Kim or Caitlyn? Breaking Boundaries in Fame
A question that often comes to our mind: why is fame an important area to reflect on? For me, fame has had a pervasive presence in how fans engage in pleasures and identification, and in how they develop para-social relations with celebrities. The relationship is both material and symbolic. Fan practices such as circulation and re-mixing of celebrity images and texts have physical components. The practices also reflect and reinforce imaginary relations that hold affective and cultural values While the Kardarshians offer pleasures of hybrid identities, they also silence articulations of and...
Read MoreConference Corners
I have just over 7 days left for the inaugural Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS) conference in Toronto – it will be an honour and pleasure to finally meet all delegates in person. Part of me is in New York as I am also organizing our next media conference there and being interviewed for Shannon Skinner’s new radio show this week. I am grateful for the opportunities to speak and looking forward to sharing views on celebrities at the conferences and in media. Historically, stardom had its origins in Hollywood where film played a role in creating the actor as a star....
Read MoreNew York (2015) Bridging Gaps: Where is the Persona in Celebrity and Journalism?
The Terrace Club 25 W. 51st St. (Off Fifth Ave.) New York, NY September 2-3, 2015 In tabloid journalism and in social media, gossip, rumors and scandals about celebrities develop intimacy among fans. Such gossip and rumour mongering serves a purpose in society: to build a common moral ground on the backs of celebrity lives. However what about the celebrities themselves whose emotional lives are consumed by us? The production, circulation and reception of these celebrities then negate the democratic role of journalism in providing value-free information and undermine artistic talent and...
Read MoreDriving Words
“The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word”. Mata Hari’s beautiful and powerful saying is part of Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit’s journey in which she explores dance as a metaphor of life. She quotes Carl Sandburg and further highlights that “poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.” Read more on her dance page. Madhuri Dixit is one of the many famous actresses who not only acts but also dances, and shares it in interviews and on stage. That’s how I grew up – witnessing art as a creative element of fame. For me, fame...
Read MoreThe Moving Writer
Dear Readers, Books, blogs and reflections are filling my week in Canada. I just came back from Portugal, where I was invited as a speaker on celebrity, persona and selfies in activism. It was an honour to present developments in celebrity activism for human rights, animal rights, and environmental sustainability at the Universidade da Beira Interior (UBI) there. Representation of invisible human conditions and non-human animals in The Save Movement and were deeply touching and memorable for me. Gratitude goes to Dr Anita Krajnc for bearing witness and offering the images that I presented...
Read More
Recent Comments