Do people pretend not to know who people are in order to seem intelligent?

[coulditbeme2323]

Do people pretend not to know who people are in order to seem intelligent?

This question is prompted from reading comments online re The Met Gala?

Now let me prefix this by saying I have no interest in reality tv, Showbiz mags, etc - but surely there are some people who you know who they are because everybody does!

There were people saying "who" on a photo of Kim Kardashian. I have never seen an episode of the show, have no interest in her, but of course I know who she is - because how can you not?

Another British example is Jordan/Kate Price. No interest in her, but she has literally been headline news in The UK for 20 years. If you live in The UK - surely its impossible to not at least know who she is?

If you read newspapers then you absorb information about famous actors, TV stars and sports players and through osmosis.

That’s why game shows have general knowledge quizzes, they test what you’ve absorbed, not what you’re interested in.

In order to do that you would have had to have a look at the picture and skim the first paragraph. As you would have done with literally many hundreds of articles about Kim K in all publications across all interest groups (politics, music, gossip, business, fashion, film, daily news) which would be enough to tell who she is and what she looks like.

I think people are missing the point of I am not interested in X or not interested in Y.

If you have no interest in rock music I would expect most people to know who Mick Jagger is.

If you have no interest in politics I would expect you to know who Trump is.

If you have no interest in movies I would expect you to know who Tom Hanks is.

Not because you are interested in that subject, but because how can you not know them?

Yes, clearly they ARE interested!

You seem excessively bothered by this. It's not that deep.

Yabu.

For years in my 20s/early 30s I read Heat magazine from cover to cover and knew everything there was to know about celebrities.

Over the last decade I’ve slowly lost interest
and now I don’t follow any celebrity news. I wouldn’t know anything about more recent celebrities (ie those who became famous in the last 7ish years) so may genuinely ask “who?” not because I want to seem intelligent or cool but I really just wouldn’t know.

The types of information that it is deemed worthy, or even acceptable to know are gendered, classed, raced and otherwise marked and organised into hierarchies in various ways.

For example, it's fine to know the names and faces of the England football team - it's not deemed vacuous, or a waste of your time, or trivial, and no one would ask why you bothered with that rubbish. It's even better to know all the capital cities of Europe, even though you may never need to know that or be able to put that information to use. But it's totally fine to say that it's vacuous or trivial to know all the Kardashians, and to make a virtue of not knowing this.

So yes, I think people do pretend to not know things in order not to seem intelligent necessarily but to seem highbrow, cultured, above such petty and trashy concerns as celebrity and clothes. I also think there is a cache that comes from not knowing these things; in most circles, you won't be shamed for not to knowing who KK is even, though her impact on culture has been huge, in a way that you might be shamed for not knowing who Kazou Ishiguro is. (The first Devil Wears Prada Film explores exactly this: Andi is a little bit proud of not knowing about fashion because she feels she's above this; Miranda makes clear that in her world, this isn't a virtue.)

In short, it's totally fine for someone to say they don't know who Kim Kardashian is, but they should say this in a tone of genuinely admitting a gap in knowledge and that is neutral at best, not like it's something to be proud of.

I wouldn't recognise Kim Kardashian in a photo. I struggle to recognise many famous people, even the ones I know, because they change their faces so much.

I'd recognise Katie Price. I think it's an age thing. I'm too old to have been involved in Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

I saw the Met Gala photos and I definitely wouldn't know who the other two were. I am aware of Kylie Jenner, I don't know what she looks like.

I wouldn't comment 'Who?' though. Total waste of time.

Actually yes because I enjoy reading widely and am quite well informed. However I would guess there were a couple of profiles of Katherine Johnson that came out around the time the film was released and they would easily have been missed if you don’t read much about film or history. If you’ve missed the basic facts about Kim K and what she looks like then frankly you don’t read enough newspapers or engage with enough news.

It depends on the context - if it's down to intellectual snobbery then they're idiots but it could also be that they're too young. It's interesting to note that OP's examples are 40+, not young genZ ers (except for Taylor Swift, I think she's mid to late 30s). The meaning of 'household name' has already changed vastly. There are people with millions of followers on TikTok that I may never come across. The notion of what makes a TV star (relentless exposure on every type of media) is less and less relevant or frequent nowadays.

But these aren’t the same level of as Kim K and KP. The latter are not everywhere for all people.

A few people on this thread saying things like ‘I don’t listen to music’ or ‘I don’t like films’ are missing out on really big chunks of enriching experience IMO….

