Why are OBSESSED with watching awful things like Solange Knowles’s attack on Jay Z

Posted on 03:00 by
So what do we get from watch awful things happening to celebrities and what do we think we will getout of it:



Is it the nasty pleasure of seeing what we previously only speculated about: that the marriage the Knowles-Carters present to the outside world is subject to damage and indignity, just like any other? Do we want to see the spectacle of a woman whose career has followed a more idiosyncratic route and whose family life is less praised than those of her older sister acting out as that sister stands by placidly? Are Knowles-Carter’s biggest fans hoping for further proof of her perfection, her refusal to turn into either a harpy along with her sister or a woman who defends her man against her blood?


The video’s silent spareness, rather than giving us further insight into any of these dynamics, is enigmatic enough to allow us to continue with whatever interpretation we choose. What we are searching out is not truth but rather evidence to confirm the secrets we are convinced lie under the airbrushed surface Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has presented so successfully to the wider world.

There is a reason we so greedily gorge on private moments of famous people: We think we want to know everything about their lives, particularly those of people we admire. But I am not sure how true that actually is. If we paused to consider the experience itself, we might acknowledge the misery of it. Watching a woman so thoroughly lose it is degrading. Listening to V. Stiviano draw out Clippers owner Donald Sterling — actually listening to the tape, not just reading the words in print — and hearing him berate her is sickening. But the rush of self-satisfaction afterwards, the sense of private moral superiority that no one will ever bother to expose, is why we keep on watching.

read more on : The Washington post

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