This weeks topic focused on the ‘celebrity’
and the ‘specular economy’ and this weeks task is to focus on a celebrity from
a culture or nationality other than mine own and look at how they utilise their
position in society. The term ‘Specular
Economy’ is new to me and David Marshall best describes it as ‘Public
presentation of the self through the term specular, a two way mirror of
projection on to the screen and the circulation of and interaction with those
images and texts into the wider world’ (Marshall,2010:489). The way I
understand it is a ‘mirror’ world, we see a projection of ourselves and are
conscious of how others see us. It can be a mediated performance meaning that
the ‘performance’ goes through a media before the audience receives it.
This
then had me thinking whom in the celebrity world does this describe? Well
ladies and gentlemen get ready to enter the world of Gaga. Lady Gaga Born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta has
risen to fame with her unique and quirky public persona. Gaga started out as a shy school girl, and as her
fame progressed so to did her public self (Gaudet,
2013). Not a moment passes where she is not aware she is being watch
every photo that is taken she is aware and is ready to pose.
One could almost
say she has mastered the form of the public persona and even when a photo is
released of her without make up she is the one who releases. She does this by using Twitter or
another social platform showing again the control she has over her brand and
exercising her mediated performance. As Marshall suggests these social
platforms like Twitter have also changed our access to these celebrities and
how obsessed fans are perhaps are given another avenue to ‘stalk’(Marshall,2010:500).
Me personally I like
her, I think she has taken the specular economy and uses it to her advantage.
Perhaps we don’t see the real Gaga as in the person behind the outrageous
outfits and hairstyles but I don’t think we are meant to. She lets us see what
she wants us to see. “People will
always talk, so lets give them somethin’ to talk about”-Gaga
(Gaudet,2013).
- Gaudet, C, 2013, The Lady Gaga naked guide to online publicity, Predictable profits, http://www.predictableprofits.com/the-lady-gaga-naked-guide-to-online-publicity/
- Marshall, D, 2010, The Specular Economy, Springer Science and Business Media, pp 489- 502, https://d2l.deakin.edu.au/d2l/le/content/143750/viewContent/1985498/View
http://news.ugo.co.ug/wp-content/uploads/Lady-Gaga_1-1.jpeg
(Lady Gaga image 1)
http://image.take40.com/342x456/lady_gaga_no_makeup_Little_Monsters_2013_342x456.jpg
(Lady Gaga image 2)
Hi Julia,
ReplyDeleteI like how you compared public presentation of the self to a mirror world. Although I am not a huge fan of her, I agree with you that Lady Gaga has in fact done a good job of taking the specular economy and using it to her advantage. We interpret celebrities the way they portray themselves and although they are in reality not how they are shown to be, we do not know that because we only see them on the TV and the glossy pages of magazines. Overall, it was a good post!
I loved this one Julia, especially as I am a huge Gaga fan. Perhaps she was an easy choice considering she is from the western culture, however, she certainly is one of the most outrageous people on the planet, and has certainly developed quite a reputation, if not (as you said) it was all part of her plan! You did well by defining a specular economy at the beginning, and continuing to demonstrate your knowledge throughout. I enjoyed it, thank you!
ReplyDelete