Idolize the Idol by Lauren Jones

IDOLIZE THE IDOL

In the Digital Age, we no longer bow down at an altar of god. Instead, we worship the people who we love to hate, and that have a bee-hind the size of Uranus (pun intended). With a few swipes, we can view and instantly become intimately involved with somebody’s life; from their vacation in Ibiza to what they ordered from the takeaway on a Saturday night. “The feed was probably the biggest innovation in so-

cial media of late. But the interesting thing about the feed is that the more content you consume, the farther in time you go.” Evan Spiegel CEO of Snapchat

As women, we have been raised to compete and compare and we can’t help but stare at that woman getting changed across from us in the changing rooms (in the none lesbian way) looking at her figure, hair and boobs and just wishing you had what she had. But what I’ve come to realise is that with the progression of social media, the insecurity has become more prevalent in not just women but men and children as well and has become a real issue. Lady GaGa and Prince William have recently joined forces for the Head Together campaign raising awareness about mental health. It’s shown today that 1in4 people suffer from mental health and with the Head Together campaign they are attempting to alter social media and use it for good, encouraging young people to talk about their mental health. Prince

William commented saying, ‘For too long there has been a taboo about talking about some important issues. If you were anxious, it’s because you were weak. If you couldn’t cope with whatever life threw at you, it’s because you were failing. ‘Successful, strong people don’t suffer like that, do they? But of course – we all do. It’s just that few of us speak about it. There may be a time and a place for the stiff upper lip but not at the expense of your health.’ Prince William also highlighted the ‘appalling’ toll of young male suicides, with statistics showing within the UK, 75% of suicides are by young men.

h c u o T ME!

Admire someone elseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s beauty without questioning your own.

They are staring

The explore page on Instagram is a gateway opened to surveying the lives of others. To me sometimes I find that page a cruel personalised scrutiny of oneself, seeing everyone you wish you was, and everything you dream of accomplishing. You home in on endless accounts, and you are taken to a hyper-reality, everything that’s viewed seems so lavish and glamourous and you find yourself lost, spending hours of professional FBI stalking taking yourself deep into someone’s Christmas Day back in 2012. REALITY-CHECK ALERT What seems to be with internet and particularly social media is the standards that are set We have the sub-conscious mind-set that we can only display and publish the élite because we’ve told ourselves no-one wants to see the dark lonely moments that is a part of a normal life. We slate media today, but we seem to be the creators of the monster or at least we have given it a willing, hungry audience. Steering this specifically to “celebrities” it is so important to remember that the only thing that sets these people apart from us is their platform and the exposed broadcasting of their lives repeatedly.

coz they wanna be

Celebrity status is a social construct, and the more we enforce it, the more we treat famous people as gods rather than people. When we do this, we find ourselves setting an unrealistic expectation, so when we discover Britney Spears back in 2007 with a shaved head attacking paparazzi with an umbrella, we react in shock and penalise her for her actions. But seeing her show such an emotion, haven’t we all had one of them days?

Mark Stevens wrote in New York Magazine months after the incident. “Few gestures are as symbolically rich as the shaving of a head. That’s what monastics do when they reject the flesh to dedicate themselves to the spirit. In boot camp, soldiers lose their individuality with their hair. Delilah cut off Samson’s to make him defenseless. “For Spears, this was an act of defiance and liberation; throughout her life and career, she was rarely the one in control.

“EVERY NATION HAS CREATED ITS OWN GOD IN ITS OWN IMAGE AND RESEMBLANCE.”

I am a good person Our society has acquired the bad habit of idolization or worship since the beginning of times, we began by worshipping a superior being a God, the universe, the planet, escalating to idolizing another human being. Once again, I think we have created this pedestal, as we have always crowned another being such as Kings, Emperors, Prophets, Scientists and Presidents. All throughout history people have invoked gods of various kinds. Crediting an almighty god as the creator of the universe is an acknowledgement that the universe is so complex that only a being much greater than human could create it.

Egyptian religion was a combination of magic, mythology, science medicine and many others, they had a strong belief in a higher power and a life after death. It was believed that the gods were friends of human beings and sought only the best for them by providing them with perfect lands and an eternal home to enjoy whilst here on earth. The Egyptians viewed earthly existence merely as a small part amongst their eternal journey and were so focused about passing easily onto the next part (death) that they created elaborate tombs to help the soul pass through to the next world. We then shift this over to China where their early belief structured on a mix of animism and mythology. They believed in a chief god, Shangti, because he had so many responsibilities they understood he was too busy to handle their needs. In time, Shangti got replaced with the concept of Tian (heaven), a paradise where the dead reside eternally in peace. But for one to pass from their earthly life to heaven they must face judgement on the bridge of forgetfulness. If judged unworthy you are slipped from the bridge into the abyss to be swallowed up in hell.

