When Celebrity Worship Goes Too Far

The dark side of celebrity culture

Photo by whitestorm on Adobe Stock

Just the other week a popular e-commerce site offered a new way to feel connected to Taylor Swift’s and Travis Kelce’s Madison Square Garden wedding.

Not invited? No problem, promised the site NYC Garbage. You could simply buy some of the trash that was gathered from outside the venue after the wedding took place!

Of course both Swift and Kelce are huge celebrities. But if people want to buy their trash, it begs the question: Has celebrity worship gone too far?

The wedding of the decade?

Swift’s and Kelce’s wedding, which took place on July 3, has been the subject of perhaps thousands of headlines. Numerous publications have reported on every detail of the ceremony, from the vows to the 1,000 person+ guest list to the wedding decor within Madison Square Garden.

Such rampant media interest was only to be expected, as Swift is one of the biggest music celebrities of all time and her new husband, Travis Kelce, is famous in his own right as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs NFL football team.

The wedding has also kicked off its own wave of Swift and Kelce merch. Even before the wedding, fans were buying commemorative mugs, Swift-inspired wedding t-shirts, and pop-up sticker books (among many other items on offer). Fans of the duo have also been shopping for items similar to those reportedly used during the wedding, like similar “personalized napkins” and even vintage-cut engagement rings.

But perhaps the most unique wedding favor of the day was the one offered for sale by the NYC Garbage company: “NYC Pocket Garbage: Not Invited Edition (Taylor and Travis’ Wedding).”

Even the garbage from the wedding is famous

The garbage offered for sale from the Swift/Kelce event included “cigarette butts, bottle caps and even an ovulation test kit collected near the wedding venue.”

The NYC Garbage site promises that these wedding garbage items (which also included straws, a ring pop, and a rainbow fan) were handpicked by garbage entrepreneur Justin Gignac, and “were listed for as much as $25.”

What’s more, customers were not able to specify which items of garbage they wanted; Gignac selected and shipped garbage items randomly.

Gignac clearly understands his customers’ desires: the wedding garbage collection is already sold out, although he and his website still promises “only the finest New York City Garbage to collectors worldwide.”

It might require a second article to consider why people might want to buy garbage picked off the streets of New York City.

For this article, however, the question remains: Are we hurting ourselves when we worship celebrities with such single-mindedness that we’re willing to pay money for trash that has been near them?

We have been following celebrities for a long time

Humans have always been fascinated by the most famous among us.

Long before there was TikTok, there were luminaries like eighteenth-century dictionary author Samuel Johnson, who was so famous that even the man who wrote his biography (James Boswell) became famous as well. Throughout history we have been fascinated by well-known athletes, artists, politicians, scientists, and musicians (among many others).

Many of us love celebrities uncomplicatedly. We say that they inspire us; they show us the wide range of human potential; sometimes they even point us toward worthy causes to learn about and support.

Some argue that following entertainment headlines can actually lend a sense of cohesion to society. Still others say that celebrities are an important driver of economic activity (think ticket sales and even purchases in accordance with online influencers’ suggestions).

But celebrity culture might also harm us

Many experts suggest, however, that there can also be a dark side to celebrity worship.

Because we typically only see the positive sides of celebrities’ lives, trying to emulate them can cause us undue stress in chasing “unrealistic standards.” Celebrity magazines lavish attention on celebrity weddings, but typically share fewer details of celebrity divorces and other more challenging life events.

Celebrity culture has also long been thought to promote shallow values and materialism as well. By “emphasizing appearance, wealth, and status over more meaningful qualities such as integrity, empathy, and hard work,” giving all our attention to famous and wealthy people can lead us to forget that there are many less-famous people among us who need care and attention.

One of the most damning criticisms of celebrity worship is that it “distracts people from real-world problems.” Increasingly, even people who have a self-admitted history of following news are wondering if our time wouldn’t be better spent paying attention to the events unfolding around us, like changes in our real-life relationships or even political or sociological news headlines.

Following celebrity headlines can be fun, but…

People have been thinking and writing about different aspects of celebrity culture, particularly in America, for a long time.

Overall, though, we’ve all probably spent a lot more time reading People magazine and watching videos about our favorite celebrities than we have in thinking critically about whether this fascination with famous people is good for us.

It can be fun, and comforting, to follow wedding (and other) news headlines about people whose music we love or whose sports games we watch.

But ask yourself if you’d rather spend money on garbage that has been near celebrities, or if there are other items or experiences on which you could spend money in order to live your own life more fully.