Gods Behaving Badly - Ward (chapter 2)

Name of author, name of essay/chapter reporting on: Pete Ward, Gods Behaving Badly – chapter 2: Representation

Your articulation of their thesis (i.e. in your own words):

In this chapter, Ward presents the idea that celebrities, no matter what they are famous for, communicate meaning through their actions, persona, beliefs, and public image. They represent things to different people because the images they create have the possibility for different interpretations. These people assign meanings to these images based upon their personal experiences and use the actions of the celebrities to find a sense of identity within themselves. It is important to note that the celebrities themselves do not force their own identities upon their fans – they simply offer themselves and their beliefs and interests up for inspection and consideration. Whether or not a single fan chooses to adopt the celebrity’s way of thinking is completely up to the fan themself.

This dissemination of a celebrity’s image, life, and personal beliefs is due completely to media. Popular media allows the public to consume every part of a celebrity’s life, which leads to the formation of “fake” celebrities, whose actions, words, outfits, etc. are planned carefully to make a certain impression and impact upon the public. In a way, every celebrity is at least a little bit fake – the thing that “sells” about them is their image, so they must cultivate it carefully to reflect positively upon themselves and make people want to “buy” more.

Ward stresses that celebrity depends completely upon media, and vice versa – without media to make a celebrity known, they cannot be popular, and thus they cannot be a celebrity, and without celebrities, people would be much less interested in media. Thus, celebrities and the media have a very special relationship – the media is always trying to find out more about celebrities, to expose them, draw back the protections in order to provide a sensational story, while celebrities are always trying to cover the parts of the lives that they can, presenting a perfect, unblemished image to the media for consumption.

At least three links or images that illustrate the ideas of the article:

1. Ward talks briefly about how celebrities can even have influence upon fashion choices on a very large scale, inspiring imitation of a certain unique aspect of their look. This has always been something that interests me – it’s so fascinating to me that people love celebrities so much that they want to be like them, and attempt to achieve this by looking like them. Something that I thought of immediately while reading what Ward had to say about this was Jennifer Aniston’s haircut that she had as the character Rachel on the TV show Friends – it was widely imitated, but Aniston herself has expressed her distaste for the “Rachel”haircut. Her fans were assimilating a style that their idol didn’t even like – for them, it was simply their way of expressing their love for her.

2. Somewhat related to the above topic, Ward also talks about how people love to buy celebrity-endorsed products or products with the celebrity’s name on them. He postulates that this is because we want to show other people our identity, and go about doing this by showing them our interests – not necessarily because it makes us feel connected to the celebrity. This relieves me, in some ways; at least the 13-year-old girls buying One Direction toothpaste and toothbrushes probably don’t think using them will make them feel closer to the members of the boyband – they just want to show everyone how much they love the five cute boys.

3. Ward talks a lot about media, especially how it pierces the private lives of celebrities. Since media relies on celebrities for its success, journalists, paparazzi, interviewers, etc. are continuously digging ever deeper into celebrities’ personal lives. Personally, I think this goes way too far sometimes. I know I use One Direction as an example way too much, but they are such a permanent fixture in the public eye these days that they work really well for this point. The five boys (Louis, Niall, Zayn, Liam, and Harry) can’t go out to a corner store to buy some food without being photographed and having it plastered all over the internet. If Harry hangs outwith his friend Nick Grimshaw (who happens to be a gay radio DJ), they are photographed and speculation immediately abounds over his sexuality. Every move is documented and eagerly discussed – they have absolutely no privacy anymore.

At least two discussion questions that will help your reader develop the ideas of the article (i.e., keep us talking):

1. Have you ever adopted a political view or considered a social issue just because a celebrity supported it/brought it to your attention? If you agreed with their position on the topic, why do you think this is – where they subtly affecting your opinion, or would you have agreed no matter who presented it to you?

2. Do you think it’s right for the media to pry into every aspect of a celebrity’s life? Should there be more restrictions/protections in place controlling what can be published about celebrities?