I will preface this with the header that I don’t understand much about celebrity culture.
It is foreign to me, and it does not make sense to me the constant barraging of celebrities. As one works hard to excel in an area (and therefore are sprung into the public limelight), I don’t believe that this makes them ‘fair game’ to attack throughout their day to day life. It seems that female celebrities are constantly barraged by photographers and negative media stories over their male counterparts, and in turn I will be focusing on them.
https://twitter.com/DustKochen/status/754937495553466368
Throughout the past week, Jennifer Aniston (celebrity extraordinaire, media and tabloid maven) came out in defence of not being pregnant, and her belief that societal expectations are not ones which she feels to be obliged by.
Also this week, there has been the unearthing of the infamous Taylor Swift / Kanye West (feat. Kim Kardashian … whoever that is…), which shows a conversation with Kanye telling Taylor that in one of his songs it would be great to say that they had intercourse, or at least that he helped in her rise to fame. She was hesitant and also flattered, however apparently this misogynistic play on words and conversation which had previously caused controversy, had in fact been recorded illegally and in turn was a breach of California Law. How is this acceptable?
This media uproar brings light further to unethical surveillance methods which occur from within the entertainment business, as well as those trying to gain ‘exclusive’ rights and access to celebrity gossip and scoops. This affects just a small portion of society – the celebrities. Female celebrities more than their male counterparts have traditionally been targeted in greater numbers by the media, negatively appropriating gender stereotypes and sexism (Pol, 2015).
There are numerous examples of celebrities of have thwarted their talents and shunned the limelight, as well as women becoming exploited in all facets of the limelight, and throughout the next few blogs I will delve deeper into various aspects and attempt to decipher how the media and media surveillance have affected affluent people within society…
Watch this space.
Reference:
Pol, J. (2015). A Locker Room of Her Own: Celebrity Sexuality and Female Athletes. Journal Of Popular Culture, (1), 216.
hellotheinternet 
Hey,
Great blog post, particularly the discussion on the role gender plays in surveillance in celebrity culture, I really liked you’re example of the recent Taylor Swift/Kanye West saga, which linked well to your academic source which was referenced well. Your tweet was nicely embedded for a greater context. A few things to add or work on for your next blog is to make your posts more engaging by including working hyperlinks to add more depth and engagement. Another idea to create an even more appealing blog post would be to include some images. Using Creative Commons licensed images would be an awesome opportunity to show your knowledge of ethically sourcing/referencing other individuals material. In addition this would help break up some paragraphs to make your final post visually pleasing and enjoyable for readers. Look forward to reading more of your tremendous work!
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Hi Dust,
I found your blog to be an eye opening read and wholeheartedly agree that women who are celebrities receive wider negative press than males, so this was definitely a strategic choice for you to unpack and uncover further the implications of this. There are no limits to the discussion with issues such as this.
I would recommend revisiting your reference, since years aren’t usually in brackets according to the Deakin Harvard system, as well as the title of journals use quotation marks, but don’t worry! You have plenty of time to fix this and I must agree that references can be a bit of a pain sometimes!
I look forward to reading further about this issue!
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Well done! I think that your topic of surveillance and celebrity culture is really interesting and quite relevant to the world today. I just thought that some the ideas that you spoke about in you post were a bit vague and could have been expanded on a bit more. For example, when you referenced the story on Jennifer Aniston, you could have talked about what you thought about what she said about society’s expectations of her. I think you did a great job in embedding a tweet into your post that added some context to your topic, although you might want to use some Creative Commons sourced images just as a creative way of expanding on your thoughts and ideas without taking up too much of your word count.
Keep up the great work! 🙂
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Great post! I really love how you’ve chosen a topic that is not something you are necessarily interested in but perhaps wish to push your boundaries in researching the previously unknown.
To add further authority to your argument and therefore propel your argument further, I think you should continue to integrate one to two other scholarly sources. This integration will also ensure you show examples of where you have been researching and developing your own opinion.
The use of your embedded tweet is perfect in portraying the exploitation of celebrities through surveillance and you should keep adding to this with another tweet that displays perhaps the impact on surveillance on another celebrity, perhaps male?
Keep ensuring you continue proof-reading your post or get someone nearby to read it over, just to maximise its eloquence and flow.
Awesome work, you’ve inspired me!
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Dust,
I think you have done an incredible job constructing this blog, it is beautifully and professionally written, flows easily and the structure of the text is simple and easy to understand. I couldn’t find any grammatical errors, and very few punctuation issues so well done there! Your topic was interesting, very well researched and supported.
Although it would have been more engaging to include other uses of media – perhaps a YouTube video regarding the recent controversy surrounding Taylor/Kanye, or an image of your own creation – just to keep things interesting. Great tactic in leaving the reader wanting more! Keeping an eye out for other posts!
Ashlie
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Your first sentence made me giggle. So I kept reading and I was not disappointed. I enjoyed reading a level-headed view about female celebrities and the constant scrutiny they face, as you have highlighted so many rational examples. The question you tweeted with the extremely informational link is certainly something that on the surface appears to be a simple question with a simple answer, but there are so many more layers to it. It is clear you have critically thought about this topic. Only downfall is the lack in images, and one more academic reference would have given the piece a little bit more validity.
I certainly will be watching this space!
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Dust, your writing style is engaging and well structured. The blog post was a great read and some interesting food-for-thought regarding surveillance and celebrity came up as I was reading through it. I am in wholehearted agreement that female celebrities and women of influence are held to very different standards and different expectations in their private domain and not just in respect to their male counterparts, but also in respect to other public female figures. You give a great comparison point with Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian.
Why is anything concerning the public vilification of Taylor Swift “unacceptable,” but if it concerns Kim Kardashian or Kanye West, it’s quite hilarious and okay. Do we hold different female celebrities to different standards? In terms of the legality of Kim’s conduct, I look forward with utmost anticipation to Taylor Swift’s legal team initiating legal proceedings (read: they won’t).
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