Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Issue 1 | Page 85

suggest ways in which she could more effectively “perform authenticity,”
which seems like an oxymoron. In fact, it appears that Clinton’s awkward
wonkishness was indeed authentic. When she tried to perform the emotions
that audiences clamored for, it came across as inauthentic. Celebrities, who
act for a living, are better at performing those “authentic” emotions than
Clinton was; not surprisingly, the most successful politicians today are often
those who can enact “authenticity.”
Because celebrities can effectively display emotional authenticity in support
of a cause, many young women in the public eye today have entered that
liminal space between culture and politics. Celebrities of all sorts frequently
use their visibility toward political ends; it can be quite explicit, as in the
case of Emma Watson speaking in support of feminism at the United
Nations or Beyoncé using her musical performances to draw attention to
fraught racial and gender issues. However, it is not only famous women
who put themselves on display with a political goal in mind. SlutWalk is
another kind of performance with an unambiguous political message. But
for women, the simple decision to put oneself in the public sphere, to
perform, and to claim a public voice can be a political act. Cultural critics
have recognized the political intent in these assertions of female agency,
even if, as Andi Zeisler suggests that “celebrity feminists (and the media that
flocks to them) seem more comfortable with feminism as an identity than
with its substance” (Zeisler ����). Sometimes the substance of the political
statement is subsumed to the spectacle of the performance.
Today in the Western world, we are used to women, famous or not, who put
themselves on display. While the self-promotion of social media denizens
and other celebrities is hardly universally celebrated, few see the choice to
do so as dangerous, despite the real and sometimes genuinely menacing
presence of misogynistic trolls who threaten outspoken women on the
Internet. But the danger is far more acute in conservative settings where
performance and self-display are considered not only explicitly political but
also highly threatening. In a recent notorious and chilling case, Pakistani
social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch’s brother murdered her in an “honor
killing”; he believed that her provocative videos, posted on line, brought
disgrace to her family. In a country that denies fundamental rights, such as
education, to many women, and enforces sexual modesty through violence,
Qandeel’s life and death had enormous political resonance. According to
BBC news, “...The fact that many of Qandeel’s videos went viral suggests a
titillating fascination with confident female sexuality - along with fear of its
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