Have you ever posted something that you thought was pretty reasoned and reasonable, and then had people miss a good chunk of your point(s
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I thought your meta/brain-spew was right on target! Yeah, I also see a lot of that entitlement from fans in terms of "celebrity X owes it to their fans to do X,Y, and Z." And god forbid a celebrity indicate that they don't want all the extra attention, then they're being "ungrateful." *eyeroll*
I totally agree with the Tumblr poster above...we Americans do have a really weird relationship with success and confidence. I have often thought that a lot of that weirdness comes from the fact that while we try to instill confidence in kids, our culture is saturated with competition and champion worship. It's hard to truly have genuine confidence when you live in a culture that constantly lets you know that there is only one winner and everyone else is losers. We tend to act out when we're feeling on top of things (because questionable behavior is excusable if you're a winner), and then act sulky and bratty when we're not feeling on top (because if I'm gonna be a looser anyway, fuck it, why try?). It leads to a kind of fakey-feeling confidence I think. And I think it also leads to that resentment when we see other people not only succeeding, but owning their success with confidence.
And I wonder if JGL's recent increase in success has turned up his confidence to 11 so he's coming across as overconfident. It may just be that he's doing what he thinks (subconsciously, probably) is expected of him. Either way, despite some of his ridiculousness, I have to give him props for being firm about his boundaries. I think that's a healthy thing, and I think more people do need to be confronted with the fact that their expectations of celebrities are unrealistic, and often harmful.
I totally agree with the Tumblr poster above...we Americans do have a really weird relationship with success and confidence. I have often thought that a lot of that weirdness comes from the fact that while we try to instill confidence in kids, our culture is saturated with competition and champion worship. It's hard to truly have genuine confidence when you live in a culture that constantly lets you know that there is only one winner and everyone else is losers. We tend to act out when we're feeling on top of things (because questionable behavior is excusable if you're a winner), and then act sulky and bratty when we're not feeling on top (because if I'm gonna be a looser anyway, fuck it, why try?). It leads to a kind of fakey-feeling confidence I think. And I think it also leads to that resentment when we see other people not only succeeding, but owning their success with confidence.
And I wonder if JGL's recent increase in success has turned up his confidence to 11 so he's coming across as overconfident. It may just be that he's doing what he thinks (subconsciously, probably) is expected of him. Either way, despite some of his ridiculousness, I have to give him props for being firm about his boundaries. I think that's a healthy thing, and I think more people do need to be confronted with the fact that their expectations of celebrities are unrealistic, and often harmful.
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