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REVISTA DOS ESTUDANTES DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO DO INSTITUTO DE LETRAS DA UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DA BAHIA N V E N T Á R I O I ISSN: 1679-1347 CELEBRITIES’ BODIES IN ACHIEVEMENT CULTURE: A STUDY OF JOURNALISTIC APPROACHES TO AMY WINEHOUSE Marcela Santos BrigiDa (PPGLetras/UERJ – Mestrado) INFORMAÇÕES SOBRE OS AUTORES Marcela Santos Brigida é bacharel em Letras com habilitação em língua inglesa e suas literaturas na Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (2018). É atualmente mestranda em Literaturas de Língua Inglesa com bolsa CAPES na mesma instituição, onde também atua como membro do corpo editorial da Revista Palimpsesto. É idealizadora e curadora de conteúdo do projeto de extensão Literatura Inglesa Brasil. Tem experiência nas áreas de literaturas de língua inglesa, literatura comparada e estudos interartes, com especial interesse em remediações e leituras contemporâneas da obra de Emily Dickinson. É membro da Emily Dickinson International Society (EDIS) e mantém o blog Emily Dickinson Brasil desde 2018. Como associada da Tony Hancock Appreciation Society, tem interesse no desenvolvimento da comédia situacional no contexto das produções de rádio na década de 1950 no Reino Unido. E- mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT RESUMO Amy Winehouse (1983-2011) was an artist whose musical talent Amy Winehouse (1983-2011) foi uma artista cujo talento musical led her to the spotlight at an early age. Nevertheless, an atraiu os holofotes desde muito cedo. No entanto, uma elevated amount of media scrutiny focused on her body, concentração elevada de escrutínio midiático focado no seu physical appearance and personal life helped define the way in corpo, aparência física e vida pessoal ajudou a definir o modo which the public viewed her. In this paper, I engage in an como o público a enxergava. Neste trabalho, desenvolvemos analysis of headlines and articles published about the singer in uma análise de manchetes e artigos publicados sobre a cantora British broadsheets, tabloids and magazines to discuss how the em jornais, tabloides e revistas britânicos para discutir como a press acted in the sense of turning Winehouse into a valuable, imprensa atuou no sentido de transformar Winehouse em um easily sellable commodity. As I analyse a selection of media produto de valor elevado facilmente vendável. Conforme pieces that focus on the artist’s physical appearance (as analisamos uma seleção de textos focados na aparência da opposed to her musical career), I also seek to establish the point artista (e não na sua carreira musical), também buscamos that the discourse pervasive to those pieces is heavily gendered, estabelecer o argumento de que o discurso que é característico with Winehouse often being criticised for deviating from destes artigos é altamente genderizado, com críticas frequentes acceptable patterns of femininity. The discussion I propose here a Winehouse por se desviar de padrões aceitáveis de is supported by studies developed by researchers of Fame feminilidade. A discussão proposta aqui é corroborada por Studies such as Mike Featherstone (2010) and by Guy Debord’s estudos desenvolvidos por pesquisadores dos Estudos da Fama seminal book Society of the Spectacle (1962). Under this light, como Mike Featherstone (2010) e pela obra seminal de Guy Winehouse stands as an example how the press and social Debord, A Sociedade do Espetáculo (1962). Sob este enfoque, media deal with and approach celebrities in the age of what Winehouse se impõe como um exemplo de como a imprensa e Byung-Chul Han has called the achievement society as redes sociais lidam e abordam celebridades na era do que [Leistungsgesellschaft]. To the Korean philosopher, we have Byung-Chul Han definiu como a sociedade do desempenho collectively moved past Foucault’s disciplinary world towards a [Leistungsgesellschaft]. Para o filósofo coreano, fizemos uma model where the pressure to achieve is what moves and defines transição coletiva do mundo disciplinar de Foucault rumo a um us. Considering that many celebrities are perceived as modelo onde a pressão do desempenho é o que nos move e overachievers, this paper discusses the toll such pressure takes define. Considerando que muitas celebridades são identificadas on a person when undertaken publicly, with society assessing como overachievers, este artigo discute o peso da pressão do their body and behaviour to the minutest detail, fundamentally desempenho sobre o indivíduo quando esta é exercida establishing patterns of scrutiny that were not possible before publicamente, com a sociedade avaliando seu corpo e 373Artigo Revista Inventário, n. 23, Salvador, jul. 2019 ISSN: 1679-1347 the digital age. comportamento em detalhes minuciosos, fundamentalmente estabelecendo padrões de escrutínio que não eram possíveis antes da era digital. KEY-WORDS PALAVRAS-CHAVE Achievement Culture; Fame Studies; Amy Winehouse. Cultura do desempenho; Estudos da Fama; Amy Winehouse. In “Beyond Disciplinary Society” (2010), Byung-Chul Han