Celebritism – Part 2: What I ReLearned From a Lindsay Lohan Tabloid Cover

The previous post made the point that we will always have celebrities. It’s part of the human experience – some are more “famous” than others. So I see no point in trying to find ways to stop celebritism. Therefore, like with most things beyond our control, I’m more interested in how we respond.

But as usual, first a little context.
As mentioned in the About Page, among my interests, is the intersection of faith and culture. So I always have an eye on pop-culture.

Like most people, I scan the tabloids when I’m in line and a couple were featuring the latest on Lindsay Lohan. As usual, the picture they chose was well, let’s say it was one she would never use as her Facebook profile pic. It was not only intentionally non-glamorous but highlighted her anguish adding credibility to the headline. Like many celebrities, she was being objectified for the opposite reason of her success – her failure. I realized something I realized many times before but always quickly forget – she’s like anyone of us.

If she were a member of my youth group, I would have been heartbroken for her. If a friend was sharing about a some girl named Lindsay, I would have listened and been sympathetic, maybe even remembered in my prayers that evening. But this is was a character on a screen somewhere and now she was on a tabloid cover which I have been conditioned to understand “This is just entertainment to be consumed, it’s not real”.

Like I said, I have already thought through this but here’s what I’ve learned about our engagement of celebritism in line that day.

If we care too much and obsess and create “gods” out of the famous, we don’t actually deify them, we dehumanize and objectify them. Because in our minds, it’s still about us and what they do for us so to speak.

On the opposite end, if we villainize too much or are too apathetic, we dehumanize and objectify them in another way. Because still in our minds, it’s about us and what they don’t do for us. In short, they’re not deserving our honor or worth our concern.

We have the potential to do this with just about everyone from the marginalized and oppressed to the family member or coworker.

When we recognize that all have been created in the “image of God” and ask God for the eyes to see all people as He sees them, that’s when the man-made idea of “celebritism” not only becomes irrelevant but when we live in the better way that God intended.

More to come … hope you stay tuned.