LooseSuits

I often think the same thing, especially being as many places on the web as possible. Some people wonder why they don't get jobs and such, when they have Facebook/Myspace pictures of them naked and drunk on a beach somewhere.

Since starting a job in the professional world, I've edited the hell out of my profiles and took down lots of pictures because I don't want to be seen as that guy, and I feel that I've matured quite a bit since my college years, so I want to reflect that in my online presence.

I think it's a delicate balance. One shouldn't care completely about what others think (cause you'll never please everyone), but at the same time, should at least be aware and maintain a basic thread of common decency.

That performance was dope.

I had to stop myself from dancing, then Rhianna <3 comes out.

DAMN!

Back to the image thing, yes, everytime you see this kid in an interview, he carries himself well.

He'll be around for a long time.

I do wonder if people paid more attention to the image they projected if they would make the same decisions? As 9rules becomes more popular I definitely have been considering what image I want to project...does it reflect my ethics? My principles? Is it an accurate depiction of who I am and does who I am fit in with what I want?

If you have to "watch yourself," and really analyze your behavior in the public eye, then how much of it is really you?

Certainly celebrities tend to have a bit of cultivated dual-personality in their public vs private lives. That generally comes because they are performers in one way or another. Actors, Musicians, Politicians are all putting on a face, crafting a persona if you will. The best of them I think tend to be true to themselves always--that shows through in their performances.

In the situation this guy describes, he's forcing himself to act a certain way to cater to his fans. While I can understand he doens't want to give up his lifestyle, that seems overtly fake to me. He's a good performer (never heard of him before but watched the video,) but having that underlying admitted fakeness seems to detract. Maybe that's the difference between a performer and an artist.

I don't think this is a model that should be followed in business, or personal life. Certainly you should try not to act like a fool all the time when you're in public, but you shouldn't act contrary to who you are ever.

Ozone42: He's in the public eye...you can't do whatever you want to do and not pay a price for it. Perfect example: Britney. Chris is not doing anything no one else does. There are people that are perpetually late except for work because they know if they don't make it work on time, they will get fired. Does that make them fake? How many people get drunk on Friday/Saturday and use Sunday to get it together so they can go to work on Monday and perform properly? How many not get drunk during the week because they know they have responsibilities at work they must deal with? Does that make them fake?

According to you, it does.

To me, it says there is a time and a place for things. Chris doesn't do his bit in the club because, just like the person that doesn't go into work drunk or late, he knows there will be a price and the price is too high. For him, it could be the equivalent of getting fired. That doesn't mean he doesn't have ladies - he has friends with benefits. He properly picks the time and place. He admitted that in the article along with the fact he hasn't had a girlfriend since he was 14.

That is why I said:

9rules becomes more popular I definitely have been considering what image I want to project...does it reflect my ethics? My principles? Is it an accurate depiction of who I am and does who I am fit in with what I want?

For me it does because the only thing I do is think about what I say before I say it, which everyone should do. That's just common sense. Chris is doing the same thing - thinking about his actions before he does it. The article was about him being a man and accepting the responsibilities that go with it. If he was being fake he wouldn't admit to having 1000 pairs of sneakers and a Lamborghini...IMO. He admits to being girl crazy but not so crazy he'd make a decision that would could mess up the career he's trying to build.

If more celebrities took note of their image they wouldn't have the drama they hate happen occur. Perez wouldn't have a job if they took a second to think about what they were doing before they did it. Ozone do you really think it's fake to think, "Hmm, I'm going out tonight. I'm wearing a short dress. I'm going in a car. Perhaps I should put some panties on so I don't repeat a mistake I made 5 times already"?

I'm with Jeff in that image may be necessary, but as "image" is such a big thing thing with so many one now always wonders about the real person behind the image and one becomes distrustful of one who worries more about the image.

To force yourself to not go out with one girl because it will wreck your image rings very false with me, yet of course from the standpoint of someone whose goal is to make a lot of money it it smartly manipulative. What a relief it will be for him when he can be himself.
I find a wold where it is all about an image set in pretense to be rather deleterious to a life lived true to oneself.

