POV: You became an “A-list” celebrity, so now it is inevitable that you will be followed around by paparazzi. You can try to go on a walk or get groceries, but later you would probably see your picture taken by paparazzi on a gossip site. Because for them it doesn’t matter what you are doing, how are you feeling or what you are wearing. They just want to sell your picture to a gossip magazine. Obviously, it will sell better if you look miserable in it or have an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction. Basically, if you don’t look like a perfect human being.
Well, good that you’re not one, because the pressure they face every day is enormous. One of the reasons is that the whole world is watching them. Many people want them to succeed, but there are also many people that wish they fail. Another reason is that the paparazzi pictures are often unposed and person being photographed is unaware of having a picture taken. Therefore, they cannot hide anything.
Some might say that being photographed comes with the job, and while this is true, we cannot forget they are also human beings that have good and bad days, and a right to privacy.
One of the celebrities that is under the microscope since the early 2000s is Selena Gomez, that is an American singer, actress and businesswoman. I want to take a closer look at how she deals with being constantly photographed, since she is famous for the majority of her life.
Taking a break
She took a break from being active on social media around 2017. But wait, posts were still appearing on her Instagram page. How did this happen? Well, her assistant was posting on her behalf.
For the sake of her mental health, she stopped looking at her paparazzi pictures and posting online. Unfortunately, after gigantic criticism she got from ‘fans’, over her pictures from boat in Sydney in 2018, she decided to stop her hiatus and take a stand about pressuring women into unreachable beauty standards. She posted a video that gave more insight into how the day looked like, comparing to the invasive paparazzi pictures.
Private life?
It is no mystery for us that Selena dated Justin Bieber, but her dating life doesn’t limit just to him. Oh, how I love the internet. One simple search and I know so much about who she dated, like Taylor Lautner (the wolf from Twilight) for example. Talk about private life, huh? She even said in one of the interviews:
“We would go out to lunch and dinner, but I knew he had paparazzi following him and I had paparazzi following me. So we literally just wanted to hang out, go bowling and stuff, and it went a little too far, I think. People were getting a little crazy about us.”
In 2015 Selena dated Zedd (DJ and music producer) who opened up later about how it looked like to date Gomez. He talked about paparazzi harassing his friends and family privacy.
Okay, but dating life is not the only private aspect of her life. She cannot even get groceries without being photographed. They even created a whole article about her casual look. Crazy, isn’t it.
And that is only one of many examples of invasion of privacy in her life. Examples like that can be also drawn from other celebrities’ lives.
So yeah, that is the reality of being an “A-list celebrity”. No private life, constant living under the public’s eye and looking really critically at themselves. Writing this article made me appreciate being a grey little human that can go out of the house without being followed by paparazzi.
The fame in the modern day and age is a quite interesting case. It is not just the artwork/ music/ movies that brings people to fame. There is almost a “selling your soul to the devil”esque component to fame. The private life is also becomes a part of the artist’s portfolio, another news post in social media whether the artist goes along with it or not. As consumers of media, I really do not believe we have to know every little detail in people’s lives. Yet, paparazzi or even regular people keep harassing celebrities. But again, the other side of the argument is that they are obligated to do so, they “signed” the being famous contract.
It is such a weird paradox to live in, I suppose: your online life is expected to look perfect, but paparazzi are always ‘on the hunt’ for your not so perfect side so they can show that side to the world. It looks like some sort of turned around imposter syndrome: Gomez knows she is not perfect and is very open about that and still people (paparazzi, people hating on the internet) want to make sure the whole world knows Gomez is not perfect. Like, that is exactly what she says herself!
This post made me realise how grateful I am that I am invisible. I cannot imagine how terrible it is to have people following you around all day just to take pictures of you and then publish your most unflattering pictures. This is definitely destroying someone and potentially leading someone to self-destructive behaviour. It should be illegal.