The Star’s Image, Victimization and Celebrity Culture

Abstract

Today we live in a celebrity culture, in which images of stars, people who are famous for being famous, are circulated and consumed as a daily practice by people across the world. This article explores the cultural reception of celebrity victimization, relating this to the twinned processes of globalization and commodification. The arguments made are illustrated through an analysis of the case of Charles Lindbergh, whose infant son was murdered during the inter-war years. Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight of 1927 was a global media-event in which the new mobilities of persons and images were highly condensed. Mediated visibility launched him into unprecedented acclaim, yet his fame unfolded in part as a negative status, as a kind of victimization. Analysis of this case permits a study of the relationships between images, celebrity and victimization.