A few nights ago I was sitting in my friend’s dorm listening to music and a Billie Eilish song came on, which sparked a conversation about celebrity activism. My friend brought up Billie Eilish’s acceptance speech when she was recently awarded the 2026 MLK Jr. Beloved Community Environmental Justice Award during which she spoke up against recent violent ICE raids and civil rights being threatened.
I mentioned that I had noticed a lot of people online criticizing her for this move, as well as her recent Instagram story asking why other celebrities hadn’t spoken up, by calling it “performative” and a way to “gain support from fans” rather than a genuine act. At the time, my friend shrugged and said that she believed Billie Eilish was a good person and that this speech came from a genuine place while my sister remained more cautious, stating that “we don’t know celebrities personally and will never know if they’re being genuine, so at the end of the day we can’t make assumptions about their character solely through social media.”
Later on, when I was scrolling through social media, I came upon a tweet that said something along the lines of “Americans treat their politicians like celebrities and treat their celebrities like politicians,” which had me thinking back to our previous conversation.
Why do we care so much about celebrities when it comes to speaking up about national issues? Why do we put the opinions of certain famous and influential figures higher than others? And why are we basing our moral compasses on entertainers?
The responses to that tweet fell into two considerably different sides that pretty much sum up the divisiveness surrounding this issue.
Side 1: Celebrities have large platforms, and with these platforms they have more of a responsibility than the average person to speak up concerning politics, global issues, and injustice.
Side 2: We need to stop caring about celebrities’ views. People would rather waste time trying to hold celebrities accountable than to do something productive such as helping those in our communities or calling representatives.
As someone who has spent a substantial amount of time in online fan spaces, I know firsthand how insane some people get when it comes to supporting their favorite artists and bashing those in opposition. In their eyes, their celebrity can “do no wrong” and any criticism against them, whether exaggerated or true, is simply a ploy against their reputation.
There seems to be this widespread idea that if you remain silent on anything, then it means you MUST support the opposite extreme, and if you do speak up it’s only a performative grab for attention, views, and fan support.
It reminded me of a controversy that singer Chappell Roan was involved in recently after the death of French film icon Bridget Bardot. In her hit song “Red Wine Supernova,” she had mentioned Bardot in the lyrics, and following her death, posted an Instagram story tribute citing her as an inspiration. People online immediately accused her of sharing Bardot’s sexist, racist, and homophobic views. Chappell Roan later on deleted the post and made a statement saying that she wasn’t aware of those views and obviously did not condone them, but the immediate attack online showed just another example of how no matter what a celebrity does, no one will ever be happy and how we expect celebrities to know EVERYTHING.
In a way, I understand both sides of the celebrity activism argument. I think it’s normal to want to believe that your favorite actor, musician, or influencer shares your same morals and views and that they’re a good person. However, we obviously shouldn’t be taking moral cues from celebrities and the fact that this has to be said is a little concerning in this day and age.
Your moral, political, and ethical views should be shaped from your own beliefs and what you consider important, not because you saw an Instagram post from a pop star.
Stan culture and the idea that our faves can literally do no wrong is a big reason why this has become such a huge issue in the past few years but that’s a whole other can of worms to unpack later. As my sister said, we don’t actually KNOW these celebrities, no matter how much content we consume about them. It’s extremely parasocial to think otherwise.
The debate over whether or not celebrities have a moral responsibility to use their platforms is incredibly nuanced. We want celebrities to be informed on everything when we ourselves are not. Celebrities are not politicians, but they can be vehicles for change and one would hope that if you had a platform you would use it to share resources, raise awareness for social issues, and donate to charities.
However, we shouldn’t idolize celebrities who do this and send death threats to those who don’t publicize it. When a national disaster or tragedy happens your first thought shouldn’t be “what would (insert celebrity) think or say” and if it is, that’s a serious problem and says a lot about where your priorities lie.
At the end of the day, if we’re trying to make change as a generation, the people we should be lobbying to speak out are politicians, not someone who went viral on TikTok, wrote a hit song, or acted in our favorite sitcom.