Celebrity and "Relatability"

It's the Jennifer Lawrence effect. She has enchanted the public with her wit, beauty, and supposed quality in which we can all relate to her. She is amazingly likable, genuinely funny, and instead of treating PR as apart of her job as an actress, lets herself have a good time and refuses to take it too seriously.

Anne Hathaway is on the opposite end of public opinion. She "irks" people. She comes across as too professional and annoyingly earnest. She is the consummate professional and constantly gives thoughtful, eloquent answers when asked questions. Additionally, she rocks the living daylights out of that pixie cut, is BFFs with Valentino, and has real flaws. Despite all this, people hate her and can't seem to put a finger on why they hate her.


So why do people love J.Law and hate Annie Hathaway? Here's my theory, cooked up with a friend. Jennifer Lawrence is basically our ideal human. She's the woman that other women want to be, and she's the woman that men want to be with. This is because she's not relatable. Case in point, we are not all beautiful, funny, or able to just bark out an order from McDonald's while on the red carpet... because we won't be on the red carpet at all. I for one, am not capable of any of those things, and know very few people who possess the same magic qualities that J.Law does. Despite this, time and time again she is labeled as the relatable girl next door who we all want to be best friends with.

In reality, we could probably relate to Anne Hathaway, and she might even prove to be the better friend. She's whip smart, speaks her mind without making you feel inconsequential, and appears to be a kind and caring individual. She's also insecure despite being phenomenally talented. Insecure is not a word that comes to mind when looking at J.Law. Insecure might be one of the first words that comes to mind when describing myself. Hathaway comes across as not completely comfortable with herself and I see more of myself in her than J.Law. Why then, do people hate her so?

Here's my theory: Anne Hathaway is disliked because she is more like us than we want her to be. She isn't perfect. We see too much of ourselves in her than we want to see in a public figure and instead of priding her on being relatable we don't want to see our own flaws displayed on a celebrity. We would rather pretend we are more like the practically impossible ideal that is Jennifer Lawrence who always has a sharp, hilarious answer or action for every situation. We want to be her, but we most certainly are not and we lambaste Anne Hathaway unreasonably. Now I'm not asking you to dislike Lawrence and love Hathaway because I truly like both and wish them equal respect. They've earned it. All I'm asking for is a little leniency on the celebrity, or just that girl you know, who just bugs you for no good reason, because they might give you more than you think they could.

Fame is as fickle as those who feed into it.

Images via IMDb