The connotations surrounding today’s typical celebrity often includes the idea of them having a ‘fairy tale’ lifestyle, with lavish luxuries and outrageous amounts of money. However, what we should be more concerned with are the unrealistic role models that the youth generation are aspiring to be like. The media covertly reaches millions of teenagers through television, advertising, marketing, the cinema and via countless other sources. As a consequence, young people are more than ever being influenced by well-known celebrities due to mass public interest and their readily available exposure.

The growing trend at present for the young, average celebrity is to be unhealthily thin. It is true that a certain weight and attractiveness has been occupied by stars throughout time, but gone are the days of the voluptuous Marilyn Monroe. Nicole Richie, Teri Hatcher, Girls Aloud and Victoria Beckham to name but a few have fallen well below the normal size woman. With skeletal resemblances and curve free figures, these famous fashion icons are supplying unachievable targets for the susceptible teenage mind. Many young people often suffer from eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia, which are severely damaging to the maintenance of good health. Self-esteem can also be weakened with the constant bombardment of air brushed celebrities. Of course, celebrities cannot be solely blamed for the amount of problems surrounding people’s weight, yet they do often contribute to setting a bad example for them to follow.

Celebrities can also be used to endorse certain diets and lifestyle changes. For example, Heidi Klum follows the New York body plan, and Jennifer Aniston in addition to Geri Halliwell have been linked with the Atkins diet. This can lead to people trying these diets for themselves, often not correctly and only for short periods of time until a new craze appears, worshipped by yet another skinny celebrity. The effect of yo-yo dieting can be harmful to well being. Furthermore, an ever-increasing fad within the superstar culture is plastic surgery. This averts the idea of natural splendour and creates manufactured, false results. Surgery can often become addictive as well as costly; as it provides a solution to those flawed areas individuals have grievances with, in order to produce perfection.

On the other hand, there are positive representations of women in the media. For instance, the Dove ‘real beauty’ and ‘firm friends’ advertising campaign challenged the conventions of beauty advertising and the standards set by celebrities. They realised women were depressed and intimidated by the use and coverage of thin models, so designed a promotion featuring ordinary women, of ordinary shapes and sizes to show that everyone is beautiful in their own unique way. It encouraged the concept of being proud of your body and being comfortable within it. One of the print advertisements conveys this message as one lady is covered in freckles but feels she would not be herself without them and has no desire to conform to the boundaries set for true beauty.

Unfortunately, the influence of celebrities in today’s society means that they provide a more intriguing and interesting world for young people to marvel at, subsequently deflecting awareness from more positive aspects of the media such as the Dove campaign. Clearly not every celebrity sets out to have this type of impact on an unsuspecting public, but in this evermore commercialised and materialistic world I am afraid this outcome may be inevitable.

© 1997-2006 Freeway
Writers: Vanessa Robson
HTML by: David Broad .