Celebrity Influence

Analyzing the idea of celebrity is not something I have spent much time doing. I know that celebrities influence us as a society, but that is the extent of my analysis. The article “The Promotion and Presentation of the Self: Celebrity as a Marker of Presentational Media” in the journal Celebrity Studies definitely shed a new light on the subject of celebrity.

I want to consider Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus as my celebrity. I have a 10 and 8 year old who absolutely adore Hannah Montana. They love her show, they love her music, they love her videos, and they loved her movie. They have grown up over the last several years considering themselves “in style” in terms of how they dress and fix their hair. Is there a connection? According to Marshall, “Celebrity taught generations how to engage and use consumer culture to ‘make’ oneself” (36).

Hannah Montana has a television show in which she is a normal teenager with a big secret. She is Hannah Montana, the rock star. Only one of her friends is aware of her secret. In the series, she is a celebrity playing another celebrity. Hannah Montana is broadcast on the wholesome Disney Channel. It is a family show with good moral messages. Montana is always making a wrong choice and then realizing that she has made the wrong choice and correcting it. Many times her wrong choice is to protect her brother or her friend.

I became aware of the power celebrity when Hannah Montana: The Movie was released. The premise of the movie was that Hannah Montana had to make the decision to reveal her secret and permanently become her true self, Miley Cyrus. She was concerned that she would disappoint her fans. My daughter in all sincerity thought that she was making a life changing decision on the big screen. It broke my heart to inform her of the reality of the situation – she is a celebrity making a living.

The celebrity image of Hannah Montana is aimed at young girls between the ages of 8 and 14. Initially, Miley Cyrus portrayed a similar image. Hannah and Miley captured the hearts of youth in Hannah Montana: The Movie with heartfelt songs like “Butterfly Fly Away”. Additionally, their music proved to be character building with songs like “Nobody’s Perfect” and “The Climb”, which was the culminating moment in the movie when she was embracing her Miley Cyrus character and leaving Hannah Montana behind.

In contrast to the pure celebrity image of Hannah Montana and the initial image created for Miley Cyrus, the most recent image of Miley Cyrus creates a dichotomy to her predecessor. Cyrus as a performer has evolved to a more mature young adult audience. She recently starred in her first young adult movie The Last Song. Additionally, her music has become increasingly inappropriate for her initial audience. For example, my daughter automatically thinks that if Miley Cyrus is in a new movie, she will go see it. She also assumes that if Cyrus has a new song released, she will download it. However, Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA” and “Fly on the Wall” videos are not aimed towards my daughter. Cyrus has transformed her image.

As I continue to consider celebrity, I realize that I always consider a celebrities influence on society overall, but I never think about how the celebrity establishes their image. According to Marshall, “Celebrities presented themselves in their cultural forms as performers, but they also were presented in interview structures and in celebrity gossip setting” (42). The concept of celebrities having a personal, professional, and performer persona on-line is something that I had never considered. To learn that celebrities have their publishers post their Twitter and Facebook messages and “are allowing themselves to expose their lives further in order to gain a following and an audience” is definitely a powerful way for them to connect with their fans.

However, as we continue to be influenced by celebrity in our society, we (as fans) will “continue to strip away the veneers of performance and publicity to find these true versions of celebrities…” (44).


Lessons in Celebrity

Students in today’s society are constantly inundated with the power of celebrity and the images that go along with these current celebrities. I want my students to consider what image is and how our definition of image affects their lives as young adults.

Day 1
What is Image?
• I will show the video “It’s my Party”
• After viewing the video, the students will write for five minutes about their impression of the image of Leslie Gore.
• Next, we will watch “Party in the USA.” Again, the students will write for five minutes about their impression of Miley Cyrus.
• They will get into groups to compare and contrast what they have observed. I will have them create a list of the three observations they want to share out to the whole class.
• We will end with a group share of the observations.

Day 2
Who determines image?
• I will provide them with several pictures of different people and have them try to guess what kind of people they are. Are they a healthy person? Are they a CEO? I want them to be judgmental based on appearance. I will then reveal the answers, which will be surprising.
• I will ask them if they know who Marilyn Monroe is. I hope get responses like a model, actress, singer, etc. I will have them guess what size they think she wore (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12).
• I will them have them guess the average size of a celebrity today.
• I will reveal Marilyn Monroe’s size in contrast to a celebrity today.
• I will ask them to create a list of the different influences that they think define image.
• Lastly, I will have them consider how image affects their own life.