Access Psychology in the Media: When Good Girls Get Raunchy

Dublin Psychologist Susannah Healy was asked to comment on why so many female celebrity “goody two shoes” are suddenly turning bad, e.g.  Kelly Rowland  appearing naked on the cover of Vibe magazine, Gywneth Paltrow’s decreasing hemlines and nude cover shot for Vanity Fair magazine and Jennifer Anniston’s playing a “dirty dentist” in the film Horrible Bosses, which sees her “assaulting male colleagues…going braless and suggestively eating a hot dog, banana and ice lolly while dressed in skimpy lingerie”.Commenting in the article, Susannah Healy says that the public is partly to blame when celebs act up. “We tend to sum up people very quickly.  Part of it is an ancient survival instinct, where we need to make judgements fast on people, assessing whether they present a threat to us or not….Particularly today, when we have somuch information coming at us all the time about all these people in the public eye, it’s an easy way out for us to label actors as “squeaky clean” or “bad girl” rather than deal with the fact that people are much more multi-faceted than that…..Stars who feel boxed in automatically want to prove there’s more to them by breaking out of their “good girl” label, and while some of their behaviour might be down to improving their careers or gaining publicity, alot is also about having control……Anyone who is set up as a “good girl” is destined for a fall from grace…..in some ways… the celebrities would rather be in control of deciding when the publci see their flaws, rather than having them revealed for them……”  For more comments contact http://www.accesspsychology.ie/