Kylie and Timothée’s relationship wades into another interesting facet of our contemporary relationship to gossip. “More than ever, we’re aware that the celebrities themselves are conscious of being watched, and of internet drama fuelling their own visibility and platforms,” says therapist Eloise Skinner. We see this play out with Kylie and Timothée’s relationship, which has long been thought of as a PR creation.
It’s a convoluted mess: one that makes it easy for lines to become blurred, and boundaries to be crossed. One jarring instance of this comes in the form of a recent New York Times piece which offered up 5,000-words speculating on Taylor Swift’s sexuality. One member of Swift’s team came forward anonymously to say that “because of her massive success, in this moment there is a Taylor-shaped hole in people’s ethics [sic]”. They’re right. It’s an article born out of the notion that we’re owed knowledge of public figure’s personal lives. “Social media has bridged a gap, creating an environment where fans don’t just gossip about celebrities; it’s as if they’re gossiping with them” adds Jenna. “When a celebrity shares an emotional moment on Instagram Live or replies to a TikTok video, it fosters a sense of closeness and accessibility that was previously unheard of. Fans are now active participants in a shared digital space with their idols. But all of this comes at a cost of privacy as celebrities are increasingly expected to turn their private lives into content”.
The notion of commodifying your personal life is a facet of our society that transcends the world of celebs too. Influencers like Alix Earle and Madeleine Argy, who’ve cashed in on laying it bare, are the epitome of this. Even us regular folk are getting involved: if you spent enough time online late last year it’s likely you will have encountered what was dubbed the “boyfriend hoodie drama”, where TikTok videos by two former friends essentially aired out their dirty laundry with each other in the public sphere. For Rukiat Ashawe, an editorial and social executive at The Digital Fairy, this is all a by-product of how “the concept of privacy has been broken in our digital age”: “whether it’s watching ads, accepting cookie policies without reading the terms or endlessly scrolling on TikTok, the sharing of private celebrity moments online is really just an element of a much larger privacy breakdown”.
