Thursday, November 8, 2007

TIPSY OFF (TILA) TEQUILA

This blog entry by Ciara Calsita.

The story: "Tila Tequila, Who?"

The analysis:
    The title says, “She’s Famous.” My only question is who. By just reading the first line of this article, the reader comes to the realization that the female in question of being famous is Tila Tequila. Personally, I have no comprehension to who entirely this individual named Tila Tequila is. The brief biography at the beginning of this article was not giving me enough information on Tila Tequila. Therefore, out of curiosity, I turned to Wikipedia and her MySpace page for a quick reference to who this person may be. As stated, in the article, Tequila is not her real name, Nguyen is. According to Wikipedia, she is an American model, entertainer, and singer. Just recently, she premiered her show on MTV television titled, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila on October 9. Not knowing what her show was exactly about at first, I assumed it was some type of dating show. I discovered later that my assumptions were true but the show takes it a step further. A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila is a bisexual-themed reality dating show where 16 heterosexual males and 16 lesbian contestants compete for Tila's love.

    The article is mainly about society’s fascination on personalities like Tila Tequila and Paris Hilton. These individuals are famous for reasons that are not of actual value to our society. Tila Tequila for example is famous for her appearance as Playboy’s Cyber Girl of the Week. Society has now given celebrities a false feeling of accomplishment (i.e. hailing Paris Hilton as in the same league as Marie Curie). Having some type of talent is no longer the perquisite to stardom because now anyone can become famous.

    I choose this story because I found it absolutely shocking. I do not understand how and why this individual, Tila Tequila is famous. In my opinion, Tila Tequila serves no purpose other than a character that has an appealing smile. I have personally visited her MySpace, previewed her songs and in all honesty, do not think she can sing. She has no talent and her greatest achievement may be “she posed provocatively for Maxim” and yet miraculously holds the #1 position this week in MySpace’s Unsigned Top Artists. It is important to understand how mainstream society places value on celebrities that do not give anything back to it. Tila Tequila did not receive a Nobel Prize or find a great scientific discovery that would be beneficial to society and yet she is glorified for being what? A personality.

    Is this really the direction that our society is following? Placing no talent individuals on pedestals and hailing them “Famous!” The downfall of western civilization will indeed be our ridiculous fascination on individuals that have done nothing of productivity to our society.



1 comment:

O.W. said...

What you and the article both touch on is that, nowadays, fame alone is enough to guarantee...fame. Content - while perhaps not wholly irrelevant - isn't necessarily required in order for someone to achieve some initial notoriety.

Actually, diffusion theory is quite applicable here: what you need is to attract enough initial attention to hopefully reach that critical "tipping point" where your fame along can ensure further fame.

The upside (sort of) is that eventually, you can only milk that for so long before people get interested in the next popular thing. Someone like Tequila - unless she's able to consistently reinvent herself - is likely to become passe at some point.