Understanding Celebrity Culture: The I and the Me of Fame

Holmes and Redmond talk about the celebrity. They identify three main themes associated with the celebrity through their analysis of the 'Leif Memphis personae'. These include: ' Adulation', 'Identification', and 'Emulation'. The people who follow 'celebrity culture' have a desire to be famous and adored , where they may be distinguished from the rest of humanity. Therefore, according to the authors, such individuals are drawn to the world of 'celebrity' as either fans of 'celebrity culture' or as participants of a movement to become followers.

This, as Holmes and Redmond, argue, along with media publicity, creates an image that celebrity and stardom are a lifestyle worth pursuing. Through this adulation and emulation process, a form of identity is constructed where products associated with such celebrities are purchased in an attempt to emulate the celebrity lifestyle of that individual.

However, there are complications with this analysis, as the construction of identity cannot be entirely dependent on the celebrities' and lifestyles that these people follow, but identity, as they suggest, is already a 'manufactured' process that fuels consumerism behaviour through the commodification and purchase of cultural products that relate to identity in some form or another. Also, what becomes apparent is that the traditional and postmodernist view of identity, clashes with the modernist one, where individual identities are manufactured through the consumption of media texts.

This creates a situation where cultural identity is not restricted to one particular group, but through the consumption of products, different identities are constructed based on the ownership of these products, where the attainment of such a lifestyle is the main goal regardless of the cultural significance of the media text in question. 'Identities are in crisis because traditional structures of membership and belonging inscribed in relations of class, party and national-state have been called into question.' Holmes and Redmond's analysis of the 'I/Leif Memphis' personae reveals that this particular personae exists as a 'successful' 'narcissistic star, who adores his own god-like status and through this celebrity personae wants to be loved and adored by his followers. In contrast to this personae there exists the 'I' who wants to be like Leif Memphis and posses the lifestyle and material wealth associated with being a celebrity. But, according to Holmes and Redmond, this particular personae is seen as being a destructive character, who is dissatisfied with the lifestyle and identity that they posses. Both persona's are continually struggling to achieve any kind of perfection in their lives, the celebrity envy's what 'I' has, a 'private life' and 'I' envy's what Leif Memphis has, a celebrity lifestyle where wealth and fame are seen as perfection.

This parallel relationship, is important in the analysis of celebrity, according to the authors, who suggest that 'there is little difference between, 'the utopian promises and dystopian consequences that they both offer'. There are different reasons as to why 'fans' may want to 'reach out' to celebrities, one of them being the self-fullfilment and the 'illusion of intimacy', whereby an illusionary connection is made with a celebrity to make up for the loss of such intimacy, within social relations.

This 'intimacy' with celebrities has increased with the mass production of media texts that celebrate and promote celebrities and celebrity culture. However, one-to-one intimacy with a celebrity is the desired goal to determine what they are really like in the flesh. These kinds of debates are important for academic analysis of 'celebrity culture' and fandom, where 'historical development, cultural, political, economic functions' and how 'celebrity''social and cultural values' are determined by the followers of 'celebrity culture'. They argue that any analysis within the academic sphere occupies the 'same framework' as other analysis of 'celebrity culture', where there is no distinction between academic analysis and the media texts that promote and celebrate 'celebrity culture'. They suggest that such critics aspire to the same kind of fame as the celebrities that they write about and through cross-media processes, can easily become icons of 'celebrity culture'. 'Reality' TV shows are identified as being important in 'celebrity culture' where the coming together of fandom, and celebrity personae, merge into one being.


.....'the modern self is said to be marked by a great deal of anxiety, doubt and confusion over who-and-how-to-be in a world where identity is felt to be more malleable, more questionable , and much more decidely manufactured. The alienated individual of the modern age, then, may feel homeless, and in a perpetual state of dislocation'