Who are the celebrities you respect and admire?
Do you care about their personal lives? Do you appreciate when they open up about their struggles? Or would you prefer it if they didn’t share so much?
In “Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift and the Reality of Imperfection,” Pamela Paul writes about today’s pop stars and the ways in which they are expressing emotional vulnerability more than celebrities of the past did: By most measures, Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift are remarkable women. Intelligent and capable, they’ve succeeded through innate talent, hard and sustained work, ambition and vision. Both are the kind of mega pop stars who inspire convulsions of adulation and tears. Crowds surge and part in their presence. They’re graced with a radiance that seems almost exclusive to celebrities, with skin so incandescent it needs no filter. But they are not perfect. Nor, importantly, do they pretend to be. A recent Apple TV+ documentary, “Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me,” offers an unsparing portrait of Gomez, now 30, and her experiences with bipolar disorder, lupus, anxiety and psychosis. On her latest album, “Midnights,” Taylor Swift, 32, sings about her depression working the graveyard shift, about ending up in crisis. “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me / It’s me, hi, everybody agrees, everybody agrees,” goes the song “Anti-Hero.” “Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby / And I’m a monster.” This combination of external flawlessness and emotional vulnerability feels like a feature particular to contemporary female pop stardom. On one screen we see impeccable glam, expertly choreographed and costumed performances and startling displays of luxury. On the other screen, admissions of anxiety, PTSD, panic attacks and sleeplessness. What does it mean that many of today’s female pop stars, not only Gomez and Swift, but also Adele, Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande, openly express their struggles with anxiety, depression and panic attacks? Megan Thee Stallion has written a song called “Anxiety” and created a website dedicated to mental health. Even Rihanna, paragon of cool confidence, has admitted to the occasional bout of anxiety. Many stars admit in posts and interviews that the rapacious public scrutiny — the followers, the backlashes, the manufactured outrage, the criticisms, the haters — gets to them. Some may criticize celebrities for oversharing their woes, but the impulse is certainly in line with a noted increase in mental health issues — and a heightened awareness and openness about those challenges. Nor is this exclusive to pop music or to women; in competitive sports, athletes like Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka — and among men, the Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and the N.B.A.’s Kevin Love — have been similarly candid about the pressures of performance. Students, read the entire article, then tell us: Do you appreciate when celebrities are open about their struggles, as Selena Gomez is in her new documentary? Or do you think that today’s stars tell us too much about their woes? Have you ever related to a famous person who shared a hardship or insecurity he or she was facing? Tell us about it. How did it make you feel to know that person was going through what you were going through? Do you ever compare yourself to celebrities? How does it make you feel when you do so? Does it help when they share more about the less shiny parts of their lives? Or would you rather think of their fame as something to aspire to? Ms. Paul says the emotional vulnerability of celebrities today might be especially relatable to teenagers, who experience a similar kind of relentless scrutiny on social media. Do you agree? Can you relate to the feeling of needing to be “perfect” and the challenges that come with it? Why or why not? Stars like Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift and Simone Biles have been open about their hardships. Can you relate to them?
In “Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift and the Reality of Imperfection,” Pamela Paul writes about today’s pop stars and the ways in which they are expressing emotional vulnerability more than celebrities of the past did: By most measures, Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift are remarkable women. Intelligent and capable, they’ve succeeded through innate talent, hard and sustained work, ambition and vision. Both are the kind of mega pop stars who inspire convulsions of adulation and tears. Crowds surge and part in their presence. They’re graced with a radiance that seems almost exclusive to celebrities, with skin so incandescent it needs no filter. But they are not perfect. Nor, importantly, do they pretend to be. A recent Apple TV+ documentary, “Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me,” offers an unsparing portrait of Gomez, now 30, and her experiences with bipolar disorder, lupus, anxiety and psychosis. On her latest album, “Midnights,” Taylor Swift, 32, sings about her depression working the graveyard shift, about ending up in crisis. “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me / It’s me, hi, everybody agrees, everybody agrees,” goes the song “Anti-Hero.” “Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby / And I’m a monster.” This combination of external flawlessness and emotional vulnerability feels like a feature particular to contemporary female pop stardom. On one screen we see impeccable glam, expertly choreographed and costumed performances and startling displays of luxury. On the other screen, admissions of anxiety, PTSD, panic attacks and sleeplessness. What does it mean that many of today’s female pop stars, not only Gomez and Swift, but also Adele, Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande, openly express their struggles with anxiety, depression and panic attacks? Megan Thee Stallion has written a song called “Anxiety” and created a website dedicated to mental health. Even Rihanna, paragon of cool confidence, has admitted to the occasional bout of anxiety. Many stars admit in posts and interviews that the rapacious public scrutiny — the followers, the backlashes, the manufactured outrage, the criticisms, the haters — gets to them. Some may criticize celebrities for oversharing their woes, but the impulse is certainly in line with a noted increase in mental health issues — and a heightened awareness and openness about those challenges. Nor is this exclusive to pop music or to women; in competitive sports, athletes like Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka — and among men, the Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and the N.B.A.’s Kevin Love — have been similarly candid about the pressures of performance. Students, read the entire article, then tell us: Do you appreciate when celebrities are open about their struggles, as Selena Gomez is in her new documentary? Or do you think that today’s stars tell us too much about their woes? Have you ever related to a famous person who shared a hardship or insecurity he or she was facing? Tell us about it. How did it make you feel to know that person was going through what you were going through? Do you ever compare yourself to celebrities? How does it make you feel when you do so? Does it help when they share more about the less shiny parts of their lives? Or would you rather think of their fame as something to aspire to? Ms. Paul says the emotional vulnerability of celebrities today might be especially relatable to teenagers, who experience a similar kind of relentless scrutiny on social media. Do you agree? Can you relate to the feeling of needing to be “perfect” and the challenges that come with it? Why or why not? Stars like Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift and Simone Biles have been open about their hardships. Can you relate to them?