I’m seeing a trend in celebrity culture lately (e.g molly mae, Emma chamberlain). The belief that their success is down to their hard work.
Here is my two cents: celebrities are the 1% OF the 1%. If they weren’t already born privileged, they also were incredibly lucky to be as successful as they are. Looking at the backgrounds of most celebrities I’ve recently been surprised to find 99% of them already have some ties to the industry. Or like in the U.K., the majority come from extremely wealthy backgrounds, and are private schooled.
The point is, these celebrities were born into a world where luck was already on their side. It’s not to say they didn’t work hard for their success. But, they have no concept of the reality that there are people who are born and die in poverty, and no amount of “work” gets them out of it. The real world is not a lifetime movie. I work with children in care, and the reality of their life is that they will never have a fair chance at it.
Anything other then recognition of the luck that affords their position, makes me realise how truly out of touch celebrities are. Moreover, we are the ones that build them up to continue to live in that bubble.
My questions is why do we continue to prop them up? During covid, it seemed that we all came to a realisation that most celebrities give no real value to society vs doctors, scientists etc. They are overpaid and over privileged. A society without such focus on the 1% may begin to focus on what matters.