What We Should Have Learned About Celebrity Culture From The Pandemic
Thank you to our guest contributor, Justin Heenan R.P, from Justin Heenan Counselling Centre. Justin is an Educator, Counsellor and Philanthropist in Durham Region. He works with clients with various concerns. These concerns include but are not limited to anxiety, depression, eating disorders and career issues. Justin Heenan uses a Person-Centered Approach to helping his clients. For more information about is work and practice, please visit www.justinheenan.com
When the pandemic started in 2020, I think many of us felt quite weird. It is clear that many individuals really struggle with the lack of social interaction that the pandemic had caused. I was one of the lucky ones. The pandemic gave me a break from the many professional activities I was doing. It gave me a chance to finish up my Master’s Degree, start my Psychotherapy practice, and write a few children’s books. I was productive. However, like most,I think the strange rules started to wear on me after some time. I wanted to be social and I wanted to go back to teaching in person. Teaching virtually just isn’t the same. I think teachers, students and parents alike would agree. Getting back into my classroom was a good thing for me and definitely a good thing for the students.
Early in the pandemic, I would meet friends in parks for socially distanced workouts. With a Master’s Degree in Counselling Psychology, I knew that the lack of social time as well as the lack of exercise could pose a problem for me the longer the pandemic went on. As a teacher, I need to follow the rules a little closer than other professions. I was always aware of the fact that teachers have a spotlight on them in public. I was extra careful not to break any COVID rules as, even if I’m off the clock, I’m still a teacher. This profession is not like others. If you are an employee of a random company, when you go out in public, you’re just a citizen. For us, our profession follows us. Our private life is reduced to when you are at home behind closed doors. Because of this, I have always been very careful of how I am dressed, the vocabulary I use, the people I associate with in public. As a teacher, you never know who is watching you. I have been approached in public by people I never met before saying that I taught their family member, cut their kid from a basketball team, presented at a Professional Development Session they attended or other story that I was involved in. These are only the people who approached me. I learned very quickly in this profession that people knew me that I didn’t know. I became micro-famous in my community. As a 23 year old teacher, it took some getting used to. Eventually, I got there. I learned how to live in this space where people knew me and I didn’t know them. Although sometimes uncomfortable, I certainly can’t complain. I can still go out in public whenever I want, I just will likely be recognized.
I started to make a strange realization about this pandemic. My realization came after watching a video of Justin Bieber pleading with fans to stop showing up at his apartment in Brooklyn in order to meet him. He explains how showing up at his apartment is unacceptable, all while being very polite and respectful to his fans and the media. In this viral video, a fan asks for a hug, which Justin politely declines. When I reflected upon this video, I was sitting in my car, outside of a public library waiting for a friend to join me for a socially distanced run. I then imagined if Justin Bieber was in the library, what the crowd of fans and media would look like where I was parked. It would have been overwhelming and dangerous.
Without security, celebrities like Justin Bieber can’t leave their house, they can’t go grocery shopping, they can’t work out in the park. I realized that while the public was complaining about COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns, celebrities are on a constant lockdown. The amount of planning required to leave one’s house when you have that level of fandom is intense and, in many ways for the average person, unbelievable.
Most artists dream about sharing their art with the world. Sold out stadiums, Oscar Nominations, starring in Broadway productions, among other things. Some even dream about houses in Beverly Hills and too many cars in the driveway. There’s nothing wrong with striving for greatness. In fact, we should all strive to do great things and be rewarded for said things.
What’s not okay is the way celebrities are treated in and by the public. A photo emerged of Zendaya and Tom Holland kissing in a car. Why someone was so curious about what two adults were doing in a car is beyond me. Apparently, if celebrities want to go for a drive, they are opening themselves up to being photographed.
There’s a video of an understandably upset Hilary Duff scolding paparazzi after they took pictures of her child. “That should be illegal”, she said to the paparazzi. And she’s completely right. The line between professional life and personal life should be very clear. The fact that paparazzi can take pictures of children just because they are in public is quite a strange idea that we should re-examine in our society.
On Emma Watson’s 18th birthday, a photographer layed on the ground in order to take pictures up her skirt and published them on the cover of British Tabloids the next day. If those photos were taken a day earlier, they would have been considered child pornography.
Kanye West being antagonized by paparazzi has become a regular occurrence. Even when they are outside his house at 4am, he is still expected to be professional. There is no escape.
I have just briefly outlined 5 examples of the privacy of celebrities being abused and neglected. If I wanted to, I could write 50 pages of similar instances that celebrities experience on a daily basis. But I won’t do that. You get the idea. I am not saying that the media cannot do their job. There is clearly a real need for media and, specifically, photographers to support these artists. Photographers promote their work and help them continue to create the art that we love. However, we must establish a line in which we can respect the personal lives of these celebrities. Clearly, there is not enough respect or understanding for their privacy for paparazzi to do this on their own. There should be a review of the laws around this in order to support the mental health and safety of these celebrities.
Perhaps, this is not the fault of paparazzi themselves. Perhaps the demand for content is too great and in a world where the consumer is king, we, the public are asking for this. Maybe too many people like to see the private lives of the celebrities they admire. Perhaps, people who admire their favourite singers and actors don’t actually respect or care about them. Celebrities have mental health too and I think the public forgets about this. When you watch an actor in a TV series, the average fan feels as if they know that actor on a personal level. They forget what their job actually is; acting, pretending, playing a role. Just because you think you know an actor on TV doesn’t discount the fact that you’ve never actually met them. Knowing who someone is and knowing them are two completely different things. The public doesn’t understand that these artists have lives, friends, family, and perhaps more importantly, mental health. Just because you admire someone and buy their merchandise, doesn’t mean they owe you an autograph and a selfie when you show up to their house uninvited. I think the public needs to re-examine their “relationships” with their favourite celebrities.
It has become fashionable to stand up for individuals who are struggling and that is a good thing. However, this article will likely not be seen as a heroic act. After all, who cares about the privacy of celebrities? I mean, they make millions of dollars per year, why should they have privacy? I show up to all their movies in theaters, they owe me a selfie. The truth of the matter is that they don’t owe you anything. Fans are still strangers who they have never met. While most interactions with fans are positive, it is completely understandable for a celebrity to not want people following them around in public or showing up at their house.
No matter how unfashionable it is to defend the 1%, that is what I am doing here. In a society that puts a spotlight on the talented, the beautiful, the rich and the famous, I will point out the errors in our ways. It has also become fashionable to cancel celebrities if and when they step slightly out of line. Again, this shows how bright that spotlight is.
As a therapist, I don’t think being a celebrity is all that healthy. I think it may be time for Hollywood to have a real conversation about the mental health of their stars. We depend on their movies and shows to make our boring evenings entertaining. We depend on their music to make the club and bar scene fun. We depend on them to show us the way. I think it’s time they are able to depend on us. Until then, celebrities are hidden behind large security guards, hats pulled low, hands in front of their faces and sunglasses.