Celebrity Block List - Tumblr Posts
Remeber how we used Hunger games rethoric to talk about the met gala like the capitol and the games? I think we could use catching fire to understand the celebrity blockout and its repercussions.
While celebrity culture is absolutely being fed to us to undermine and overlook the palestine situation, I think we might be targetting the wrong people here. I'm specifically thinking about a conversation in the hunger games catching fire movie between Plutarch and president Snow. After the second rebellion starts to sprout, Snow worries that the current victors (AKA Katniss) will be taken as a symbol for the uprising. So, what to they do? Ump up their screentime, work on their PR, glamorize their image. As they put it, one second you're watching children die on the streets, the next second you're seeing people debate what the wedding cake will look like. And this is all intentional: they want their districts to get angry at Katniss and Peeta and start seeing them as opressors, dropping them as their symbol. And it would've been very effective if it weren't for the quarter quell, which victimized the couple and made them back into symbols.
The thing is, us redirecting our hate into celebrities and celebritie culture might discract us from the real problem here. It's easy to block Zendaya, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande of whoever you want, but that won't solve the situation in Gaza. Think about it, what's the best we're going to get? What's the most they will be allowed to do by their pr teams? Most want to remain apolitical, uncontroversial, and singers and actors are tied to management teams and contracts who won't let them speak up anyway. Celebrity culture should be dismanteled, but not for gaza. The press should be dismanteled for palestine. Two party systems should be dismanteled for palestine. War propaganda should be dismanteled for palestine. Hypernationalism should be dismanteled for palestine. Islamophobia should be dismanteled for palestine. Social media has helped families flee to egypt and educate people, blocking celebrities isn't the best move for us. As Finnick Odair says, remeber who the real enemy is.