Discussion

Benefits of fame

Rob Haskell’s article uses Selena Gomez’s examples to explore these two sides of fame, focusing more on its cost. One of the benefits of fame suggested in the article is being able to buy the things you want. We see Selena owns a “Givenchy purse” (l. 6) that she fills with all kinds of groceries.

Connected with this aspect is the fact that you no longer need to worry about money. Selena was a poor child, but once she started to become famous at the age of seven, she did not have to worry about money: “Gomez remembers being asked to feel between the cushions in the car for change so that they could buy Styrofoam cups of ramen. But at age seven, after a few years on the pageant circuit, she landed a role” (ll. 69-71). Now, she is not only making money from her music but also from million-dollar partnerships with different brands: “her mane of chocolate-brown hair, for which Pantene has paid her millions” (l. 39)-

Another benefit of being famous is that celebrities get the support of millions of fans who look up to them: “But real is precisely what I was expecting from the 24-year-old Selena, just as her 110 million Instagram followers (Selenators,...