Amanda Sexton

Keeley/Baran
Unit 3 Essay
04/01/22
Does attention to celebrity culture help or harm people?

Celebrity culture is seen all throughout the world. Social media, movies, television, and

magazines are just a few examples of people following celebrity culture. In most of these forms

of media, certain standards of beauty always seem to be highlighted, but they’re not always

realistic. Celebrity culture harms the self esteem of people that follow it.

Celebrity culture pushes certain ideals that are unrealistic, and even completely

unattainable. In her article, Julie Mehta quotes a photographer, saying, “‘One hundred percent of

fashion photos are retouched,’ said Brad Adams, a New York City photographer whose

retouching service works with advertising agencies. ‘Usually the eyes and teeth are whitened,

makeup and skin problems are corrected, and hair cleaned up. Models are already thin, but I’ve

done jobs where even skinny models are made to look skinnier.’” In other words, the perfect

models we see everywhere are only products of photo editing. It is impossible to look like they

do in those images, but people will see that and think they aren’t enough how they are. In their

article, Janet L. Treasure et al. say, “Criticism, teasing and bullying focused on food, weight and

shape issues increase the risk of developing an eating disorder. Fashion models are frequently

judged and evaluated on these domains and critical and hostile comments, under the guise of

professional development, will increase risk of developing eating disorders.” Because of

celebrity culture pushing the want for skinniness, models are criticized and urged to be so skinny

that they end up developing harmful eating disorders. Celebrity culture and the media have a

horrible effect on self esteem and health.

Some people argue that celebrity culture has no effect on self esteem and health. In Fred
Schwarz’s article, “Images of Thin Fashion Models Do Not Play a Role in Eating Disorders”, he

says, “Evidence suggests that anorexia nervosa can exist without the Western fear of fatness.”

Schwarz’s point is that anorexia exists across the whole world. It’s not just in the western world

which has an extreme standard of skinniness and beauty. However, it’s not just the western

world that’s obsessed with beauty. In Julie Mehta’s article, she argues, “‘Different cultures and

times define beauty differently,’ said Graydon. ‘In North America, large breasts are popular. But

in Brazil, [women] get plastic surgery to have smaller breasts and bigger butts.’” Beauty

standards are all over the world. Regardless of what that standard is, when people are told they

have to be that way, they feel bad about themselves when they aren’t. Even though some argue

that celebrity culture is unrelated to self esteem, the two have clear ties to each other.

Celebrity culture enforces unrealistic expectations that are impossible to reach. This

happens all over the world, no matter what the expectations are. These enforced ideals from

celebrity culture lead to low self esteem in those that follow it. Instead of this, celebrity culture

should change to be plentiful with diversity and self love.