Mean girls
Every now and again Yahoo! (a company that is likely overstocked with exclamation points) runs a celebrity fashion column it calls omg! where it bashes clothing choices famous people make. They didn’t invent the genre and are probably not even the worst offenders, but some of the comments are a little, well, catty.
I’ve never gotten the whole bashing-the-celebrity-outfit story though it’s been a part of entertainment coverage probably as long as there’s been entertainment to cover. On the face of it the bashing seems a visceral reaction to people considered more important than the rest of us. A kind of, “Yeah? You think you’re so cool? I’ll show you!"
It’s exclamation point day!
As a reporter I appreciate the don’t-kill-the-messenger notion, but think it ought to be balanced with a little less “give the people what they want.”
Apparently it’s also cliche day.
The real problem with celebrity clothes bashing -- and really gossip coverage in general -- is it maintains the high-school mentality that tends to dominate the country. Most American humans don’t really progress past the twelfth grade and the people who want to sell us stuff realize it. We are broken down into the Breakfast Club and marketed there.
Forever.
It’s unsettling how well it works, how eagerly we are cling to stereotypes in order to define our world.
When I was about to make the above claims about omg! I decided to look beyond the first page to see if there was any substantive text. There isn’t, really, but I came across an announcement that actress Anne Heche was pregnant by an actor names James Tupper. Isn’t Anne openly gay? I remember seeing something about her starring as Harrison Ford’s love interest and everyone praising her acting ability as a gay woman portraying a heterosexual one. Was that someone else? I guess I should check in with omg! more often.
I’m gonna go bookmark it now.
* photos lifted from www.coolwebgossip.com (OMFG)
and www.theage.com.au (Breakfast Club)
I’ve never gotten the whole bashing-the-celebrity-outfit story though it’s been a part of entertainment coverage probably as long as there’s been entertainment to cover. On the face of it the bashing seems a visceral reaction to people considered more important than the rest of us. A kind of, “Yeah? You think you’re so cool? I’ll show you!"
It’s exclamation point day!
As a reporter I appreciate the don’t-kill-the-messenger notion, but think it ought to be balanced with a little less “give the people what they want.”
Apparently it’s also cliche day.
The real problem with celebrity clothes bashing -- and really gossip coverage in general -- is it maintains the high-school mentality that tends to dominate the country. Most American humans don’t really progress past the twelfth grade and the people who want to sell us stuff realize it. We are broken down into the Breakfast Club and marketed there.
Forever.
It’s unsettling how well it works, how eagerly we are cling to stereotypes in order to define our world.
When I was about to make the above claims about omg! I decided to look beyond the first page to see if there was any substantive text. There isn’t, really, but I came across an announcement that actress Anne Heche was pregnant by an actor names James Tupper. Isn’t Anne openly gay? I remember seeing something about her starring as Harrison Ford’s love interest and everyone praising her acting ability as a gay woman portraying a heterosexual one. Was that someone else? I guess I should check in with omg! more often.
I’m gonna go bookmark it now.
* photos lifted from www.coolwebgossip.com (OMFG)
and www.theage.com.au (Breakfast Club)
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