybody can apply to be on Survivor, or Kitchen 911, or any number of other reality-based shows. Th e Museum of Broadcast Communications '"Encyclopedia of Television" notes that in 2003, “ABC announced that one-seventh of all its programming was reality-based and was planning to add even more to its schedule in upcoming seasons.”

Th e mysterious nature of fame is not so mysterious anymore. Shows like Canadian Idol, So You Th ink You Can Dance, and America’s Got Talent openly acknowledge that people become famous because we agree to make them famous. Anybody can make an attempt at being selected as the next idol, even if they are absolutely terrible at what they do, and anybody can be a part of the vote that elects or rejects the contestants.

Not only are reality-based shows giving the average person a chance at momentary fame, but they are also beginning to take down mega celebrities into average person territory. Shows like The Surreal Life, But Can Th ey Sing? and Newlyweds take celebrities out of the hands of their publicists and put them into contexts that prove, beyond a shadow of doubt, that they are fl awed, often pathetic, human beings.

Getting back to Carlyle and his belief that we could not bow to anything other than greatness, the metamorphosis from ancient hero-worship into modern celebrity-worship is more than likely a result of our shifting defi nitions of greatness. In the past greatness was embodied in the heroes that represented the cornerstone values of society. It is quite possible that the modern era of celebrity worship, which has included the wildly debauched likes of Motley Crue, still does represent the cornerstone values of society. Th e newer shift into makeover and reality television could signify a general recognition that celebrity, as it has been conceived down through the ages from warrior kings to entertainers, has always represented an inaccessible ideal. Th e new greatness might just be to set up simpler, more realistic ideals, and then to celebrate the people who are showing us how to reach them.