In today’s society, people with acclaim to fame, or public status are known as celebrities. being in the limelight, there has always been a social debate as to whether celebrities deserve their “solitude and privacy” in life. This may mean not being under the limelight for no reason, avoiding paparazzi, or just living in secrecy, I personally interpret the question’s meaning as simple as black or white: outside the limelight, do celebrities deserve the same privacy normal people have the privilege of having in life? In this question, I am going to convey my concept and idea, but still, show how impartial I can be whilst showing my support I am going to explore this topic on both sides, and cover an array of issues on both sides, such as over-extensive journalism by paparazzi, celebrities using their publicity (good or bad) to shape societies public image on beauty, and how some celebrities use the exclusive privacy and their status to behave mischievously in society without the watchful eye of the public domain.
Initially, in the past celebrities were usually considered “figures of beauty” and that has not changed at all in the past few years with famous figures being an array of people such as models, and actors, and when you have a heavy influence on society, you are able to dictate the idea of today’s social beauty standards. Whether that’s chiseled jawlines or a curvy hourglass figure, Celebrities do shape the idea of beauty. But this carries its negatives as I am about to explain: Recently celebrities such as Kylie Jenner and Khloe Kardashian have been under fire for their use of cosmetic surgery for their body and face, and the way they edit their photos online, which can be misleading and can distort the image of beauty, With this, we never get to see these celebrities in public and it leaves a lot of people feeling insecure/not good enough, for following beauty standards being set by people who cannot meet them themselves. When leaked pictures of the two celebrities occurred, with them not wearing any makeup or having any cosmetic work done at all, they came under fire for “hurting the idea of natural beauty.” According to a study done by Park Nicollet Melrose Center in 2014, “Approximately 80% of u.s women don’t like how they look [1] and in the same study, the statistics in adolescent children show that “53% of 13-year-old American girls are unhappy with their body, and this number does grow to 78% by the age of 17”. This is a big indicator that celebrities and public figures are distorting the eye of beauty, and a Tory MP has proposed a bill to label pictures as “edited” to help combat self-image issues.
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On the contrary, people may argue that society and extensive journalism can take their toll on celebrities and point a negative light on them in society, and public figures such as the late Princess Diana have had devastating results of this exact problem which affects celebrities' privacy and livelihood. In an article by the BBC Called: The princess and the press, it details the ongoing battles the late princess had with the media. She actively and publicly complained about the media's intrusion. Saying that “photographers and journalists made life impossible for her” [3] and she was seen “driven to tears as she was pursued by paparazzi [4] Although, on the evening of Diana’s fateful car crash, 30 photographers were outside her hotel in Paris, and they went out the back and was spotted and chased whilst Diana met her unfortunate demise. This extensive press coverage is evidence that some celebrities DO need privacy, as some celebrities cannot handle the pressure the media puts on their lives, which in turn makes it harder for them to live in private.
However, there are celebrities who can capitalize off of the attention and breaches of privacy they get, meaning that sometimes they use their private time for a scandal and people can dispute that some celebrities “love” scandals and free publicity to promote their business as there is no type of publicity like free publicity. The best example of this is the queen of scandals herself, Kim Kardashian, who had her sex tape leaked, and used it to propel her to fame. She received a £5m payout for the tape, and the publicity from her tape helped her to start her career in reality tv shows, creating the long-running “keeping up with the Kardashians” and building her own dynasty from there. Another good example is when the paparazzi/journalists followed the singer sia, they managed to take indecent photos of her naked, which they were trying to sell to newspapers and magazines. Eventually, sia caught wind of this and decided to leak her naked pictures to the public, which surprised a lot of people but gave her a lot of publicity, she went back on the apple music top 200 shortly after and she teased new music, which she released eventually.
On the other hand, there are the… occasional celebrities who abuse their position in society and make themselves think they are above the rules, and just because it's out of public sight, it's out of their mind. This is evident in a story uncovered by The Independent, who had shown that movie star James Franco, had been texting an underage schoolgirl, asking her to come to his hotel, and flirting with the underaged girl in private, only for her to come out and expose him for his behavior. Footballer Dele Alli was also under fire for his private video in which he was racist towards a Chinese man videoing him, saying ”he had the coronavirus disease” This led him to apologize and he went under repercussions for his behavior not only from his club but by the football governing body, which led to a ban and a £50,000 fine. These two examples support the idea that some celebrities feel as if they are above the law and society in private, and they don’t deserve a private platform if behavior like that is what celebrities condone and tolerate when they are not being watched.
In conclusion, my essay has gone over both sides of the coin in the argument, explaining why it would be important for celebrities to have and attain their own solitude and privacy, and why some people would be against it. Throughout my writing I’ve gone over the issues that can occur in giving celebrities privacy, such as celebrities acting immoral and above the law and above societies standards, the way celebrities misuse their platform to promote a different type of self-hate by posting altered and edited images of themselves, and why it is important to also show the private side of celebrities to combat the problem, the issue of overzealous journalism and its effects physically and mentally on celebrities and how celebrities can use private platforms and their own private photos to promote their careers. All in all in my opinion I believe that having a public platform in society does take away certain private “freedoms” but they do deserve basic privacy just like us normal human beings.
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