By Kaitlin Bavaro
We all have celebrities that we are fans of, and it can feel weirdly personal when it is revealed that our favorite celebrity did something deemed unforgivable. This is largely because of “stan culture”, a phenomenon where fans share their opinions about a specific TV show, movie, music, and/or celebrity on social media. “Stan culture” has essentially made worshiping celebrities a normal and common practice in our society. Stan communities on social media often seem to gravitate towards celebrity couples and hyperfixate on Hollywood relationships, even in regards to news that does not pertain to their favorite celebrities.
These concepts are what led to an uproar on the internet in regards to the cheating scandals of both Adam Levine and Ned Fulmer. If you somehow didn’t hear about this by now, I will give a brief summary about both situations. Adam Levine, lead singer of the band Maroon 5, cheated on his wife, Victoria Secret model Behati Prinsloo (who also happens to be pregnant with their third child) with another model named Sumner Stroh. Ned Fulmer was apart of the Buzzfeed (though have since separated from Buzzfeed and created their own company) content group named “The Try Guys”, which were four YouTubers who would film themselves trying different things/activities together, and has since been fired after pictures were released that he was cheating on his wife Ariel Fulmer, who he has two children with.
While people seemed to not be terribly surprised with Levine’s actions, they were very quick to form opinions about each party involved in the scandal and engage in long debates with each other, which caused the news of the scandal to spread like wildfire. More importantly, it began to open up conversations about Hollywood relationships as a whole and how things are not always how they seem, especially when acknowledging celebrity couples are marketed to the public to a certain extent.
The public seemed to take the Ned Fulmer cheating scandal much more personally. This is because Fulmer, alongside with the other three Try Guys, marketed themselves as wholesome and all-around good and respectable people. Not only that, but the Try Guys have been on YouTube for nearly a decade, and even people who might not still consider themselves fans still but once were fans still associate the Try Guys with their good coming of age memories. So naturally, when a member of said group, who would often publicly declare to the Internet that he loves his wife, was exposed to cheating, the public seemed to feel a strange sense of personal heartbreak.
This situation began a conversation across the internet about why we put celebrities on pedestals at all when we don’t (and will probably never) know them. It feels like these celebrities have deceived our trust and lied to the public when they are exposed for something unforgivable, but part of their job is to be marketable, meaning they need to seem like decent people in order to be well liked, so that they can earn public support, receive opportunities, and have a good reputation.
This isn’t to say that we should stop liking celebrities all together: that would be extreme and pretty unrealistic. This also isn’t to say that all celebrities are bad people: this would also be extreme and pretty unrealistic. But this is to say that maybe we should take a step back and examine how we go about liking celebrities. Admiring someone for their talent/work/art is fine and harmless, but there is a line that borders into worship territory that we need to make sure that we don’t cross.
Worshiping a celebrity creates a parasocial relationship between the admirer and the admired, which can be defined as a “one-sided relationships, where one person extends emotional energy, interest and time, and the other party, the persona, is completely unaware of the other’s existence” according to findapsychologist.org. This can become a substitute for contemporary relationships, which can be a potential mental health issue.
Feeling upset when your favorite celebrity isn’t who you thought they were is completely understandable and valid. But chances are, the people who are already in your life are just as great (if not better) than your favorite celebrity. At the end of the day, the lives of celebrities are no one’s business but their own, and while it’s beneficial to have conversations about cheating and ethics, we should not be so invested in the personalities of celebrities.