Pop star Billie Eilish must have found her true self, so why does she look so miserable? In a Rolling Stone profile to promote her new album, Eilish reveals that she’s a woman. He admitted to being obsessed with , and presented himself as a struggling artist with a photo of himself looking dirty and unhappy.
This is another Rolling Stone magazine story earlier this year in which Kristen Stewart portrayed herself as a loud, angry gay man, declaring that he wanted to “do the gayest shit I’ve ever seen in my life.” reflects the profile of The accompanying photo showed Stewart looking unhappy and almost unattractive (which took some effort on her part).
These profiles are reminiscent of other female celebrities such as Ellen Page. Photoshoots after transitioning to “Elliot” tend to be portraits of unfortunate androgynous figures. Instead of presenting their rainbow identity as a source of liberation and joy, these women sell themselves as angry and miserable.
And that’s marketing. Interviews and photo shoots don’t just happen. These are carefully placed to promote celebrities and their projects. So it’s strange that these women present themselves as miserable. Eilish said: …I can experience joy and laughter and find enjoyment in things, but I am a depressed person. I have suffered from depression many times throughout my life. ”
What’s most striking about these interviews is the clear consensus that misery resonates with fans. Misery may love her companions, but she rarely promotes them directly. But these profiles do more than simply water down the glamor and present well-known subjects as authentic and relatable. They go so far as to be anti-glamourous, valuing unhappiness and deliberately fostering ugliness. Call it misery chic.
emphasize ugliness and unhappiness
The idea behind this is not clearly explained. It’s more of an atmosphere than a philosophy. Nevertheless, several themes can be derived from this emphasis on ugliness and misfortune.
One is that beauty is unfair and exploitative. It is unevenly distributed, and those who have it are presumed to be using it to exploit others, being exploited, or both. The other thing is that there is no real hope. Previously, there would have been a narrative that embracing the authenticity of a rainbow identity would bring happiness. Now it is presented as offering only more genuine misfortune.
While it’s tempting to dismiss this trend as just an angry pop culture posturing, Americans are actually becoming increasingly lonely, depressed, and hopeless, without purpose and cut off from their communities and families. . And young women, especially young liberal women, are among the people most affected by mental health problems. Eilish and the others only amplify this vibe.
There are good reasons for this misery, both for ordinary young women and ostentatiously unfortunate celebrities. For example, social media has amplified the viciousness of paparazzi culture for celebrities and recreated it in miniature for ordinary girls. Everyone is constantly being watched and put on display, and the only thing worse than being the subject of brutality is being ignored, which is not social torture but social death.
Furthermore, relationships between men and women are in such disarray that there is no model of what they should be or even a real framework for improving them. With ubiquitous pornography also normalizing sexual violence, it’s no wonder that more young women don’t need to be attractive or even female to men.
pain is a warning
These problems are endemic to our culture and plague both the unknown and those who shine in fame and fortune. But pain gives us an essential warning that we are on the wrong path.Most recently as Lutheran pastor Hans Fein. put that On Twitter:
Many people who suffer from depression don’t actually have a mental illness. They have an appropriate response to living a life that is the opposite of happiness. In fact, they are so diametrically opposed that if they were happy they would be mentally ill. If you are living a lonely life, with people who don’t care about you, no spouse, no children, no exercise, addiction to porn, dealing with weed, hostility and indifference towards your God. If you exist only to work for God, you need to see your hostility and indifference to God. If you feel like it’s about to collapse, consult your doctor.
Unhappiness, and the atmosphere of misery that it represents, is a natural outgrowth of spiritual and relational poverty, against which worldly success provides no shield. We shouldn’t be surprised when celebrities suffering from despair express it publicly.
Of course, actresses who can’t get through an interview without getting drunk and high are in a bad position. Of course, a pop singer who wants to tell a reporter all about his masturbation ritual is screwed. These are signs of suffering.
Genuine suffering may be preferable to false attraction, but it’s still no good. Suffering may have a purpose, but most of our culture’s suffering is meaningless, even if it’s as mundane as enduring a grueling album cover photo shoot. The promise of the world turned out to be false. Our worldly idols, from material prosperity to technological advancement to sexual liberation, have failed to make us happy or give meaning or comfort to our suffering.
The cultural and spiritual debris around us reveals that finding our true selves will not make us happy. In this miserable culture, those of us who have reason to hope should boldly declare that we do not need to discover our true individual selves. We need a new and transformed self with a right relationship with God and humanity. We don’t have to find our true self within ourselves. We need to find Jesus and who he really is.
Nathanael Blake is a senior contributor to The Federationist and a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Ethics and Public Policy.