Again I see the need for celebrities to have an image. I hope the public realizes it is a paid for image and the people behind the image are not always what they seem.

Well see, that's the thing. If you go to a club how often have you chatted with a guy/girl, had a good time that night, but don't have any intention of having anything to do with the person again? It was just a one time thing.

Consider his position. He's a celebrity, he travels a lot and although cute, the girl(s) usually doesn't have the shot of being a true focus. If he talks to one girl, just chillin', for a long period of time the next day that girl will be online and in the press as the girl Chris is interested in...when he's not. Her life is spun out of control for a minute, he has a media issue to deal with. Instead, he talks to a bunch of girls in the club - no one is the focus because once he leaves there he'll probably never see them again or give them a second thought. His image is intact and I don't see him not enjoying himself while he's out. He is having sex so I don't see how he is denying himself or being fake. Somehow women are getting in his bed but it's not public.

For the life of me I don't see how that's fake, that's smart.

Your drunkeness example doesn't apply here. What this guy is doing is not a matter of responsibility, nor is it a matter of fullfilling work obligations. What he's doing is letting his fans dictate what he can and can't do, for the purpose of further promoting/prolonging his celebrity. That is inherently fake--but I didn't say that was wrong, just that for me it cheapens things. I prefer a musician (or perfomer) who does their music and it can stand on its own merits, without the need to craft a persona to go along with it.

Everyone makes mistakes, and I understand sacrificing some things in favour of others. If you know who you are and what you want, then there should never be that internal conflict. There should never be a question of "wait, can I say this? that might make me look bad to some people," because it's part of who you are.

Britney's image is that of trailer trash. I can't think of a time when it hasn't been that. It's now that she's loosing her looks and has been watched so long that she's being called out on it. It's because people don't care anymore. She's not new, and people can't trick themsleves into believing she's sweet and innocent.

What this guy is doing is not a matter of responsibility, nor is it a matter of fullfilling work obligations. What he's doing is letting his fans dictate what he can and can't do, for the purpose of further promoting/prolonging his celebrity.

He has a huge teenage following. He's under 21 so the club he goes to is not a 21+ club. In his club there could easily be 15 & 16 year old girls in there (he's 18). You are taking this from a standpoint of an adult for a boy who is saying he's transitioning into a man. Come on, adult women wouldn't care if he was talking to other women. A teenager who has a crush? Sure it would. As he transitions into adulthood he is keeping his public image PG cause he has a bunch of kids listening to him.

And you've morphed that into be fake. Don't know many parents that want their daughter reading the sexapades of their current crush. I don't get your logic.

It's good to acknowledge something for what it really is--which is why I agree with Tyme's statement that it's a business. If you're in the business of putting yourself up there and making money off it, then expect it to be a 2-way street. You can't reap all the benefits of your own image without the knowledge that your actions have rewards ... and repercussions. Unless, somehow, you scored a lucky record deal outta The Mickey Mouse Club doing what you've been groomed to do your entire life and have been subsequently able to surround yourself with "yes-men."

There's a lot of psychology in the game. Here we are, at the fastest speed of dissemination of information in history. And there IS bad luck out there. People all around you with their cameraphones, now. So there's the other part where the media just creates a circus around you should you provide that opportunity or you're unlucky to get someone get a shot of you that can be taken out of context ... or both. Or a mix of the two.

That's really cool Chris Brown put on an awesome performance, because now we see that it's probably not coincidence. He deserved it. I do have to agree he is extremely mature for 18. Way more mature than I could ever be and I applaud his parents and support systems for being able to pull that.

I use the Olsen Twins as a Britney antonym. They're always wearing seemingly frumpy clothes and not smiling in their paparazzi shots and covering their faces--but in reality it's because they're sick of it (since infancy) and despite having grown up IN it they're not milking the spotlight. It's a bit extreme because I think it was Ashley who said she doesn't go out swimming in Malibu just so no one can get a shot of her. Anyhoo, I digress.

Balance is a good thing.

