As much as these celebrities' lives have got nothing to do with mine, I can't help but scan the headlines as I scroll through pages and sift through stuff to get the information that I actually want to read. One could go on about misogyny or whatever, or a 'bigger picture'... but I'm just not keen to go into it. I'll just read for reading's sake.
One side of the pond has Depp v. Heard. After a six-week trial, Johnny Depp won three of his defamation suits against Amber Heard, and the latter was awarded damages. Both of them aren't innocent, and both were abusive to each other. But this isn't an assault or a battery case. It's a defamation case. Now, the real judgement begins, by the court of public opinion and their industry colleagues and peers.
The other side has the 'Wagtha Christie' trial — Vardy v. Rooney. If you want a recap, it's super easy to find them; every other British news outlet seems to be running their opinions on it. The Atlantic has a nice little summary that I kinda agreed with, neutral enough. It's written by Helen Lewis and published on May 27, 2022, titled 'The Most Ill-Advised Libel Trial Since Oscar Wilde’s'.
I'm quite sure everyone has had a read of what these two defamation cases are about. It's terribly mundane and private, and yet horrifyingly public as every detail is repeated and echoed around the world's headlines and news reports, tabloids or otherwise.
In such trials, there are only losers. Lawsuits like this are draining and degrading, as well as potentially costly. For women, they are particularly risky. Although Heard is a defendant, and Vardy a plaintiff, something about the monstering dished out to both reminds me of the wider injunction on women that they must never be caught trying. Instead, they must adopt a persona that the novelist Gillian Flynn calls “the cool girl,” which she describes as the “hot, brilliant, funny woman” who “jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2.”
Are the lawyers the only winners? So you win a defamation case. What then? Does winning make you be the 'right' one, give you a moral high ground? Are you viewed differently by the public? I suppose it's necessary for celebrities to uphold their image in the public's opinions. Those things matter.
These defamation cases are a thing in Singapore, aren't they? Especially between politicians, civil activists, writers and critics. We do have very touchy politicians in town, and rather illogical rules. That's the whole point of our POFMA, I feel. So that things don't have to 'degenerate' in a court trial, and people still get what they want.
Both trials reveal that female celebrities are expected to be cool girls: They should receive good press—without debasing themselves by doing the kind of things that lead to good press, such as building relationships with friendly journalists. The Hollywood newsletter The Ankler claimed this week that other female actors had reached out to Heard to express their support privately, but none dared to go public. “The Johnny Depp machine is insane, and they don’t want the backlash,” an unnamed source was quoted as saying. The asymmetry is predictable: He has a well-oiled PR strategy; she is a conniving little minx.
When Vardy’s texts openly acknowledge that she’s playing a game—that media coverage is not something that is purely done to her—I find it oddly refreshing. Her realist stance is closer to the attitude of ordinary people who have made themselves stars on Instagram and YouTube. Celebrity has always involved terrible bargains: fake relationships, hushed-up scandals, hidden sexualities. Influencer culture, with its cheerful shilling of products (#ad #sponcon) and willingness to show the grunt work behind the glamour, seems oddly more honest.
My generation kinda grew up with the beginnings of social media as the founders set up apps and the world exploded. We know the ills and the pitfalls. Still all of us stumble. Many of my friends have chosen to go off it altogether, only to have to deal with it again if they have children to educate and watch out for. You can post whatever you want to post — it's your life. If I happen to see it, I'll read it. But if I don't, I certainly don't want to be expected to have read every detail about your life on social media. I'll ask you, if you're my friend, because I care. I also don't like posting my face all over the feed. I dislike seeing my own face. That's unnecessary. Seeing it in group photos once in a bit nowadays is acceptable, compared to a decade ago when I'm not inclined to even appear in photos on social media at all.
People like me are still on it. But because we don't make a life or a career out of using social media, we don't use it for ourselves. We generally don't share much on it anymore. Whatever we share, is carefully curated. We use it mainly for information. This old-school blog holds snippets of my life, my opinions, my political stance, social causes, and my random thoughts. These are things that I don't shy away from when I talk to people in person. These tell you who I am and what I am. That's how I filter out friends vs acquaintances, and who I need in my life and those that I don't.
The dog's IG is more active! I'm happier managing it! It's fun updating photos and mundane crap because poop is everything. Hahahaha. I then don't need to spam the friends' chat windows about the dog, and could leave it to them to check in with Choya when they feel like it. So, there're 'cat and dog influencers' too, and brand agencies signing up infloof-encers and having them be brand ambassadors for whatever. Dohhhhh. For Choya's IG, I make it a point not to accept any form of payment or favors, and never to turn it so that she literally 'earns her keep'. Hahaha.
In the age of social media, very few of us resist the impulse to unburden ourselves to the world. Even privacy hawks such as Coleen Rooney share the minutiae of their lives: One little-noticed aspect of the case is that none of her friends thought it strange that she was sharing details of a damp cellar and fender-benders on Instagram, which makes you wonder what the rest of her feed was like. Regardless, Rooney and Vardy must both realize by now that the key to modern celebrity is control. Having your frenemy’s lawyers scatter your dirty laundry around a courtroom must be disconcerting, whereas violating your own privacy has become an art.
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