With this shift, according to Sennett, comes another important social development. Not everyone withdraws their private and informal life from the public sector. Sennett points out that it is at this point in European history that we begin to find the creation of “celebrity” status. Men and women (often of the theater) become well-known by all members of a community and are assigned considerable status. However, to attain and retain this celebrity status one must be willing to leave their private life out in public for common inspection and review. The rest of us move our first quadrant (and our third quadrant) back into our sheltering homes. The celebrity now possesses a “personality” and a large Quad One that must be left in the public sector.
This shift in public and private life produces a Faustian trade off: obtain fame but lose privacy. We see this trade-off playing widely today. A person becomes famous, only to have their personal life (past and present) brought forth in newspaper and magazine articles and, of course, on many television programs. Unfortunately, some people aren’t even given the choice between privacy and fame.
These “accidental” celebrities become famous (and public property) without wanting to be (the children of presidents, the victims of famous crimes and so forth). Their Quad One-External is greatly expanded without these accidental celebrities wanting this to happen. For the “accidental” celebrities, the choice between privacy and fame is out of their control (external locus). Ironically, and tragically, this often means that accidental celebrities become very restrictive in presenting those aspects of themselves that they do have control over. Their Quad One-Internal remains very small (except when they interact with a few close acquaintances whom they fully trust). Their Quad Three remains very large. As a result, their Quad Four often remains unexplored and even explosive.
For the “intentional” celebrities – those who choose to become celebrities (perhaps without fully realizing the cost of privacy in choosing to become famous)—the choice between private life and public fame lies initially in their own control (internal locus). They disclose quite a bit about themselves (Quad One-Internal) and at least initially embrace (and even derive narcissistic pleasure from) the widespread dissemination of information about themselves that comes from multiple sources over which they do not have direct control, but of which they are fully aware (Quad One-External). The carefully orchestrated disclosures (and re-inventions of public self) by Madonna several years ago come immediately to mind. Several of our contemporary performers seem to have taken lessons from Madonna in leveraging public disclosure as a major promotional device.
