Why Do We Hate Female Celebrities?

Quickly, make a list of your top five least favorite celebrities, celebrities that you would go so far as to say that you really hated.

Now how many of those are women?

According to an article from BBC News, female celebrities seem to bear the brunt of the world’s popular culture-related displeasure. A British poll stated that four of the top five most-hated celebrities were female and the top five most-loved celebrities were all male (strangely, Simon Cowell showed up on both lists).

If this poll is an accurate indication of the way societies view celebrity, there seems to be a misogynist slant against females that is fairly representative of the way women in general are viewed by the world. That is to say, female celebrities are vilified for the same reasons that females are vilified by culture as a whole: they are catty, or overly ambitious and assertive, or bad mothers, or too sensitive, or greedy. It doesn’t need to be pointed out that many of these qualities would be applauded in a man.

But before this goes too angry and feminist, the saddest and scariest part of the article was that most of the anger directed at females in the spotlight come not from men, but from other women. Women no doubt influenced by history and society’s unrealistic expectations of them, but women nonetheless.

This makes a good amount of sense, because women seem to be the ones most often consuming the sort of popular culture that features other women and are more likely to form strong opinions about women in entertainment. Perhaps it is because we are unsatisfied with the way that females like Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton represent our sex. But I’m inclined to think that it’s something a lot less noble.

As the article states,

“despite years of equal opportunities, the media – and the people who watch and read – prefer the stay-at-home mother over a woman who lives her life in public, particularly one who is overtly ambitious or successful in making money. There is great satisfaction among many people in seeing them humbled.”

This makes me think of dating shows like Rock of Love and The Bachelor. I think that women don’t generally watch those shows to see a fellow woman find love and happiness, we watch to see the women tear each other down and act like idiots. And over a man who probably couldn’t care less.

Also, I’m not a Hilary supporter, but I can see this sort of mindset directed at her and her campaign as well. One of my favorite reporters Leonard Pitts wrote a beautiful article last year that started like this:

“So,” the woman asked, “how do we beat the bitch?” And Sen. John McCain laughed.

It was, he said, an “excellent” question. Yes, he went on to express respect for Hillary Clinton, to whom the woman referred. But not once…did he suggest that it wasn’t appropriate to call Clinton a ‘bitch.’”

I think this all leads to a much more important question than “Why do women not like female celebrities?” And that is “Why do women not seem to like other women?”