Chris doesn't do his bit in the club because, just like the person that doesn't go into work drunk or late, he knows there will be a price and the price is too high. For him, it could be the equivalent of getting fired.

Sounds like a sweet job.

I don't go to clubs for that very reason, but that is what I said it is a "manipulated" image.
I didn't say it wasn't smart for his purpose of making money. I'm just saying it may or may not be real, it's pretense.
I think the idea that one can create something to present to the public to sell themselves while being someone else, as Hollywood and Washington are so apt to do, enforces a world of smoke and mirrors.

This is not the same to me as being principled, honest and having a particular view on life, business, politics whatever and working to present that view. If the image you try to create is true, I feel in all but entertainment and Washington it will work better. In entertainment and politics it appears not to be the case, although as we have seen the creating a false image can come back and bite you in the butt, because when it is proven not to be the case the penalty is high.

Tyme,

I'm not morphing anything, just taking an outside standpoint. He's 18, I thought that was considered adult, so yeah, I'm putting it in that context. I'm happy to hear he's not abusing his celebrity (overtly) to take advantage of underage girls. But who's morphing things here?

he has responsibilities to maintain his image. He talked about how, even if he wants to, he can't focus on one girl because what are all the rest of them going to think? He's smart enough to know that if he focused on one it could get outside the club, the media will get hold of it...and it would mess with his image. He accepts the responsibilities that goes along with being a celebrity. He acknowledged the price a mistake can make in his life.

That really doesn't sound like he's looking out for the girls. It sounds like he's looking out for his cashflow.

I have no problem with that.

It's business, it's fine, it's smart: I don't think it's wrong for him to do this, it's just not genuine, and from the wording in there it's implied that it's not who he actually is. The implication isn't necessarily the reality so I'll leave it at that.

Going on that logic couldn't one argue that anytime you think "I'm gonna kill that guy" or "I'm going to walk over and talk to her" and you don't actually do it then you aren't being genuine. Everyone has examples in their life where they would love to do something, but don't because there are consequences. His are just on a larger scale and he has to be smarter about them. That doesn't mean he isn't genuine, not being genuine would mean that he wouldn't even admit to thinking such things.

Of course the more famous you get, the less leeway you have to do whatever you want (unless you fall under the Paris Hilton celebrity halo), but that is the price of fame. In our own lives how much of the stuff would we really do if our whole family was made aware of it daily?

I guess the whole concept of catering to an audience is too alien to me to understand. My brain is wired WYSIWYG.

Even then you are catering to an audience because you know what you want and you know how you want people to react so you continue to act that way.

You lost me.

I'm saying we become the person that we are (the image) because we like how people react to it. So we cater to the audience that fits to the image that we wish to perceive so in one way or another we are catering to an audience. I'm not really a psychologist, I just stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

I think that this could go on forever, as there are people who are always worried about their image and instead of being themselves they live their life in serach of an image others will like, and there are people who are true to themselves and they live their life that way.

In entertainment it doesn't matter so much and is necessary and accepted, in a business it seems a bit shady.

That may very well be true for some types of people, but it's not universal by any means, and I'm not even sure it's the norm.

I feel as if the thing that Scrivs is talking about is a way to deal with fame. So Ozone42 it's not so much the fact that they are not being genuine/themselves, it is more of a way of protecting themselves and their close relationships.

In your private circle of people you are still yourself but when it comes to dealing with other people...well you just can't take that stuff laying down.

I read the whole post, including the original, as a way to project an image you want in order to promote yourself or your business not to protect yourself.

Let's start this again. Chris Brown is 18, not 21. So he's not in the club we would go to with people 21 and over. He is in the club with kids, perhaps 15-20. Or perhaps 18-20. So kill the adult association club association.

Developing a relationship with the wrong girl because she's cute could cause him serious trouble. Why? To get to him they will lie. He doesn't want to be like Akon who accidentally picks an underage girl (who lied - she wasn't supposed to be there since it was 18 and over at 16), does something inappropriate and ends up getting kicked off a tour and messing up his career. Akon "should" have been able to pick up any female on stage but his luck, he picked one that lied about her age. He paid a bigger price for her lie (not that I agree with what they did on stage).

