With celebrities more available to the public than ever, is it any surprise that Instagram is the new paparazzi car chase, open to bald criticism and praise?
Notoriously private pop culture staple Beyoncé Knowles made an Instagram on Election Day, making a political, fashion and geographical statement with her first picture.
The world rejoiced at a view into Beyoncé’s life we had been bereft of for so long.
In it, the Houston native posed in a “Texans for Obama” campaign shirt. Beyoncé’s move to further conquer the Internet was heralded in the media as the beginnings of a modern empire.
In addition to her documentary “Life is But a Dream,” recently released on HBO, the star already has a rarely used Twitter, a Tumblr dedicated to self-released pictures of herself — and another made to release the first pictures of daughter Blue Ivy Carter for free to the public — and a Facebook fan page.
Somehow, this is not enough for us. We want more. Reviews of her documentary were nothing less than scathing.
She didn’t give us enough! Yes, she showed us videos of baby Blue, but where are the shots with untamed bedhead? And the sex tape snippet with husband Jay-Z? What about the sneak peek into an Illuminati ceremony?
The media roared that we had been cheated out of the invasive view of Beyoncé’s life she had dangled in front of our eyes with advertisements for her documentary.
Let’s have a look at the royalty overseas and compare to Queen B’s nearly flawless reign. The British royal family has celebrity status on par with our pop stars, with all of the paparazzi problems and running rumor mills we Americans consider a birthright.
Queen Elizabeth II has staunchly refused to give in to modern expectations of openness from public figures. In her six-decade-long run as queen, she has never been interviewed by the press. That’s right — never.
Never mind that her coronation in 1953 was the first to be televised. The queen draws a line, and her descendants straying from this path has only led to horrible scandal.
In the year 1992, so much bad press and personal tragedy fell upon the royal family that Queen Elizabeth II dubbed it her “annus horribilis.”
Do we really want Beyoncé to experience her own “annus horribilis” at our overeager hands? If Instagram-stalking is truly the modern-day paparazzi car chase, what could be the Beyoncé equivalent of Princess Diana’s 1996 death?
Rather than pushing for more personal information from Beyoncé and other close-mouthed celebrities, we should practice a little restraint and respect her wish for privacy.
She’s performing all of her queenly duties just fine without our prying eyes.
Samantha Bares is a 19-year-old English sophomore from Erath, La.