My dad definitely could not name Kim Kardashian or Kaite Price, tbh these are the only two I could name. I am absolutrly shit with names and faces, I don't know any actors either, I can regognise The Rock, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jollie etc.. ie people famous for at least three decades.. anyonemore recent I would absolutely struggle with naming.
Not because I am more or less intelligent, but I 100 percent never ever read celeb news, watch awards etc. If anything celeb focussed comes on tv then I turn it off or over as I just have zero interest in it.
If I watch a film I never know who the actors are. I just watch it.
I also can't regnise actors from one film to the next, my DH will say ' thats so and so who was in the film we watched two days ago' and I will not recognise them at all even though I have seen them ina film two days ago.

Having heard a name or seen it in the media is not the same as knowing anything about them! Surely people only bother to read a piece if they're interested in the subject. Not everyone reads the football scores or reports but they will probably have heard of Arsenal.

KK is as far as i can see famous for being famous but I've no idea what she actually does and I wouldn't know her if she was sat next to me. Many celebrities just blend together for me.
But I wouldn't post "who? " because that's just a£##hole behaviour.

So yes I agree with you. But I didn't know what the met gala was. I googled it due to this post. If i saw it on social media I would scroll past. If it was on the news I'd just not listen and carry on doing something else because to me it holds no interest.

But no, i wouldn't post "who? "

I think it's a case of you absorb info like this if you're interested enough. I'm pretty bad at recognising actors and celebrities because I have very little interest in them. I consume a lot of news, mostly economic and political, but rarely look at news involving actors or celebrities. I can however recognise and name every F1 driver since about 1980 because I'm a big F1 fan and that's what I'm interested in.

I wouldn't always recognise KK in a photo, because I think she can look quite different but if you said "that's Kim K" then I am aware of her as a celebrity, but I couldn't tell you why she's famous.

For me, it's a bit like I can't tell you the name of a song or who sang it but I can hum it or would know it of you hummed it.

I have to get past a mental image of a Cardassian before my brain will produce any relevant information on Kim and I’d probably be running a highlight reel of Damon Hill’s F1 career if someone mentioned Jordan. I would know who you mean, but I’d have to course to correct to “that Jordan”.

I think mine are both fairly robust cultural reference points as well but I wouldn’t be surprised if people weren’t automatically on the same page.

Glad you enjoyed that amazing film! Why on earth though would I want to read anything about the Kardashian family, what have they done that might interest me, convince me!! I certainly read enough newspapers in many forms but jump past the things that have no relevance to me, my current interest, other than the world news, is if my team does well in the playoffs!
Why is the Met Gala all over the media?

Nothing 'snobbish' about being into or not into popular culture: most people are to a certain extent. You can like rock and opera, classic and trash lit, tennis and football all at the same time, you know.

And it depends what area of popular culture you're talking about. I could name you every line-up of QOTSA or Rammstein, or know every lyric of a Metallica song, but although I know what Taylor Swift or Katy Perry look like I couldn't name a track of theirs at gunpoint . As for Kim Kardashian, I could point her out if you showed me an identity line-up, but as for who she actually is and what she does, I wouldn't have a clue.

Does it really matter?

What a bunch of bullshit. 'I heard of KK, but couldn't pick her out of the lineup' (plenty on this thread). Yea, right.

My grandma is 86, grew up and lived all her life in a soviet-occupied country in Eastern Europe (until we regained our independence). Doesn't speak English, doesn't read tabloids, doesn't use computer or a smartphone (has a landline and a dumbphone), doesn't travel. She's not interested in celebrities and certaily doesn't know wtf 'love island' or Katie Price is.

But fucking Kim Kardiashian? She's famous for nothing, true. But she IS VERY famous/well known. My grandma said 'that Armenian woman with a massive ass?' (she's of Armenian descent and her surname shows this).

Couldn't pick her out of lineup, because I'm more interested in the Real. Life. Important. Ishoos. Yes yes, we get it, you're way to high brow for such mundane, common filth.

There are lots of celebrities that I'd 'know' in the sense that I'd have heard of them, but I doubt I would recognise them in a photo/on screen etc. I know the Kardashian name, I know there's a few of them (sisters) but honestly I don't think I'd know them if I saw them in photos.

Well I know "who" KK she is but thats about all, I wouldn't recognise her in a picture unless her name was with it though. Too many similar looking surgically enhanced women. But as I'm old she's not someone I'm interested in and I don't generally keep up with the celebs.

Me knowing someone or not doesn't make me less or more intelligent i either know them or not, do you think you make be overthinking this a bit?

With some of the ridiculous costumes I wouldn't recognise some of them anyway

No sorry. I have a rough idea what she looks like but if she walked past me in a place I wouldn't expect to see her then no. I genuinely wouldn't notice. I would notice that it was someone surrounded by paparazzi and that would make me think who's that? Then i might click