The chorus is a total earworm, Taylor Swift looks like a queen in every single shot, Sean O’Pry’s bone structure is quite possibly the greatest thing evolution has ever blessed us with, and Joseph Kahn has again impressed with his gorgeous visual imagery and flawless cinematography. I fell in love with the music video of “Blank Space” almost immediately after watching it.
After a few replays however, I became increasingly aware of the themes and important topics being addressed in this surprisingly insightful video.
Swift’s music video was released following backlash against her removal of songs from Spotify and an increase in pointed comments on the topic of subjects of her songs – her ex-boyfriends. As according to video director Joseph Kahn, the intention of the music video was to address the idea that, “If she has so many boys breaking up with her maybe the problem isn’t the boy, maybe the problem is her.” What else makes “Blank Space” so interesting is the parallels between its video and the ever-present influence of the media on the private and public lives of celebrities.
“I can make the tables turn.”
In almost all cases of public figures, media portrayal has a far larger impact on a celebrity’s public image than the objective truth, and subsequently, paparazzi and reporters more or less hold the lynchpin to a celebrity’s success. The relationship between fan and artist is unidirectional and parasocial, with the celebrity having extremely little personal input on their image to their fans, most of which they do not know and do not care about on a personal level. In this sense, celebrities are not only “read like a magazine”, but literally are what is read in a magazine.
We watch as Swift paints O’Pry in a literal image of perfection before later arming herself with a knife and a can of spray paint to distort and ruin it. “I can make the bad guys good for a weekend,” she promises, before asking rather sadistically “if the high was worth the pain”. O’Pry is poisoned by her apple and (after somehow surviving), drives away – smart boy – and is soon replaced by a new visitor.
This storyline is disturbingly similar to the relationship between the media and celebrities in the real world. An artist enters the industry and enjoys their time in the spotlight, but are all too often torn down by the very same people who built them up. Celebrities and the people who publicize their lives share a warped symbiotic relationship, where supporters and destroyers are one and the same.
In this age of modern technology and limited legal measures preventing it from occurring, media outlets, bloggers, and social media users can easily interpret information in a heavily biased light and falsify information with little to no consequence. Quotations can be made out of context, events can be reported with omissions, statements can be forced under pressure.
For instance, on the first season of Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice”, Omarasa Manigault-Stallworth was crowned “the most hated woman on television” because of the simple fact that film editing made it entirely too simple to show only one side of a contestant. Material can be selected and cropped out in order to portray a certain character, and in Manigault-Stallworth’s case, the desired character was one for the public to enjoy hating.
This ease in contorting existing truths to create false realities makes the psychological burden on celebrities extremely strenuous, as can be seen in the number of stress-linked disorders and conditions associated with fame. As the industry grows and technology improves, forays into the personal lives of celebrities become increasingly intrusive, and as a result the need to maintain a constant image grows despite the fact that such an endeavour is simply psychologically impossible.
In a well-known example of the consequences of public scrutiny, Kurt Cobain confessed that he believes he has lost his authenticity as a person, soon afterward committing suicide once it becomes apparent that drugs and alcohol have not succeeded in solving his problems. Marilyn Monroe and Robin Williams are two other examples of well-known, well-loved celebrities who have fallen as a result of this obsession to report and extort.
As seen in “scandals” surrounding Britney Spears in 2007, it is evident that the media has become less sympathetic over the years to the pressures faced by celebrities, and the precariousness of their images. A mother’s loss of her two children was reported as a “marital disaster”, and a breakdown in the wake of extreme stress was ridiculed in a series of distorted incident reports of Spears’ “craziness”. This, of course, was all accepted as reality by tens of millions of people who depended on the media to make available the truth.
“I’m dying to see how this one ends.”
From the earliest days of humanity, there has always been the natural lure to see others hurt, and to enjoy ourselves while we watch their downfall. We watched gladiators kill each other in the Coliseum, laughed as ballroom scandals ruined reputations, and today, we have access to a nearly unlimited supply of public humiliation at the click of a mouse or remote.
We watch as friends become enemies on Big Brother, as hearts get broken on The Bachelor, and as normal individuals turn to frightening measures to beat their opponents on Survivor. The survival of these television shows depends on their ability to keep a viewer’s attention, which means that novelty is paramount. What better novelty exists than embarrassment on national television? Surely, nothing can be more enjoyable than seeing familiar faces hurt each other while we watch safely, unobserved in the comfort of our homes.
These television shows would surely fail if we, as the kind and compassionate human beings we are, all tune out and refuse to watch such broadcasted atrocities. But the truth is, we don’t. It’s a rather gruesome reality, but this is human nature in action. On a very basic and primal level, each and every one of us has a tendency to feel joy at another’s pain.
Certainly, it’s normal to feel happy that a competitor has fallen, and there is an inherent relief when misfortune befalls another, rather than ourselves. But in this time of technological advancement and universal accessibility through the Internet, the public’s collective schadenfreude is frequently channelled towards the few who find themselves under spotlights and microscopes.
The public is capable of a degree of cruelty that would have been unheard of in previous generations, and the media loves this, because readers and viewership mean money. And so, allegations of cheating, fashion blunders, and questionable exchanges are slapped across magazine covers for all to enjoy at their leisure. If the public is feeling particularly indulgent, we might even add a poisonous comment or two on the social media pages of our favourite celebrity to hate.
The slightest blunder – like O’Pry’s unfortunately excessive attention to his (nice-looking, but still yet unidentified) cell phone – can be enough to set the wolves on a previously adored celebrity.
In fact, the success of Perez Hilton, for example, hinges entirely upon crude, uninhibited mockery of his peers. He makes money by ripping apart reputations. His ridicule of others is his marketing strategy, and his infamy is the driving force of his career. The result of his vicious words is a website with some of the most expensive ad spaces on the World Wide Web and a massive fan following.
The public often doesn’t realize that their passive support of modern schadenfreude has real, serious consequences that exist outside the safety bubble of a seat in the audience.
In 2008, American Idol contestant Paula Goodspeed committed suicide outside the home of judge Paula Abdul after her audition was derided before an audience of millions. Hers is only one of a frightening number of celebrity suicides.
“We’ll take this way too far.”
Taylor Swift isn’t stupid. She is well aware of the controversy and rumours surrounding her, as those two terms have obviously become staples in the life of any famous figure. What she has chosen to do with this music video however, is a step forward in changing our view of celebrities as zoo animals.
Her self-satiristic approach to the problems that have risen as of late is admirable. Commentary on this topic of media involvement has been long overdue, and seeing an artist as influential as Swift tackle it is very encouraging indeed. The line, “They’ll tell you I’m insane,” has in fact proven her to be one of the most clear-minded players in the current industry. Take a bow, Taylor Swift.
Let’s all remind ourselves that celebrities have feelings, vulnerabilities and rights (scandalous!) like the rest of us. Celebrities are not made-up stock characters or vessels for our frustrations. They are humans, and it’s about time that we treated them as such.
