Cultural Critique (No Intro, Lit Review)

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Celeb Obsessed

Society has become a celebrity obsessed culture focusing on the unrealistic lives of those people only see in a superficial world that less than one percent of the populations lives in. Some of the people who are now considered famous though have not even done anything to be famous except live in Hollywood or be on a reality television show; the first person who comes to my mind: Lauren Conrad.
Growing up in Laguna Beach, California, Lauren was one of the characters one the first season of Laguna Beach. She then went on to have her own show, The Hills, and now contributes to makeup companies, designs her own line of clothing and has begun writing a series of books for teens girls. The only thing this girl has done to become famous though is have her life documented for MTV and then cast across North America. The fact that millions of viewers tune in every Monday night to see what ends up being fifteen minutes of this girls “life” in which she only shops, bar hops, and has emotional fights and reunions with the people she calls her best friends. Though it is hard to completely disagree with the content of the show because I too am one of the millions who tunes it with the girls from my dorm to watch Lauren, I see it more as a twenty minute break in which I do not have to use one ounce of brain power.
The life of this girl who is now twenty-three has captivated many as has young girls hoping to live a life identical to hers. Unfortunately, the number of people who have become famous for simply living their life and in the off chance being approached to have their life taped is next to no one, perhaps a majority of them are the ones in Lauren’s circle of friends. For young girls to think they can have this life is partially their part but also that of society in that we make it seem like the life someone like Lauren Conrad lives is normal and average. This creates the idea that you can go to Cabo San Lucas for the weekend, spends a thousand dollars on a purse and get any job you interview for. Specifically, when Lauren happened to get the internship at Teen Vogue with little to no experience and not having any of the usual prerequisites, we are supposed to think that she interviewed so well that the magazine staff knew they had to hire her? Or could it possibly be that Teen Vogue needed a place for Lauren to work or Lauren would bring god publicity to the magazine? I can bet that Lauren and Whitney, her fellow cast mate, are the only two interns to ever have made the cover of the magazine. This special treatment continues to let people think that celebrities can be put on a pedestal making the younger generations make these people heroes.
With people like Lauren Conrad having so much notoriety, it is no wonder society has become money obsessed as well as celebrity obsessed looking at celebrity’s lives like they are completely normal. It is sad to think that our society gives more media attention to those with thousands of dollars rather than those barely making ends meet.