JGL, celebrity culture, and can you be a fan whilst being critical?
Interesting JGL commentary all over my dash today.
Celebrity culture and that weird person-celebrity divide
Something that came up a few times was the comparison between the way JGL acts toward his fans vs. the way TH acts toward his fans.
A big, big difference, in my opinion, lies in the fact JGL was a child star. He's almost the quintessential Hollywood child star, when you think about it, with all the requisite weirdness, warpedness and, yeah, jadedness that comes with it. He's been in the limelight his whole life, to varying degrees. There's no way that hasn't influenced the way he views celebrity and celebrity culture.
TH, on the other hand? Not so used to the limelight. Not like that. His career path pretty much went: small parts, slightly bigger parts, small indie films, INCEPTION, OH MY GOD, BOOM. I wasn't surprised when he deleted his social media stuff again. And that sort of thing? The way some fans dehumanised TH and sent him vile, vulgar messages? It's exactly the kind of creepy celebrity culture/worship that JGL denounces.
I'm not entirely sure I agree with the statements where people say JGL behaves the way he does because he enjoys the attention. I just think he's so used to it - after a near lifetime of being in the limelight, of being exposed to it - that he can just shrug it off, and view it very objectively (and very jadedly).
Do celebrities really owe us anything?
Continuing on from the 'JGL's behaviour vs. TH's behaviour toward fans' thing, but now focusing on their actual behaviour rather than possible differences in how they view the limelight: it's been correctly pointed out that TH happily gives out autographs and stands for photos, whereas JGL avoids it as best as he can. And that's rude, right Ungracious? We're his fans. Without us, there wouldn't be an audience for his stuff.
Yyyyyeah.
But the thing is this: celebrities are already fulfilling their part of the contract just by acting/singing/writing/whatever it is that they do. They put their stuff out for our consumption and we pay to consume. And... that's it, really. Everything else? The autographs, and the photos, and the special, up-close-and-personal meetings at cons? They're extras. Celebrities don't owe us those things. But some fans get pretty hot under the collar when they don't get them. They act like some social contract has been broken when, really, the only contract that arguably exists is: '(X) puts this out there, we pay to consume it'.
Oh my God, why? Why did you say that, JGL?
Sometimes, I really, really despair of the things JGL says. Like, head in my hands, eye-rolling, muttering 'oh my God' despair. There's really no excuse for them, although there are plenty of explanations.
(Most of those explanations run along the lines of: 'he's a white, upper class male in the 25 - 45 age bracket, and he has all the natural advantages - and blindness to those advantages - that come with it'.)
However, I don't wash my hands of him because... well... he tries. To use a somewhat recent analogy, JGL is the Marvel to Robin Thicke's DC.
Is he in a position of privilege? Yup. Does he sometimes engage in dudebro behaviour when in a room full of dudebros? Yup. Has he internalised some sexist beliefs? Yup, motherfucker, yup. But when he's called out on it, he listens, and he apologises.
Would I prefer it if he didn't make dudebro statements? Absolutely. But, at the same time, I realise how deeply entrenched some beliefs are in society (like... 'most pretty women aren't funny' *sigh*), and how someone in a position of privilege might not recognise the harm in such a belief, or that they might not even be conscious that they have that belief. So I will give him props for listening and trying. I won't side-eye him when he says he's a feminist because, at the heart of it, I believe he is. He's internalised some insidious shit, like most people in positions of privilege have, but he can unlearn it, and he's shown that he can.
I didn't have a conclusion at first, but I do now!
On celebrity culture: I think being under media scrutiny from a very early age has probably skewed JGL's view of celebrity in a way that doesn't happen with adult stars (as in, stars who became famous in adulthood rather than childhood/adolescence). And he-- well, actually not just JGL, but all celebrities... they don't really owe us anything. Highlighting his aversion to autographs and photographs isn't really an indicator of his arrogance, so much as it's an indicator of what fans have come to see as being their due, just because they're fans, in my opinion.
On the shit that he sometimes says: JGL fucks up. He's probably going to keep fucking up. But he's also trying. Which is why it's important that people keep calling him out on his shit when he fucks up. We can absolutely be fans of him and, at the same time, say, "Oh man. No. You cannot say that, that is wrong and harmful, and this is why." Being critical of him is not the same as hating on him.