So yes, thinking in terms of "If I do this, who will that impact my career" is a smart way to think and probably keeps him out of trouble. He is his brand and he's not doing anything a company wouldn't do...manage his brand. To say he is faking anything is false. He doesn't talk to a strange woman because he's not ruled by his hormones. I'm sure he does talk to a woman that truly interests him because he's having sex.

In his case simply talking to a girl can get him into trouble and he's smart to realize that. If you don't think it happens hit National Enquirer - they make a living pairing people up that just happen to be in the room together.

@estarla: Mary-Kate just spoke about something like that:

So every time I see paparazzi, I cover my face so they don't get a picture, and I'm just 'the mean person who doesn't smile.' I would love to be able to swim in the ocean in Malibu. But that is asking for a bikini shot. That's inviting something that I don't want to happen. I don't need to be on a 'Who's Skinny, Who's Fat, Who's Looking Healthy, Who's Not Eating?' list.

Some say fake, some say smart. Don't see anything wrong watching out for yourself and the money that is made. Not like it's anyone else's responsibility to do it.

This post really portrays the situation differently than your original. Which do you think is closer to the Vibe article you're paraphrasing?

I've got nothing against him. It just seems like a certain level of celebrity where your image is more imporatant than your message, or art. As I said, that cheapens it for me and I can't buy into it the way I would someone that seemed genuine and didn't work at managing what the tabloids say about them.

I think the confusion came in this post for me anyway when you went from talking about him to taking about other people and your image at 9rules.
I see the Hollywood celebrity thing as totally different because even at 18 the image is created with an audience in mind despite the fact he may well be doing it with a girl or two or driving fast or even drinking. That is smart if not disingenuous and is necessary in entertainment to make money from a targeted audience. It may or may not reflect his real beliefs.

I would hope that in real life, business and the business of 9rules what you project is not something you think people want to see but what you truly believe. In the case of business and even personal blogs etc, what you truly believe can be branded and made into an image just as easily without any pretense and can work well by ignoring the things about the business or the person that may not be bad but may not provide the desired image.

I think, in every place but entertainment, the best of what is real about the business and the person should be the image and would be easier to stand by over time because it was real.

I prefer acting the image of the person you want to become.

"Image" has turned into a business, sometimes profitable and positive, sometimes not.

Here is an example about what I meant with 9rules. Scrivs and I decided to do a podcast together. The podcast ended up being about sex and relationships. Unedited, unscripted, honest and sometimes graphic discussion. I thought about it:

1) Does the show reflect my ethics? Yes.
2) Does the show reflect my principles? Yes.
3) Is it an accurate depiction of who I am? Yes.
4) Does who I am fit in with what I want? Yes.

Matter of fact it fit so well, our Mom's were active in our forums, and the audience loved them. That doesn’t mean Scrivs and I didn’t take a lot of flak about doing a adult podcast. Scrivs took criticism for his dancing videos not being professionally done (not polished/edited enough because 9rules stands for quality), we both took flak for discussions we had. A few members didn’t like it, thought the direction of 9rules was changing (although the site was not on 9rules at all) and left. We could have lost advertising because of it if companies did not want to be associated with the CEO and COO (then Community Director) of what changed into a social site talking bluntly about sex. I think it is wise to ask those questions to make sure things were in sync. For us, they were.

Chris Brown is the opposite of us (and at 18 I agree he should be). Where Scrivs and I opened up our lives, Chris decides to keep his quiet for now and not take that risk. He understands "he" is his brand, he's not a normal guy and he understands he has to maintain his brain if he wants to have an income. For him to acknowledge that he goes out of his way to maintain a clean image (even though he’s girl crazy) he basically said his single image sells CDs. To maintain the single image (and he IS single – hasn’t had a girlfriend since he was 14 so that’s not fake) he will not focus on one girl in the club, he’ll talk to many. He doesn’t allow himself to be tempted because the risk (the other girls getting pissed, the media, his clean image, his goals, etc.) is not worth risking over some random cute girl in the club. That doesn’t make him fake. Essentially, he is controlling the media's ability to profit off of him. That's very smart (he does not mention that in the article, just my own observation. He doesn't give them gossip so how can they make money?).

