Gods Behaving Badly - Pete Ward (ch. 4 & 5)

1. Name of author, name of essay/chapter reporting on:

Pete Ward, Gods Behaving Badly, chapters 4 and 5

2. Your articulation of their thesis:

Chapter four outlines the different kinds of gods that celebrity culture creates: good gods, bad gods, saints, narcissistic gods, gods who reflect Greek and Roman myths, gods whose images are so powerful that they remain influential after death, gods who have done nothing to earn their status… the list goes on and on. Throughout the chapter, as Ward describes each different type of celebrity and the way we “worship” them, he stresses the fact that theological religion and the religion of celebrity is not the same – there are no rituals in place, and we do not really respect celebrities. Ward argues that celebrities are not godlike because they are divine, but rather because they are so fully and overwhelmingly human. We see ourselves reflected back at us when we look at celebrities, because they make mistakes, and are broken, and struggle with all of the same things that we do. We are so fascinated with them precisely because of this – they are us. Celebrities are only celebrities because we put our interest in them, and they only remain in this godlike state as long as we stay interested – if we lose our fascination, they plummet back down to our level.

Chapter five discusses the different themes found in being a celebrity – the constant judgment and analysis from one’s audience that comes from being famous, the concept of having a “home” (a place to be happy, to wallow in one’s wealth, to be flawless; even if actually one is completely miserable, with many problems and flaws), reality TV, having the perfect family, etc. Family is an important idea to celebrity. We, as an audience, want our icons to have perfect, loving, whole families, with a couple (not even necessarily heterosexual) who are faithful to each other, committed to raising children and being good parents, and generally being stable, healthy, and happy. This seems to be the ultimate expression of fame and fortune – passing it down to children (be they biological or adopted).

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

1. In chapter four, Ward talks about American Idol and the way the audience is invited to both worship the contestants while also watching and enjoying their creation. There are many TV shows similar to this nowadays, including the originally-British TV show The X Factor. In this clip from the 2010 season of the UK X Factor, one of the judges tells the young contestant who just sang his soul out on national television, “You’ve got it. I don’t know what it is, but you’ve got it.”  ‘It,’ in this case, refers both to the mystical “x” factor and to image – the young man has the right look, the right appeal, to become famous and well-known.

2. Ward discusses Marilyn Monroe a lot, emphasizing how her image is so well-known and iconic that it persists to this day, on t-shirts, mugs, posters, etc. She was such a recognizable image while she was alive that she became insanely famous, and even after her death she remains an instantly-recognized figure. Reading this, I immediately thought of a new TV show that I was addicted to over the summer – Smash, a show about a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe’s life. The show is more about the stories of the actors, writers, producers, and dancers in the show, but it also has quite a few meaningful parts about Marilyn. This song is the finale of the musical (in the show), after Marilyn’s death. Instead of ending with her death, it ends with this song, sung by Marilyn, about how she doesn’t want to be forgotten. Indeed, there is no greater celebrity than Marilyn – she is remembered well after her death and celebrated as an iconic figure in film and American culture.

3. In chapter five, Ward mentions the theme of resurrection for celebrities – after they make a mistake, or have a fall from fame and the love of the media, they can have resurrections. Sometimes all it takes is a trip to rehab to fix a star’s image and put them back on magazine covers. Ward states that there is an ‘unforgivable sin’ – the harming of others. However, I would contest this claim – Chris Brown, an acclaimed R&B singer, has not been affected in any significantly negative way after accusations of beating his then-girlfriend, pop singer Rihanna, in 2009. In fact, as this article reveals, peoples’ efforts to have his transgressions recognized and punished have only catapulted his star higher and brought his album sales up – after an activist organization put stickers saying ‘Attention: This man beats women’ on his newest album, Brown’s record sales skyrocketed. Evidently, this is one ‘unforgivable sin’ that is easily forgivable. 

