Celebrities are a product that are sold to you
Rethinking Celebrity Culture; and your Worth: Not in What You Have, but Who You Are
(Disclaimer: I’ll be talking about celebrity culture and celebrities but certainly not all celebrities. There are some not-so-good ones and there are some which are great people. I’m talking about the first kind.)
You are sold perfectionism. You are sold the idea of perfect lives which you very gracefully buy from them.
You are sold the idea of perfect bodies even though you have one, but you buy them too.
When you buy something, you first subconsciously decide that you don’t have that.
There comes the big net of insecurities flying towards you and you get trapped.
Then you are sold the solutions by advertisements by the same celebrities who sold you the problem. Ironic, right?
Have you ever wondered why most celebrities maintain such perfect bodies, not just in terms of health (btw we should all do that), but in terms of beauty too. They don’t need perfectly symmetrical faces as smooth as Quantum stabilized atom mirror (the smoothest surface. yes it’s a real thing, and yes i googled it) to act well in front of the cameras, do they? No they don’t. Then why do you think they go to such heights to make their faces as attractive as possible?
- Due to the halo effect. (The Halo Effect explains the tendency of humans to assume whatever is beautiful is good. When we see one positive trait (that is beauty in this case), we unconsciously tend to associate other positive traits such as kindness, intelligence, and trustworthiness with them, even if we have no real evidence to support these assumptions.)
- Because most of them don’t have anything else to be judged by. Tell me, will you judge William Shakespeare or René Descartes by his face or body or his materialistic possessions? No, right? Why? Because they have done something of a level that can never be forgotten or removed, unlike those beautiful faces that one day will fade away in this inevitable march of time.
So, as a cute little fish who is just finding its purpose in life and trying to do its own thing, how do you get out of this massive net of celebrity culture?
The concept of Defamiliarization
Reducing something to its very basic identity scraping away all the magical logo, price tag, and status of it. Observing something as it is without attaching all the magical woo-woo to it, that is the concept of defamiliarization.
For example, let’s say you see Tom Cruise going somewhere in his very expensive car with gold-plated rims and diamond-plated hood which only he has in the whole wide universe(or whatever. you got the point, right?). Don’t scream “O MY GOD! THAT’S TOM CRUISE! AAAAAAA”. Instead, calm yourself down if you feel like you’re too overwhelmed. Then look at it as “Oh! It’s a mere human who poops every day just like me and also acts on screens (and is pretty good at it) going somewhere in his car”. That’s all you have to do and you’re one step closer to get out of this net of insecurities. Yes, it’s a good fucking car; but it’s just a car. Yes, he’s wearing a good damn suit; but it’s just a piece of cloth that humans originally wore to protect themselves from extreme cold and hot. Yes, he earns good fucking money (and you should too); but he’s just a human, like you. Nothing changes that, ever.
What is a car? Repeat with me. “A car is just a piece of metal and some other complicated components joined together to take you from one destination to another.” That’s it! You’ve done it! Congrats!
Materialism
I can’t hold it in anymore. I have to say it. Okay, here I go. “MATERIALISM HAS FUCKED UP MOST OF THE PEOPLE’S LIVES!”
The problem now is, we’ve attached status to every-fucking-thing we can find.
Smartphones, cars, big apartments, jewelry, clothes, fashion, etc.
Yes, it is true that if you buy an iPhone, it’s gonna click better pictures than an average Android phone (i’m sorry android people). But it doesn’t mean the guy with an Android is any lesser of a human than a guy using an iPhone (there you go, i repented for my sins. happy now, androiders?).
Those things are just for your help and nothing else. A car takes you from one place to another. A good car will take you faster saving you time. But, it’s just a car, a material possession, which in no way should decide a human’s worth.
Material possessions are the worst things you can use to measure your worth.
So, since we have discarded all the material possessions to decide your worth. The question now arises is:
How should we decide our worth?
According to me, our worth should be decided by something which we never lose. Something that is always in our possession. So, it can’t be material possessions.
So what could it be? I know what, you! Yes, you.
Your personality, your attitude towards handling different situations, your wisdom, the knowledge you possess, the experiences you hold on to. That’s your real possession.
Don’t attach your worth even to the people you love or the people who love you (but since humans are social creatures, they are gonna attach their worth to other people at one point or another. If you’re gonna do that, allow yourself to do that only for your life partner and children and no one else. Even then there’s a risk of getting hurt but we can bear that risk to get some proud mom-dad moments, can’t we?) or you’re gonna get yourself hurt at some point.
After reading all this bitching about material things, someone may have thought “But money is important!”
Yes! You’re right. I’m in no way saying that you shouldn’t earn money. Money is important, very important. It helps you in every aspect of your life. You can buy a good life for yourself and your loved ones from it.
Go get yourselves luxurious pieces of metal that take you from one place to another very fast to save you time. Go buy yourselves bigger homes so you have more space to play with your children.
But always remember, all those things do not decide your worth. Your worth is decided by your wisdom, your attitude, the experiences you hold on to, your children, and everything else about you, not everything you have. So grow yourself as a human being by values, not materials.
Never attach even a pinch of your worth to money, or any material possession. It’s there just for your help and nothing else.
If you do so, you’re again entering into the trap of following those motherlover influencers and celebrities based on their material possessions without knowing who they really are.
So I’ll say it again, Grow yourself as a human being by values, not materials.
This is the end of the article. Thank you for reading so far.
And with that, I’ll bid adieu.
If you liked this article, you can clap…uhh whatever, you know the drill!
Bye!
