The independent news organization of Duke University
Every like, every comment on my TikTok brings forth instant validation. As I am writing this, I’m also brainstorming new ideas to extend my fifteen minutes of fame: should me and my roommate “break up”, or should we keep on playing the game?
Is Addison Rae just “another party girl bimbo,” or are we just quick to hate on her because she challenges our preconceptions about making it in Hollywood? Do we simply hate influencers because they upend the myth of meritocracy?
So this week has been particularly jarring.
In archival footage from her 1992 “Star Search” appearance, host Ed McMahon asks a blunt question of a ten-year old Britney: “Do you have a boyfriend?”
Documentaries tell stories, and as consumers of media, we learn from those stories. And sometimes, those stories are dangerously problematic.
The wildly successful Bon Appétit Test Kitchen used to be at the top of that list. But now, after a series of workplace reckonings, empty commitments toward change and new additions to the Test Kitchen cast, it’s clear that what originally drove the channel toward internet virality is now gone.
In recent months, the daily shenanigans of 16-year-old Claudia Conway have been dissected and prodded at by DailyMail and other right-leaning news outlets.
Megan Fox’s narrative of exclusion from Hollywood isn’t unique. As a sex symbol, she was forced into a mold of what being “sexy” meant — and when she didn’t squeeze into that mold, her image was manipulated and tarnished forever by the men that held the strings.
With “Keeping Up,” the Kardashians established a cultural stronghold on celebrity status. Through the show, they manipulated their narratives, attracted unanimous public attention and carefully carved out their brand.
The format of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” is amusingly predictable. She brings someone onto the stage — preferably a child prodigy or a teacher in need of new classroom desks — and gifts them an impressive sum of money or a flat-screen TV.