4. At least two discussion questions that will help your reader develop the ideas of the article:

1. Ward emphasizes over and over again that stars are really just us – normal, human people. Do you think we as a society do well at remembering that, or do we treat/view them differently? Why or why not?

2. In the “religion” of celebrity, the body is sacred; it’s the thing we worship and praise about a celebrity. Is this true for Christianity (maybe not our bodies, but Jesus’)? Is a celebrity’s desire to have a good body wrong? (Perhaps yes, because they’re doing it for the sex appeal, but perhaps no because they’re healthy and setting a good example for society?)

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? 

Gods Behaving Badly - Ward (introduction)

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

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

            In this introduction, Ward writes about the blurring lines between religion and pop culture (aspects of religion are continually filtering into media, finding their way into TV, movies, music, books, etc.) and explores it using the context of celebrity. Ward argues that whether or not you like or loathe celebrities is not important – they still affect you. A celebrity merely represents something else – a bigger idea, value, or “take” on being human. If you are the type to frown upon celebrities and everything they stand for, you are no better than a cultural elitist. Instead, you must view celebrities for the symbols they are and define your opinions of the topics they represent. Increasingly frequently in modern society, celebrities have come to be very nearly religious figures – they have obsessive fans who are said to ‘worship’ them and are called ‘gods.’ Ward explains this occurrence by citing the release of mainline Protestantism’s “stranglehold” on society – without religion in their everyday media, fans latch onto the nearest celebrity and worship them in the place of religion, using religious vocabulary to describe both the celebrities and their actions and turning celebrities into semi-divine figures. This “religion” tells us much less about Christian theology than it does about the nature of ourselves—we much prefer fallible, human idols than perfect, Christian ones – celebrities are the exact right mix of sacred and profane. In essence, we are knowingly labeling fellow humans as gods while still being perfectly aware that they are not, in fact, perfect – false gods. We set them up in our heads as sacred and perfect, but we almost seem to delight in their failures more than we do in their successes. We love hearing about the latest failings of our fake gods, and we especially enjoy sitting in judgment of them when they do so – media has become our way of keeping an eye on our gods.

At least three links (websites, blogs, articles, music) or images that illustrate the

ideas of the article:

1. Ward talked a lot about how people love celebrities who show their humanity – by making mistakes, doing bad things, etc. These celebrities do not usually suffer ill effects from their recklessness, stupidity, and/or maliciousness – they simply receive more attention because of it. A prime example of this is Chris Brown, a rapper infamous for having physicallybeaten his then-girlfriend, Rihanna, multiple times. Brown’s career barely even took a hit from the media backlash against him, and today he is a top-selling artist in the United States. It’s horrendous, but it really exemplifies the celebrity-glorifying culture we have in America – everyone was horrified by what Brown did, but it only served to make them more fascinated with him.

2. Ward also talks about the growing use of religious terms and vocabulary to refer to parts of celebrity culture and celebrities themselves. Nothing is a better example of this linguistic shift than the title Justin Bieber fans unite themselves under: “Beliebers.” An obvious play off of the word “believer,” these young people are very up-front about the way they equate Bieber with a semi-deistic figure.

3. Ward tells us that celebrities are not famous precisely because they are particularly intelligent, talented, or special, but because they show a unique “take” on what it means to be human (or black, or a woman, or short, etc.). As I tried to think of reasons Ward would say this, only one example came to mind: the cast of The Jersey Shore. None of these people are especially remarkable human beings, with no super-exciting talents to boast about. Why, then are they so ridiculously famous? Because they show an intriguing way to be human. Other humans are fascinated by the way they live their lives – not necessarily because they think it’s a good way to live, but because it’s new and interesting.

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 found yourself building up a celebrity (and/or celebrities) to be a “false god?” Did they live up to your expectations of them? Did you expect them to?

2. What do you think it is about celebrities that makes everyone else think there is something special, something remarkable about them – what makes them better god-material than anyone else in the world? Money? Fame? (Perhaps nothing at all?)