Mediacology

OK, the phenomena of Tila Tequila caught my eye (literally), giving me pause about the nexus of celebrity culture and social networks. Her bio reads like a manifesto of post-irony, the sad, commodified afterlife of punk’s impact on capitalism.

As you can see in the comments below from her MySpace page, she bemoans the shallowness of American media and celebrity culture while at the same time celebrating her punk-rock DIY ability to became a starlet sex symbol, as if that somehow makes the cause noble. It doesn’t really matter to me, the point I wanted to make is that this is the first time I’ve ever heard of the punk ethic of DIY (do-it-yourself) being described as a tool for getting famous. This smacks a little of the self-importance of Suicide Girls, which if you haven’t heard, is an “alternative” lifestyle erotica site (again, no judgments, I’m just observing the strange, circuitous path that punk has taken from rebellion culture to commodified rebellion). She’s now one of these readymade multitask artists: cover girl, recording artists, and who knows, movies to follow. Curiously, in her bio she said she grew up in a Buddhist temple. May she have happiness, may she live in peace, may she be free from suffering! (And I mean it, this is not post-irony!) And yes, I got suckered into it too.

From www.myspace.com/TilaTequila:

“Never more than now has celebrity been celebrated so unbrokenly, no unabashedly, and so much without merit. Being famous now has become it’s own reward. Consider American Idol, and ridiculous and addictive shows that somehow instantly translate stardom into celebrity. Tila Tequila has used simple, and some might agree Punk DIY ethics to create her stardom, one fan at a time. Not only is she the hottest property in MySpace, which means she’s one of the hottest women in the world, but she’s almost finished her debut album, and on the crest of an ever rising wave.”