I could go on, but we gather the concept, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a crude cycle that has obtained into the 21st century. We have beings such as Kanye West who builds up power and a mass of followers, and for the followers it spirals into fetish which evolves into the being abusing the power such as Kanye collaborating with Adidas releasing a shoe collection, which then manipulates the followers into purchasing a ÂŁ500 of trainers. This cycle is used not just within religion but has intensified to be used within society.

I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t care what

U O Y think about me. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think about you at all

2017, has it got uncontrollable do we need to hit that big glossy re-set button. Let’s strip it back and get back to the core untouchable idols, that can sometimes be dismissed, but have remained solid and true. Timeless classic, Gabrielle Coco Chanel someone who set that standard for fashion and is still influencing fashion to this day. She revolutionized women’s fashion, a “tomboy” in her effortless way made it ok for women to wear that relaxed silhouette. She freed women from the corsets and frills that had dominated the apparel industry. She made the cheap men’s underwear fabric, jersey into the fore front, a fabric we all have hung up in our 2017 wardrobe; sweatshirts, t-shirts, sweatpants. We need to take advantage of the elements of freedom we have today. Blurred gender is on the tongue of all fashion talk today. Something that Coco Chanel did display all them years ago in the 1920s, displaying that women shouldn’t be doomed to a category of wearing the hugged in corset and skirt. Flipping that coin over, men also should not feel conformed into a category or carrying a specific image of being these oiled-up six-pack gym gods. Fashion is allowing freedom of self-expression approaching topics that society fear touching on, designers are having no fear when it comes to this.

Tis the season for politically charged fashion, with Ashish’s A/W’17 collection he created a strong message against the recently elected President of America, Donald Trump, with slogans bedazzled over garments stating, ‘pussy grabs back’ and ‘why be blue when you can BE GAY!’. Complimenting alongside that with Vetements A/W’17 who’s runway was about the power of identity and diversity, having a spectrum of people from the old lady to the punk to the policewoman all of which were real people not models pretending to be these characters. Demna Gvasalia elaborated backstage. “It’s something I’ve always worked with more or less, but we decided to emphasize it and study each look as a character. We actually have names for them and their stories, which we created during the season.” Fashion speaks volumes, and it never beats around the bush, fashion does take advantage of insecurities by opening an opportunity for people to express, and Chanel such a timeless classic has never gone along with the tide, she created a wave and wasn’t afraid of speaking out and opening the gates to a different path; she was a leader that hosted diversity into fashion.

I think we as creatures if you huddle us together as one, are insecure. I think therefore we have always sub-consciously put something or someone above us, is this how it’s always going to be the though? That we degrade ourselves to believe that these beings have so much more worth then us. Let’s start a revolution, a revolution of self-appreciation. Remove these pedestals from your minds and replace it with a crown, start worshipping yourself. Idols are overrated now, the glossy posters we used to have hung up in our room of teen pop sensations. Over it. Now looking up to someone shouldn’t be completely dammed, it just needs to be altered and looked at through a different light. We need to use them as fuel for our own rocket. Coco, in her era was considered the “new ideal” she was slim, and didn’t have this hourglass silhouette all the women was aspiring for previously. The difference was she never conformed, and she never shied away, she basked in the limelight, and because she was confident in her taste, she was unafraid. Everything Chanel did, she remained true to herself she never felt obliged to follow. It’s time to start making awareness of our actions because if we carry on this path, how is society going to end up? As highlighted earlier we need to take advantage of the elements of freedom we have today, and fashion has always granted us that freedom, but the world is seeing a massive flagship of change; because there isn’t time to be anyone else but you. The media isn’t up for retirement anytime soon, but maybe just maybe shall we have a re-think of the kind of relationship you have with it? Is it controlling, possessive and energy-draining? Because you know what advice you would give your girlfriend if she was in a relationship like that, “pack your bags up and leave”.

CAN YOU AFFORD ME?

“You gotta be yourself, stop picking up remnants of other people’s personalities and style. Inspiration is never a photocopy, get it together!”- Slick Woods

It’s all about me

It’s all about me It’s all about me

It’s all about me

Thinking of you

It’s all about me

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t you want to look at

MY TITTIES?