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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think that making pop stars and other public figures into more than what they are is bloody annoying?

26 replies

Wamster · 27/06/2011 13:51

Take Beyonce, for example, no doubt at all that she is an extremely good singer and a beautiful person physically. That can't be denied. But, oh no, she can't be just that she has to be a business mogul and and some kind of a saint as well. And no doubt she'll be a great mother etc...Actually read an article where the journo expressed ways she could be better. For god's sake, WHY? She's a singer for goodness sake. The only things she 'owes' her fans is a bloody good song!
Now I must stress that this is not HER fault but the way this journalist describe her as being all things to all men gets on my wick.
Likewise, the adulation surrounding Bono being some kind of saviour of the world, don't get me wrong, his singing is great and I love a lot of U2 stuff. He is a great showman, too. But saviour of the world? Do me a favour! Rubbish spouted that he, and he alone, persuaded the US to drop a vast chunk of third-world debt. Anybody seriously believe this, for goodness sake! OK, he may be doing his bit, but I don't think that any politician is really going to listen to him.
Or the queen. OK, she may be duty-bound and does her job well. But balls about her being extremely hard-working in deferential tones, but she does have advantage of being surrounded by a million staff!
Oh and Kate Middleton and Prince William just HAVE to be ordinary as well as extraordinary, don't they? Hmm
Oh and Wayne Rooney just has to be a role model, doesn't he? Er, no, he does not, all he has to do is play football extremely well, which he does. And, Amy Winehouse, has to sing well and set an example, too.
This is NOT any of the above celebrities fault and I am not having a go at them, just a general pissed off feeling at this brown-nosing, out of proportion reverence and expectation that our stars have to be all things to all men.

It's just me being a moany old git, I s'pose, but, jeez, it is annoying. AIBU?

OP posts:
LindyHemming · 27/06/2011 13:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
Wamster · 27/06/2011 13:58

The Beyonce thing was in The Independent on Sunday, though.

OP posts:
LindyHemming · 27/06/2011 14:00

This reply has been deleted

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Original poster
Wamster · 27/06/2011 14:04

Yes, I suppose so. Is this worse than 30 years ago, I wonder. Too young to remember, see being the young old fogey that I am.

OP posts:
Itsjustafleshwound · 27/06/2011 14:09

YANBU - it is amazing nowadays how the line between celebrity and fame are so blurred. It is so hard these days not to be bombarded with some face trying to sell you a lifestyle choice or luxury.

I went to Homebase today and there was even a Jamie Oliver veggie grow bag and gas barbeque !!

CogitoErgoSometimes · 27/06/2011 14:09

It's no worse than 20 or 30 years ago, it's just that we now have 24/7 TV to fill, magazines to fill, and internet into the bargain. Celebrities are 'news lite' for lazy journos.... if there's no real news (and that's certainly true today because the Today Prog was reduced to doing a piece in the rise in popularity of brown shoes) then they cast around for someone in the public eye and do a quick profile or a hatchet job on them as the mood takes them. That randy footballer from a few weeks ago is still keeping a few journos busy into the small hours. Passes for entertainment I suppose.

It is possible to avoid it.... don't read mags or watch commercial TV (or any TV on Saturday nights). Open a good book instead.

Original poster
Wamster · 27/06/2011 14:12

Jamie Oliver seems a nice enough guy, but I am sick of his sermonising. I long for the days of stars who just did what they did, earnt a heap of money and didn't try dictating how everybody else should live. Kate Moss seems to be a rare example of such a person.

OP posts:
EldritchCleavage · 27/06/2011 14:13

I completely agree. We are encouraged, if not expected, to really invest in these people as 'role models', heros etc to a really weird degree. And it infects all areas of life. Even the more high-brow parts of the media like review sections etc indulge in celebrity interviews of authors, commentators and so on that is all about their personal lives and how much their books mirror them, rather than the books themselves.

Some of it is probably just a cultural shift. Some is more cynical-once we elevate them to demi-god status, they can be used to sell us things.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 27/06/2011 14:15

So do you shape your life based on how Mr Oliver et al tell you to live or are you capable of realising it's mostly advertising bullshit and do your own thing?

