The public has a love-hate relationship with celebrities, idolizing them when they are at their peak and then turning on them when they inevitably decline with age. That thought occurred to me when I looked at the sponsored advertisements at the bottom of each post. It is depressing to see the number of them that have titles like Gross: See Photos Of 35 Celebrities Who’ve Aged Horribly and Celebs Who Went From Bombshell to Bummer. Since these ads are designed to be click-bait, it is clear that there is a market to simply see people who are no longer as young and conventionally attractive as they once were.
It must be hard to be a celebrity, constantly in the public eye, especially if you are a woman. You are expected to not just always look your best but to keep looking the way you did when you were young. It is no wonder that some of them go to such extremes to try and maintain their looks and if they fail at it, shun being seen in public because they know that these photographers are looking to take the most unflattering photos of them to share with the public.
We should let celebrities age gracefully, without imposing unrealistic expectations on them and then gloating when they fail to meet them.
My only exposure to tabloids happens while waiting in line at a cash register, but I’ve noticed for decades they eagerly jump at any opportunity to embarrass the famous (with certain political exceptions).
Apparently this sells magazines.
Sometimes I wonder whether this involves a resentment of the rich-&-famous over whom so many otherwise drool and swoon, but such thoughts tend to drift into ideas of struggle between economic classes, so as a good American I shut them down every time.
I leave all celebrities alone, unless they do their schtick. Look, I worship guitar god Ritchie Blackmore, but only when he plays his guitar. I don’t care how often he has been married, to whom, how many children he has. But when he releases a new CD I want to hear it, for the nuggets hidden in the inferior stuff (he peaked between 1970 and 1980). I have read many of his interviews; fortunately he mainly talks about his artistic career. In that respect I won’t leave him alone.
Otherwise though I leave all celebrities alone, no matter their age.
To honour a celebrity who hasn’t aged well (her success caused obesitas ao):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbQbmrWKx4k
Who cares! Da voice, man, da voice. And she was 63 in that video.
@ mnb0
63! And that’s your idea of not ageing well?! 🙂
To address the phenomenon Mano describes, I suspect people get a perverse and illogical confidence boost from ageing celebs. “Celeb X was a big sex symbol adored by millions. But look! Today I’m skinnier and more sexy than Celeb X!”