As I was reading about Ashley Olsen, one of my guy friends started to make fun of me. I started to wondered why it was okay for him to read about his favorite sports star, but stupid of me to look at pictures of Ashley Olsen. What exactly is the difference? I feel like it is more socially acceptable to be fans of athletes than of Hollywood celebrities...as if it is more valid or not as trashy.
In a previous blog I questioned the fact that celebrities are taking over the news and/or replacing the news for many people, but now I also question news about athletes taking over headlines. Is this any different? All the scandal of athletes taking steroids I feel didn't get any heat about being trivial gossip, but when Brittaney Spears makes the news more people question the integrity of the media outlet. I think that the war in Iraq or the presidential campaigns still trump these two topics, but it is more acceptable to have athletic gossip make headlines...people tend not to question it as much.
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I find this topic to be one of the most interesting I have yet to see this semester. Because I have studied sports fandom in my fan paper and my blog on Tom Brady, I have noticed that there is a clear difference between being a fan of sports rather than movies or TV, or really any other type of media. As I was thinking about it, I feel the real reason sports fans are obsessed with their idols is because they have played sports themselves, and hence understand how truly gifted professionally athletes are. For example, I have played tennis my entire life; I took private lessons, attended clinics, and played with my dad whenever I could. However, the highest level of tennis I played was Varsity in High School. Now although I won county and group awards, I was not even good enough to play at the school of my choice. This being said, I could appreciate how good Roger Federer is because he was playing in the US Open and Wimbledon by the time he was 18. Although there are tons of other differences, I find this notion to be most important in terms of sports fandom.
I think the main difference between following entertainment celebrities and sports athletes falls on their talent. While we often comment on entertainment celebrities' talent, we follow their personal lives just as much, if not more. With athletes, I feel as though most of the press revolves around game scores and athletic performance, which seems somewhat more substantial because it's more closely associated with talent. When we get to a celebrity like David Beckham, however, we cross the line from interest about his athletic performance into interest about his personal life. Even though he's an athlete, I know plenty of guys that have responded to the mention of his name by rolling their eyes and stating, "He's not even that good."
I feel like athletes aren't questioned as much for their celebrity status because they "do something." Oftentimes, these celebrities we're obsessed with don't really do so much. They have a movie here and there, and then we're closely watching to see what they wear for the next six months, or where they go out at night in LA. If you think about American culture, sports is a big part of it. Maybe this has something to do with the greater acceptance of athletes as celebrities than movie stars and the like. You can't really say that American culture is movies or television shows, but baseball is definitely the American "thing."
I agree with Agata and Helena that the main reason for this type of reaction is due to their talent. Athletes can easily show their talent while it is more difficult for other celebrities like Ashley Olsen. No one would deny that LeBron James has an incredible talent because you can see it when you watch him play basketball. When it comes to actors, people have different opinions on who can be considered "talented".
I think it's ridiculous that it is socially acceptable for men to oogle and google over their favorite athletes but not ok for women to follow celebrities. Society has built sports to be a more legitimate idolization than celebrities, but that is just about how the roles of men and women are played out.
Also, you bring up a great point about the legitimacy of the news outlets who report on celebrities. People view those stations/magazines that discuss celebrities to be less believable or legitimate than the hard core news outlets. Society can say that they feel those stations are illegitimate but look at the statistics… people like soft news. It draws people in and it is what people want to hear.
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