Monetising Your Looks For Fame
Who decided it was a bad thing?
Look around and you will quickly realise that a career can be made out of just about anything — the internet and meme culture especially has made it easier than ever before to build a name for yourself and exploit income opportunities through viral exposure of whatever it is you may be good at.
Case in point: Salt Bae.
The response to the news that our friend, Salt Bae, is now opening grill-house restaurants in New York and London has been largely positive, with people applauding his new ventures and vowing to patronise his services as soon as his restaurants open. Salt Bae’s new found fame for his charismatic salt-sprinkling skills (largely thanks to Black Twitter, might I add) has catapulted him into the limelight and he’s here to profit from all of it. Fair play.
On the other side of the spectrum of ‘monetising fame’, we have the likes of 21st sex symbol Kim Kardashian, who has arguably played the fame game like no other before. Her well-documented story is a little different however, each time raised often sparking controversial debates with polarising opinions on the nature of her fame.
“Kim has NO talent!”, I hear you cry.
“All she is known for is her body. It’s fake!”, I hear you yelp.
Give it a rest.
Without delving into some of the questionable stints Kim K has pulled off for a further boost of fame (that Prada 2014 spread -literally- was God awful), the fact of the matter is, with all the cards that life deals her, the woman continues to take them and quadruple her returns, cashing in big time. The woman is barely 40 and has accomplished a great deal of fame and wealth in the most millennial way that one can — a chain of fashion retail stores, mobile game app, a book of selfies and an emoji app, just to name a few things. She has turned her family name into one to remember. If I were you, I’d be watching Kim’s next move.
The inherent issue at hand which I am trying to reveal is the disparity in celebration for the money-making abilities of certain individuals who take the opportunities in fame when it is there. Why are Salt Bae, Tyler Oakley, Jay Versace (and any other $$$ Vine influencer you can think of) applauded for their talents and enterprising efforts, whilst the likes of Chantel Jeffries and Karreuche Tran are trashed for turning the nascency of their fame into something more for themselves?
Whilst there is a small pool of people who celebrate and respect these women’s respective endeavours, they often can’t escape the ‘talentless gold digger turned ‘actress/model’ narrative that plagues them. They too deserve respect on their names.
Like Kim Kardashian, these women have controversial past stories that have made them become famous, for better or for worse. From sex tapes to dating bad-boy-yet-oh-so-talented singers. But truthfully, these women have done no real wrong in their personal lives. What is clear is that these women are clearly doing their best to turn their once negatively inspired fame into something more positive and beneficial for themselves.
That to me is commendable, especially when you can make a living from it. At this point, you might still argue that these are not the kind of examples we should have for ‘achieving women’, to which I would respond by asking you to reassess your definition of what an ‘achieving woman’ looks like. Once again, I choose to look at the bigger picture and not at the detailed lives of these women. After all, the focus must remain on ourselves and our personal goals, not on the lives of celebrities.
(P.S. How could I forget Cardi B?! She deserves a commentary of her own)
