The dangers of celebrity worship and how to overcome it

By Alina Zainab Shaukat (Lin Zainab)

Over last week whilst attending different workshops around Blackburn with Darwen town centre, Museum and market i have also been doing research on Celebrity worship, because lets face it is a real issue, whilst scrolling on any type of social media i see many fan pages of famous, popular celebrities, whilst some whom i follow and interact with are cute, adorable and sweet, some of them i have noticed are extreme celebrity worship, to the point here they have to film little bits of there favoured celebrities, make up a parasocial and hypothetical friendship or romantic relationship. which is the third and extreme stage of celebrity worship according to McCutcheon, Lange, and Houran in 2002. who made a scale with

1. Entertainment social – Where the fan/follower just engages with other fan/followers over a favoured celebrity they may create beautiful post and video/edits.
2. Intense -personal – where fan/follower starts to feel a personal connection to the celebrity.
3. Borderline–Pathological: obsessive, identity-fused attachment – where the fan’/follower starts to feel entitled to the celebrity and claiming them theirs.

Mccutcheon and Maltby examined over 200 adults from the US and UK and have found that celebrity worshippers where foolish, persistent and submissive and even less honest.

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Someone famous and successful can make others feel seen and heard even if they have regular life’s. the article goes on to read that people obsess over a celebrity as they resonate with a certain character of a favoured celebrity.

Psychology today actually has a quiz https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/tests/personality/celebrity-obsession-test

this way it can give you a rounded number of where you are on celebrity worship scale, but to prevent one for falling to deep into obsession of a celebrity. It gives practical, therapeutic advise like drawing/sketching or painting using mixed media for a portrait of a favoured celebrity. create bookmarks, zine pages and books mini, midi, large or simple A4 landscape or portrait book stories, poems and song writing. Create something if you have a garden that reminds you of your favourite celebrity. I am not a sculptor but i know some wonderful sculptors, also research what charity your favoured celebrity follows or helps out and find the charity and see how you can get involved in the community.

Also the third and final step do go seek therapy which is another way and also often the first step to connecting with the real worlds. i know so many celebrities have Ariana Grande, selena Gomez, Demi levato, miley ray cyrus, Dua Lipa, Dove Cameron have all been open about their mental health and seeking therapy so why should non celeb not seek therapy, therapy is for everyone wether famous or not.

Newport academy states girls between ages 14 to 16 with low/poor body image who show intense personal levels of a celebrity is evident.

A personal example from myself i as a teenager had a very low and poor body image i hated the way i look, the way i talked even though people found my voice cute, it was all about my outer beauty, that i didn’t appreciate until my early twenties. where i started experimenting with different skin care, hair care and make up products and finding my style. but i started love myself, date myself take myself out on dinner dates and bought myself flowers well not exactly flowers but to the movies or cinemas as we say in the UK, retail therapy as i love and always have loved fashion.

Also i was a teenager in the 2010s i did feel a little left out that i didn’t have a smart phone but that is the good thing, i felt like a teenager in the swinging sixties no mobile/smart phines, no social media and i’m glad i didn’t watch reality tv shows like dress to impress, dinner date, love island any of them or the real house wives.

I am glad i watched cartoon instead like loud house for comedic and laughter, My little pony friendship is magic came out in 2010 and before that as child in the 2000s i watched the old my little pony from the 1980s, winxclub, and i love anime still do. This saved me from falling deeply into that celebrity worship. Lets face it last time i got myself a woman weekly magazine it talked about those weight loss jabs but before that was apage of famous celebrities who looked way skinnier then there usual weight. Weather they had weight loss jabs or surgery is there choice not mine. This only teaches us not to follow a trend and become a trendsetter, create your own trends. I see so many people doing this trend and bless them as they think they are following who they are but they say in a world full of kardashians be this certain celebrity, no in a world full of celebrities including the kardashians be yourself and i praise those who comment be yourself under these post.

Many books and articles and J. Reid Meloy in his book stalking, threatening and attacking public figures in page 277 compulsive buying an object used or favoured by the favoured celebrity. Doing something against the law for the celebrity which is often associated with stalking or threatening the public figure.

Michael S. Levy (2015). in his book entertainment obsession: understanding our addiction in page 50, so many people struggle with their life’s and self esteem, whether it started in childhood as their parents never mirrored and praised their accomplishments.

As adult it is a result of job loss or finance, rejection by a spouse, friend, friendship group or jobs.

This is my research on celebrity worship, i came across this as i just typed in fanpages on TikTok search bar and few therapist and life coaches discussed about celebrity worship, this interested me as i know i had poor body image as a teenager and people calling me a loner when they never knew me was frustrating, but i’m also glad i didn’t know much about celebrities.

However, i have to delete videos i edited on camilla as most of them where ridiculous, i’m no camilla or camilla fan page i respect and admire her, she is a human with flaws has been pitted against women which people should stop, i do followed the queens reading room as a writer and reader myself.

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