Current:Home > StocksJennifer Lopez is getting relentlessly mocked for her documentary. Why you can't look away.-VaTradeCoin
Jennifer Lopez is getting relentlessly mocked for her documentary. Why you can't look away.
View Date:2025-01-07 13:09:11
Jenny from the Block? More like Jenny getting mocked, mocked, mocked.
Jennifer Lopez is in the midst of a major career moment – the release of her album “This is Me … Now" and its complementary musical film, “This is Me … Now: A Love Story," not to mention the Amazon Prime documentary “The Greatest Love Story Never Told." It follows her reuniting with now-husband Ben Affleck after decades apart.
“This was going to be the quintessential thing I have been searching for and wanted to say about love," Lopez told USA TODAY earlier this year. "I’ve been on this search for so long, since people first met me and my first record came out and even before that in my first movie role, where I’ve been on this journey trying to figure this thing out for myself. This (album) kind of closed the loop in a way,” Lopez says. “It captures this moment to really say the things I want to say about love, and that is that true love does exist and some things are forever. Please don’t give up on that because that’s all that matters in life … love.”
But with all this art comes many, many haters. Though the documentary dropped at the end of last month, TikTok users have flooded the algorithm in recent days with criticisms of the pop star, labeling her work as "creative narcissism" and pouncing on her perceived callousness. They accused her of inauthenticity in her documentary, a failed attempt at relatability. They're also resurfacing old interviews she's done and tearing her quotes to shreds.
"People weren’t loving her even before all this anyway," one TikTok user wrote. Another added: "People are done with all stars!"
Watching rich and famous people crumble is an appetizing pastime for many – particularly when it comes to reality TV, or in Lopez's case, this documentary.
But the lampooning of JLo may say more about us than it does about her. Experts say we can't look away because of schadenfreude – finding joy in others' hardships – and the ever-tantalizing appeal of a good story.
"There's pleasure in watching rich people who seem to have it all and these (moments) remind us that, well, they really don't have it all," Elizabeth Cohen, associate professor at West Virginia University who researches psychology of media and pop culture, previously told USA TODAY. "And maybe they don't even necessarily deserve it all."
'True love does exist':Jennifer Lopez says new album sums up her feelings, could be her last
'It can be motivational, but make you feel bad about yourself'
A psychological theory called "social comparison" is behind our love for this drama, Cohen says. It posits that humans will always try and compare themselves to other people to figure out where they fit in the world. If you perceive someone is "better" than you, you fall into upward social comparison. Watching someone wealthy like Lopez will inevitably have you thinking about everything you have (and don't have).
"The problem with upward social comparison is that it can be positive, but it makes you feel like you're not where you need to be," Cohen says. "So it can be motivational, but it can also make you feel bad about yourself."
The flip side is downward social comparison, where you consume media solely to look down on others.
"You watch these ridiculously wealthy people who have in a lot of ways, these enviable lives, but then they're not," Erica Chito-Childs, a sociology professor at Hunter College and The Graduate Center, CUNY, previously told USA TODAY.
Oh celebrities:Ben Affleck's face, Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher's awkwardness and never-ending gossip
'We like watching other people behave in bad ways'
TV clues us in that even the rich and famous aren't so perfect – and audiences evidently revel in that. Any move Lopez makes that's even remotely cringey will be fodder for the vultures.
"We like watching other people behave in strange and bad ways," Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at the Newhouse School of Public Communications Syracuse University, previously told USA TODAY. "We like watching other human beings melt down, regardless of their income status."
It's all part of what makes a good story. "There seems to be a narrative thread that we like watching people make this climb to wealth and status," Thompson says. "But once they actually get there, one of the only narrative threads left is to watch them fall. And we do get a lot of schadenfreude pleasure out of that if you look at a lot of the examples of stories that we tell."
Whether someone loves or hates (or loves to hate) this is a personal choice – not something ingrained in your brain.
"Why do some people hate this and why do some people like it? That's not a question for science," Thompson says. "That's a question of show business."
Either way, if you feel like you're spending too much time focused on celebrities you don't know, you probably are. It might be time to go explore your own block.
veryGood! (5454)
Related
- A pregnant woman sues for the right to an abortion in challenge to Kentucky’s near-total ban
- UK veteran who fought against Japan in World War II visits Tokyo’s national cemetery
- The Marines are moving gradually and sometimes reluctantly to integrate women and men in boot camp
- FBI warns of rising elder fraud crime rates as scammers steal billions in savings each year
- Advocacy group sues Tennessee over racial requirements for medical boards
- Stock market today: Asian markets are mixed, oil prices jump and Israel moves to prop up the shekel
- Hamas attacks in Israel: Airlines that have suspended flights amid a travel advisory
- Grocery store prices are rising due to inflation. Social media users want to talk about it
- Kyle Richards Swears This Holiday Candle Is the Best Scent Ever and She Uses It All Year
- Heidi Klum and Daughter Leni Klum Step Out in Style to Celebrate New Lingerie Ad Campaign
Ranking
- Auburn surges, while Kansas remains No. 1 in the USA TODAY Sports men's basketball poll
- Orioles couldn't muster comeback against Rangers in Game 1 of ALDS
- Spoilers! How 'The Exorcist: Believer' movie delivers a new demon and 'incredible' cameo
- The auto workers’ strike enters its 4th week. The union president urges members to keep up the fight
- Republican Vos reelected as Wisconsin Assembly speaker despite losing seats, fights with Trump
- Prime Day deals you can't miss: Amazon's October 2023 sale is (almost) here
- A Complete Guide to Nick Cannon's Sprawling Family Tree
- Some in Congress want to cut Ukraine aid and boost Taiwan’s. But Taiwan sees its fate tied to Kyiv’s
Recommendation
-
Investigation into Chinese hacking reveals ‘broad and significant’ spying effort, FBI says
-
Substitute teachers are in short supply, but many schools still don't pay them a living wage
-
Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill penalized for giving football to his mom after scoring touchdown
-
German conservative opposition wins 2 state elections, with far-right making gains
-
Supreme Court seems likely to allow class action to proceed against tech company Nvidia
-
49ers prove Cowboys aren't in their class as legitimate contenders
-
German far-right leader says gains in state election show her party has ‘arrived’
-
R.L. Stine's 'Zombie Town' is now out on Hulu. What else to stream for spooky season