Most people think of the paparazzi as a part of pop culture. They join photographers at red carpet events and in public spaces, with their main goal being to photograph celebrities
Social media has bridged the gap between celebrities and their fans, but celebrities are carefully choosing what they want to share online. They can communicate with fans, give them behind-the-scenes looks and create a fandom. However, celebrities also have private lives and a right to keep them to themselves. People have quickly become obsessed with celebrities to an unhealthy extent. Examples like Fleetwood Mac’s guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who was stalked for years, come to mind immediately. This has prevented people from supporting celebrities fighting off the problematic behaviors of paparazzi.
Apart from paparazzi, social media users have also allowed fans to foster parasocial relationships with their favorite celebrities. These relationships may make fans feel that celebrities owe them something. Several fans have even gone so far as to state that without them, celebrities wouldn’t be where they are. However, celebrities are only promoting their work lives with fans. They’re not selling their entire lives to be watched and viewed.
It has become too normalized for the general public to see celebrities’ private lives. According to Newsweek, research has discovered that “people between the ages of 18-24 became fixated with one or more celebrities at 12 times the rate of their parents’ generation.” This is best seen in “Stan Twitter,” where fandoms go to war with each other to defend their favorite artists. This concept has been taken too far because most of the time, the situations are truly not worth focusing on. People become too involved in celebrities’ livelihoods to the point that fans insert themselves into drama that does not involve them.
It is not uncommon for people to be fascinated with a celebrity’s life. Once social media algorithms recognize who people want to know more about, it fills feeds with celebrity content. This also leads to fan accounts for celebrities, which provide constant updates on them, to be made. Fans are given access to information like work schedules, rumored leaks and new photos of them. With these fan accounts, the gap between celebrities and their fans closes even more.
The paparazzi contribute to this unhealthy relationship. The lengths paparazzi will go to publicize celebrities’ lives has become too extreme to validate. Celebrities like Kate Middleton and Jennifer Aniston have had private images taken of them in remote areas published in magazines solely for fan viewership. In these cases, the paparazzi enables potentially harmful discussion between fans about their favorite celebrities, and celebrities can face detrimental consequences due to the paparazzi’s extreme practices and fan conversations.
Recently, pop singer Chappell Roan has come under fire for wanting the paparazzi to stop photographing her. While going to dinner in Paris, she turned the camera around on the photographers to show how she feels dehumanized. This came after Roan had already addressed how the paparazzi treated her on red carpets. Instead of people defending Roan, they see this behavior as something celebrities should expect. However, people should put themselves in their shoes and imagine how they would feel in those situations.
In a poll conducted in 2023, 48% of people stated it should be illegal to film and share content of strangers online, while 28% said it should be legal. Plus, with the amount of protection people have to film and take photos, it’s almost impossible to sue the paparazzi. Instead, celebrities are getting sued by the paparazzi for posting paparazzi photos online. Celebrities post these photos because fans want to know what they are doing. An Instagram post featuring a paparazzi photo shouldn’t warrant a whole lawsuit. It should only become a problem if it’s used in promotional materials.
At the end of the day, celebrities are still people who have their own lives and the same right to privacy. Society should listen to celebrities and advocate to end malicious practices by those intruding on celebrities’ lives.
Edited by Ash Merenbloom | [email protected]
Copy edited by Savannah Church and Avery Copeland | [email protected]
Edited by Chase Pray | [email protected]