Question 11

11) Find two critical texts from the semester (at least two weeks apart), and discuss how they relate to or expand the argument of your overall topic for the semester, drawing on a specific advertisement you did NOT discuss in your papers (250-300 words).

My overall topic discusses how celebrities are used as advertisements for a variety of media (eg., film, television, music, beauty products etc) , and how said ads reflect upon the image that they are trying to uphold. One example of this is the advertisements for the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith and the fact that the scandal that occurred during the making of the film is incentive and advertisement enough for audiences to go and see it. America is intrigued by the “shock” factor and what better than following the gossip and lives of idolized celebrities. In Janice Radway’s article, Women Read the Romance: The Interaction of Text and Context, the interests of women are discussed. A love for romance novels is very similar to an interest in the lives of celebrities, especially when revolved around their relationships and life off the screen, “They readily admit in fact that the characters and events discovered in the pages of typical romance do not resemble the people and occurrences they must deal with in their daily lives” (69). Radway even remarks on how many women feel good at viewing the relationships of others and that the fantastical heroine and villain dynamic are a topic of interest to read. This is also relevant among the trashy gossip magazines of celebs and their lives exploited across the covers of Ok! And People magazines. For example, the breakup of Jennifer Anniston and Brad Pitt caused for a media riot as readers and viewers realized that it had something to do with his co-actress Angelina Jolie; ultimately a heroine (Anniston) and villain (Jolie) emerged into the mass media. This of course drew viewers into their upcoming movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith, to witness the adultery in action. Like romance novels women can find interest in the exploited lives of the celebrities as they can “escape” from their own by focusing on them.

Another article of reading that relates heavily to my topic is Laurie Ouellette’s Inventing the Cosmo Girl as it mainly surrounds the construction of what the modern day woman “should” be. Many of the celebrities whose lives are viewed under a spot light are generally supposed to keep up the appearance that they do embody this ideal woman. “Brown was one of the first mainstream figures to free women from the guilt of premarital sex by advising them to disregard the patriarchal double standard. But she was also concerned with shaping and transforming the class position of the Cosmo Girl through a combination of self-management strategies, performative tactics, sexuality, and upwardly mobile romance” (117). Basically these women are supposed to be many things, sexy but not slutty, available but not too available; all of which is difficult to embody at once. Celebs attempt to keep up this false façade so as to positively promote their new show or movie; however, when they do stray from this image they are exploited. Thus in the example of the feud between Jen and Angelina began a further look at them as actresses and their image as a whole, eventually promoting them even further. As either strays from the “Cosmo girl” more press and attention become the result. All in all the lives of celebrities are used and exploited by the media to entertain and promote, neither of which accurately depict their lives, but that’s not what matters to the mass media, only the money that comes along with advertisements.