Authenticity seems to be a key judgment factor that is used when evaluating people that we necessarily don’t even know. People are always looking to see if a particular celebrity is being real or true, but how do we even know that what it is that they are doing to portray themselves as real is actually real? I feel that it is so hard for celebrities to distinguish what they think they should be doing to be real, to what is actually them.
The power of fame can change lives, which is seen in the film A Star is Born. Judy Garland’s rise to fame concerns her husband since he has seen what great power can do to people. Norman tells Judy at the height of her career “don’t let it take over your life” (Dyer). Like so many celebrities today they seem to constantly try to find that balance between their career and life. In Richard Dyer’s article “A Star is Born and the Construction of Authenticity” he says the “star chrisma works in Hollywood cinema shows a dialectic process of authentication by which existing star image is countered to reveal “true” star persona” (Dyer), he is saying that there is always some part of true in a star’s life but it is usually found privately where most people don’t see it. But our fastination with what they are like and celebrities know that we enjoy this so they give us and the media something to follow. This has led to the “growth of scandal magazines, unauthorized biographies, candid camera photo journalism and so on”. The star image that was portrayed in the film demonstrated all of the hardships with the media and personal life that Judy and Norman tried to control in order to keep a good image for the public to see.
I was completely oblivious to the type of fan base that Judy Garland had attracted during her time, but after looking back at her performances and reading about her life it makes sense as to why a gay audience admired her so much. This gay following of hers seemed to develop through out the years.
Her style of acting known as “camp” portrayed her appearance and gestures as being similar to a drag act. Judy experienced an inner conflict with her self that reflected in her acting and allowed her to also be relatable to the gay audience as they were struggling with inner conflicts as well. She constantly experienced instability and loneliness like gay men, which allowed them to find a connection with her and helped for many of them to eventually come out. Dyer states that “her MGM image made possible a reading of Garland as having a special relationship to suffering, ordinariness, normality, and it is the relationship that structures much of the gay reading of Garland”. This gave people hope that if she was experiencing this anguish and could get past it then they could too.
1. Do you think that there’s no such thing of bad publicity?
2. What celebrities today attract at gay fan base?
3. Why do you think Judy was unable to portray the kind of image that Marilyn Monroe did?
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