Gendering mental distress in celebrity culture: introduction

Abstract

Supposedly, as the saying goes, it is very lonely at the top. However, one of the many insights that the field of celebrity studies has brought forward is that, in reality, it is very crowded at the top. Celebrities are never really alone and have hardly any privacy: on a daily basis, they are moulded by producers, pressured by public image advisors, harangued by paparazzi, and closely eyed by uncountable fans and often unrelenting critics. Celebrity culture, at its core, is a culture of surveillance: rarely does the star have a moment alone. Little then, that mental distress is part and parcel of being a individual. beings, of can live the same conditions as such as personality disorders or panic attacks. Yet at the same time, they are confronted with forms of mental distress that are arguably the result of their fame. They struggle with high expectations of global audiences, a profound split between their public and private self, and the pressure of being the keystone in global economic infrastructures built around their work and image. This Forum issue brings together two insightful contributions that explore how celebrities deal with such pressures and how their fans and critics respond to it.