In the meantime, they've become women

July 31, 2024 12:28 PM

Our starlet narrators position their fans against the media, with media imagined as vicious and venal, while fans are pure-hearted and devoted. What these characterizations elide in their attempts to appeal to their audiences is the fact that we're guilty too, always grasping at shards of these girls and in this process tearing them apart. Like Eve, these are girls denied depth by the people in charge, understood as fallen women when they seek life experiences we didn't think they were ready for. Which brings me back to the bimbo summit, and the dumb blonde image all these girls inhabited far into adulthood. from American Bimbo, a collection of essays edited by Emmeline Clein [Post45]

The essays:

Lindsay Lohan’s Splashy, Sensationalized Journey To Sobriety by Rax King
Neither sexy, cool, nor smart by Elena Comay del Junco
On Twinning: The Parent Trap, The Hiltons, and the White Girls Who Raised Me by
Rob Franklin
Have We Learned Anything? by Lynn Melnick
The American Bimbo as a Site of Spiritual Struggle by Elle Nash
On Lipstick Lesbians, Feminine Suffering, and Aspirational Idiocy by Nora Rose Tomas

posted by chavenet (6 comments total)

Oh, the heyday in the 60s with starlets jumping into fountains at film conventions like Cannes... I've always liked the word starlet.
posted by Czjewel at 2:41 PM on July 31 [1 favorite]

I like the Lynn Melnick one. I'm not 100% sure I agree with the assertions about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, but I think she makes some good points.

I do think that Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer need to be thrown into the sun for thinking that questioning Dolly Parton or Britney Spears' look without any linkage back to their overall place in society. Like there's nothing else you could imagine to ask them about in a prime-time interview - that's just sad from a journalism standpoint.

Given the recent leaks about Justin Timberlake's arrest, I'm not sure much has changed. I'll bet the same evil crew is chomping at the bit, waiting for Swift, Beyonce, et al to mess up to amp it up 10X over a slightly washed up male pop star.
posted by The_Vegetables at 3:32 PM on July 31 [3 favorites]

In just the last week I've audiobooked both Paris Hilton's and Pamela Anderson's memoirs, so the timing here is impeccable.
posted by phunniemee at 6:23 PM on July 31 [1 favorite]

I was just thinking how much better people do celebrity these days. Gone are the RDJ-esque drug excess.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:43 PM on July 31 [1 favorite]

My daughters are going to be 33, 29 and 20 this year.

When we moved in 2004, the television did not come with us, ie. my daughters at that time were 13, 9 and newborn.

At the time, I just hated my role as TV critic/monitor/censor and now I realise how much grief I avoided for myself and my chidren.
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 1:47 AM on August 1 [1 favorite]

I was just thinking how much better people do celebrity these days. Gone are the RDJ-esque drug excess.

They could just be better hiding it. In the age of ubiquitous cameras and social media you have to be even more hyper-vigilant than previous celebrities were.
posted by star gentle uterus at 8:18 AM on August 1 [1 favorite]