When it comes to current politics, it’s not uncommon for the media to cover a celebrity’s opinion right alongside that of a politician or academic. This sort of coverage has led people in two directions. Following eagerly behind their favorite celebrity, or hating them for using their platform to discuss issues that they are too out of touch with to even relate to.
No matter your personal stance on the issue, as long as celebrities have a platform, they are going to keep using it. I would argue that most of us wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to raise awareness for things we believe in if we had the platform of a celebrity’s. However, like everyone else’s, famous or not, political opinions are subjective and should not be blindly followed.
It’s not about celebrities using their platform to share what they believe in, it’s about how we as an audience take that information and use or not use it to form our own views. Believe it or not, celebrities are just people. They could be amazing philanthropists who spend all of their free time researching issues and appropriately giving back and helping causes that they believe in, or they could be incredibly out of touch, living in a bubble and just trying to get good publicity.
My point is, it doesn’t matter. Getting angry at a celebrity for using their platform is like admitting that once you hear something you have to believe it. In more ways than just celebrity opinions, we should all be better media consumers than that.
To those who think that celebrity opinions in and of themselves do matter, I would ask, why more than anyone else’s? Why does an Oscar or an Emmy or a Championship give someone’s political opinion more or less weight than someone who deals with the direct effects of the growing economic disparity or the changes in the education system, or a travel ban?
One example of a controversial celebrity opinion was during this year’s Golden Globes when Meryl Streep used her speech while earning the Cecil B. DeMille award to discuss how she felt about the actions of our current President. The speech was followed by both backlash and praise. However, at the end of the day if it affected you more than hearing your classmate or your waitress say it, then the problem has more to do with how much influence you personally allow the celebrity to have on you rather than how much they actually do have. Your classmate could be top of the class and your waitress could be employee of the month, just as Meryl Streep is seen to be at the top in her respective field. The difference is that Meryl had the opportunity to reach the masses with her personal opinion, whereas the other two, and most other people in the country do not.
A second factor that we often forget when it comes to celebrities is that even though their lives can seem out of touch with reality, they still have concerns, issues, and hardships that affect them as well. While these might not matter any more than a non celebrity, they also shouldn’t matter any less.
Numerous female celebrities took to the streets with the millions of people during the Women’s March the day after the inauguration. They believed in something and like the millions of other “regular” women, they marched. They received more coverage because that’s what the media thinks will maintain viewers, but again, what we personally believe is up to us and does not need to be more or less influenced by some celebrity.
Celebrities are people with opinions, concerns, and like it or not, platforms. Like everyone else, you can choose to let them influence you are or not.
Sam Miner can be reached at mine0034@stthomas.edu.