I recently have fallen in love with the writer/journalist Chuck Klosterman. I heard him talk at UNC Chapel Hill not too long ago, and I went to his speech without knowing exactly who he was or what he was about, but it was a free event so I thought what the hell. Turns out he's uber smart, talks about shit that I love, and above all seems to be really invested in maintaining integrity in his work as a journalist (for example, he doesn't follow up with celebrity interviews or pretend to "know" them). And even though he's such an intellectual you can still connect with him and get on his level because he's witty beyond belief and quite humble.
After listening to him speak I checked out one of his books from the library, Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas, which was a totally awesome read and pretty much changed my entire out look on celebrities. So in essence, blew my mind.
A part of this book is a collection of interviews he's had with different celebrities over the years and he emphasizes the fact that celebrities are carefully crafted images. Whenever a celebrity talks to an interviewer it's already a conversation set on false pretenses. The celebrity already has the role of "interviewee" and the person reporting as "interviewer". The celebrity is already on guard that personal questions might be asked and already has an idea of how they want to represent themselves to the public. As real life tells us, to truly get to know a person involves more than just asking a couple dozen questions.
After reading all these interviews Klosterman has had with the likes of Radiohead, Britney Spears, U2 etc., I look at these "relationships" (aka fandom) I've formed with certain celebrities and feel like they have all been built on an imaginary ground. Any kind of connection I may have felt I had with them feels totally false, everything was just carefully crafted to make me believe what I believe about every celebrity, ex. "Jonny Depp seems so sensitive and so dark and edgy!" (note: I don't actually have any kind of attachment to Mr. Depp, but that is the impression I get from the image he's made for himself and what people tend to think about him).
And don't get me wrong, I always kind of knew celebrities were fake, and a construction of some sort, but the Klosterman book just kind of exposed another layer of what seems like a giant conspiracy to get me to like and obsess over people I don't know.
That's why it's such a shock to the public whenever a celebrity does something "out of the ordinary" but yet very regular- because it doesn't fit in with their constructed image. Like when Owen Wilson slashed his wrists, or Rihanna got beat up by Chris Brown. These things can happen to regular people but how could it ever possibly happen TO THEM?!
... I guess what I'm saying is, read some Chuck Klosterman. It's a good time.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Gender Neutrality on the Internet
Since this is my first post on a blog EVER I'm curious to see what the general impressions of me (the author) already are.
I've decided to try and remain pretty anonymous so far- I purposely have not made any allusions to my gender or age (as of yet) because I think that is one of the coolest powers of the internet- total anonymity, if one chooses it.
But try as I might to be gender neutral I can't control what thoughts and biases any readers might have out there (as of now I have zero readers, so this isn't an issue just yet). But often times I find myself being put into some kind of gender box whenever I go on the Internet. Case and point, when I play spades on Yahoo! games, my screenname (which is something like "elephant55" - don't ask why- it was the 8th grade and I was young and foolish) is pretty damn neutral. Elephants aren't really more popular among women or men. Also, my little buddy icon is a dog wearing a cap. Although, dogs are typically seen as "masculine" and cats as "feminine", it should still not be concrete evidence as to what gender I am. Yet, I've observed that during general chatting or heated shit talking, I'm referred to as "he's fucking cheating!@#$!" or "that guy is a total douchebag". And aside from thinking, "mwuhaha Ive totally riled these people up" I also wonder if it's truly possible to be gender neutral on the Internet.
For some reason, I have this suspicion that you are by default male unless you prove otherwise. So have I already given myself away of what gender I am by my template colors? My profile icon? (yes- pepe the prawn is male but I dont identify myself with the prawn species so in the end it shouldn't say much at all). Or perhaps I'm not even human at all- and indeed am a prawn. A totally awesome prawn that could probably kick your ass at spades
.
That, my friends, is the power of the Internet. So feel free to stay completely anonymous and leave me some comments, or reveal yourself. Either way strangers will probably still form unfounded opinions about you, but YOU still have the power to either dispell,confirm or not give a shit about these opinions.
Finally: without reader comments or messages this blog will be completely useless to me. I made this blog to create discussion about stuff I find interesting and to see whether I might actually be right or whether I've just pulled this crap out of nowhere.
- Ari Maz
I've decided to try and remain pretty anonymous so far- I purposely have not made any allusions to my gender or age (as of yet) because I think that is one of the coolest powers of the internet- total anonymity, if one chooses it.
But try as I might to be gender neutral I can't control what thoughts and biases any readers might have out there (as of now I have zero readers, so this isn't an issue just yet). But often times I find myself being put into some kind of gender box whenever I go on the Internet. Case and point, when I play spades on Yahoo! games, my screenname (which is something like "elephant55" - don't ask why- it was the 8th grade and I was young and foolish) is pretty damn neutral. Elephants aren't really more popular among women or men. Also, my little buddy icon is a dog wearing a cap. Although, dogs are typically seen as "masculine" and cats as "feminine", it should still not be concrete evidence as to what gender I am. Yet, I've observed that during general chatting or heated shit talking, I'm referred to as "he's fucking cheating!@#$!" or "that guy is a total douchebag". And aside from thinking, "mwuhaha Ive totally riled these people up" I also wonder if it's truly possible to be gender neutral on the Internet.
For some reason, I have this suspicion that you are by default male unless you prove otherwise. So have I already given myself away of what gender I am by my template colors? My profile icon? (yes- pepe the prawn is male but I dont identify myself with the prawn species so in the end it shouldn't say much at all). Or perhaps I'm not even human at all- and indeed am a prawn. A totally awesome prawn that could probably kick your ass at spades
.That, my friends, is the power of the Internet. So feel free to stay completely anonymous and leave me some comments, or reveal yourself. Either way strangers will probably still form unfounded opinions about you, but YOU still have the power to either dispell,confirm or not give a shit about these opinions.
Finally: without reader comments or messages this blog will be completely useless to me. I made this blog to create discussion about stuff I find interesting and to see whether I might actually be right or whether I've just pulled this crap out of nowhere.
- Ari Maz
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
