Disney Stars Gone Wrong
Alex VanCamp
In 2005 viewers tuned in to Disney to catch the beginning of one of Disney’s brilliant sagas, High School Musical. People were star struck over the breakthrough stars Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron as they watched their love unfold on screen. The saga followed two high school students as they embarked on their music filled relationship of many obstacles, including basketball, the problem starting diva Sharpay, and the formation of their friendships. The first of the three High School Musicals debuted on Disney Channel. After incredible success, the High School Musical gang took it to the big screen for the conclusion of the trilogy. The music between the three movies became an instant success. Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens were relatively nobodies prior to High School Musical. However, their fame grew as Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens were the new star faces of Disney. If their on screen love wasn’t enough, the craze increased as the tabloids discovered these two superstars were dating. The entertainment world exploded. Pictures and videos of the two were all over the media, from Entertainment Tonight to People Magazine.
Soon the innocence of these two stars vanished as on September 6, 2007 the world was in shock. Nude photos surfaced of the High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens. Only intended for Zac Efron, these pictures ended up all over the Internet and solely into the media’s hands. The media became a frenzy as the innocent Vanessa Hudgens was no longer the “angel” of Disney. This caused controversy because High School Musical 3 was expected to hit theaters the following year. It put Disney in an extremely tight situation whether they needed to bring back Vanessa Hudgens and deal with her media scandal, or recast for the trilogy’s finale.
However this issue raised a much larger issue of whether or not it was Vanessa's fault for sending the photo, or others fault for exposing the nude photos to the media. This posed a large issue of gender inequality. The media is quick to shame Vanessa, turning her image negative, for one mistake she made when she was young. The media holds women to a higher standard. Even though the picture was of Vanessa Hudgens, the exchange between Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron was mutual. Zac Efron should be equally blamed for this debacle, but of course the female participant was the one the media blamed. If the picture was of Zac Efron, the media may have shooed this situation off by assuming that since he didn't directly send the photo's, he couldn't be partially responsible, or by exploiting his image as one of a positive sort. Women and the media are quick to gawk over a nude photo of a male celebrity, but quick to judge a female celeb partaking in the same controversial behavior. Vanessa Hudgens fell victim to a gender stereotype, created and enforced solely by the media through it's slant of shaming women who pose nude in photos, and accept men who do so. This released photo caused havoc on Hudgens' career.
The media at this point influenced the pushing of Vanessa Hudgens out of Disney. She eventually did star in High School Musical 3, but after that Vanessa never appeared on the Disney spectrum again, due to one exploited scandal. It appeared to be a smart move by Disney. After her departure from Disney, two more incidents occurred in 2009 and in 2011 where more nude photos of Vanessa Hudgens surfaced on the Internet. With technological advances, it appears more incidents like this have happened to multiple superstars. It caused these celebrities to be careful with technology such as social media and texting. The media may have been unfair to Vanessa Hudgens, but she did not make good choices in the process.
However this raises the question as to when the media gets too personally involved in celebrities lives. For example, Vanessa Hudgens had nothing but a good name until the media found the leaked nude photos, which tainted her image forever. Starlets like Vanessa Hudgens are often times given a bad name for a simple bad choice. Many teenagers make poor decisions, as Vanessa Hudgens did, but they are not put out for the world to see. Vanessa Hudgens expeirenced no great internal turmoil over the exposure of her scandalous photos, just an exposure of a private relationship that is enough to embarrass anyone. Also, Hudgens career never truly made a full recovery, as she has yet to star in a film to supersede the High School Musical franchise. This is likely because of one scandal the media got ahold of, and over dramatized, ruining the career of an otherwise successful young woman, because of one skeleton in her closet.
Works Cited:
IMDB. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475293/>
Alex VanCamp
In 2005 viewers tuned in to Disney to catch the beginning of one of Disney’s brilliant sagas, High School Musical. People were star struck over the breakthrough stars Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron as they watched their love unfold on screen. The saga followed two high school students as they embarked on their music filled relationship of many obstacles, including basketball, the problem starting diva Sharpay, and the formation of their friendships. The first of the three High School Musicals debuted on Disney Channel. After incredible success, the High School Musical gang took it to the big screen for the conclusion of the trilogy. The music between the three movies became an instant success. Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens were relatively nobodies prior to High School Musical. However, their fame grew as Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens were the new star faces of Disney. If their on screen love wasn’t enough, the craze increased as the tabloids discovered these two superstars were dating. The entertainment world exploded. Pictures and videos of the two were all over the media, from Entertainment Tonight to People Magazine.
Soon the innocence of these two stars vanished as on September 6, 2007 the world was in shock. Nude photos surfaced of the High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens. Only intended for Zac Efron, these pictures ended up all over the Internet and solely into the media’s hands. The media became a frenzy as the innocent Vanessa Hudgens was no longer the “angel” of Disney. This caused controversy because High School Musical 3 was expected to hit theaters the following year. It put Disney in an extremely tight situation whether they needed to bring back Vanessa Hudgens and deal with her media scandal, or recast for the trilogy’s finale.
However this issue raised a much larger issue of whether or not it was Vanessa's fault for sending the photo, or others fault for exposing the nude photos to the media. This posed a large issue of gender inequality. The media is quick to shame Vanessa, turning her image negative, for one mistake she made when she was young. The media holds women to a higher standard. Even though the picture was of Vanessa Hudgens, the exchange between Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron was mutual. Zac Efron should be equally blamed for this debacle, but of course the female participant was the one the media blamed. If the picture was of Zac Efron, the media may have shooed this situation off by assuming that since he didn't directly send the photo's, he couldn't be partially responsible, or by exploiting his image as one of a positive sort. Women and the media are quick to gawk over a nude photo of a male celebrity, but quick to judge a female celeb partaking in the same controversial behavior. Vanessa Hudgens fell victim to a gender stereotype, created and enforced solely by the media through it's slant of shaming women who pose nude in photos, and accept men who do so. This released photo caused havoc on Hudgens' career.
The media at this point influenced the pushing of Vanessa Hudgens out of Disney. She eventually did star in High School Musical 3, but after that Vanessa never appeared on the Disney spectrum again, due to one exploited scandal. It appeared to be a smart move by Disney. After her departure from Disney, two more incidents occurred in 2009 and in 2011 where more nude photos of Vanessa Hudgens surfaced on the Internet. With technological advances, it appears more incidents like this have happened to multiple superstars. It caused these celebrities to be careful with technology such as social media and texting. The media may have been unfair to Vanessa Hudgens, but she did not make good choices in the process.
However this raises the question as to when the media gets too personally involved in celebrities lives. For example, Vanessa Hudgens had nothing but a good name until the media found the leaked nude photos, which tainted her image forever. Starlets like Vanessa Hudgens are often times given a bad name for a simple bad choice. Many teenagers make poor decisions, as Vanessa Hudgens did, but they are not put out for the world to see. Vanessa Hudgens expeirenced no great internal turmoil over the exposure of her scandalous photos, just an exposure of a private relationship that is enough to embarrass anyone. Also, Hudgens career never truly made a full recovery, as she has yet to star in a film to supersede the High School Musical franchise. This is likely because of one scandal the media got ahold of, and over dramatized, ruining the career of an otherwise successful young woman, because of one skeleton in her closet.
Works Cited:
IMDB. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475293/>