by Rosa Viscardi
In: Baikady, R., Sajid, S., Przeperski, J., Nadesan, V., Islam, M.R., Gao, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Problems. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. 2022.
International community can rely on celebrities to solve graciously any problem. Danny Kaye’s legacy, appointed as Unicef’s first Goodwill Ambassador, has been picked up by several generations of global stars ready to take on all human misery in the name of a transnational activism proudly claimed and exercised without prejudice: human rights, Cold War, famine, gender inequality, charity, health care, public relations, racism, pacifism, environmentalism, pandemic, and so on.
Politics is not excluded either. Approximately in the past hundred years, celebrities did not limited themselves to propaganda or political endorsement but more and more often they spent “media capital” to become real star politicians; on the other hand, because of the mass communication, politicians have become stars. The star politics begins with Benito Mussolini, the first politician to strike a pose like Italian divas in silent movies. The phenomenon includes the adoration of Evita Perón and Diana Spencer; the consensus towards Coluche and Beppe Grillo; the election of Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, up to Donald Trump.
It is not disputed whether celebrity culture represents a winning model or not. It is not disputed whether the good intentions of celebrity advocacy translate into admirable results or hypocritical attitudes. The focus is on the long-term effects suffered by political representation. It’s a mise en abyme: by taking on the problems, stardom ends up being part of the problem.