Halpern, Jake. Fame Junkies: The Hidden Truths Behind America's Favorite Addiction. Houghton Mifflin. New York, New York. December 11, 2006

King, Natalie. The effect of body dissatisfaction on women's perceptions of female celebrities. International Journal of Eating Disorders. Volume 27, Issue 3 , Pages 341 – 347. 29 Feb 2000.
Wakefield, Rachel. Society should reward celebrity talent, not bad behavior. Baylor University. April 3, 2008.

Celebrities have become the modern American’s royalty. Any citizen paying attention in a society where Hollywood updates come before war casualty numbers on the nightly news, where magazines that keep readers updated on the latest star’s bar of choice sell before the local newspaper can begin to watch a certain person of fame come of age, then is able to analyze her messy love life, celebrate with her on her wedding day, obsess over the baby bump, and then do it all over again after the divorce. Many people believe today’s culture’s celebrity obsession is harmless, a distraction in the distressing events that have come to trouble the world, but the affects of celebrity worship have incredible damage on how the people, especially women and girls, living in America see themselves. The results from a survey conducted of 653 middle-school students show that given a choice of becoming the CEO of a major corporation, the president of Yale or Harvard, a Navy SEAL, a U.S. senator or "the personal assistant to a very famous singer or movie star," almost half of the girls, 43.4%, chose the assistant role (Halpern, 3). These statistics only begin to show the innumerable ways celebrity worship is changing the way women are viewing their role in the world. Women surviving in today’s age are strongly impacted by the impression of how life is supposed to be as role modeled by celebrities, as they are informed on how to dress, behave, find love, procreate and be a good mother.
Appearance is one of the biggest influences celebrities have on today’s society of women. The biggest and most obvious example is the media’s incredibly large impact on eating disorders. The average celebrity is about 35 pounds heavier than the average American woman (Glamour, 273) and the toll that can have on any woman’s psyche has effects so grand, it has changed our modern culture forever. In accordance with critical thinking, one study done in Australia shows that “media exposure causes women to feel heightened dissatisfaction with their body shape. Women are effected by media exposure due to their own perception of females in the media, and the media has a strong role in body dissatisfaction and dieting disorders� (King, 2). This study clearly shows how the modern day celebrity affects how women across the United States look down and see their bodies. The ways in which this has changed the world are numerous. From the creation of new multi billion dollar diet and fitness industries, to pornographic images becoming more and more focused on the idealization of women (created by celebrities) as prepubescent girls, it seems celebrities have changed the outsides of how women look in almost every aspect.
Behavior is one of the newest and most peculiar aspects of celebrity that has come to be modeled by American females. As the obsession with celebrity grows, the more and more of the celebrity lifestyle is revealed, the good, the bad, and the ugly. With the latest string of celebutante’s getting attention for something normally regarded as failures (DUI’s, trips to rehab), it changes how people, especially young women, can view their own lifestyles. As an essay from Baylor University points out, “There is something very wrong with the entertainment industry when people are being offered more money for rehab photos and x-rated exclusives than the average American's yearly salary�. (Wakefield, 1). As wrong as it may be, these standards have a large impact on that same average American, whose definition of good versus bad behavior is changed after the latest celebrity receives print and clinches a movie deal after her last drug bust. It’s also impossible not to see these moral altering transitions take place, “celebrity gossip has become inescapable because of changes in the media. "It used to be neatly contained, but now it has metastasized. [People have] had a weakness for hearing about bad behavior among the powerful since Zeus was a serial adulterer. Today, however, Lindsay Lohan's nights out aren't confined to People magazine; they're on the Web and TV 24/7� (Halpern, 3).
The desire to fall in love and have children is an ideal that can obviously be traced back to several ideologies, going back in history much farther than the age of celebrity idols, however it has taken a new turn with today’s culture obsession with the Hollywood elite. In this age filled with an enormous focus on sex, it is only natural that celebrities come to a forefront to once again dramatically change the way American women feel about their own sex. Engagement rumors start after celebrities are spotted together, and the tabloid’s exclamation of a pregnancy begins soon after, especially if the celebrity has had an unusually large meal. This lightening speed process transcends itself unto American women, only adding to the stress and belief that society has that a woman is only successful and complete after she has married and had children. Celebrity females only remain in the spotlight if the exude sex, and the transplantation of this rule is highlighted into American society as females, whether in the workplace, at home, or during free time, must remain ever aware of their sexuality, and relationship status, as that it what comes to define who they are in the eyes of others. In order to determine how successful at moving along in life one is, women only have to look at the bar set by celebrities and determine how far away from the mark they are.
It is quite obvious how important fame is valued by today’s society. It is the utter mark of success, to be well known is to have made it. But the worship of celebrity is taking a very large toll on how mere mortals, the average women of America, view themselves, and will continue to further define the roles women must fit into in order to be acceptable. The tremendous pressure to fill these perfect shoes celebrities have left out is drastically changing women in modern American society, as they reform their outsides, insides and positions in the world.

 

for our final project, i think i want to do another photo essay. i was thinking about doing something on the new idea of 'mean girls'. another idea i have is the concept of celebrity worship in women and tabloids/paparrazi and taking a look at what that says about who we are as a society right now.

The aims/goals of the book are to present art by women to be viewed in a new light. the images are "re-framed' and grouped together in order to make a statement about what feminist art is and what feminist art does