Why do so many women care about celebs' personal lives?

[cdvegan2023]

Meghan Meghan Meghan Meghan Meghan Meghan Meghan Meghan Meghan Meghan Meghan ... that's all I can see trending on the right side. I mean men do plenty of celeb worshiping but it's pretty much limited to athletes and they don't give a shit about their personal lives. Why do zillions of women care about celebs and who's getting married, who's cheating, who's had botox, who's preggo???

Tabloids and gossip mags are paying millions of dollars for wedding or baby photos because they know women can never have enough of it. Why would you care so much about some random celeb's personal life?

I've never got it either tbh, but each to their own.

Well, i certainly don't care about what celebs are or aren't doing! I really don't get it either.

Because toxic femininity infantilises women, and the media and magazines trap them in a grown up version of playground gossip.

I've always wondered the same thing myself tbh. I personally don't (and never have) give a shit.

Bit of a generalisation, yet you have a point (prepare for many to come on here and slate you for stereotyping though).

Women have traditionally needed to rely more on social ties and "strategies" for their power. This doesnt apply today so much, but until very recently, being physically weaker with less or no income, this was their "weapon": reading social situations and hierarchies and developing game plans. Its where the stereotype of women as "manipulative" and "gossips" comes from.

This necessity has since mainly vanished, but it lives on in the form of gossip mags and following celebs. Whos up, whos down, whos in the shit, whos sleeping with who and why.

Its just a theory and there will be plenty coming on here to simply say "because im nosy" etc, but i think if you're looking for a deeper and subconscious reason why women as a group seem to be more "into" this than men, this may be it.

I don’t really care but it’s something to rest your eyes on at the hairdressers! A bit of how the other half live and takes you away from either the banality of real life or the tragedy of it. When my mum died, I enjoyed the gossip magazines for a bit of escape...if I was thinking about them, I wasn’t thinking about me.

It's the media, influential and very wealthy people creating bread and circuses to distract people from important issues such as poverty and inequality.

I mean men do plenty of celeb worshiping but it's pretty much limited to athletes

You clearly don't know any nerds.

I dunno. I do quite like to hear about what people are up to, my family, acquaintances, old friends. That's why I enjoy Facebook. I am nosy I suppose in that way.

But celebrities I really don't care about, no interest in their marriages, kids, affairs, and I don't really even care when they die (sorry!).

Yes but the media don't force people to read, watch or listen.

That's a personal choice that people make.

I think men can get equally invested in celebs images/ personal lives, in truth. I think both men and women can see public figures as vehicles for their own hopes and validation of their own beliefs.

Escapism.

It's what Worra says really isn't it. Up to the individual. Of all the questionable shit that people do a little bit of fascination with the life of someone in the public eye is really low on the objectionable scale.
Just let people do what they what if it's not upsetting the children or frightening the horses!

I have a mild interest in the lives of a handful of celebrities - not the details - but general goings on. But then so does dh. I hadn't spotted the engagement news yet, but dh emailed me!

It makes me a bit uncomfortable TBH. And I'll admit to having a browse whilst I'm in the hairdressers, but all the stories about who looks great / shit has lost or gained weight make me feel a bit grubby.

And then there are doomed people (usually women) who seem to believe that wearing the same brand of cloth as a certain celebrity will bring them happiness or make them a better person.

Gosh, some people are very superior aren't they! I am just interested in other people's lives. I like to hear people's news in real life too, good news is lovely and an engagement is always a nice thing to hear about! I'm also very interested in the world and poverty so it doesn't have to be one or the other. However, as SandysMam says, sometimes you need a distraction. Sometimes people's lives are hard enough that they don't need to be thinking about the state of world politics but would just like to look at some dresses.

Society is more fragmented now and it's a common point of reference

I don't know op.

I don't find it offensive or objectionable or anything - just unfathomnable.

No idea. I find it hard to be that fascinated by the lives of people I don't know, particularly people who haven't actually done anything of interest or importance (Kardashians for example).

It's a good question. I don't know. Conditioning I guess. Those gossip mags are definitely marketed at women. I wonder as well how much is a bit of stereotyping. Much like the post above about men limiting celeb worshipping to athletes. That's not been my experience, DH doesn't worship athletes and I don't enjoy celeb gossip. I am not above gossip about people I know with friends, like ex colleagues. But I am not interested in people I don't know. Much to my gossipy neighbours disgust, no amount of 'have you seen the state of number 74, do they ever sweep a leaf?' is going to get more than a shrug from me. I am just not interested.

People have always been interested in celebrities. Think back to the Beetles, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis etc. It's not a new phenomenon. Information is just more accessible now. People have always been nosey/interested and have always gossiped. It's human nature. Some people are just nosier than others.

I'm nosy. I also like to look in people's houses on rightmove and in early evening, when people have their lights on and curtains open.

mrsBeverley

Are you outside now...?

I couldn't care less as to whos shagging/dating/ divorcing who
I wouldn't want to meet any of them either