Addicted To The Camera

-

Jennifer Lopez actress, addicted to the camera.


We follow people with calorie-free bodies, perfect paint on their faces, not a single hair protruding with no sense of direction, their clothes with someone’s name and husbands who don’t snore.

There’s a story behind every famous person living a photo-shipped life. Meaning? Always in front of a camera, digital or otherwise. Actors want kids to be in Bollywood and Nollywood. NBA players want kids to play basketball. U.S. presidents want sons to be future presidents.

Beauty queens want kids to be Miss World or Miss Universe. The rewards are enormous: money, an acting career, Madame Tussauds wax figures and the icing on the cake? Marrying into royalty, famous music or acting families.

The ‘camera’ has stretched, like chewed gum. Everybody has a camera. It is never switched off. We don’t listen to music, because we take cellphones to concerts. Just point them on stage the whole performance.

This digital fame comes with a price. The rich and famous become addicted to the camera. They must be ‘alive’ for it. They cannot afford to be extinct, to have headlines scream: where is she now?

Solution? Every decision they take is for the camera. Food cravings are suppressed because they might affect how the body looks on camera. They know it makes you bigger than you are.

The need to stay in front of the camera results in a photo-shipped life. The rich and famous base most personal decisions on the camera. This includes having kids. Their bodies stay perfect longer if they don’t have them, which means continuous work.

The digital age has changed that drastically. They must be online wearing matching outfits with sons and daughters and posting their rooms that cost a lot of money. The photo-shipped life demands kids.

No problem. They have the money to buy them from a surrogate. It’s a guarantee that they’ll be in front of the camera for the next 18 years, starting with the statement, “we’ve always wanted to be parents.”

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elections And Political Bullies

-
Image
Forget democracy.   It should be called political bullying. We are watching it in the prelude to the Canadian election on the 19 th of October, 2015.   Americans have also started their political bullying for the looming presidential election next year. So many trees wasted on books about democracy.   Some countries have big budgets for invading other countries ‘ to defend democracy’ but it is seldom practised in campaigning for elections.   Calling opponents names and printing flyers attacking each other is behaviour that will not be tolerated in kindergarten, but it is all legal, in campaigning.   It is irritating and such a let-down to the whole notion of democracy.   Grown-up men and women behaving like Grade One kids. It is also misleading because many voters believe it is real hatred.   Don’t let that fool you.   These politicians play golf together, attend the same dinner parties, eat and drink at the same social events, share jokes and cut deals in parliament.   They
Read more

Comfort Food As Regret Food

-
Image
Chicken curry. Comfort food is good for the soul, which usually bleeds in winter from icy roads, bad drivers that want to annihilate pedestrians, frozen fingers and toes that take a sabbatical.   What happened to my toes?   I thought I was wearing special socks for boots? We therefore have a right to comfort food which throws doctors’ orders out of the window and has no loyalty to calories.   No calculator on the table, thanks very much.   Piece of bread 5 calories, half a banana 10 calories, sugar-free cheesecake 2,000 calories.   Ah! Ah!  We only live once. Naw!   Comfort food is old school food with its compulsory second helping.   It involves licking fingers and giving a big sigh, about the good life, which is shelter, food, love and debt.   The problem is the zip.   The jeans remind you that comfort food can also be called you will regret food .   Home sweet home is even sweeter in winter after surviving blowing snow and bumper to bumper traffic. What is more welcoming th
Read more

No Air Miles

-
Image
I don’t have Air Miles.   I’m considering putting that on a T-Shirt because I cannot go to the drugstore (chemist) or coffee shop without the cashier asking me if I have air miles. We waited for about two minutes the other day, while this guy looked for his Air Miles card in his overweight wallet.   For what?   For a few points. I don’t have air miles because Mathematics is a foreign language.   I was never good in numbers. That is why I squashed the idea of being an investment banker very early in life.   I understand you can invest in cornfields before the soil is turned up or pork bellies even before a baby pig is born. That is how I view air miles, investing in tomorrow or the unknown.   I’m the dumb one.   Some people understand this air miles’ thing so well, I overheard one customer saying: I can even convert my points into cash. Points and air miles are the same thing in Canada and the U.S.   Drugstores or clothing stores even give you a card to collect point
Read more