Tuesday, March 22, 2016

The Celebrity Phenomenon


This is something that I think about, well honestly, too much and too often. But I am going to invite you into my crazy musings on the subject of celebrities.

As a single, not dating, no kids, no social life, thirty something, I watch a lot of movies, lots of TV, and now lots of Kdramas (which we've discussed) and lots of Super Junior videos (also discussed). These are things I enjoy doing, mostly because I can enjoy doing these things independent of someone else, no companion necessary. PERFECT FOR ME!!!! And then I gush about them with my sister, friends, and random strangers I find on social media.

So I tend to have lots of celebrity crushes... It's just inevitable, given my lack swoon-worthy men in my real life. But this whole idea of celebrity crush is just really frustrating to me.

Here is what happens:

1st - Your Interest is PIQUED.
You watch a movie, TV show, music video, whatever the medium, and you notice, "Hey that guy is kinda cute," or "intriguing" or "talented" or "funny."


Step 2 - The  Discovery Stage
At this stage you still have rational feelings about this celebrity, it's just mere curiosity that leads you to find out more of his projects and accomplishments. "He was really good in Faith, I wonder what else he is in?"  Or "Oh, I love that song, I wonder if he has any more like it." This leads to a casual search on wikipedia or IMDB. And you discover the plethora of projects he has been involved in and you embark on watching, listening, or reading these other projects.

This stage can also lead you to learn interesting facts about this potential crush, such as not only is he an actor, but also a musician, or a writer, or a star athlete. I warn you, this is when mere curiosity can lead to feelings of admiration for their accomplishments. DANGER: the more impressive their accomplishments, the faster the fall.



Thirdly, Unconsciously Conscious Decision Making
At this stage you unconsciously are deciding on whether you are going to choose to spend your time to continue looking into this celebrity, watching youtube video after youtube video, listening to song after song, or show after show. If you beyond the intrigue phase and you truly enjoy this person, then you don't even realize that you have watched over 20 videos on youtube. You just remember looking up that first one. If you find yourself disappointed with the celebrity, you more than likely consciously choose to spend your time doing something else... like reading a book... or investigating a different celebrity.

At this point you might surprise yourself with the amount of personal detail you now have stored away in your brain. Facts that are entirely useless on your quality of life, like his favorite color is red, his dog's name is Choco, he is a bit self conscious about his height, might start replacing useful information pertinent to your life, like that appointment you are now late to because you forgot about it while you watched youtube videos... Things like that...


Finally, Fangirling Feels
The point of no return. The irrational development of emotional attachment to celebrities. This stage is completely ridiculous! Utterly baffling! And fully frustrating!!! And apparently it's not a new development! I mean you see it dramatized on movies all the time (which means it must be true), with girls swooning at the feet of Elvis. Or screaming girls swarming the Beatles. I can just imagine it happening at the Globe after a production of Romeo and Juliet, and the females in the audience being quite overcome by the dashingness of Romeo, and falling at the foot of the stage (or maybe that would just be drunkenness...), either way, the Fangirling Feels are not new and they are real, they are intense... and man, oh man they are pathetic... and yet SO MUCH FUN!




So that is the process... at least for me... whether you wanted to know it or not. But the Phenomenon to me is that a famous person can take an intelligent, rational human being and turn her into a sighing, swooning mess. And I am not talking about teenagers either! I am talking about grown adult women... Yes, I am one of them, but I know I am not alone! How can guys whom I've never met, never had a personal conversation with, whom I don't even speak the same language as!!!! take me from a love pessimist to a melty piece of love sick hormones? I don't get it!!!! HOW DO THEY HAVE THAT KIND OF INFLUENCE ON ME??? It is extremely  frustrating! I mean, how ridiculous is this??? Someone who has no idea we exist, doesn't even know we are one of their millions of followers, can make us feel very real emotions? This is a crazy phenomenon to me! Unexplainable, yet very real!



Do you find yourself experiencing this same phenomenon? Do you agree that it is frustrating, yet fun? Do you find yourself bewildered by the very real Feels?

Here are some of the men that cause me to have Fangirl Feels:

Who do you Fangirl... or fanboy over?

8 comments:

Kami said...

Yes! And it happens almost exactly like you described. It doesn't happen to me very often, but yes it does happen. I favorites are Richard Armitage and Jeremy Renner right now.

Suey said...

It's for sure a real thing or else things like Comic Cons would not exist. It's a crazy feeling for sure and even though many people experience it, many people also don't get it.. don't even come close to feeling this thing. And then, trying to explain that is very frustrating and awkward. I, for one, find the phenomenon one of the best things about life and don't plan to apologize for it anytime soon.

Megs said...

I love it too! Don't get me wrong, but sometimes it totally frustrates me that someone I don't know can make me fall for them...

Suey said...

What's also frustrating is wondering, in the back of my head, what they are REALLY like.. because pretty much whenever we see them, they have on a camera face. So what are they REALLY like when those cameras are off. We still get a good idea I think, but in the back of my head, I wonder...

Megs said...

Ugh! I totally agree... This comes back to my charming distrust... most people when they are not charming they can't pretend to be charming for the camera so you know you are just getting the real them... but if they are charming they can manipulate their personality to be likable whenever they want to be.

Jenny said...

Yes, I totally agree with Suey. I always want to see the man behind the mask. I love, love, LOVE Jensen Ackles!

Megs said...

Oh, Jenny! Who doesn't???

Kara said...

YES. You said it exactly right. This is how it happens and it's crazy and you feel ridiculous and silly, yet you can't stop and it's so fun! And I'm with Suey and Jenny, I often wonder what they're really like in real life. Are they truly as adorable then? Or as nice? I mean, Tom Hiddleston just seems so NICE. I really, really hope he's that way for realsies.