This is great, I hadn't thought about the reason WHY celebrities who don't want to follow the traditional path annoy us as a society - of course it's because of the fact that they can't be used to sell things. On one hand, Charli XCX is releasing a collection with H&M while Chappell is saying "H&M does not fit in this world". I respect her so much for this!
I wrote a kind-of companion piece to this about Sally Rooney's working practices:
Really enjoyed reading your take on this. I don't envy people who have become mega famous for their profession (not celebrities for the sake of it) because the pressure to be accessible must be unbearable. I met someone at a tech event this week who is a performer and given the place we were at, I asked what had brought her there. She said "well, artists are required to be their own PR team now, so I'm trying to learn about digital marketing and AI to promote myself more." That's probably the problem: we expect anyone creating music, writing books, starting in a show, etc to also produce non-stop content about themselves for our entertainment. And if they don't, we regard them as entitled, standoffish, who do they think they are, anyway? and what not. Only a few decades ago most people known by their profession could enjoy a relative level of anonimity outside their area of work or when not promoting their latest creation, but with the arrival of social media that golden era where the creators also deserved to have some peace and privacy -which surely helps them create- is gone forever.
Hi Cristina! That’s a great addition to my text which I didn’t go into. It’s also a must for many of them to have a career at all to be accessible all the time. Sometimes fulfilling more than one position as you put it.
Great analysis - so thought-provoking, and on one of my favorite topics.
Thanks! ☺️
Great essay, Louisa. Yes, let's model what we want for all our lives. Let's support people who make the boundaries they need for themselves.
This is great, I hadn't thought about the reason WHY celebrities who don't want to follow the traditional path annoy us as a society - of course it's because of the fact that they can't be used to sell things. On one hand, Charli XCX is releasing a collection with H&M while Chappell is saying "H&M does not fit in this world". I respect her so much for this!
I wrote a kind-of companion piece to this about Sally Rooney's working practices:
https://ellenforster.substack.com/p/go-with-the-flow-state
Great read! Glad you linked it here. It’s a perfect companion piece :)
Really enjoyed reading your take on this. I don't envy people who have become mega famous for their profession (not celebrities for the sake of it) because the pressure to be accessible must be unbearable. I met someone at a tech event this week who is a performer and given the place we were at, I asked what had brought her there. She said "well, artists are required to be their own PR team now, so I'm trying to learn about digital marketing and AI to promote myself more." That's probably the problem: we expect anyone creating music, writing books, starting in a show, etc to also produce non-stop content about themselves for our entertainment. And if they don't, we regard them as entitled, standoffish, who do they think they are, anyway? and what not. Only a few decades ago most people known by their profession could enjoy a relative level of anonimity outside their area of work or when not promoting their latest creation, but with the arrival of social media that golden era where the creators also deserved to have some peace and privacy -which surely helps them create- is gone forever.
Hi Cristina! That’s a great addition to my text which I didn’t go into. It’s also a must for many of them to have a career at all to be accessible all the time. Sometimes fulfilling more than one position as you put it.