If he didn’t openly discuss the fact that he does have sex, he is involved with women, etc. that would make him fake in my eyes because his image would not match his personality anywhere. He openly discussed it in an adult magazine, he handles the ex-rated part of his life privately but he does not deny being with women. IMO his young audience should see the clean image. He admits he’s girl crazy, he handles it though. To me that’s not fake, that’s smart because his personal life is no one’s business. Fake to me is if he lied and said he wasn't having sex or lied and said he was single when he had a girlfriend.

Obviously, one day he will fall in love and that will all change. There will be a lot of broken hearts just like the teen singers before him (can you say Usher? Jessica Simpson? Britney Spears?). They all went through the same thing. They had to transition their sexuality. To me, what would have been fake is if Jessica Simpson wasn’t a virgin as long as she claimed to be.

In my employment contract there is a clause that says I can be fired for doing something that could negatively effect my employer. They are referencing things like blogging about employees negatively and clients finding it out, or a scandal like the airline stewardess had that got her fired.

Or it could be a clever way to put into a popular media publication that only females who like to date for several hours should approach him. This kid is more genius than I first thought.

I think you got to my point Tyme.

His image is the value in his brand, not his art. That's what I consider cheap and fake to me.

I'm did not mean to imply that he's a liar. Obviously he's not. He's just cleverly crafting an appearance. He doesn't date women, but he has sex with them. That works for him and the image he wants to portray. The difference may be real, or it may be semantics. It's smart of him to keep his private life private. It's none of our business. No one should care who he's sleeping with or not sleeping with, or who he's flirting with--but somehow that's more important to his success than his talent is.

But you keep forgetting two key words when you make those generalizations:

"That works for him and the image he wants to portray" - to kids. Sometimes it's like adults forget what it's like to be a kid. As a teenager I remember feeling disappointment when my crush got a girlfriend, got married, etc.

But what I am more grateful for: as a parent he does keep his image clean. My daughter loves Chris Brown and actively follows what he does online. Because he thinks twice about what he does she's not finding "Chris is screwing Mary". Instead she finds, "Chris went to X event (and he's almost always alone)." God bless him.

I agree with Tyme, I look at it this way -- a celebrity's pay comes along with public baggage that we lesser mortals don't have. Its a price for the millions of dollars they earn, whether its fair or not doesn't really apply because they knew from the get go that it is a price to pay for fame.

With that established, if they act like asshats in public, its no different that if I acted like an asshat at work. My employers will catch with of it and there will be hell to pay. The same holds true for the celebrity with the exception that unless they have absolutely no responsibility, still have millions of dollars in the bank to fall back upon. Compared to my meager three months salary in the bank, the stakes are higher for me.

So eventually they/I would get hired. If I apply for a new job, the HR department if its worth a grain of salt checks out my performance with my former employer they will say... Damn that guy is an asshat, I am not going to hire him.

For a celebrity, the media is their HR department. So, there you have it. Brittany went from being the apple of everyone's eye to well.. whatever you want to call her current status.

It makes me happy when I see a younger celebrity actually deal with fame and fortune in a mature way. God bless them, I know I would probably be an asshat if I had that cash.

From the Urban Dictionary:
1. Ass Hat

Idiotic, stupid. To act like a moron.

From the popular insult "to have your head up your ass". This imagry leads to ones ass being placed on the head like a hat, hence "asshat".

Example: "That asshat spilled soda all over my new shirt."

Shouldn't 15yo girls be over crushes on mainstream celebrities? Or have teenyboppers got less mature in the ten years since I was one?

Anyway, I think what works for your average performer (? I've never heard of him) who is selling nothing but image is different to what works for a business or even a celebrity who is famous for doing something well. With Lewis Hamilton for example, people can tell when he's talking PR-approved bullshit and they don't like it, but they respond well when he speaks from the heart.