There is nothing “normal” about stars, so why pretend, report says

Mar 18, 2010 20:31 GMT  ·  By
Women love celebrities they can relate to, not those who pretend they’re just like them, says report
   Women love celebrities they can relate to, not those who pretend they’re just like them, says report

It has become a known fact by now that one of the most endearing qualities in stars, aside from talent, is their being relatable. Female celebrities who behave a certain way and go through the same things as regular women are popular, whereas those who are very vocal about how they’re no different fall in disgrace, Flic Everett says in a new Daily Mail piece.

This would explain why female fans feel sorry for the likes of Jennifer Aniston and Cheryl Cole for being dumped or cheated on, whereas they feel nothing but disdain for a celebrity like Kate Winslet. It’s not so much what these stars do that attracts dislike with female fans, but rather what they say: and insisting that their life is not above average, that they could be easily mistaken for regular Janes falls in the “don’t” category with the public. After all, it’s no rocket science to tell that a celebrity can do and have things regular mortals can only dream of, so why pretend this is not the case.

“We don’t like to be patronized by glittering stars pretending they’re ‘just like us.’ [Kate Winslet] may be a fabulous actress, but few women of my acquaintance would want to be stuck in a lift with her. Because the truth is, there are just some famous females who inadvertently manage to be profoundly irritating to other women. Men may laud their beauty, reviewers may praise their exquisite acting, but that has no relevance when we flick on the TV and groan: ‘Oh God, not her again.’ Another critically acclaimed actress, who’s about as popular as bloating with most thirtysomething women, is Gwyneth Paltrow,” the Mail says.

“We’re not all bitter anti-feminists, dedicated to bringing successful, happy women down. We just like women we can identify with – why else was Bridget Jones one of the most popular fictional creations of the past two decades? […] We don’t like female stars who claim they’re ‘just like us.’ They’re not – we don’t spend six hours a day in the gym, or earn $12 million for a few weeks’ work. It’s not because we’re incapable of celebrating sisterly achievement. We just want to support women we feel we might have something in common with – and a professed love of sausages and mash just doesn’t cut it,” the piece goes on to say.

Because of all of the above, most women will never get to love stars like Megan Fox, Mariah Carey, Nicole Kidman or Victoria Beckham, aside from the two already mentioned. At the opposite pole are Drew Barrymore, Sandra Bullock, Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep and Jennifer Aniston, who don’t claim to be like us: they just appear so.