Photo from Demi Lovato (@ddlovato)
When those celebrities’ self-expressions are correlated to particular social issues, their media powers become stronger. The parasocial relationships between the followers and the celebrities are thus formed. It is their stories that relate to and connect with their fans to a personal level. To maximize the attention from celebrities' target audiences on social issues, combining the social issues with pop culture is the most effective way. (Flores, A.G., 2016, p.4) The more personal stories are shared by the celebrities, the more fans are engaged to the issues. (p. 18) Nevertheless, those celebrities, even media users who are eager to become famous, are somehow required to sell their personal stories for media attention, and their self-expression could be no more healthy to them. As hashtags could form media trends and stereotypes, these users could be unaware of whether the trends are benefiting themselves or defining their lives. The trends are out there on social media, which could motivate media users to follow the trends by their motives without taking conscious care of themselves.
Franssen, G. (2020) indicates that social media pushed Demi Lovato to unconsciously commodify her stories. (p.100) Lovato had shared her ongoing struggles on eating disorder and body dissatisfaction. She released her documentaries in 2017, named "Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated," exposing her experiences on dealing with these issues. Recently, she had a Instagram Live with Miley Cyrus. She admitted that when her 2015 album “Confident” was released, she exercised extremely to make herself feel satisfied with her body. She educated her fans to explore their confidence yet her confidence was unknowingly defined by social media. (Mamo, H., 2020)
Social media also paradoxically altered her self-assessment and self-improvement to a materialistic and aesthetic level. (p.100) Many media users, for example, posted photos and videos of their perfect body shapes, dressed in sportswear with confident smiles on their faces. Workout is thus repetitively associated with ambition, positivity, and full-control of our body. During 2015, Lovato often used hashtags, #SelfLove, #RiseAbove, and #Confidence with her workout video to advocate body positivity. She explained that body positivity persuaded that she was born beautiful, and she denied self-doubting on her body. When Lovato believed she was over with these problems, she relapsed and accidentally overdosed again in 2018. After months of hospitalization, she deleted all her past posts on Instagram and had a new start. She said in a recent interview that she would correct “Body Positivity” to "Body Acceptance,” which underscores healthiness of our body and our mentality. "I am saying I'm healthy and I accept the way my body is today without changing anything," she said. (Prinzivalli, L., 2019)
Photo from Demi Lovato (@ddlovato)
On September 6, 2019, Lovato wrote on Instagram,
"This is my biggest fear. A photo of me in a bikini unedited. And guess what, it’s CELLULIT!!!! I’m just literally sooooo tired of being ashamed of my body, editing it (yes the other bikini pics were edited - and I hate that I did that but it’s the truth) so that others think I’m THEIR idea of what beautiful is, but it’s just not me. This is what I got. I want this new chapter in my life to be about being authentic to who I am rather than trying to meet someone else’s standards. So here’s me, unashamed, unafraid and proud to own a body that has fought through so much and will continue to amaze me when I hopefully give birth one day. It’s such a great feeling to be back in tv/film while not stressing myself with a strenuous workout schedule before 14 hour days, or depriving myself from a real birthday cake rather than opting for watermelon & whip cream with candles because I was terrified of REAL cake and was miserable on some crazy diet shit. Anyway, here’s me, RAW, REAL! And I love me. And you should love you too! Now back to the studio.. I’m working on an anthem.. 🙏🏼🙌🏼🤷🏻♀️ also. Just so everyone’s clear.. I’m not stoked on my appearance BUT I am appreciative of it and sometimes that’s the best I can do. I hope to inspire someone to appreciate their body today too. 💗#nationalcelulliteday#celluLIT🔥🔥🔥"
The perilous counterforce of social media which could commodify a person's lifestyles into homogeneity and could increase the confusion of media-defined benefits between personal healthiness. It is easier for us to become media participants to specific events and social issues. However, the short information, like hashtags which are thus used to explain everything, could lose our own lifestyles and our abilities to decide what is truly helpful and healthy to us.
Text/ Nick Hsu
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