Growing up in public. It's the name of a Lou Reed album I'm not actually familiar with, so I can't say anything about it. But it's also a phrase referring to, well, pretty much what it sounds like.
Child stars, by definition, grow up in public. Or fail to do so, in public. Children of those prominent enough to count as royalty. And of course childhood in public has always been a part of actual royalty. Prince William would have been raised substantially the same if he had been born at any point in the 20th century, although the trends that make him tiresome in exactly the way he is now are more recent.
But for younger generations it's not select. Just about everyone born after 2000 is on camera all the time from birth, either performing or under surveillance. And that's an obstacle to understanding between their generation and even mine. And I wonder if anything will or even can change that trend. Is it even possible for privacy to return?
2 comments:
When I read your opening sentence I thought you meant the child stars of showbiz. It's certainly true some of them, like Shirley Temple, for instance, do better than others. But all that's a different sort of fame to what you describe, the children of the already famous like Prince William. There's not much to be said about him as he was born to be king in a baseborn age that is endlessly fascinated with celebrity. I think that once upon a time royalty actually either did have more in the way of personal privacy when they only appeared in public on generally stated occasions. What affairs they had were unusually either circumspect meetings or were conducted among their financial and social peer group. I think William has been very constrained in his public life.
As for the children in the general populace it's next to impossible to imagine what damage is being done to their emotional development by all the exposure. We've seen some but not nearly the full extent.
Huh. I just realized my mistake. When I wrote that Prince William was "tiresome", I was actually referring to his younger brother Henry. Of course saying so about either one of them will probably get me disinvited from tea with the royals. But yes, I think you're right that they used to have more privacy. Part of that is that everyone used to have more privacy, you and I included. As well, it's another side-effect of the 24-hour news cycle. A family that thinks of itself in the way the Windsors do can't just bank on its ancient prestige, they have to go out and promote themselves. Although they may try to look like that's not what they're doing.
Children have faced terrible obstacles to their development in the past few months/years. We'll be dealing with the consequences for a long time.
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