Meeting Your Parasocial Idol

Parasocial attachments between young girls and older male celebrities are a often-experienced but rarely studied phenomenon. In a 2001 study, Rachel Karniol explored these attachments to find out what causes them and how they affect young women. Karniol hypothesizes that young girls become attached to male celebrities with feminine features, or who exhibit normative feminine character traits, because these stars are safe love interests - at least, safer than much older male sex symbols in the media. Many of these young women who aren’t ready for a relationship are disinterested in sex, but are told in society that they should be romantically interested. These distanced, safe celebrity crushes are, Karniol says, a state between experiencing romantic interest and becoming ready for real relationships. They serve as “convenient romantic attachment[s], which not be feared, can be idealized, and can be symbolically available at will” (Karniol, 2001, 62).

To illustrate this strong parasocial relationship, the following clip shows a girl who actually does get to meet her idol:

Admittedly, I can’t make assumptions about this girl’s peers, her reasons for idolizing Justin Bieber, or even her age. However, her description of Justin and explanation for her crush really stand out, especially in the context of Karniol’s study. When Ellen asks her why she loves Justin so much, she says, “He honestly has the biggest heart. He cares so much about his fans. He’s always doing things for his fans, he loves his family, his music is so inspirational. I just love him so much.” Following the logic of Karniol’s hypothesis, this reasoning completely defines Justin as safe and caring, and has no hint of a real or sexual relationship.

The results of Karniol’s (2001) study did find that young girls who “choose feminine idols tend to think of them in loving and comforting terms,” as opposed to other girls who chose more masculine celebrities and tended to think of them more sexually (75). However, she also found that even some girls who chose nonfeminine celebrities also attributed feminine characteristics to their idols. The qualities Jaqueline likes about Justin are traditionally feminine - he’s loving, he cares for his fans, he goes out of his way to help his fans - so although I can’t say for certain whether she likes Justin because she thinks he looks feminine, she is definitely drawn to these safe and compassionate characteristics.

Another thing that stood out to me in this clip is that though it’s a great illustration of a parasocial relationship, this superfan is actually meeting her crush. It’s not a merely imagined relationship anymore; they’ve interacted in person. Since our digital world has begun to grow closer together, interactions between fans and celebrities happen much more often than they used to - whether through social media, live concerts, or even a chance to go on Ellen. This makes me wonder what effect these new methods of connection have on young girls with celebrity crushes. According to Karniol’s hypotheses, the parasocial nature of the relationship is what makes it safe, which is a driving force of these crushes. Because they’ll never meet face to face, young girls can depend on their imagined “boyfriends” to offer support at all times and to be exactly the kind of partner they need. However, if digitally interacting with a crush or even meeting in person is a possibility, does that make crushes less safe or more exciting? Personally, for more young girls, I think it becomes more exciting - but with the added risk of being let down by a celebrity crush - realizing he treats you the same as his other fans, or responding rudely on Twitter. Either way, I don’t think these parasocial relationships will cease anytime soon, and we’ll have much more time to research more thoroughly.

References

Karniol, R. (2001). Adolescent females’ idolization of male media stars as transition into sexuality. Sex Roles, 44(1/2), 61-77.