Child Stars: Immortalized by Public Sphere
I began researching former child stars to find a Michael Jackson article that would help me point out my modernist take on how the private issues of a celebrity child's life should remain out of the public sphere, when I stumbled upon this interesting website I thought I'd share with the class. From the author who wrote, 'Former Child Stars: The Story of America's Least Wanted' began an Internet website dedicated to former child stars, what happened to them, where they are now, and what have they done in-between. They are listed from something ordinary as in who became college jocks to the latter categorizations such as who did playboy, or who went on to rehab and what stars committed suicide. This fascinated me so much that I made this the main focus of this week's blog. First of all, there has always been public debate as to how responsible is the media for contributing to the downfall of these aspiring young stars and although I flip-flop from modernist to postmodernist views relating to the public sphere I feel that my modernist side of me takes over on this one. At first I thought, "Cool, I always wondered what happened Carlton?" So I found myself reading quite a bit on the lives of others... some information was not new to me at all regarding car crashes, DUIs, rehab, jail, and simply those who have disappeared all together. What I was shocked by was the astounding public sphere that stems from this information. This website contained other links to other websites who follow the daily lives of certain celebrities like "Baio Watch" or something like that. Crazy! I am not sure what positive impacts this has on society. I can't believe people have time in their lives to write essays called, "Ain't She Hostile?" (On Molly Ringwald's fall). I am a modernist, in that I think it is completely trivial and misleading to categorized these people with such labels and the public sphere has the ability to ruin a person forever. The public contributes to "sightings" of these stars that could help a person's image, or destroy it. How do we know some of these are true? Do we really care that Joey Lawerance was found in a barber's office complaining about going bald? Do we care who what stars went on to do porn? Why do we find this fascinating? How many of us will use this website after reading this blog? Why are we doing it?
This website containing such subjective aspects of these people's lives can be innocent for some, but terribly tragic for others. The public sphere helps create these child stars, the same sphere was used to destroy them, and now there are countless links trying to immortalize them. Remember, these are just kids who are bound to mess up (some more than others) but what role should society have to protect these kids from these types of categorization? Just because they live in the public eye does not mean they need to forfeit their privacy and freedom.
Hello, I agree with your posts, but in a different light. I don’t think child start should be in stoplight either because there are damaging effects that are very likely to happen their adult years. I think we’re all familiar (or at least have heard of) with the VH1 ‘Behind the Music’ specials where we hear of these tragedies. I also agree that it is very trivial. Paying attention to celebrity gossip does not put food on the table or keep a roof over your head. Paying attention to politics or the latest legislation of economical factors obviously would seem more important. So, while I agree this is the way things SHOULD be, it this isn’t how things are. People are attracted to the glamour and fame of celebrities and idol worship them, sadly. I agree that it shouldn’t matter – but it does. Also, per our conversations in Tuesday’s class, being is a celebrity is a package. You can’t expect to be the star of a blockbuster movie and not have fans interested in your personal life. It may not seem fair, but it seems that it is a fact. People are attracted to celebrities like moths to a flame. I agree in the sense of how things should, but also accepting of how things actually are and doubt they can or will ever change.
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