The image went around the world in seconds. A photo of Lilibet Diana, captured in profile, shared by Meghan Markle on Valentine’s Day.
Nothing spectacular in itself, and yet there is massive interest from Internet users. According to psychologist Amélie Boukhobza, this curiosity is not trivial: it touches on our deepest instincts and our relationship with celebrity.
Voyeurism or how to cross the border of the intimate
At the first level of this fascination is a universal, although “inglorious” human impulse: voyeurism. For Amélie Boukhobza, watching these children is “enter into the intimacy of those we don’t know… but who we have the impression of knowing a little all the same.”
The child represents the ultimate sanctuary of a private life. By exposing it – or by allowing himself to be surprised – the star allows the public to cross a symbolic boundary. “It’s penetrating what is most protected in the lives of these personalities” explains the psychologist. Especially since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have chosen to break with the British monarchy and raise their children out of sight.
The child as a normalizing factor
If the stars live in a “fantastical verticality”, shining with their success and their aura, the arrival of a child changes the situation. She brings them back to earth. Seeing Meghan Markle with her daughter is remembering that she also undoubtedly experiences short nights, doubts and parental anxieties.
“The child, the family, everyday life normalizes them. It makes them almost ordinary.” underlines Amélie Boukhobza. By observing their children, we verify that they are not so different from us. This narrows the gap between their glossy world and our everyday reality.
The quest for models and benchmarks
This observation is not only passive, it is also utilitarian. In a society in search of landmarks, celebrities become compasses. We scrutinize the education, the choice of schools or the lifestyle of the children of stars to draw models.
This is where identification becomes possible. We seek to know “how to succeed in your life, your relationship, your parenthood” as if these figureheads held the recipe for happiness. The child of the star then becomes, in spite of himself, a guide for our own life choices.
The continuity of the story and the fantasy of the lineage
Finally, the interest in children like Lilibet can be explained by the notion of transmission. “The child is seen as an extension of the star, ensuring the continuity of a media story of which we are regular spectators. adds our expert.
In an era obsessed with image, these children become public figures before they can even choose their destiny. For the public, to watch them is to have “the illusion of entering their family” and to participate, by proxy, in their story.
What does this fascination say about ourselves?
Beyond the simple click on a profile photo, our interest in the children of stars reveals a difficulty in supporting opacity.
“We desperately seek to humanize those we have placed on a pedestal to calm, perhaps, a deeper anguish: that of the value of our own existences.
concludes Amélie Boukhobza.