Potplant · 27/06/2011 14:15

The problem is that there is an abundance of 'famous for being famous' slebs like those Kardashain women the DM is obsessed with. So if you get someone who is famous for being talented at something other than being in the papers they go overboard.

tazmin · 27/06/2011 14:16

well if muppets buy into it, buy the mags and watch the tv crap, its not surprising the rest of them will want to jump on the bandwagon

if no-one bought the celeb trash, it wouldnt be such a temptation for the others to make money out of it

Original poster
Wamster · 27/06/2011 14:18

No I would not buy a tomato plant because it had Jamie Oliver's name on it if there were cheaper ones that I thought were better. If his was knockdown price and they seemed OK, maybe I would. I'm not going to say that I am immune from advertising at all, but I wouldn't do this. What am I saying- since when have I grown tomatoes...Wink

OP posts:
befuzzled · 27/06/2011 14:19

YANBU people need to stop buying the magazines at the bottom of the feeding pile for it to calm down

CogitoErgoSometimes · 27/06/2011 14:25

Exactly... you don't fall for it. Lots of other people don't fall for it. And if someone who is very nervous about buying a tomato plant sees old fat Jamie's Oliver's face on the packet and gets a warm fuzzy glow about parting with some cash, then what harm is it doing? Works both ways, incidentally. Would go out of my way not to buy anything emblazoned with Ainsley Harriet's face for obvious reasons. :)

GabbyLoggon · 27/06/2011 14:26

I suppose our fame culture is a sort of substitute for a god.

mayorquimby · 27/06/2011 14:32

They have to take some of the blame as well. They contribute to it by playing the media for their own gain. I agree completely with the "celebrities/athletes have no responsibility to be role models" approach.
So it's not that I want them to be held to a higher standard, I just want them to shut up and stop thinking we should give a fuck about what they think about the situation in afghanistan/Guantanamo Bay etc.
The Obama/rock the vote campaign was the most cringeworthy thing I've seen. Why would anyone give a fuck who Puff Daddy is voting for?

confuseddotcodotuk · 27/06/2011 14:32

YANBU. Our celeb culture is just weird. I avoid it like the plague!

worraliberty · 27/06/2011 14:34

I don't know..but the Beyonce worship on the other thread was a bit nauseating for my liking Grin

GabbyLoggon · 27/06/2011 14:34

thinking about it the fame culture ispromated by business because it sells records, tickets and newspapaers etc.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 27/06/2011 14:35

Definitely not being unreasonable. I don't think we're the only ones that dislike it by a long chalk... I was in Sainsbury's last week and one of their staff was putting reduced stickers on Jamie Oliver's parmesan cheese... I was particularly impressed that each sticker was unerringly placed over his smug face... Grin

As a 'chef', fine, if you like his recipes and cheeky-chappy persona, great - but 'icon'? Do me a favour. Hmm

thumbwitch · 27/06/2011 14:39

YANBU.
Drives me mad that we're supposed to care so much about the slebs that any bit of news about them makes the top or next to top story in the evening news. I mean, really - who gives a flying fuck? And anyone who does needs to wake up to themselves and get their own life.
I HATE that there are so many sleb-suckup magazines out there too - it's like the worst kind of junk-food for the sluggish brains of the poor deluded wannabes out there.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 27/06/2011 14:47

Celebs are not a substitute for god. Celebs have always existed, setting trends. Often the nobility. Earl Sandwich doesn't want to quit his card game and voila M&S was born. Lord Wellington has some long rubbery boots made and we can't get enough of them. We also have a passion for notorious murderers & other crims... OK, maybe they didn't quite extend to Jack The Ripper Grow Your Own Tomato Plants but Madame Tussaud's and similar came into being because, prior to the invention of film & photography, a waxwork was the closest you could get to actually being next to your idea of an idol.

Original poster
Wamster · 27/06/2011 15:04

I dunno. Maybe Jack the Ripper should have gone into tomato plant selling- blood being very good for plants an' all.

OP posts:
somethingwitty82 · 27/06/2011 15:07

Tis the new religion

Amen

GwendolineMaryLacey · 27/06/2011 15:13

Agree with Euphemia. I gave up all newspapers and magazines and crap TV about 5 years ago because I was sick to death of all this celeb crap. It's worked wonders. I generally have no idea who anyone is talking about and shite like the x factor passes me by. T'is lovely :)