Panelists say that America places celebrities on pedestals
Students were given the opportunity, Tuesday, to listen to panelists discuss American celebrities and how celebrities and movies are causing a disconnect within American culture.
Evelyn Resh, a certified nurse-midwife and certified sexuality counselor, said Americans need a community-based environment instead of movies to build community connections and bonds.
“I am not saying to stop going to movies all together but the only way we can stop this crisis of our celebrity obsession is to interact with real people, not digital ones,” Resh said.
She added that American culture is becoming more and more asensual, meaning that Americans don’t do anything that engages their senses.
“My advice to the CU students is to go out and hike, bike, dance and start being members of a community,” Resh said. “Go be green! Anything that will get you to stop being isolated with your People magazines and reality TV shows and start interacting with each other.”
Danielle Lirette, a junior engineering physics major, agreed with Resh that America is an asensual culture.
“I thought she was really interesting and brought up some good points about us as a culture,” Lirette said.
Andrew Krautheim, a senior psychology major, said he thought it was interesting how Resh encouraged Americans to fix their suppression of sexuality and sensuality.
“We are so suppressed sexually and sensually that we truly are looking to get out to fix and fill that void,” Krautheim said.
Another panelist, Doug Roble, the creative director of software at Digital Domain and a two time Academy Award winner for visual effects, spoke to defend the celebrities.
“Tom Cruise impresses me,” he said. “He can open a movie and get everyone to go see his movie. If you can open a film you are power! And there is a lot of pressure on these actors to fulfill our expectations of them.”
Roble added that individuals build up a connection with the characters we see in movies and get so engaged with them that they want more.
“I saw Johnny Depp in the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and enjoyed watching him so much that I wanted to follow him,” Roble said. “And that’s how the vicious cycle of celebrity obsession begins.”
Writer and film critic Jim Emerson, who has experience with every aspect of making and watching films, said we as an audience get the idea of sexual fantasy through the movies.
“When do you ever get the opportunity to stare at beautiful people in the dark and have it be okay?” he asked. “Celebrities are treated like a higher level of human being because we put them there. We build them up so we can bring them down.”
Resh responded saying that although the celebrities have this high level or pedestal, she still feels that children can listen to real people such as their parents instead of the media.
“My daughter will ask me questions about celebrities in magazines and I will tell her that it’s crap,” Resh said. “I want her to distinguish what is real and wasn’t and though celebrities may have their pictures in magazines, I think I influence more because I am bigger than the world.”
Business finance senior Peter Cardillo said he enjoyed the panel discussion but wished the panelists had spoken more about the title of the panel than sexuality.
“They didn’t really talk about drinking or pregnancy at all,” Cardillo said. “They focused more on sexuality and sensuality. But overall I liked it and want to attend as many panels this week as I can.”
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Katelyn Bell at katelyn.bell@colorado.edu.