argues that we no longer inhabit Foucault’s “disciplinary world of hospitals, madhouses, prisons, barracks, and factories” (p. 8). In the philosopher’s eyes, this system has become obsolete. It has been replaced by another regime, “namely a society of fitness studios, office towers, banks, airports, shopping malls, and genetic laboratories” (HAN, 2010, p. 8). Han tells us that, in the twenty-first century, we live in an achievement society [Leistungsgesellschaft]. This shift in societal paradigm is understood to have changed not only the way human beings relate to each other in the age of late capitalism, but also the way people perceive themselves; obedience is not what defines them as workers, but achievement: They are entrepreneurs of themselves. The walls of disciplinary institutions, which separate the normal from the abnormal, have come to seem archaic. Foucault’s analysis of power cannot account for the psychic and topological changes that occurred as disciplinary society transformed into achievement society. Nor does the commonly employed concept of “control society” do justice to this change. It still contains too much negativity. (HAN, 2010, p. 8) This shift is reflective of a movement from a society governed by negativity to one that is defined by an exacerbation of positivity which generates a new type of violence. This form of aggression is more difficult to identify precisely as it does not “presume or require hostility” (HAN, 2010, p. 8). It is subtler precisely because it takes place in a pacified society where there is “no polarization between inside and outside, or proper and foreign, takes place.” (HAN, 2010, p. 6). The philosopher identifies a systemic violence engendered by the pressure to achieve that leads to depression and mental breakdowns. Within this framework, it is interesting to think of how this pressure not only to achieve, but also to perform achievement, manifests itself in the way celebrities – perceived as overachievers in the case of artists, intellectuals and athletes – are portrayed by the media. In Society of the Spectacle (1962), Guy Debord addresses how mostly everything – from personal attitude to human bodies – can be commodified in the society of the spectacle. Celebrities fulfil specific functions to enact parts and concentrate notions of Revista Inventário, n. 23, Salvador, jul. 2019 4 38 ISSN: 1679-1347 ideal beauty and sex appeal. Even notions of rebelliousness performed by film stars such as James Dean or rock stars such as Mick Jagger are turned into manageable, profitable commodities as “complacent acceptance of the status quo may also coexist with purely spectacular rebelliousness — dissatisfaction itself becomes a commodity as soon as the economy of abundance develops the capacity to process that particular raw material.” (DEBORD, 1962, p. 9). In that sense, Stars — spectacular representations of living human beings — project this general banality into images of possible roles. As specialists of apparent life, stars serve as superficial objects that people can identify with in order to compensate for the fragmented productive specializations that they actually live. The function of these celebrities is to act out various lifestyles or socio-political viewpoints in a full, totally free manner. They embody the inaccessible results of social labour by dramatizing the by-products of that labour which are magically projected above it as its ultimate goals: power and vacations — the decision making and consumption that are at the beginning and the end of a process that is never questioned. On one hand, a governmental power may personalize itself as a pseudo star; on the other, a star of consumption may campaign for recognition as a pseudo power over life. But the activities of these stars are not really free, and they offer no real choices. (DEBORD, 1962, p. 10) Debord goes on to stress that stardom is a phenomenon that acts against the individuality of the agent of the spectacle displayed as a star – or a celebrity – as it acts against the concept of individuality as a whole. The masses are supposed not only to worship stars, but also to wish to be more like them. In order to become a mould for others to emulate, the agent of the spectacle must renounce idiosyncrasies that do not fit in with the purposes to which he or she is put on a stage for consumption. With that in mind, the aim of this article is to produce a brief study of how the pressure to achieve combined with the massive commodification of the human body in the condition of stardom are posed by journalistic discourse when addressing popular artists. I am going to turn specifically to the way British broadsheets, tabloid media and magazines both represented and addressed the late singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse (1983- 2011). The headlines and articles presented here span from 2007 to 2011, the years following the release of Winehouse’s second studio album Back to Black up until her death at age twenty-seven. Back to Black brought on a peak of media interest in the artist’s personal life as well as in her style and appearance.